Knife Edge Software
Knife Edge Software is the company behind the hugely popular RealFlight line of RC flight simulators. I interviewed Jim Bourke, Knife Edge Software’s general manager, to learn about his personal RC experiences and learn more about the company.
Background
Jim was involved in full-scale aviation at an early age because his father sold full-scale airplanes. Jim flew everywhere his father went, and the experience became as common as riding in the family car. Delivering aircraft, stopping at out-of-the-way places for the famed $100 hamburger, and attending air shows gave Jim an early appreciation for the recreational-aircraft way of life.
As a child, paper airplanes and rubber-band-powered gliders were Jim’s main focus. He created airfoiled wings for them and then tried to improve their designs.
His first RC flight was at age 16, piloting a yellow Sig Kadet Senior with his art teacher. These experiences led Jim to obtain his first RC model—the popular Goldberg Gentle Lady glider—and a job in a hobby shop.
Jim made the decision to serve his country and spent four years in the US Air Force. During that time, he worked in the Martin bomber bay in Nebraska, where the Enola Gay B-29 was built. His duty station tied in with his childhood; it was where he saw the Navy’s Blue Angels perform for the first time.
Early involvement with electric flight and online communities
In 1995 Jim started a quest to promote electric flight in model aircraft, because he thought it was destined to become the dominant power system. A frequently asked questions piece that he sent out via e-mail lists soon grew into a web page and then The E Zone and RC Groups.
That year was also when Scott Kemp founded Knife Edge Software. His original vision was a CD-ROM encyclopedia about RC models that included the process to build an airplane and an RC simulator on the CD. When Scott pitched the idea to Great Planes, the company was most interested in the RC simulator, and Knife Edge Software was born. It was tasked with creating the first 3-D-capable RC flight simulator.
Joining Knife Edge and leadership
Jim got involved with Knife Edge as a programmer, and in 2002 he was given the opportunity to run the company during the development of RealFlight G3. Although his job as general manager entails many duties, he shared one of the most important:
“My job is to make people comfortable with RC, making it approachable.”
To help him reach that goal, Jim has a talented group of employees who know the subject matter. Each is required to know how to fly RC aircraft.
Models and flying sites
If you have ever tried a version of RealFlight, you might wonder how the models and flying sites are chosen. Jim explained that the aircraft are a mix between new airplanes and those that are commonly found at hobby stores. The goal is to have a little of everything.
The Knife Edge staff also likes to throw in a couple off‑the‑wall subjects, such as one of Jim’s favorites: the Wolf Spyder. It is powered by four engines on four pods that rotate 90°. The flying sites, especially PhotoFields, are based on places that the team visits or popular locations, such as the E-Fest indoor arena.
Once the models are selected, it is confirmed that they fly as closely as possible on the screen to the real airplane they represent. In earlier versions of RealFlight, this required more work. Now the software handles model behavior more realistically with less manual tuning.
Development philosophy and hardware
Jim shared that Knife Edge Software is driven by customer feedback. It’s also under continual development, including bug fixes—which are given the highest priority—new features, and expansion packs.
The company even focuses on hardware included with RealFlight. It upgraded the USB transmitter to have digital trims and menu buttons when G4 was released.
Jim also stressed that he and his staff are constantly flying RealFlight for testing purposes as well as using it as a learning tool.
Real-world testing: the broken-wing incident
This was never more evident than in Jim’s broken‑wing incident with a real RC aircraft. During the development of G3, the new “break apart feature” was implemented. It enabled models to have components such as the rudder, landing gear, or wing broken off and continue to fly, but the airplanes would react differently depending on what was missing.
Jim tested this program feature repeatedly by purposely breaking off a model’s wing and then trying to successfully pilot the aircraft. After roughly a week, he was comfortably piloting the airplane and landing it with half of the wing missing.
While at the flying field piloting a friend’s Yak, its left wing unexpectedly broke off in a snap roll because of a weak point from a previous repair. No other damage was done to the model. Jim calmly rolled the airplane into knife‑edge flight with the remaining wing on top and was able to land the Yak without further damage—putting it down on its wheels on the runway. He was thrilled not only to save his friend’s aircraft, but also to learn that RealFlight G3’s physics for flight failures was accurate.
Personal life and full-scale aircraft
Jim’s love of aviation, both full‑scale and RC, is shared by his son, Raymond; daughters, Camma and Haley; and fiancée, Annette.
He is also the proud owner of “Russian Thunder,” the only full‑scale Yak-54 that is currently flying in the US. The Yak is one of the models in RealFlight, but it was available long before Jim became Russian Thunder’s pilot.
When asked which he likes more—RC or full scale—he replied:
“I like them both; they are not the same thing even though they are similar. Flying an Unlimited class aircraft is such a rush! RC provides a wide variety; you can own and fly all different types of aircraft you could never own.”
Jay Smith [email protected]
Sources
- Knife Edge Software
885A NW Grant Ave. Suite A Corvallis, OR 97330 www.knifeedge.com
- The E Zone
- RC Groups
885 NW Grant Ave. #B Corvallis, OR 97330 www.rcgroups.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
