"Real" aircraft?
Or flying models?
Or flight sim?
Microsoft Flight Simulator X to learn to fly aircraft on pro level.
No, CATIA is used to do the drawings and get the engineering sorted out. The actual design is done beforehand. And hardly falls under the heading of "preferably free". SolidWorks is a "watered-down" version of CATIA and that costs ~£4.5K for a personal licence.CATIA is used a lot w/ aircraft designs on pro. level.
And does that come under "(preferrably free if possible)". Their website doesn't even list the price, which indicates to me that it's beyond the reach of most individuals unless they're tremendously geeky and/ or rich.DarCorporation has a very nice versatile for aircraft from scratch to final design software.
See my comments above regarding CATIA. The design work of an aircraft doesn't require 3D software (until the shape is more or less finalised and then you need a CFD package as well).You may be better off getting 3d software for the design. Just make sure you can export into an other software you use.
If you'd also read the post with the link you'd have seen that X-Plane allows you to design the aircraft in the sim itself. There's no need to import it..Edit: Just saw the link. Not sure if X PLane allows importing models.
If you assume that why did you mention a 3D package?He is probably more interested in the design phase.
Ha!
MZ, I just remembered a free version!
Rick Robinson did an Excel spreadsheet that does a tremendous amount of work (he's the guy that developed Springsharp - for "designing" warships).
If you go here and scroll down to "Aircraft Specification Simulator" you can download the zip file with the spreadsheet and "manual" (Rick tends to expect his users to have some idea of what they're doing so the manual isn't exactly a step-by-step guide).