How Flight Simulators Simulate Flight Physics (Flight Models Explained)
Flight simulator flight physics lives in the flight model: a real-time dynamics loop that turns control inputs, weather, and aircraft configuration into lift, drag, thrust, weight, and pitch/roll/yaw moments. This breakdown compares table-driven coefficients, blade-element aerodynamics, and hybrid methods, explaining tick-rate stability, damping, turbulence and ground-handling limits, plus how add-ons can refine handling without rewriting the core engine.