InFlightSimulator: a flight simulator where you are only a passenger

InFlightSimulator is a browser game built on an unusual premise: the player never touches the controls. You are a passenger. The site describes the idea plainly: fly to every country as a passenger, and completed flights collect country flags automatically, even while you are away.

How a flight works

The app opens with a map and a single question about where you want to fly. You choose a starting airport and a destination, and available destinations are listed with their real-world flight times: Miami to Accra is shown at about ten hours fifty-two minutes. Destinations beyond the current aircraft range are marked as too far, and the developer has said he set a deliberately conservative range for the Cessna Skyhawk, to keep trips plausible. Flights continue after the browser tab is closed, so a long-haul sector can be checked on later.

The design choice behind it

Robert Kotcher, who posts in the site community forum, explains that he has deliberately avoided making the game feel too gamey. The aim, in his words, is to reproduce the experience of sitting in the passenger seat under different lighting, weather and environments. He has asked players whether that restraint is what they want, or whether more cabin interaction and objectives would be more fun. The site terms make the boundary clear: InFlightSimulator calls itself an entertainment experience, not an aviation training system, and says it must not be relied on for real flight operations or safety decisions.

What players are asking for

The community thread on future features reads like a passenger wish list: a delay mode that leaves you sitting on the tarmac, a lavatory where the tap and toilet actually work, in-flight food and drink service on longer routes, and reading material in the seat pocket, from a safety card to an in-flight magazine. Others want the full pushback and taxi sequence, more aircraft such as the 787, 777 and 747 for long routes, cabin ambience with announcements, VR support, and frequent-flyer miles redeemable for in-game items. A repeated request is other passengers in the cabin, plus a party mode for flying with friends; the developer has replied that adding other passengers back is on his list. One player suggested feeding real simulator telemetry from MSFS or X-Plane into the site so that one person flies the aircraft and everyone else joins as passengers.

Flags, passports and edge cases

Because progress is measured in countries, the project runs into questions that are political rather than technical. Kotcher has asked the community to help decide whether airports serving microstates should unlock them, citing San Marino, which is usually reached through Rimini or Bologna, whether Cayenne should count towards France, and how to treat Hong Kong and Northern Cyprus. He has also floated a related design question: whether a Cessna with a 640-nautical-mile range should be allowed to attempt an Atlantic crossing. Players reported a bug along the way: altitude appeared to rise slowly and then jumped when the page was refreshed, which the developer traced to how the flight path is interpolated between fixed points and said he would fix.