Planes for Minecraft, Minecraft Flying Mod
Minecarts have had a monopoly on the Minecraft transport industry for far too long. Finally a mod has been created that allows Minecraft players to take to the skies in their own hand built planes. But is it too good to be true? Can there really be a mod that smoothly implements flight technology? No and Yes, in that order.
This mod is pure awesome sauce, not only because it produces a plane that can actually fly, but because the plane has its own constraints. You can't just put the plane down anywhere and hope to fly it. Nope, you need to build a runway, and you need to make sure that the runway is clear for take off and landing. I love this mod so, so much.
Construction of a plane is not overly tedious and doesn't rely on rare items, which I like. If you want to play the game the no cheat way, you can easily put together a plane with just a bit of iron, some leather, wooden planks and cobblestone (for the furnace that powers your plane.)
Flying the plane is wonderful. The controls work well. The most noticeable note of non realism about the plane is the fact that if you slow the plane to a stall it simply sinks gently to the ground. This is obviously preferable from a survival perspective. It's actually pretty hard to crash the plane when you're in it, I'm not even sure that it's possible actually. If you get in and drive it over uneven ground, or try to place it in space too small for it, it will break into pieces. Fortunately it only breaks into its component parts (not the raw ingredients) and is easily reassembled if you have a crafting table in your inventory.
To fly the plane, you need to hold down 'W' to accelerate and press the space bar to tip the plane's nose upwards. Once you've reached your desired altitude and speed you can press the left shift key to put the nose down and the 'S' key slows the speed of the plane. Landing is fairly easy, even if you hit the ground fairly fast you won't be harmed (or at least, so my testing shows.)
Planes do need room. They're not small at all. In fact, they're one of the few multiblock Minecraft machines that can be created by intrepid players by the power of mods right now. You'll need at least five by five Minecraft blocks to house a plane comfortably.
