Putting things into perspective

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
Given the fact that I have never seen in real life most of the planes I fly in the various incarnations of FS2004, it is hard to really get a sense of size for the planes. I "know" that the Piper J-3 Cub is a small plane...but "knowing" and FEELING it are two different things...know what I mean.

I was flying Brian Gladden's amphibious Volpar 18 (a Beech D-18 converted to tricycle and amphib gear, longer pointier nose...other changes as well) and happened across a Piper Cub parked at an airport. I rolled my Volpar along side the Cub and was amazed at the size difference between the planes. The Volpar is not a huge plane by any means, largish for a GA aircraft I would imagine, but small compared to the B-24 (the only plane at the US Air Force Museum that I can vividly recall how small it made me feel standing beside it).

OBIO
 
It's exactely the same for me.
For example, I was really surprised by the size of the Turbo Beaver compared to other "normal" float planes, like the C-208 for example.
 
The Cub really is a small plane. :icon_lol: Somebody who is not familiar with how a plane flies would wonder how it could lift a grown man off the ground with a prop not much bigger than a ceiling fan. On the other hand, that same person might look at an A-1 Skyraider ("the Spad") with its R-3350 engine and massive four-blade prop and would have no problem with the idea of that plane carrying several thousand pounds of bombs. My favorite plane for truly awesome size is the Convair B-36, ever since I first saw Jimmy Stewart in Strategic Air Command. If you ever visit an air museum that has a surviving B-36 you'll be impressed - even if you like B-52's. :rolleyes:
 
Tarps,...you're so right about the largeness of the B-36. When I visited the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton a few years ago,...I was completely awe struck by it's size. The fuselage seemed to extend back and back forever. Same for the wings. An early version of a tire that were first used was on display. Looked like it was used on one of those massive mining removal vehicles out West. Truly truly staggering.
I can only imagine the sound of a formation of B-36's blanking out the sky as they flew overhead. Wonderous!
 
These were taken at the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinville, home of the famous Spruce Goose. The first shows three of the four engines on the Goose's port wing. At the bottom left of that pic you can see the trailing edge of the wing of a DC3 that's parked (along with several other planes) beneath the wing of the Goose. The second shot shows more of the planes under the wing. The third shot shows an SR7 Blackbird, not a small plane by any means, next to the Goose.

It's a wonderful museum, by the way. :medals:
 
Hi,

Hugly Goose and Stearman FS2004

dxxmbb.jpg
 
It would have been great if the eccentric Mr. Hughes had decided to take the Goose on a real flight instead of just the high-speed taxi run that briefly lifted it off the water. Imagine that giant landing in Honolulu or Manila with a load of celebrity passengers. :)
 
as I recall reading,
the flight engineer on "the high-speed taxi run"
was in the back of the aircraft screaming
that the tail was going to fall off.
the reinforcement patches are still visible.

Sidney,
is the B-25 still sitting under the tail section?
the Blackbird wasn't there when I visited.

the Evergreen Air Museum is a must see.
 
As I have been told it was not so much that the tail would have fallen off but that the control linkages were binding up in the wings as they flexed up lifting the airplane out of the water....and fixing that would have been a much harder job than getting the tail structurally sound.

The H4 was certainly not at MTOW when she made her 13 second first and only flight.
However she was an amazing airplane and many of the "firsts" invented by Hughes and his team are now common place in airplanes...such as hydraulically boosted controls and so on.

As for the sizes in FS .... unfortunately sometimes you may be mislead as well when the scaling is not done correctly. There are a few pay and freeware airplanes out there that are either too large or too small for the simulated world.

As for the original J3 cub vs BE18 comparison.....yes the little Cubbie is tiny compared to a TwinBeech....set that Beech on massive EDO floats and she towers over the Cub.

A few month back my real Saratoga...not exactly a small airplane for a single happened to be parked next to Harrison Fords DeHavilland Beaver on EDO Floats......and her tail beacon was barely on the level of the Beavers spinner.............quite impressive I must say.
 
TARPSBird said:
It would have been great if the eccentric Mr. Hughes had decided to take the Goose on a real flight instead of just the high-speed taxi run that briefly lifted it off the water.
Click to expand...
While I was looking at the Goose I kept thinking to myself "WHY DON'T THEY FLY IT????" One of the museum guides told me that the magnetos had disappeared sometime while the plane was in storage. Seems to me they could just have made replacements if they'd wanted to. Of course now it has a big hole cut in the side to allow visitors to check out the interior, so it's no longer in flyable condition.
 
The Twin Beech isn't a small aircraft by any sense of the word. Roughly 2/3 the size of a DC-3.
 
smilo said:
Sidney,
is the B-25 still sitting under the tail section?
the Blackbird wasn't there when I visited.

the Evergreen Air Museum is a must see.
Click to expand...
I think the B-25 is still there. That visit was quite a while ago and I can barely remember what happened yesterday. :mixedsmi:

The thing about the Blackbird that made the biggest impression on my was how tiny the cockpits are. Imagine a phone booth that's just tall enough for someone to sit in. Now shoot it out of a cannon. :isadizzy:
 
Willy said:
The Twin Beech isn't a small aircraft by any sense of the word. Roughly 2/3 the size of a DC-3.
Click to expand...

I found this to be true when I came across an AI DC3 parked while checking out some scenery. I had Brian Gladden's Volpar going and taxied up beside the DC3....and was shocked at how large the Volpar was compared to the DC3.

OBIO
 
Obio, I noticed it at the 8th Air Force Museum on Barksdale AFB. They've got a C-47 and a C-45 (Beech 18) parked next to each other. The Beech 18 is a good sized aircraft.
 
I've sometimes wondered about relative sizes of aircraft in FS9. I once loaded scenery of an Italian military airfield and flew a Hughes 500 in for a look. Well the static Hughes 500 that were sitting on the tarmac were vastly different in scale. Ever since then I look at scale with a suspicious eye.
What is it that guides a modeler to make things the correct scale? Does FS9 just make it right or does the modeler have to carefully create a scale based on something already in existence that he believes is accurate?
 
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