2025 · Games / Physics
Aerodynamics Flight Physics Engine
A real-time flight physics engine as a Minecraft Fabric mod.
1,200+ Downloads · Java Flight Engine
The problem
Minecraft has no aerodynamics: entities either fall or float, so nothing flies because of its speed or geometry. Building an aircraft that takes off, stalls, and lands means writing flight simulation inside the game's own simulation — a server-side entity, ticked 20 times per second.
The constraint
Physics runs inside Minecraft's fixed 20-tps server tick, so there's no 60 FPS loop to borrow. Multiplayer adds a second trouble: the client predicts the plane while the server stays authoritative, so any disagreement shows up as stutter or teleporting. The model had to be a scalar (speed) that both sides can integrate identically.
What I built
A custom PlaneEntity replaces vanilla gravity with a speed model: throttle (W) accrues speed with acceleration and air/ground drag; lift engages once speed crosses a takeoff threshold, and sinking intensifies below a stall threshold. A/D yaw at 2.8°/tick, mouse pitch interpolates to ±45°. Ground acceleration is validated against actual displacement so walls can't be outrun, landings are graded by impact velocity, and riders get Slow Falling + Resistance while mounted to kill phantom fall damage. Speed persists to NBT across saves.
The outcome
1,200+ downloads across Modrinth and CurseForge of a genuinely flyable plane — the same lift/stall/throttle physics flight mods trade on, running entirely inside Minecraft's server simulation.