• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

A long time ago, in the year 2012.

warchild

warchild

Charter Member
To make a long sad story short, Piglet asked me if i would do the flight model for the XB-35 he was starting.. Of course I said yes.. I got as far as the first beta release of the flight model, and Piglet disappeared. The XB-35 ground too a halt and I left flight simming.
It's been five years. I and others have attempted to contact Piglet, to no avail and the XB-35 has sat languishing all this time: until last night..

Last night, or perhaps the night before, Lazarus contacted me about finishing what Tim and I started. Of course I said yes, and sent him a link to the plane.
I dont know how we're going to do it.. Even if we're able to get the model into a workable state ( i.e. converted to Max ) theres a ton of stuff to do. Like I said, the flight model is only at beta level; a very early beta level, and theres no gauges as all the gauges tim gave me to use are gau gauges and crash p3D and possibly FSX as well.. I'll test that in a few minutes..
The XB-35 is a two deck plane. The pilot sits up top in the canopy, and the copilot, navigator engineer, mechanic and crew chief all sit one floor below the pilot in a room remeniscent of the CNC room of a battleship. every engine, every shaft and propeller has its own set of gauges. the navigator has a periscope to take sightings and the radioman has his own console as well.. SAnd then, theres finding the right place to put the doggy bag. Piglet is still and will always be very much a part of this project, even if he's absent from us at this time.. But bear with us. Theres a lot to do, but we'll get it there.. A promise I aim to keep..
Pam

UcaOR33.jpg
 
Pam I remember when the project started...I always hoped there would be an end game. Awesome!
Ted
 
Excellent. Thanks for this. I remember piglet starting work on it, lots of comments, then silence. This would make a wonderful addition to many hangars.

thanks
Bob
 
Those .gau files will probably work in FSX, but no way will they ever work in P3Dv4.x and beyond. They are all 32bit compiled C gauges, and cannot be converted to 64bit without the original source code.

If you can extract the bitmaps used, it would be easiest to simply recreate them in XML form.
 
Sadly, I'm not a programmer. I dont know xml from a hole in the ground. I've always been a one trick pony at best, and i only learned that after some folks here inspired me. If Lazarus doesnt know xml, then we'll just have to hope someone comes along with enough courage to tackle this beast. The Pilots panel looks easy. Theres only the gauges he needs there. Copilots panel is the same if i'm correct. Its the engineering station thats the monster here..
Flying this thing is a bit of a blast. It's not so much flying as it is participating in an agreement with the sky. The plane doesnt roll with the pilot central to the reference datum line of the plane. It's a tiny bit like turning a bobsled. Over all, its the most graceful bird i've ever laid my hands on.

Speed is an issue. I am somewhat constrained to the realities that governed this plane. It's absolute, maximum top speed, is 342 MPH @ 39000 ft. I'm seeing only 190 mph @ sea level with no wind. I "should" be seeing around 265 mph @ sea level, and perhaps a bit faster. I've checked my numbers and they are all dead on with Pratt and Whitney's specs and the NACA's findings ( since its essentially, just a wing ) and i'm having a hell of a time but i'll get it right.. :)

Pam.
 
I learned a a while back that real world numbers do not always convert to accurate performance in the sim, when building FDEs. Sometimes you just have to take liberties in order to get sim performance to jive with published numbers. Oh, the trials and tribulations of flight dynamics.
 
mal998 said:
I learned a a while back that real world numbers do not always convert to accurate performance in the sim, when building FDEs. Sometimes you just have to take liberties in order to get sim performance to jive with published numbers. Oh, the trials and tribulations of flight dynamics.
Click to expand...

+1 on that one

I have not done as many as some developers but the quest for accuracy can make you cry.
 
I'm wondering if you could take the approach Milton took with the B-26, making this a sort of "community project" with folks working on different parts at the same time, and maybe you and some help pulling all the parts together at the proper point.

You're quite right, this thing and its jet equivalents were pure grace and were the airplanes that always seemed to be the most "at one with the sky." I'd like very much to see the finished product.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top