FlightGear
FlightGear is a free, open-source flight simulator for macOS that emphasizes realism and extensibility. It features more than 400 aircraft, worldwide scenery databases, multi-player networking, detailed sky modelling, and a flexible aircraft development system. FlightGear is used by flight enthusiasts, aviation students, and researchers for training, simulation research, and hobbyist flying. The simulator supports add-ons and a powerful scripting language, making it popular with users who want deep customization and academic-quality simulation.
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1 suggestionFlightGear ships a native Apple Silicon build as part of its recent releases — the project successfully ported SimGear (its core engine) to arm64 in early 2021, and the latest universal binary installers include native support for M-series Macs. If you are running an older Intel-only version under Rosetta, update to the latest FlightGear release from flightgear.org/download/, which will automatically serve the universal binary on Apple Silicon hardware. The native build delivers better performance and battery life compared to running under Rosetta emulation. After upgrading, your existing aircraft add-ons, scenery packages, and configuration files will remain intact.
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