WIP: F-14 B/D
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Aircraft Automatically kneel when aligned with the catapult now. Blast doors come up automatically too. Cntrl+K o believe is the arresting hook toggle command. You get launched after a few seconds of full throttle. Shift+K releases you from the catapult, allowing you to move about the deck again. Handy if you get stuck on Cat 3 or 4 after landing.
Love it
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What he meant was kneeling can be implemented without faking it by tying it to some other functionality. At least how I read it…
Oh right…that makes sense. That’s what I get for reading and replying while I’m still half asleep
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As a Slight Follow-up to my last post. I decided to take the current F-14 for a test spin in a TE. I did a Carrier take-off and it seems the people at BMS put a little work into her. The F-14 Starts on the deck with Wings Swept back,though not in over sweep. When you hook-up to the catapult as mentioned before,not only do you kneel,but the wings automatically Sweep forward to take-off position, flaps come out as well. She goes off the deck just fine, but I notice an RDC SPEED warning on the HUD above 250ish knots. I believe it has something to do with the model and the handling of the Flaps, as after some looking around, Using the key command to fully retract flaps fixes the issue. Though again, it seems flap control is automatic with Speed? Maybe it has something to do with the game considering the wing sweep as Flaps? I just don’t know.
Overall, fun thing to mess around with, though that placeholder Cockpit is real prohibitive of doing anything meaningful without memorizing every single key command.
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Hey,
Yes, a lot of coding has been done for Swing wing and wingfold. Not only on carriers but also on the ground.
For carrier ops, the whole cat shot including lowering the nose of the AC has been modeled. Who said BMS is a F-16 only sim???The RDC speed is a warning that your flaps are still not up. This because the wings can not sweep back with flaps down.
The flaps on the F-14 are manual, so the pilot need to select them to up.
You only get a warning in the hud as it is not modeled that the wings will not sweep if the flaps are down.
Flying faster and faster with the flaps down will sweep the wings back and will look funny.Gr Falcas
As a Slight Follow-up to my last post. I decided to take the current F-14 for a test spin in a TE. I did a Carrier take-off and it seems the people at BMS put a little work into her. The F-14 Starts on the deck with Wings Swept back,though not in over sweep. When you hook-up to the catapult as mentioned before,not only do you kneel,but the wings automatically Sweep forward to take-off position, flaps come out as well. She goes off the deck just fine, but I notice an RDC SPEED warning on the HUD above 250ish knots. I believe it has something to do with the model and the handling of the Flaps, as after some looking around, Using the key command to fully retract flaps fixes the issue. Though again, it seems flap control is automatic with Speed? Maybe it has something to do with the game considering the wing sweep as Flaps? I just don’t know.
Overall, fun thing to mess around with, though that placeholder Cockpit is real prohibitive of doing anything meaningful without memorizing every single key command.
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You only get a warning in the hud as it is not modeled that the wings will not sweep if the flaps are down.
Flying faster and faster with the flaps down will sweep the wings back and will look funny.Ahhh that’s where the disconnect in what I know about the Tomcat and what the game is telling me happened. The Flaps and LEF indicators were both reading zero when the RDC speed warning came up. I knew the Tomcat had manual flap control, I just thought it wasn’t implemented, due to the Flap and LEF indicators in the top left reading zero.
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Hey,
The RDC speed is a warning that your flaps are still not up. This because the wings can not sweep back with flaps down.
The flaps on the F-14 are manual, so the pilot need to select them to up.
You only get a warning in the hud as it is not modeled that the wings will not sweep if the flaps are down.
Flying faster and faster with the flaps down will sweep the wings back and will look funny.Gr Falcas
That’s right. As a slight extension I might add that part of the issue is the lack of implementation in terms of the flaps. The flap is not one single part as can be seen here:
Quote from NASA:
“Leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps are used to improve maneuverability at high subsonic speeds as well as to increase wing maximum lift coefficient at low speeds. The auxiliary flap shown in figure 11.32 is used only at low speeds to increase maximum lift. In normal operation, the maneuvering flaps, wing-sweep angle, and vane position are automatically controlled by a computer in accordance with a stored program that utilizes inputs from several measured flight parameters such as angle of attack, static and total pressures, and temperature.”
Without going into too much detail the main points are there is an automatic flap and slat retraction from takeoff and landing positions for airspeed greater than 225kts.
That being said the auxiliary flap only works when the wing is fully extended but manouver flaps (the main flap on the outside of the wings) and slats are deployed automatically by CADC/DFCS as a function of Mach number and AOA up until around Mach .85. Meaning even when the wing is not fully extended these control surfaces work and are deployed automatically by the system.
Specifically, if wing is aft of 50deg sweep the slat and flap (main and aux) are locked and remain fully retracted. The aux flap is locked and fully retraced aft of 22deg sweep. Between 21deg and 50deg the slats and main flap are deployed by system. In this regime the slat deploys up to 7deg and the main flap up to 10deg.
On early F-14s the glove vane is incorporated into this logic but for the purpose of this discussion can be ignored as the vanes were dropped later on. Apparently the only people ever figuring out how to effectively use the glove vanes are the IRIAF pilots and tweakers.
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MLG
Modeling the main landing gear for now, had to start somewheres. You’re seeing the folding main strut support assembly, the main fuselage strut support bar and the actuator link on top. Also the scissor connection that supports lower part of the shock absorber where the wheel is attached. Basically the shock absorber fully decompresses, the upper link lifts the entire MLG up and forward, the strut support structure folds in half, the fuselage strut support bar retracts to the main strut and the lower MLG rotates inward.
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:bowd:
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Very nice work, can’t wait!!
