Immersive Aircraft

Overview

Immersive Aircraft introduces four craftable flying vehicles to Minecraft: the Airship, the Biplane, the Gyrodyne, and the Quadrocopter. Each aircraft handles differently, carries different amounts of cargo and passengers, and uses its own control scheme. Rather than simple creative-mode flight, these vehicles have realistic physics with momentum, wind effects during storms, and collision damage when you hit terrain.

Every aircraft has a built-in inventory you can access by sneaking and right-clicking, along with slots for fuel, upgrades, banners, and (on some vehicles) a booster rocket. The upgrade system lets you customize your aircraft's performance by trading off stats like engine power, fuel efficiency, wind resistance, and durability. You can browse all 18 items and recipes this mod adds using the tabs at the top of this page.

The Four Aircraft

Each aircraft fills a different role. Understanding their strengths helps you pick the right vehicle for the job.

Gyrodyne

The Gyrodyne is a muscle-powered helicopter that runs on your hunger bar instead of furnace fuel. It seats two passengers and carries the largest inventory of any aircraft at 18 slots (6 columns by 3 rows). With a mass of 4.0, it is the heaviest and most stable vehicle in the mod. Its engine speed of 0.3 makes it responsive in the air, and it has a generous roll factor of 30 degrees for smooth banking.

Flying the Gyrodyne requires a "spin-up" phase. When you first board, you need to push forward (W) to build rotor speed. An on-screen message shows your power percentage. Once you hit 100%, you receive a "Minimum rotor speed reached, ready for takeoff!" message, and the aircraft automatically hops off the ground. After that, use Space and Shift for altitude, and W/S for forward and backward thrust. The Gyrodyne has 4 upgrade slots and 1 weapon slot, making it highly customizable.

Airship

The Airship is the slow, steady cargo hauler. It burns furnace fuel and seats two passengers. With a mass of 3.0, it resists wind fairly well but is not particularly agile, having only a 5-degree roll factor. Its engine speed of 0.02 and vertical speed of 0.025 mean it climbs gradually and moves at a leisurely pace, but it is very easy to control. The Airship has 16 inventory slots (4x4), 2 upgrade slots, 2 weapon slots, a banner slot, and a dye slot for coloring its sails.

The engine automatically runs at full power once fueled. Use Space and Shift to ascend and descend, and W/S for forward thrust. The Airship leaves a smoke trail from its propeller and generates campfire smoke particles when the engine is running. You can customize its sail color by placing a Dye in the dedicated dye slot, and display banners on its sides.

Biplane

The Biplane is the fastest aircraft in the mod. With a mass of only 1.0, a glide factor of 0.05, and airplane-style controls, it handles like a proper fixed-wing plane. It uses a higher base fuel consumption of 2.5 (compared to the default 1.5), so it burns through fuel faster, but it covers ground at incredible speed. The Biplane seats only one passenger and has a 4x4 inventory (16 slots).

Flying the Biplane is completely different from the rotorcraft. Instead of ascending with Space, you control a throttle: pressing Space increases engine power, while Shift decreases it and applies brakes. W pushes the nose down (gaining speed through a dive), and S pulls up. The 45-degree roll factor means it banks sharply into turns. It also has a dedicated Booster slot for rocket-powered speed boosts (press B). The Biplane generates wingtip trails at high speed and has 4 upgrade slots, the most of any aircraft alongside 1 banner slot.

Quadrocopter

The Quadrocopter is a small, nimble drone designed for precision work like building at height. It has the lowest base fuel consumption at 0.75, a mass of 1.0, and the smallest inventory at just 6 slots (3x2). It seats one passenger and has only 1 upgrade slot. The engine vibrates visually when running, and its four propellers spin in alternating directions.

Controls are similar to the Airship: Space to ascend, Shift to descend, W/S for forward and backward. Its engine speed of 0.0325 and vertical speed of 0.0325 are modest, but its low wind sensitivity of 0.025 makes it the most stable aircraft in storms. The tradeoff is limited cargo space and only a single upgrade slot.

Crafting the Aircraft

All four aircraft are assembled on a Crafting Table using shared components. You will need to craft Hulls, Engines, Sails, Propellers, and Boilers as intermediate ingredients. The Recipes tab has full grid layouts for every recipe, but here are the key aircraft recipes to get you started.

