(FORTUNE Magazine) – Wilbur and Orville Wright took to the air in December 1903, and short of a pilgrimage to Kitty Hawk there's no better way to mark the occasion than with Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight ($55, Windows 98 to XP). The latest version of the popular flight simulator--celebrating its own 20-year anniversary--allows airheads to take the stick of the Wright Flyer or of any of eight other vintage aircraft, including Charles Lindbergh's Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis or Amelia Earhart's Lockheed 5B Vega. You can also learn to fly a Boeing 747-400 or more than a dozen other modern aircraft. Since 9/11, flight-simulator programs have lost their innocence; Microsoft notes that its program can't actually be used to learn to fly. Even so, FS2004 edges ever closer to realism. With the aid of the Internet, the program allows pilots to plug in real-time, dynamic weather conditions. Hey, when is the ceiling going to lift over New York City's JFK? The cockpit controls are functional and interactive, right down to the radio. In FS2004, clouds are fluffed up into 3-D, and almost every airport in the world is simulated with great accuracy, down to the taxiway signs. For novice pilots, the program contains a helpful learning center. Just don't try to fly in a rickety old PC; this software takes off best on the PC equivalent of a jet.