Download Simpleplanes Flight Simulator
Natalia Tagami
So, what can you do with this game? First of all, you can build airplanes by putting different blocks together, adding wings and engines and stuff like that. The program also calculates center of gravity, center of lift, center of thrust and drag. The simulation is also physics based and pretty good. Its not the best flight simulator out there, but it gets its job done. You can build planes from only under 10 parts or go absolutely scale and include almost any funktions you want. But you don't need to build just planes, you can even build cars, drones, boats, machines and anything in between. Next to sandbox mode are also challenges, races, and Dogfights. If you don't have skills and time to build something super awesome, you can easily download it or share your own airplanes. And you can even export the files of your designs and 3D print them. So there are tons of options available.
I actually test most new planes in this before building them, because I can test how it looks, experiment with it without wasting materials and check out basic flight characteristics and CG. It really helps to turn your design into a 3D model to get the looks the way you want, and this is a great and simple option If you don't have access to real CAD programs.
The flight Simulator is definitely not the best, but its totally OK to simulate faults in your design, like a tail heavy plane or damage. The damage simulation is really good, the plane reacts to it in a realistic way, and there can also happen stuff like burning engines and fuel tanks or propellers sticking somewhere in the plane because they fell off. In the game, your planes also can stall and get into a spin. The simulation of water is not that good in the phone version, but it's OK to take off from the water. There is also a wind simulation and lots of space to fly in. There are four Islands in the phone version and six on the PC version, and you can fly from to the other by crossing the ocean, which is great fun. The Islands have different runways and special things like aircraft carriers or bridges. It's great fun to try to fly through them or to just crash into them, because the bridges are one of the few things that can be destroyed:
SimplePlanes has two flying modes: Challenges and Sandbox. Challenges offers different tasks to achieve: escort firefighters, race, transport goods, etc. In Sandbox the world is opened up for free flight.
You'll need to pair SimplePlanes with solid lessons that dive into the mathematics and dynamic systems at play here. When discussing centers of mass and motion -- and lift, drag, and three-dimensional force generally -- you can include this app for some hands-on practice, especially if live demonstrations aren't practical for some reason. The specifics of aerodynamics might be a stretch for most high school physics classes, but a flight simulator and the prospect of video gaming in class might be enough to hook some kids into getting interested in force vectors, at the very least.
SimplePlanes is a super-simplified flight simulator coupled with a very complex and nuanced aircraft-creation system. Players can start off learning to fly a prebuilt plane using basic model airplane-style dual joystick controls, optionally taking time to read the game's tutorials on controls and fundamental physics. Once they've mastered successfully taking off, steering through aerial obstacle courses, and landing, they can swap out everything from wing styles and nose cones to engines and more or even start completely from scratch. Planes can also be equipped with a variety of weapons, which can be used in a series of combat missions.
Flight simulators are a lot of fun in general, and this one lets players jump right into flying and customizing their planes, with simple-but-great graphics and challenging-but-responsive controls. There are tons of planes to download, too.
Well-written, straightforward, plain-spoken language guides help with everything from building to controls to the basic science of flight, but the tool could use more interactive tutorials. There's a big online community, though.
Note: This game requires at least 512MB of RAM and a 1GHz CPU.Bring all of the imaginative aircraft you've had in your head to life.Snap parts together to build your airplane's body. Place engines to add thrust. Design the wings and then strap yourself into the pilot's seat and see how it flies.AIRPLANE DESIGNERYou have the tools you'll need to bring almost any airplane to life. Use the flexible wing tool to change the shape of the wings and build almost anything.Next-generation fighters, WW2 warbirds, civilian aircraft, and everything in between, some people have even made dragons, trains, and space stations.DYNAMIC FLIGHT MODELFlight simulation at its finest. Every little change you make in the designer impacts how the airplane flies. Weight distribution, thrust, lift, and drag are all calculated before creating the final flight model.REALTIME DAMAGEParts can break off in spectacular fashion while flying due to over-stress or by hitting something. The fun won't stop there though. You can keep on flying even with a missing wing if you've got the skills.SANDBOX MODETest your airplane with no restrictions. So, you've had a rough landing and the left engine was knocked off? After watching the engine fly off into the sunset you may decide to go ahead and slap the throttle to full...give it another go with only one engine.CHALLENGESClimb into the cockpit of one of your custom aircraft and see how it does in the challenges. The challenges will keep you entertained for hours. Land on aircraft carriers, dodge surface-to-air missiles, race through courses, and so much more.AIRPLANE PAINTERUse pre-built themes, or paint every part of your bird to make it just the way you want. Share your favorite stylings with all of your friends.CROSS-PLATFORM AIRPLANE SHARINGThere are no in-app purchases to get access to the airplanes people have shared; they are all available to download for free from You can use them even if they were made on another platform.CONTROLLER SUPPORTSimplePlanes supports USB gamepads/joysticks, and provides in-game input mapping for each control surface, as well as throttle, brakes, landing gear, pausing, cameras, etc.EDUCATIONALTutorials will help players learn the basics of real airplane design and the considerations that need to be taken when airplanes are made.
Today I played a Virtual Reality (VR) flight sim game called SimplePlanes VR for Oculus/Meta Quest 2 VR headset. I played the PC/Steam version with the Quest 2 connected to my PC using the VR Link cable.
I recommend watching my full review of SimplePlanes VR on the Oculus Quest 2 above to see if you might like it. The price is inexpensive and if you love flight simulator games and love virtual reality, you might want to give this one a try.
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