Ivans Latest and greatest

[No Dice]

Now ready for download at the FFS

Ivans' Two Latest Creations
The Master has done it again!

Curtiss P40F 87D Kittyhawk MK.II
includes a great panel
A beautiful representation
A Fantastic Flight Model
Authentic Air and DP files

Ready for you all:
http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Ivans.htm

Dave

 

[Ivan]

Curtiss P40F 87D Kittyhawk MK.II
includes a great panel
A beautiful representation
A Fantastic Flight Model
Authentic Air and DP files

Hello No Dice,

Thanks for the enthusiastic description.

Here is a little explanation for the naming of this aeroplane:

United States called them all P-40.
P for Pursuit.
The specific model number is P-40F
This aeroplane came into service before Block Numbers were in use, otherwise it might have been known at a later date as a
P-40F-1-CU
F being the subtype,
-1 being the production Block Number
-CU indicating Curtiss construction as opposed to license built by another manufacturer.

Curtiss generally named its aircraft Hawk-something.
One of their biplane fighters used in China was the Curtiss Hawk III
The Hawk 75 became the P-36 in US Army service.
Early P-40s were the Hawk 81.Beginning with the P-40D they were called Hawk 87 and that remained true to the end of production in 1944.

The Hawk 87 was produce in many series starting with the Hawk 87A and ending with the Hawk 87W

Up through the P-40C, there was no official name for the US Army other than P-40.
Beginning with the P-40D or P-40E, the name "Warhawk" was used by the US Military.

The British didn't follow the American naming convention.
P-40s up to the C model equivalent were called the "Tomahawk".
Beginning with the P-40D, the British gave it the name "Kittyhawk".

As with other aircraft in British service, the subtype was indicated by a Mark number thus
the P-40D was equivalent to the Kittyhawk Mk.I
The P-40E was equivalent to the Kittyhawk Mk.IA
The P-40F was equivalent to the Kittyhawk Mk.II

I say equivalent because the different services called for slightly different equipment installations.
The two services also used different serial numbers, and only when an aircraft was transferred from one national service to the other would a single aircraft carry both kinds of serial numbers.
The only real unique "serial" number that was common to both would be the Curtiss Construction number which remained sequential between all customers....

So.... After all that long winded explanation, the proper title for this aeroplane should be either
Curtiss Hawk 87D
Curtiss P-40F Warhawk
Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk.II
....
I mix it up a bit and call it
Curtiss P-40C Hawk 87D Warhawk or Kittyhawk Mk.II

Hope that makes sense.
- Ivan.

 

[papingo]

re new plane

It most certainly looks the part
>>>papingo

 

[Ivan]

Thanks Papingo.

I hope you are feeling well.

I hope you have had a chance to download a copy.
I don't believe I have ever seen a Merlin Warhawk for Combat Flight Simulator that wasn't just a regular Allison Warhawk with the Carburetor Scoop removed.

Gotta go start working on jigs and fixtures for a Long Tail Warhawk now....

- Ivan.

 

[aleatorylamp]

Congratulations on the download numbers too!
Aleatorylamp

 

[Ivan]

Gotta go start working on jigs and fixtures for a Long Tail Warhawk now....

- Ivan.

Hello All,
A couple Long Tail Warhawk have been finished but I had not gone back to the Merlin version until it became the subject of discussion recently.

A little bit of History:
The British were looking for an American contractor to license build the Merlin engine.
Ford agreed to build them for the United States, but refused to build them for British contracts.
Packard agreed to build them as the V-1650. 1/3 would go to the United States. 2/3 would be delivered for the construction of aircraft in Canada and Britain.
The P-40F was basically a P-40E modified for use with the V-1650-1 also called the Merlin 28 which was based on the Rolls Royce Merlin XX. The first aircraft were delivered starting in January 1942. About 600-700 aircraft were produced. The exact number is unclear because some were taken from production and fitted with Allison engines and completed as the P-40R-1 and used for training.

In August 1942, with the P-40F-5, length of the tail was increased to address stability and directional control issues. The long tail was used on all subsequent P-40F models until production was completed in January 1943.

Grafting the Long Tail from one of the other P-40 turned out much easier then expected.
The edits to the visual model only took about 5 minutes.
Editing textures and all the other supporting files will take quite a bit longer.
I will also be taking this as an opportunity to update the flight model with a few "improvements" and data from various discussions.

Here is what I have thus far, Note that even the new serial number has not been stenciled on the tail yet.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

Hello All,
The Animations and SCASM updates were completed last night.
Animation was fast because the sequences from Short Tail P-40F worked without any changes.
Virtual Cockpit pieces were added - Lifted straight from the Original Short Tail P-40F.
It turned out that even Most of the Labels had not changed with the modification of the tail pieces, so things were much easier than expected.

The only issue was that even with a familiar subject, the Technicians were a bit out of practice.

The SCASM updates meant that the model could use BMP textures instead of the rather annoying R8 textures from Aircraft Factory 99. As can be seen from the screenshots, the longer tail section will need some modifications to the older textures for everything to line up properly.

(The screenshots in the prior post were a cheat since they had lifted the tail textures from a P-40N.)

After that comes the updates to the flight model.

A bit of Background Information:
The V-1650-1 engine was derived from the RR Merlin XX. As a British aero engine, it would have used British manifold pressure settings.
The adjustment to British standards of measure is basically correcting for rounding errors in conversions which should be so small as to go unnoticed on a dial gauge.

Its "Military Rating" was +9 Pounds @ 11,800 feet in Low Blower and +9 Pounds at 18,500 feet in High Blower.
Blower shift on the original engines was at 13,000 feet.
Its Take Off or "Emergency" Rating was +14 Pounds but could only be sustained in Low Blower up to 6,000 feet.

This created a bit of a dead spot at middle altitudes where there wasn't enough capacity in Low Blower to sustain manifold pressures but it was too low and altitude to run High Blower. This is pretty typical of multiple speed superchargers.
Eventually this situation was addressed with improved fuels and resetting the blower shirt down to 8,000 feet but that was not officially approved until production of the Merlin Warhawk was completed.

In CFS, one of the things we can't simulate is multi speed superchargers. In the case of the Merlin Warhawk, we simply don't have a dead spot at middle altitudes. What we have is the equivalent of a bigger single speed supercharger.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

Correcting the paint for the extended tail turned out to be much more tedious than expected.
The texture for the lower tail was as expected.
The location of the texture of the Fin did not change because the Long Tail MDL takes the new location into account in texture mapping.
The texture ITSELF needed to change slightly to match the new separation lines though.
The texture for the Left Stabilizer was also affected in the same manner.

Tactical number has changed and the serial number is also slightly changed.
The serial number is actually a bit too high for any version of the P-40F which is why it was only changed slightly to be different.

In describing the power settings for the V-1650-1, I got a little ahead of myself.
Initially, besides the Military rating of +9 PSI, there was only the +12 (not +14) PSI Take-Off Rating and there was no War Emergency rating.
The short tail P-40F since its release has been capable of running essentially unlimited Take-Off power up to about 12,000 feet without any restrictions for time. Although I know this to be incorrect for an early P-40F, I believe it is the best match possible using CFS.

Tentatively, this updated flight model will be adding a +14 PSI Emergency rating besides correcting a few other issues now that I have better information.

- Ivan.