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Airacomet - WIP

Thanks for digging into that! I really appreciate it. :ernae:
Your interpretation makes sense, and if I was starting from scratch I'd go with it, and if it was known for sure to be correct I'd change my paint job. But since it's uncertain and the paint is done, I'll stick with what I have.

My primary reference was also that Aerophile article. I got the image I used from an image of a decal sheet shown on a web page. Cleaning it up around the edges was a major task, but worth the effort.

The Mystic Mistress nose art was a different kettle of fish. I found some very poor quality imagery that gave me the colors, but it wasn't good enough to put on the texture. So I took a scan of the black & white drawing in Aerophile and colored it in, sometimes pixel by pixel. What a tedious job! I did something similar with the Reluctant Robot art, matching it up with the color photo on the cover of Aerophile.

David's finishing up some work on the flight model and panels, then we'll be ready to go.
 
Mick said:
Thanks for digging into that! I really appreciate it. :ernae:
Your interpretation makes sense, and if I was starting from scratch I'd go with it, and if it was known for sure to be correct I'd change my paint job. But since it's uncertain and the paint is done, I'll stick with what I have.
Click to expand...

Don't blame you at all and it looks great the way it is.

The Mystic Mistress nose art was a different kettle of fish. I found some very poor quality imagery that gave me the colors, but it wasn't good enough to put on the texture. So I took a scan of the black & white drawing in Aerophile and colored it in, sometimes pixel by pixel. What a tedious job! I did something similar with the Reluctant Robot art, matching it up with the color photo on the cover of Aerophile.
Click to expand...

I did something like that for the model. I traced the image outline, which coincidentally was perfectly scaled for the model as is, and transferred it onto blank decal stock and hand painted the nose art using drafting pen and ink and brushed "hot" enamel paints.

David's finishing up some work on the flight model and panels, then we'll be ready to go.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to it.

Duckie
 
Yes, there will be an FSX version.

Paul's working with David on the conversion, which is apparently pretty simple.

But the FS9 version isn't finished, so there isn't a complete plane to convert yet.
 
Keep in mind all I've really signed on for is to be sure this project will work both in FS9 and FSX as a port over without transparency problems and "black holes" in the VC.
I received a "test version" from David today. I have flown it in both FSX and FS9 and it works very well in both. Mick, your texturing looks great as always and David has done a superb job modeling the plane. The VC is incomplete and my only suggestions to David will be about jet engine instrumentation.
This is going to be a keeper for both sims at my place. :salute: :salute:

Paul
 
Hi Paul,

Interesting that you mention the jet engine instrumentation.

The panel is made from photos, and one of the first things we noticed was the obvious lack of certain jet engine instruments in all the photos. The best explanation we could think of was that jets were so new in the P-59's day that some instruments we consider obligatory in jets today hadn't been invented yet.
 
WOW! Never thought of that! Could easily be true. The GE engine for the P-59 was based on the British Whittle engine which they probably didn't know what to measure for, either.

Paul
 
WarHorse47 said:
Hi Mick.
Any updates on The Airacomet? :wiggle:
Thanks

--WH
Click to expand...

It's coming along slowly but surely.

We got sidetracked for a while when David and Paul tried to make an FSX version. It seemed simple enough at first, but the more they fiddled with it the harder it got. Finally they realized that it would require making a whole new model from scratch, and the plan was abandoned, but not until we'd lost a couple weeks.

The FS9 model will work in pretty well FSX, but it has some bugs. For instance, if you look down in VC view you'll see that the cockpit floor is transparent. I guess that's only a problem if you spend time looking down at the cockpit floor while you're flying...

Anyway, we're back on track, but there are a few minor problems to work out. In the meantime, both David and I got sidetracked by real-world busy work, and I got further distracted painting George Diemer's Sikorsky S-43 and Jens Kristensen's C-124 Globemonster.

So that's the situation as it stands. I don't think it will be much longer before the Airacomet is finished, but I don't dare try to predict a date.
 
Thanks for the update Mick. I really enjoy the early jets, and as this is one of the earliest, it should be great fun to fly about.
 
P-59 Released

The P-59 has finally been finished and released. I just sent it up the pipe to FlightSim and the Outhouse. It should be available in the library now under New Files.

We tried to make it compatible with FSX as well as FS9, but despite great effort on David's part, with lots of help from Paul ("Putt-Putt") Clawson, that turned out to be a pipe dream. The more they did, the more they got stymied, and it finally became clear that a whole new native FSX model was required for full functionality.

Nonetheless, the Airacomet works in FSX, but it has an issue or two. The one we know of is a transparent VC cockpit floor. If you look down at the floor in VC view you see the ground below. How much of an issue that is depends, I guess, on how much time you spend in VC view looking down at the cockpit floor. There may be other issues that we didn't find...
 
Thank you guys.:applause:
What a fun bird it is to fly!Looks great and sounds great too!
Really great work!
 
for those who need help finding it...

FS2004 Bell P-59 Airacomet
[SIZE=-1] [ Download | View ] [/SIZE]
Name: p59.zip Size: 24,885,888 Date: 04-16-2010
[SIZE=-1]
p59.gif
fcq1.gif
fbq1.gif
FS2004 Bell P-59 Airacomet. The Bell P59 Airacomet was the first American jet. Though not a successful fighter, the P-59's career ran from 1943 until 1949, providing the U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy with experience at operating jets. This package features four models and a dozen authentic paints depicting the Airacomet's service history from the service test YP-59A to the operational P-59A and P-59B. Three fictional paints show liveries that Airacomets might have worn if they'd been more successful and saw more widespread service. Single-seat fighters with and without armament installed, a single-seat drone and a two-seat drone controller with an open cockpit in front of the pilot's windscreen for the drone pilot are included. This is an FS2004 model, but it's been tried and found to work, though not perfectly, in FSX. The P-59 works as an AI aircraft as well as a flyable plane. By David Wooster and Mick Morrissey.[/SIZE]
 
A bit of local history where I reside, the Airacomet was "operationally" deployed to Bakersfield Municipal Airport during 1944 with the 445th Flight Test Squadron. Bakersfield Ca. as well as Kern County has a rich unknown aviation history particularly with advanced projects. Nice to see this bird in the FS9 skies.
 
Patch

Two small glitches escaped us during the Airacomet's test phase. One is that the instrument background plane extended slightly beyond the edges of the fuselage of the reflective models. The other is that the unarmed 2D panel didn't match the VC. I've just uploaded a patch that fixes both issues. Apologies for this inconvenience.
 
Are you going to or are you willing to make the aircraft a conversion for CFS2? I love the early jets and it would be nice to jump a few Zekes in this bird...................BTW assume job!!!!!
 
Mick said:
The P-59 has finally been finished and released. I just sent it up the pipe to FlightSim and the Outhouse. It should be available in the library now under New Files.

We tried to make it compatible with FSX as well as FS9, but despite great effort on David's part, with lots of help from Paul ("Putt-Putt") Clawson, that turned out to be a pipe dream. The more they did, the more they got stymied, and it finally became clear that a whole new native FSX model was required for full functionality.

Nonetheless, the Airacomet works in FSX, but it has an issue or two. The one we know of is a transparent VC cockpit floor. If you look down at the floor in VC view you see the ground below. How much of an issue that is depends, I guess, on how much time you spend in VC view looking down at the cockpit floor. There may be other issues that we didn't find...
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the plane and your efforts to make it FSX compatible.
Despite this "see-through" problem in the virtual cockpit, I'm definitely giving it a try. That plane looks really cool to be honnest :ernae:
 
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