How to fly a plane in your browser: a beginner's guide
Your first flight in a browser flight simulator, step by step: choosing the aircraft and the airport, the takeoff, turning, levelling off and the keys you need, with the Cessna 172.
Business jetUnlock or All Access
Fly the Challenger 350 in your browser
A business jet that crosses a continent at 41,000 ft, fast and light on its feet.
The simulator opens in its hangar, the first step: pick the Challenger 350 there with the arrows or its silhouette. There is no link straight to one aircraft.
The Challenger 350 in figures
The figures the simulator's hangar shows for the Challenger 350, the numbers it keeps for the aircraft: speeds in knots, heights in feet.
| Top speed | Mach 0.83 |
|---|---|
| Cruise | 470 kt |
| Cruise altitude | 41,000 ft |
| Approach | 120 kt |
| Rotation (the coach calls it) | 120 kt |
| Agility (roll rate) | 40°/s |
| Wingspan | 21.0 m |
| Length | 20.9 m |
| Weight | 16 t |
| Engines | 2 × turbofan · 33 kN |
The cockpit
Four screens, with the flight and navigation displays, yokes and a short overhead panel. The instruments are drawn live as you fly, and what you move moves in the cockpit too, from the yokes to the pedals.
How it flies
The Challenger 350 flies with Open Flight World's own flight model, built from the numbers of its handbook: its mass, wing, engines and speeds become the wing panels, tail surfaces and gear the model flies, trimmed to fly hands-off at its cruise. On top, the controls answer like a game: each stick asks for a rate of turn, and when you let go the aircraft stays where you left it, nose, bank and heading.
In the simple scheme a coach tells you each step, from the takeoff flaps to the flare, and calls the rotation at 120 kt.
Where to fly it
Once the Challenger 350 is yours, fly it from Hong Kong International, which is free, or from any airport you have unlocked. With All Access every aircraft and every airport are open.
Some airports with a page of their own:
- Hong Kong VHHH
- New York JFK KJFK
- Los Angeles KLAX
- San Francisco KSFO
- London Heathrow EGLL
- Paris Charles de Gaulle LFPG
- Madrid Barajas LEMD
- Barcelona El Prat LEBL
- All airports
What it costs
Unlock the Challenger 350 once for $4.49 and it is yours to keep, or take three unlocks for $10.99 to spend on any aircraft or airport. All Access opens every aircraft and every airport from $7.50 a month, billed yearly. + VAT
Questions about the Challenger 350
Is the Challenger 350 free to fly?
No: it is one of the paid aircraft. Unlock it once for $4.49 and it is yours to keep, or fly it with All Access. The Cessna 172 at Hong Kong is free, to try the simulator first.
What speeds does the simulator use for the Challenger 350?
The hangar gives it a cruise of 470 kt at 41,000 ft and an approach speed of 120 kt, and the coach calls the rotation at 120 kt.
Does the Challenger 350 fly with real flight dynamics?
It flies with Open Flight World's own flight model, built from its handbook numbers. JSBSim, the flight dynamics of FlightGear, flies the Cessna 172, the Airbus A320neo, the Boeing 787-9, the Airbus A380, the F-16 and the 18 m sailplane.
The whole fleet
Every aircraft has its own page, cockpit and figures.
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Airbus A380
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The largest airliner ever built: four engines and a lot of momentum.
Demanding
Pick a runway and take off.
The Cessna 172 at Hong Kong is free, with no download and no account.
Fly free