We’ve seen dedicated hardware controllers for other simulation platforms before, well now here’s one for Laminar research X-Plane 9 and 10, in the form of X-Simulations’ X-DirectControl USB universal control panel.

Utilising an X-Plane plugin, all of the buttons and sliders on the unit are freely programmable to whatever task you wish to assign them to, allowing many more controls to be accessed while flying without having to resort to your PC (or Mac!) keyboard. It’s worth bearing in mind that the unit will be shipped from the manufacturer in Germany, but more details can be found here.