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and only 14k triangles? wow you drawn every line and vertex manually?
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That’s right. As a slight extension I might add that part of the issue is the lack of implementation in terms of the flaps. The flap is not one single part as can be seen here:
https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8632/28319477060_5eaf1aa5be_z.jpg
Quote from NASA:
“Leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps are used to improve maneuverability at high subsonic speeds as well as to increase wing maximum lift coefficient at low speeds. The auxiliary flap shown in figure 11.32 is used only at low speeds to increase maximum lift. In normal operation, the maneuvering flaps, wing-sweep angle, and vane position are automatically controlled by a computer in accordance with a stored program that utilizes inputs from several measured flight parameters such as angle of attack, static and total pressures, and temperature.”
Without going into too much detail the main points are there is an automatic flap and slat retraction from takeoff and landing positions for airspeed greater than 225kts.
That being said the auxiliary flap only works when the wing is fully extended but manouver flaps (the main flap on the outside of the wings) and slats are deployed automatically by CADC/DFCS as a function of Mach number and AOA up until around Mach .85. Meaning even when the wing is not fully extended these control surfaces work and are deployed automatically by the system.
Specifically, if wing is aft of 50deg sweep the slat and flap (main and aux) are locked and remain fully retracted. The aux flap is locked and fully retraced aft of 22deg sweep. Between 21deg and 50deg the slats and main flap are deployed by system. In this regime the slat deploys up to 7deg and the main flap up to 10deg.
https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8366/28319719190_6a8709e079_z.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8707/28497384392_df792ed076_z.jpg
On early F-14s the glove vane is incorporated into this logic but for the purpose of this discussion can be ignored as the vanes were dropped later on. Apparently the only people ever figuring out how to effectively use the glove vanes are the IRIAF pilots and tweakers.
FYI plenty of F-14A US squadrons used the glove vanes auto and manually up through the mid 80s. I think its an early Snort airshow vid on youtube that shows them being deployed (manually) during the max performance turn. They’re seen and used in the Final Countdown movie and Top Gun. Though they didn’t offer any real design benefit except at higher mach, they did reduce pressure on the tailplanes, possibly increasing pitch response when used manually. My guess is 90% of the time you witness them, its for show only.
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FYI plenty of F-14A US squadrons used the glove vanes auto and manually up through the mid 80s. I think its an early Snort airshow vid on youtube that shows them being deployed (manually) during the max performance turn. They’re seen and used in the Final Countdown movie and Top Gun. Though they didn’t offer any real design benefit except at higher mach, they did reduce pressure on the tailplanes, possibly increasing pitch response when used manually. My guess is 90% of the time you witness them, its for show only.
Thanks Turkey. I still have our discussion regarding the vanes (you, mike metcalf and me) spreading over two pages in the other thread somewhere :). I still plan to compile all of the info into some sort of .pdf ‘collected info on the cat’ kinda document. Probably be done in 3-4 weeks
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and only 14k triangles? wow you drawn every line and vertex manually?
Not sure what you mean. I usually draw one piece by hand and from there on out Blender has a beautiful set of key shortcuts to duplicate, flip, rotate, move, resize, etc objects so it’s mostly trying to model sth completely manually only once. For instance the hinge attachments you see on all struts and bars on the front and main landing gear is actually a piece taken from the spoiler hinges on the wings - it’s all the same only resized, skewed, tilted and so on. Not sure if that addresses your question. Of course something like the main strut link has to be modelled and took a good 2-3 hours because the part is mostly unique in shape and form.
The tris count of the landing gear excluding wheels is actually only around 4k. I have to figure out a way to reduce count on the wheels and rims. They’re currently modelled at max detail meaning even without smooth shading they look nearly perfect. That’s something with lots of room for optimization.
In case you made a joke and find 14k for the gear a lot I’d have to agree. If I left it at this LOD I’d end up with 25k for the landing gear leaving 5k for the rest :). That would bring the bird ‘all-in’ to 60k at least.
Things left to model excluding the landing gear:
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airbrake inside and bottom part
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arresting hook and assembly
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beaver tail antennas
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hydraulic actuators for the wings
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AIM-54
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refueling probe
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cockpit
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chinpod
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some inside detail on the wing body and the landing gear compartments (simplistic stuff like adding some structural detail no hydraulic lines or anything like that)
Then I dare to say it’s ready for MAX.
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Great job as always!
That model is a beauty to watch!
Pepe
Thanks mate. Good to know you’re still around!
One of the original Tomcat Tweakers of BMS everybody :)…
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Awesome badge… want
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Thanks mate. Good to know you’re still around!
https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/670/22491357933_75742befa6_n.jpg
One of the original Tomcat Tweakers of BMS everybody :)…
We need this cockpit… Damn the Tomcat is the most legendary jet fighter !
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We need this cockpit… Damn the Tomcat is the most legendary jet fighter !
And with the howling sounds…
Still have those files on hand
PS: Having seen that old model in the video I suddenly realize how far this new one has already come. And here I am worrying about modeling hinges of landing gear shock absorbers…:D
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And with the howling sounds…
Symphony of victory !
It was you who made the Tomcat for FF 5.5.5 ?
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Symphony of victory !
It was you who made the Tomcat for FF 5.5.5 ?
No I only ever produced skins and they used one of my screenshots for the FF installer :D. I only seem to remember that ‘ZAGGY’ had something to do with the original model which is still the one used today in BMS. The original PSDs for that model which I and many others (also HRenner for the current BMS skins) used were created by one ‘Onesimus’ who since then has made quite the career:
http://www.onesimusnuernberger.com/
Thanks to Onesimus that old dog of a model is still going strong in 2016 (skin from 2014):
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