About XP Jets
Welcome! If you’re reading this, you’ve stumbled across the online home of XP Jets, a brand new X-Plane aircraft development team. There’s not much around here to see yet, so we figured we’d set up this blog so that we could at least fire some mindless chatter your way to pass the time until we actually have an aircraft done.
There are probably a few things you’re wondering at this time, such as:
- Just what is XP Jets anyway?
- Who makes up XP Jets?
- What sorts of projects are we going to see?
- What the heck is this “X-Plane” of which you speak?
Well, let’s see if we can tackle those one at a time.
Just what is XP Jets anyway?
XP Jets is a small group of X-Plane enthusiasts developing add-on aircraft for the X-Plane flight simulator. XP Jets focuses mainly on airliners, and the bulk of their portfolio will eventually reflect this.
Who makes up XP Jets?
XP Jets at the present time consists of a highly skilled cadre of X-Plane developers, including its three co-founders: Alex Unruh, Dhruv Kalra, and Reuben Horsley. Once a part of the X-Plane Freeware Project, the three chose to branch off into their own development team in early 2007, and the rest, as the saying so eloquently goes, is history. In May 2007, the XPJ team added Rodrigo Sauvalle and his modeling talents to its roster, bringing the current staffing up to four. The team, however, often receives assistance from several other noted faces in the X-Plane community and the projects are often never only the fruits of the core XPJ designers’ labor.
The current XPJ roster as of May 2008:
- Dhruv Kalra [Founding Developer]
- Alex Unruh [Founding Developer]
- Reuben Horsley [Founding Developer]
- Rodrigo Sauvalle [Modeler]
- Josh Gales [Texture Artist]
- Geoff Legg [Sound Engineer, Developer]
- Sean Polun [Flight Testing]
What sorts of projects are we going to see?
Well, for the most part, it’ll be airliners, airliners, and more airliners. The brains behind XPJ are largely interested in commercial aviation. Indeed, two of the co-founders are working on careers as commercial pilots (we’ll leave it to you, the readership, to figure out which two). That being said, however, don’t hold us to that; there’s always something up our sleeves…
What the heck is this “X-Plane” of which you speak?
X-Plane is a comprehensive OpenGL personal computer-based flight simulator. It uses blade element theory to simulate the dynamics of flight, making it very accurate. More information about X-Plane can be found at http://www.x-plane.com.