THE STORY

Whilst loners who want to learn to fly planes may come across as a bit ‘terroristy’ these days, the innocent fun of a flight simulator never loses its appeal; unless it’s a Ryanair Flight Simulator, of course, which would be unimaginably awful…

THE EXPERIENCE

Ever since man first crawled out the primordial soup and lay gasping on land, he’s looked to the skies and wondered what birds tasted like. He’s also dreamt of flying, but due to some unintelligent design flaws combined with a lack of flight school fee funds, for most of his species the feeling of piloting a plane through the heavens remains but a dream.

Yes, whilst the high life of the professional pilot may be beyond the means of most, fortunately getting a license for a flight simulator is a lot simpler and considerably less costly. Take this little slice of aviation excellence – free to download and play, X-Plane 9 uses blade element theory to deliver an app that’s so accurate and realistic it has actually earned itself Federal Aviation Authority Certification!

Initially offering up 10 different aircraft for you to try your sky sorting skills out on, with a further 43 more to buy, there are six scenery settings to soar over, with 15 extra available through in-app purchase, and you can choose to fly at dawn, day, dusk or night, set weather conditions to add extra challenge and even deal with simulated system failures and birds strikes!

THE BOTTOM LINE

With smooth gameplay (depending on your ability to keep level, of course), good graphics and almost endless options, X-Plane 9 is easily the best flight simulator available and only offered free due to a patent tussle. So download, flop on your flying hat, shout chocks away and get airborne – the sky is truly the limit.

Additional information

Current version: 9.75.2
Requires Android 2.2 and up

Download the X-Plane 9 app from Google Play

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