For being a "Wing Commander"-like game, Strike Commander was surprisingly good and detailed. The manual was pretty interesting, with lots of information similar to the Quora answer.
The hardcore side of combat flightsim gaming for me was Su-27 Flanker (http://www.mobygames.com/game/su-27-flanker), published by SSI. So hardcore I never actually managed to complete a full mission! It was a bit dry, without any campaigns or any kind of career tracking, but man was it detailed! It made me fall in love with the real-life Flanker.
And of course, Falcon 3.0 by Spectrum Holobyte. Another awesome flightsim I spent a lot of time with but never managed to complete a single mission with. It was obvious this sim was a work of love.
Yes, Comanche was awesome back in the day. First 386 protected mode game I had and it pushed my 486DX-50 to the hilt. I also had the Thrustmaster stick and throttle, and 8-bit sound blaster. Ahh, the good old days.
Games to keep an eye on (if you like combat) http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/9/5791924/e3-2014-marks-the-re...
Been out of games for a while, but looking forward to Oculus and whatever today's Thrustmaster equivalent is :)