Editing FlightGear (section)

== History ==
''FlightGear'' started as an online proposal in 1996 by David Murr, living in the United States. He was dissatisfied with [[Proprietary software|proprietary]], available, simulators like the [[Microsoft Flight Simulator]], citing motivations of companies not aligning with the simulators' players ("simmers"), and proposed a new flight simulator developed by volunteers over the Internet.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Archive of rec.aviation.simulators at Google Groups|url=https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.aviation.simulators/ny8HFBE5_T8/OdtIiGNGJc8J|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20190905071139/https://groups.google.com/forum/%23!msg/rec.aviation.simulators/ny8HFBE5_T8/OdtIiGNGJc8J|archive-date=2019-09-05|access-date=2019-09-05|website=groups.google.com}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Perry|first=Alexander R.|date=2004-06-27|title=The FlightGear flight simulator|url=https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/usenix04/tech/sigs/full_papers/perry/perry.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the Annual Conference on USENIX Annual Technical Conference|series=ATEC '04|location=Boston, MA|publisher=USENIX Association|pages=31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316101914/https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/usenix04/tech/sigs/full_papers/perry/perry.pdf|archive-date=16 March 2021}}</ref> The flight simulator was created using custom 3D graphics code. Development of an [[OpenGL]] based version was spearheaded by Curtis Olson starting in 1997.<ref name=":5" /> ''FlightGear'' incorporated other open-source resources, including the LaRCsim flight dynamics engine from [[NASA]], and freely available elevation data. The first working binaries using OpenGL came out in 1997. By 1999 FlightGear had replaced LaRCsim with ''JSBSim'' built to the sims' needs, and in 2015 NASA used ''JSBSim'' alongside 6 other space industry standards to create a measuring stick to judge future space industry simulation code.<ref name=":8">{{Citation|last1=Murri|first1=Daniel G.|title=Check-Cases for Verification of 6-DOF Flight Vehicle Simulations - Volume I|date=2015|url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20150001264.pdf|volume=|pages=|publisher=NASA|language=en|doi=|access-date=2019-09-03|last2=E. Bruce Jackson|last3=Shelton|first3=Robert O.}}</ref>

''FlightGear'' reached 1.0 in 2007, 2.0 in 2010, and there were 9 major releases under 2.x and 3.x labels, with the final one under the previous numbering scheme being "3.4", since "3.6" was cancelled. The project moved to a regular release cadence with 2-4 releases per year since 2016, with the first version under the new naming scheme being "2016.1". Around that time, the graphical front end "FlightGear Launch Control", also known as "FGRun", was replaced by a [[Hard coding|hard-coded]] [[Qt (software)|Qt launcher]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Category:FlightGear changelogs - FlightGear wiki|url=http://wiki.flightgear.org/Category:FlightGear_changelogs|access-date=2021-02-13|website=FlightGear wiki}}</ref> ''FlightGear's'' [[source code]] is released under the terms of the [[GNU General Public License]] and is [[free and open-source software]].

The ''FlightGear'' project has been nominated by SourceForge, and subsequently chosen as project of the month by the community, in 2015, 2017, and 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2015-11-01|title=November 2015, "Community Choice" Project of the Month – FlightGear|url=https://sourceforge.net/blog/november-2015-community-choice-project-of-the-month-flightgear/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904083229/https://sourceforge.net/blog/november-2015-community-choice-project-of-the-month-flightgear/|archive-date=2019-09-04|access-date=2019-09-04|website=SourceForge Community Blog|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2017-09-01|title=September 2017, "Community Choice" Project of the Month – FlightGear|url=https://sourceforge.net/blog/september-2017-community-choice-project-month-flightgear/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904100359/https://sourceforge.net/blog/september-2017-community-choice-project-month-flightgear/|archive-date=2019-09-04|access-date=2019-09-04|website=SourceForge Community Blog|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2019-02-01|title=February 2019, "Community Choice" Project of the Month – FlightGear|url=https://sourceforge.net/blog/february-2019-community-choice-project-month-flightgear/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904083341/https://sourceforge.net/blog/february-2019-community-choice-project-month-flightgear/|archive-date=2019-09-04|access-date=2019-09-04|website=SourceForge Community Blog|language=en-US}}</ref>