Boeing X-20 Dyna Soar simulator for X-plane Requires X-Plane v5.54 sold separately at www.x-plane.com Fly the X-20 Dynasoar! Now this is very cool. I recently purchased the X-Plane flight simulator (available for Mac and Win for about $40 at www.x-plane.com). This is a great flight simulator which has a fairly easy tool for building custom aircraft. I built a flyable X-20 and have test flown it repeatedly. I made the Dynasoar as accurate as I could given the limited hard data available, and it seems to fly pretty well. For an unpowered brick, that is. I can't recommend this simulator enough: lots of aircraft (from the x-15 to the Fokker Triplane to the Airbus 3XX) are available online. I just really like the fact that I can now drop from a B-52 in the Dynasoar at 50,000 feet and land at Edwards about 4 minutes later. Flying the X-20 simulator The flights are short, intense and scary... just like they would have really been if the program had gone ahead. But they are also a lot of fun, and are good practice for flying approaches in the space shuttle. Again, this is accurate, as the Dynasoar was the legitimate grand-daddy of the shuttle. Here is a safe flight profile: Start with the "B-52 launch" under the "In-flight" menu. I usually start over China Lake. (Although this is innaccurate, X-plane does not include the Edwards dry lake landing area, but China Lake is nearby and offers lots of looonnng runways.) Fly with the B-52 at about 50,000 ft for 30 seconds. Release from the B-52, continue to fly due north and slowly let the nose down to maintain about 300-350 kts IAS. Let the aircraft descend with the VVI pegged at 5,000 ft/min plus. After 30-45 seconds, begin a wide standard rate turn (~30 degrees bank) to the south and continue descending. I usually find that I am lined up due south at about 25,000 ft pointed straight at the China Lake airfield, maintaining 300 kts IAS. It will look like you are pointed excessively down when compared to a powered aircraft's descent profile. This is okay, and as long as you keep the runway in the middle of your cockpit window you are doing fine. At 5,000 ft begin a pre-flare and add speed brakes to slowdown. The speed brakes are really efficient, so I usually pull them back in after a few seconds. At 1,000 ft maintain 200-230 kts and drop the gear. I tend NOT to add any flaps. At 500 feet pull back HARD and fly it down to a solid "clump" onto the runway. Pop your chute, and that's it! All told, about 4 minutes in the air, and never fired the landing rocket... of course, should you find yourself low and slow and nowhere near the runway, fire that puppy and let it push you back up to a decent altitude. You have about 40 seconds worth of fuel. As soon as X-plane supports multi-stage aircraft, we will take the Dynasoar into orbit. Where it belongs.