F-4EJ Update

Fixed the drag 'chute. It now has the proper color, texture and ambient shading. Added a few degrees of flap travel. BTW, FlightGear user Zexe Onyo found a link to a nice YouTube video featuring the F-4EJ Kai of the 302 Sqdn.: here.

AD-6 propeller update

New code is in JSBSim now (but not yet in FlightGear) that allows you switch a prop into and out of constant speed mode. I've also added two optional tables that can be used to define compressibility effects on a prop. The AD-6 Skyraider prop has been updated. The AeroMatic values have been changed to suit the actual gear ratio of 2.28 (engine/prop). This results in a low-rpm prop. Great for cruising.

Some propeller changes

I've been working on a new prop configurator for AeroMatic. This one builds a more complete set of tables, from a beta of -10 to +90 degrees for constant speed props. All you have to tweak manually is the min and max prop angles. I've tested it the F7F model, where I set the blade angle limits to the range 18-50. The new model is version 1.4.

Some things to look out for when using the new prop configs:

1) If you set the min blade angle too large, the engine starter won't be strong enough to start the engine. In this case you have to either decrease the min angle, or decrease the engine idle speed. Your idle thrust will be higher than before.

2) There are no Mach effects in the prop code, so your dive speed will be a bit higher than you'd expect. I'm working on this.

3) I saw somewhere that the blade angle range for the P-51 was 20-55, so that should give a ballpark range for high-speed applications.