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The Staff of SOH
Another prodigal child
- Thread starter warchild
- Start date
Brian_Gladden
SOH-CM-2025
Welcome Back!
Glad to see you back Pam, you've been missed both here and on TS. 
warchild
Charter Member
Holy smokes, Warchild! It seems to me that you were just wringing out the physics on that exquisite X-3 Stilletto......
...Jeepers....
Time certainly flies faster than I do.
Heh! I still am, sorta..
The problem is that the X-3 like its other X counterparts, is one of the best documented aircraft ever created. There are no questions left when it comes to that particular planes flight characteristics; at least, not in reality. There IS the F-104, which is the direct child of the X-3 project. Lockheed literally walked into the NACA and carried off all the research and made the starfighter from it. Sadly, the F-104 carries the same exact and fatal flaw as the X-3.
I know, I say "fatal flaw" like its a hard and fast death sentence for the plane and pilot, but its not.. Adverse yaw was experienced only three times in some 150 flight tests. That wasnt enough to convince Lockheed to not make the F-104, which in turn killed several pilots via the same exact adverse yaw event.
Welll, needless to say, Aerodynamics was a young and unknown realm of science back in those days, and trans-sonic aerodynamics were completely unheard of. The best anyone could do was put a pilot in the seat and that pilot would report that the aircraft was experiencing extreme buffeting as is broke through the sound barrier, or ended up flipping and going in the opposite direction, like the X-3.
My problem, is that that adverse yaw is very random and very specific, and FSX/P3D isnt set up for randomness. Neither is X-Plane for that matter. All these simulators are bases on input-output. You provide the input, such as pulling on the stick or yoke, and the simulator provides the output, such as raising the nose of the plane. There is consistency of behavior, which you want for aspiring students, but its not very conducive to realism.
Paul (Delta 558 ) and I slammed into this like wiley coyote into his own painted tunnel through the rock.. The number of variables that all have to come together in just the right way, are immense, and neither of us had that level of programming ability to write the script, nor did we have a few years to do it in. We ended up making a flight model where if you executed a climbing turn at a specific speed from a specific angle, the plane would perform its characteristic "adverse" yaw effect. Ive never been happy with it though..
The X-3 itself though, well, that was never anything close to the failure people want to make it out to be. You see? It had a flat bottom. It was the first of its kind, and it was providing lift, that the wings couldnt account for. It didnt add up, and it had the NACA brain boys scratching their heads.. It lead to the lifting/falling body experiments, the SR71, The X-15, The F-14 and F-15 and even the space shuttle. It was unequivocally, the greatest ( if backhanded ) success in the story of aviation. I am quite certain than by the time Lockheed walked through the NACA's door to collect the data, they simply pointed to the pile on the floor and went back to work. They had some real science to chew on now..
warchild
Charter Member
Glad to see you back Pam, you've been missed both here and on TS.
Missed the hell outta you too Tako.. Missed all of you.
God's; I'm dieing to ask about the C-119, but I'm also worried it might be a sore spot or a sadness.. Still, I would love to know whatever happened to it, and find out how i can get my hands on it.. :
:
God's; I'm dieing to ask about the C-119, but I'm also worried it might be a sore spot or a sadness.. Still, I would love to know whatever happened to it, and find out how i can get my hands on it.. :
DO NOT WAKE THE SLEEPING BEAR THAT SCREAMS.........................
"IS IT DONE YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
