Flight Unlimited is a 1995 flight simulator video game developed and published by Looking Glass Technologies. It allows the player to pilot reproductions of five aircraft and to perform aerobatic stunts. A virtual instructor teaches basic and advanced flight techniques, such as Immelmann turns (diagram pictured) and Lomcevak tumbles. The first self- published game released by Looking Glass, Flight Unlimited was intended to establish the company as a major video game publisher and to compete with the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise. Project leader Seamus Blackley, a particle physicist formerly of Fermilab, used real-time computational fluid dynamics calculations to code a simulated atmosphere for Flight Unlimited. Previous flight simulators had often used wind tunnel data to determine a plane's motion, which precluded complex maneuvers. The game was a commercial and critical success that spawned three sequels: Flight Unlimited II (1997), Flight Unlimited III (1999) and Jane's Attack Squadron (2002). Soon after Flight Unlimited 's completion, Blackley was fired from Looking Glass; he went on to design Jurassic Park: Trespasser for Dreamworks Interactive, and later spearheaded development of the Xbox at Microsoft.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Unlimited
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1494:
Ferdinand II of Aragon and John II of Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the Americas and Africa between their two countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas
1788:
Citizens of Grenoble threw roof tiles onto royal soldiers, an event sometimes credited as the beginning of the French Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Tiles
1892:
Homer Plessy, an "octoroon" from New Orleans, was arrested for refusing to leave the "whites-only" car on a train. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Plessy
1965:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives violated the "right to marital privacy". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut
1975:
The inaugural Cricket World Cup (trophy pictured), the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket, began in England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_World_Cup
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
trendite: (slang) A person given to following trends. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trendite
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
As you get older, you find that often the wheat, disentangling itself from the chaff, comes out to meet you. --Gwendolyn Brooks https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gwendolyn_Brooks