Laminar Research has announced the release of a realistic physics-based X-Plane 9 Flight Simulator software for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. As in the full desktop version, X-Plane for iPhone lets you experiment with different times of day, weather, sky conditions, wind, cloud type, turbulence and airplanes, while flying aircrafts from different views in the stunning terrain topography of Innsbruck, Austria, home to some of the most challenging mountains and topography for aviation.

TouchArcade reviews: At startup, X-Plane 9 places the pilot at a runway in Innsbruck, Austria in the default aircraft, Cirrus Vision, a lightweight jet. Three other aircrafts, Cessna 172, Columbia 400, and Piaggio Avanti can be selected from the application’s options. The software allows you to configure other parameters such as time of day, wind speed and direction, turbulence, cloud type and altitude, visibility, and aircraft weight.

The simulator presents the pilot with a simple Heads Up Display (HUD) featuring standard compass, altitude, attitude, and speed indicators as well as semi-translucent touchscreen controls for thrust, flap position, brakes, landing gear, and view selectors. Camera position and zoom in the external views are controlled via dragging and the standard iPhone “pinch / spread” technique. The options menus are also accessed via touchscreen.

Using accelerometer technology, the iPhone basically acts like a flight yoke for the simulator. You can tilt forward to dive, pull back to climb, and tilt side-to-side to control ailerons. You can control the throttle and flaps by sliding the controls on either side of the display.

Click here to download X-Plane 9 for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch via iTunes.