Laminar Research, who brought us the popular iPhone flight simulator X-Plane 9, has released X-Plane-Helicopter [App Store] for the iPhone and iPod touch. X-Plane-Helicopter, as its name might suggest, applies all of the flight modeling of the winged-craft-oriented X-Plane 9 to the simulation of helicopter flight.
X-Plane-Helicopter includes four aircraft to choose from:
- Robinson R-22: The lightweight, efficient trainer
- Bell-206: The turbine-powered mainstay of the helicopter fleet
- BlackHawk: The massive military cargo and troop mover
- Sea King: The huge land/sea rescue helicopter
These fascinating and varied machines are modeled very realistically, so the flight you get on the iPhone is actually almost as realistic as the full FAA-Certified flight-model used in X-Plane for desktop… You get almost all the flight-model realism of this certified sim: On your phone.
As well, the flight-area is the Grand Canyon, giving you amazing views as you fly your helos across (and into!) the various canyons and valleys, giving the most visually-stunning simulation we have yet released, with the most challenging and realistic flight-models we have produced for iPhone so far.
While the desktop version of X-Plane features winged-craft and helicopters of many types, Laminar has chosen to break out the various types of aircraft into several different iPhone applications. (The game’s title screen indicates that X-Plane Airliner should appear in the App Store any time, now.) As author Austin Meyer indicated back in September, he has big plans for X-Plane on the iPhone–including X-Plane Automotive.
App Store Link: X-Plane-Helicopter, $4.99
