''FlightGear Flight Simulator'' (often shortened to ''FlightGear'' or ''FGFS'') is a
free
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, the ability to act or change without constraint or restriction
* Emancipate, attaining civil and political rights or equality
* Free (''gratis''), free of charge
* Gratis versus libre, the difference betw ...
,
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
multi-platform
Within computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform softw ...
flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...
developed by the project since 1997.
David Murr started this project on April 8, 1996. This project had its first release in 1997 and continued in development. It has specific builds for a variety of different
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
s including
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
macOS
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
,
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
,
IRIX
IRIX (, ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS architecture, MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD extensio ...
, and
Solaris
Solaris is the Latin word for sun.
It may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film
* ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem
** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg
** ''Sol ...
.
''FlightGear'' is an
atmospheric
An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...
and
orbital
Orbital may refer to:
Sciences Chemistry and physics
* Atomic orbital
* Molecular orbital
* Hybrid orbital Astronomy and space flight
* Orbit
** Earth orbit
Medicine and physiology
* Orbit (anatomy), also known as the ''orbital bone''
* Orbitof ...
flight simulator used in aerospace research and industry. Its flight dynamics engine (''
JSBSim
''FlightGear Flight Simulator'' (often shortened to ''FlightGear'' or ''FGFS'') is a Freeware, free, Open-source software, open source cross-platform, multi-platform flight simulator developed by the project since 1997.
David Murr started t ...
'') is used in a
2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to the standards of the space industry.
History
''FlightGear'' started as an online proposal in 1996 by David Murr, living in the United States. He was dissatisfied with