Too late to edit the comment, but here's the article describing some more of what I learned: https://entropicthoughts.com/sidescrolling-flight-simulator

What's not mentioned in that article is that a couple months later I tried switching from modeling the plane as a point to modeling it as two separate wings attached by a rigid stick. It was a nightmare to get into a shape that played well, though I'm sure someone more skilled than I would be able to do it.

Long ago i made a paper airplane simulation also in anger!

My inspiration was a fun game on 1980s intellivision!

That side view game had momentum and stalling airplane physics that aren't in any arcade game since that I've found.

Dogfights were hilarious because each player would risk stalling so they'd have more momentum to maneuver an attack.

Did you play that old game?

That was just before my time. I cut my teeth on a late 4 MB Atari ST. But it sounds like a great game!

Fun game, have you considered allowing people to control the sliders with their scroll wheel if they're on a desktop web browser?

Not considered that. Good idea!