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We’re pleased to share with you the following news, just received from the Laminar Research X-Plane Team.

Incoming meesage from Austin ……
There is some cool new stuff for X-Plane 11 beta 3 and beta 4 that is really nice. Now that I am flying a pressurized airplane with a PT-6 engine, I have really gotten the PT-6 model and pressurization system modeling dialed in for X-Plane! This includes everything from the dynamic and organic feel of the free turbine in the PT-6 to the need to carry some power in the descents at high altitude to maintain pressurization!

Also I have gone over the rotor dynamics in X-Plane 11 starting with beta 4 to dial in the effects of hovering in and out of ground effect by effectively bouncing prop wash off the ground.Carefully tuning these dynamics, I’ve gotten the various power requirements and climb and descent rates really close to real helicopters acting in these sometimes catastrophic corners of the envelope.

I’ve also dived into jet engine supersonic dynamics for beta 4! Using the dynamics of total pressure recovery, normal shocks, and the recently de-classified Pilots Operating Handbook for the F-4 Phantom, I have really dialed in the supersonic jet engine dynamics as well, getting not only the SPEED of the F-4 accurate to within a few hundredths of a Mach number, but getting the supersonic acceleration and deceleration of that aircraft accurate to within a few seconds as well!

The details go on for a few pages, so check it all out over here in my articles on the X-Plane Developer Blog!