Jay wrote...

I've been working aerospace for years and seen the calibre or
software they used 10 years ago and it sucked big time compared to
what is available for $5 to any hobbiest with an E-bay account.

Done a lot of CFD then, have you? Look, I agree with what I
*think* you're trying to say, in that the tools in use in
industry then and now today aren't always as 'user friendly'
as what's available on the open market, but to say that
XPlane provides *accurate* aero data that the big guys couldn't
do equally as well 10 years ago is not only misleading, it's
flat out wrong. XPlane simply makes it available (and affordable)
on the open market, for the layman. Whether said layman is
wise to blindly accept the output of this type of software
without understanding its limitations is another matter
altogether. It's not difficult to guess which side of that
argument I'm on.

Dave 'GIGO' Hyde