Use overpowered engines and it will literally rip them off your aircraft at full throttle. Put the wings too far backwards and your plane won't make it off the ground. In X-Plane, you can make your own aircraft (it's part of the base installation) and see how well it would actually fly. It may be the only true SIMULATOR out there, with others being sort of 'simulator-simulators.' But in X-Plane, it actually CALCULATES THE PERFORMANCE, based upon actual aerodynamic laws. Yes, it's possible to model the performance of, say, an F-22 with extreme detail in a dedicated sim. rather than building a model derived from an actual plane. One of the fun aspects of X-Plane is that, unlike most other sims, it actually MODELS AERODYNAMICS. Also, if you can find it, you might enjoy trying out the MARS SCENERY add-on, which provides a fully-realilzed (based upon radar mapping of the actual planet) Mars environment, complete with the different atmosphere (much thinner, so much less lift!) and gravity (~1/3 that of Earth) found there. DO get the 'global scenary' add-on disk, which makes it possible to literally fly anywhere on the planet from anywhere on the planet. It's a phenomenal sim, even if the graphics aren't quite up to the photorealistic standards modern kids seem to expect. If you've never tried X-Plane, absolutely give v7 a shot.

but have never beaten this one, which set the standard for how the program actually RUNS.

fully-realized 3D cockpits, prettier graphics, more detail, more special effects. Later revisions of X-Plane have added a lot of extra GLITZ.

All the prior releases (and I tried every single Windows release from the first one, mind you!) were. X-Plane v7 was the first release, IMHO, in which X-Plane really became a GOOD.

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