X-Plane 9

X-Plane is a comprehensive and powerful flight simulator available for the personal computer. X-Plane simulates anything that flies: from single-engine fixed wing props to multi-engine jets; gliders to dirigibles; helicopters to spacecraft to VTOLs such as the V-22 Osprey and AV8-B Harrier.

X-Plane has the most realistic flight model available for personal computers. It comes with subsonic and supersonic flight dynamics, simulating aircraft from the Bell 206 Jet-Ranger helicopter and Cessna 172 light plane to the supersonic SR-71 and Mach-3 XB-70 Valkyrie.

X-Plane comes with 29 aircraft spanning the aviation industry (and history), and several hundred more are freely downloadable from the internet.

X-Plane includes global scenery. You can land at any of thousands of airports, as well as test your mettle on aircraft carriers, helipads on building tops, frigates that pitch and roll in the waves, and oil rigs. Weather is variable from clear skies and high visibility to thunderstorms with controllable wind, wind shear, turbulence, and microbursts. Rain, snow and clouds are available for an instrument flying challenge, and thermals are available for the gliders! X-Plane can download real weather data from the internet, allowing you to fly in actual current conditions!

X-Plane also has detailed failure-modeling, with 35 systems that can be failed manually, or randomly when you least expect it! You can fail instruments, engines, flight controls, and landing gear at any moment.

X-Plane is extremely customizable, allowing you to easily create textures, sounds, and instrument panels for your own airplanes that you design.