So, as I understand it, the wing is broken down in sections, each of which will use some tabulated lift and drag for that airfoil at the current velocity vector and dynamic pressure? That seems fine. But it doesn't talk about how it deals with the fuselage and how it calculates its lift/drag. Calculating pressure drag is complicated and depends on the details of the airflow around the fuselage, and there's intersection drag at the interfaces with the wings/empennage. A significant portion of the drag for piston airplanes is also the cooling drag of the air that's forced through the cowling and the engine baffles. Does anyone know to what extent this is taken into account?
I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell if there are answers there, but some of these questions might be addressed in the deep dive of the F-4 Phantom modelization.
In my experience this also uses tabulated data or simplified equations based on some geometric parameters (such as the exposed surface area). For the purposes of simulating flight, ball park figures are sufficient to get a reasonably accurate representation of an aircraft's behaviour and stability in various flight conditions. The additional accuracy you get from fluid dynamics simulations is computationally expensive and usually only needed in aircraft design.
There was an ooooold DOS game called Flight Unlimited that correctly(-ish) modeled flaps, rudder, etc, and ran you through a flight school to teach barrel rolls, Immelmann turns, etc.
I've been looking for an Xbox/Console game that lets you fly and crash a plane, shoot things in a game-like context, not slide around in some space invaders bubble with laser turrets painted to look like missiles.
Flight Simulator misses the mark (I think) because it's not so game-y. All the fighter jet games I've tried miss the mark because their physics is way too arcadey. Any recommendations?
I remember Flight Unlimited. Besides what you mention I remember it having very impressive world graphics for its time.
What you are looking for seems fairly niche to me especially on console, the only game that comes to mind is Star Wars Squadrons.
On PC I'm sure the story is a bit different (but not being much of a gamer these days I may not be the best person to ask). It may be worth checking out MicroProse games. This is the legendary publisher of old, with the brand being passed on through various mergers and acquisitions and the current stewards do a remarkable job and publish quality titles. Tiny Combat Arena may be worth checking out as it fits your description somewhat (if you can get past its stylised graphics).
Appreciate it! I know it's kindof niche, but Tiny Combat Arenas description seems exactly on point, unfortunate that it's only on PC.
I never considered Star Wars Squadrons, all the reviews on console seriously dragged the game, and I don't have a lot of time (and I think their multiplayer is kindof dead by now), but it has been coming up at $8.99 when I was paying attention so I'll keep an eye out.
