SIMULATIONS AND DISPLAYS

Here are flight simulations and displays created using three.js. There are currently two versions:

AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SIMULATIONS

In these examples, you can fly and land an animated model aircraft (airplane or helicopter). In external view, you can look around the aircraft using the mouse and shift key. In the FM2, you can select an internal view with animated instruments and pilot.

FM2 Wildcat
Fly from an aircraft carrier and protect your teammates:
* WebGPU - [rev 250630] r178
See here for flight instructions.
Sopwith Pup
Fly from an airbase over procedurally-generated farmland near mountains:
* WebGPU - [rev 250630] r178
* WebGL2 - [rev 231014]
See here for flight instructions.
Huey UH-1H
Fly from an airbase over procedurally-generated farmland near mountains:
* WebGPU - [rev 250630] r178
The horizon remains level since, unlike an airplane, a helicopter is primarily designed to fly upright. See here for more information about this simulation.
AIRCRAFT VISUAL DEMOS

In these examples, you can select the camera viewpoint, including level, locked and cockpit (FM2 only). You can pan around the aircraft using the mouse and you can pitch and bank and turn the aircraft using the buttons at the lower left. The FM2 has animated parts that you can activate with various buttons on the upper right.

FM2 Wildcat
* WebGPU - FM2 Wildcat #35 of VC27 over an animated ocean [rev 250630] r178
* WebGL2 - FM2 Wildcat #54 of CAF in cloudy skies [rev 230502]
Sopwith Pup
* WebGL2 - Sopwith Pup in cloudy skies with animated undercast [rev 230502]
B29 Superfortress
* WebGPU - B29 (6BG) over an animated ocean with clouds [rev 250630]
* WebGL2 - B29 (Doc) in cloudy skies with animated undercast [rev 230512]
Huey UH-1H
* WebGL2 - Huey UH-1H over Vietnam [rev 230502]
EARTH FROM SPACE

Here is a depiction of the Earth from space. Creating the image of earth is a common exercise for three.js programmers and many examples are available online. This version is more complex and depicts the earth using the correct angles for the sun, moon, stars and some planets. The moon is displayed in the correct position for a specific year. The texture for the stars was obtained from NASA. Here is a discussion of interesting facts I learned while creating this example.

GREAT CIRCLE NAVIGATION

This is an example of great circle navigation used in long distance flights. This shows the ferry route taken by B-29s during WWII.

THE INNER PLANETS

This is a diorama showing the inner planets of the solar system. Not only are the orbits of the planets on different planes, they are not perfect circles. Consequently, I used data look-up tables to compute the position of the planets at different places in their orbits. This program shows how to rotate rotating objects around a common center - a useful feature of three.js.