Design Aircraft In U.S. Air Force Make It Fly App
U.S. Air Force Make It Fly (Free) by GSD&M puts you in the role of a U.S. Air Force jet designer.
You are presented with a mission challenge and will then have to design an aircraft that fits the bill. All of the main components are yours to customize.
Start with the plane’s fuselage, then add wings, tail, engines, and even extras like paint job and payload. Since you’re only designing a remote aircraft, you won’t be able to control it once the mission starts.
This is one of those apps that is designed so well that it’s hard to believe it’s free.
What’s really great about this app is that it challenges you to think what the goal is, and the best way to reach it. This is done without any handholding. You’ll need to apply principles of lift, drag, and thrust to design the craft that will finish the mission.
Some of the customization is guesswork, though status bars will show you the gross lift, drag, weight, and thrust your components yield.
Each category has a wide range of choices, meaning there’s no one right answer for a mission. Your fuselage could be anything from a fighter jet to a cargo plane, with everything in between.
You can either fly your craft in specific missions, which will fly the craft remotely, or you can choose free fly. In the free flying mode, you can create whatever craft you’d like and can control its thrust and yoke.
While this app is thoroughly enjoyable, my one complaint is the lack of an undo button. Once you pick your fuselage, or if you add missiles, you’re stuck with them. The only way to get rid of them is to scrap your design and start over.
I’m sure the elephant in the room for this app is that it’s designed to lure recruits for the Air Force. However, to the developer’s credit, the mentions of the Air Force aren’t intrusive at all.
What I think is an even greater take away is that this app offers is a chance to apply real world physics to the field of aircraft design.
Now if there were only an iPad version.