The Upgrade System

Upgrades are special items you place in an aircraft's upgrade slots to modify its performance. Each upgrade adjusts one or more stats, and effects stack across multiple slots. The six stats that upgrades can modify are: Engine Strength (thrust power), Friction (air resistance), Acceleration (engine spin-up speed), Durability (damage resistance), Fuel consumption rate, and Wind sensitivity.

Negative stat values on upgrades are actually beneficial for Friction, Fuel, and Wind, since reducing these makes your aircraft more efficient, more fuel-economical, and more resistant to turbulence. Positive values benefit Strength, Acceleration, and Durability. The upgrade system multiplies negative modifiers first, then adds positive ones, preventing exploits with stacking.

Upgrade Details

The Enhanced Propeller reduces air friction by 75%, making your aircraft glide further and maintain speed longer. It is one of the most impactful single upgrades, especially on the Biplane where maintaining momentum is key.

The Eco Engine cuts fuel consumption by 75% at the cost of 20% less engine power. This is ideal for long-distance travel in the Airship where top speed matters less than range.

The Nether Engine is the opposite: it boosts engine power by 40% but increases fuel consumption by 30%. Pair it with the Biplane for maximum speed runs.

The Steel Boiler provides a balanced 25% engine power boost with a 50% fuel cost increase. The Industrial Gears reduce fuel consumption by 20% with no downside, making them a safe choice for any build.

The Sturdy Pipes add a small 10% engine power boost. The Gyroscope completely eliminates wind effects (100% reduction), which is invaluable during thunderstorms when wind triples in intensity. The Hull Reinforcement doubles durability, and the Improved Landing Gear increases takeoff acceleration by 50%.

Wind and Weather

Wind is a core mechanic that affects all aircraft in flight. During clear weather, a base wind value (default 1.0) causes subtle buffeting. When it rains, wind increases by an additional 3.0 multiplier. During thunderstorms, another 3.0 is added on top of rain. This means a thunderstorm produces roughly 7x the turbulence of clear skies. Wind applies random pitch and yaw offsets based on your aircraft's wind sensitivity stat and mass.

Heavier aircraft like the Gyrodyne (mass 4.0) and Airship (mass 3.0) naturally resist wind better because the effect is divided by mass. Lighter vehicles like the Biplane and Quadrocopter (mass 1.0 each) get tossed around more. The Gyroscope upgrade completely nullifies wind effects, making stormy flights safe regardless of aircraft weight. Aircraft that are submerged in water have wind effects disabled entirely.

Inventory and Customization

Every aircraft has a custom inventory screen accessed by sneaking and right-clicking the vehicle. The left side of the screen shows special slots (Boiler, Weapon, Upgrade, Banner, Dye, Booster), while the right side has general storage. Each aircraft has a different layout:

The Gyrodyne has 1 weapon slot, 4 upgrade slots, and 18 inventory slots. The Airship has 1 boiler, 2 weapon slots, 2 upgrades, 1 banner, 1 dye, and 16 inventory slots. The Biplane has 1 boiler, 1 booster, 1 weapon, 1 banner, 4 upgrades, and 16 inventory slots. The Quadrocopter has 1 boiler, 1 weapon, 1 upgrade, and 6 inventory slots.

Banners placed in the banner slot display visually on the aircraft's body. The Airship's dye slot accepts any Dye item and tints the sails to match. Weapon slots are marked as an upcoming feature. The Biplane's booster slot accepts items that enable a speed boost when you press B, consuming the booster item in the process.

Configuration Options

Immersive Aircraft stores its config in config/immersive_aircraft.json. If you have Cloth Config installed, you can edit these in-game through the mod settings screen. The most important options are:

fuelConsumption (default 1.0) is a global multiplier on fuel burn rate. Set it lower for longer flights or higher for a more challenging survival experience. collisionDamage (default true) toggles whether slamming into terrain damages your aircraft. Disable this if you find it too punishing. onlyPlayerCanDestroyAircraft (default true) prevents mobs from breaking parked aircraft.

Wind can be tuned separately for each weather condition: windClearWeather (default 1.0), windRainWeather (default 3.0), and windThunderWeather (default 3.0). Set all three to 0 to disable wind entirely. The renderDistance option (default 192 blocks) controls how far away aircraft are visible to other players.

Visual options include separateCamera (uses a dedicated camera angle while flying), useThirdPersonByDefault (auto-switches to third person when boarding), enableTrails (smoke trails behind engines), and enableAnimatedSails (the Airship's sails ripple in the wind). All are enabled by default.