Sid Meier started his career with a string of flight sim titles. That's how he got to be a big enough name to start calling things "Sid Meier's X." (Which Microprose originally did with Pirates because they were worried all their die-hard flight sim fans would be turned off; Sid's name was supposed to reassure them.)
Really interesting bit of history. Thanks for sharing. (I remember Pirates! — what a great game that was. Vividly remember the opening graphics on my friend’s new 486 with a 16-bit VGA card. It looked stunning.)