What is flight simulation?
Flight simulation, or “flight sim” for short, is a way for pilots to fly an airplane without having to leave the ground. Pilots sit in a simulator that looks just like the cockpit of a real airplane. As the pilot moves the control stick, the entire simulator moves up, down, and around and the computer-generated scenery outside the windows changes, giving the pilot the feeling that he or she is actually flying. Flight sim is not just used during airplane design. New airline, combat, and even space shuttle pilots get trained in flight simluators before they fly the real thing. The world’s largest motion-based simulator is the Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA Ames Research Center.
