FlightGear Newsletter August 2010: Difference between revisions

FlightGear Newsletter August 2010 (view source)

Revision as of 00:50, 14 August 2010

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→‎In the hangar

Stuart

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 == FlightGear addons and mods ==
 == In the hangar ==
+Two aircraft that have been around in FG for many years get updates this month - the North American P-51D Mustang and the Douglas A-4F Skyhawk. There are a huge number of aircraft in the FG hangar (over 300), and while new aircraft are always welcome, there are many existing aircraft that would benefit from some spit-and-polish. Creating a completely new aircraft to a high standard represents a monumental amount of work. Those wanting to contribute, but without the time available to create a truly world-class aircraft from scratch might want to consider improving a favourite aircraft from the hangar instead. The effects are more immediate, and you can improve it one piece at a time.
+===North American P-51D Mustang===
+Hal V. Engel has made some massive improvements to the P51-D. Using NACA (the pre-cursor to NASA) published data, he's produced a very impressive JSBSim FDM. He's also made a number of improvements to the 3D cockpit and the engine systems. Those who enjoy their WWII warbirds will be very interested indeed. Your correspondent has still to manage a take-off from the runway without at least one bounce, but can report that the landing characteristics, while not benign, are at least manageable. This is an aircraft that will really repay some effort on the part of the pilot to get to know, and almost certainly represents the most accurate warbird FDM we have available.
+===Douglas A-4F Skyhawk===
+On a smaller scale to Hal's improvements to the Mustang, Stuart Buchanan has been making a number of changes to the venerable A4-F Skyhawk, or "Scooter". Rather than change the existing A-4F Blue Angels model, Stuart has instead modelled a normal Navy A-4F with dual drop-tanks. As well as some minor FDM tweaking, improvements include a completely new exterior and 3D cockpit, and some more accurate flight control systems including auto-deploying spoilers. The A-4F is an interesting carrier-based light attack aircraft, designed on the principle of simplicity and lightness by Edward Heinmann. In particular, by making the wings short, they didn't need to be folded for storage on carriers, which meant they didn't need complex wing folds, and hence were lighter and stronger.
 == Liveries ==
 == Scenery corner ==