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>