SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Review: Laminar Research X-Plane 8

Here is another of Heinz Dziurowitz's creations, a B-17 bomber. Much of the fun in these aircraft can be in shutting down engines and struggling to make it back to a safe landing. The multi-engine flight dynamics of X-Plane make flying with engine failures a demanding task.

Speaking of warbirds, the selection of WWI and WWII era aircraft available for X-Plane 8 is growing each day as more models pour into the community. From the most popular the very obscure, there is a good chance that your favorite exists in the X-Plane community. It isn't unusual for authors of planes from previous versions of X-Plane to be asked to update their planes for the newest versions of X-Plane. Unfortunately, chasing the requirements of each new version of X-Plane that come out can tax even the most ardent aircraft designer.

From the obscure: Paolo Matricardi's beautiful Fiat C.R.42 Falco.

To the more mainstream aircraft: Paolo's stunning F4U-1A Corsair.

If vintage air travel is your interest, take a hop in this gorgeous Breguet 763 by Michael Wilson and Gerhard Strack. The flight model on this machine is pure silk and you can spend hours doing pattern work and panning around the beautiful 3D model. (She flies well on two engines too!)

X-Plane remains fairly limited with regards to 3D panel development. In fact, X-Plane is still quite a few steps behind Microsoft in all things panel related, 2D and 3D alike. While there are certainly some very pretty 2D approximations of panels for X-Plane aircraft, I haven't yet seen any panels that offer the pop-up detail that is typical of high end MSFS add-ons. The 3D panels that do exist for X-Plane are fairly coarse but they work with TrackIR and for the less complex general aviation aircraft a rough 3D panel is adequate for general flying.

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