P-47D With Chrome Shader

The chrome shader is going to look nice on this airplane. BTW, version 0.7 of the P-47D pre-release is posted (with the Bud Mahurin paint job almost done).

Aztec Eagles

Work on the P-47D continues. I would have posted the current project at the hangar in the "projects" section, but my ISP has once again crapped out. Maybe tomorrow they'll feed the squirrels. Here's a screenshot of another paint scheme I'm considering, the Mexican Air Force's 201st Squadron "Aztec Eagles", which was attached to the USAAF 5th Air Force, 58th Fighter Group, in 1944/45. It might look better with a chrome shader.

Refueling

Thanks to Jean, a.k.a. "jano", there is now a nasal script included in DavePack that allows JSBSim models to properly refuel. All the F-4 models have been updated to use this. I also moved the upper mirror in each F-4, flipping it to a stowed position, to give a better forward view. In order to refuel the following conditions must be met:

1) The refueling system must be activated, and the probe (or door) must be in the extended (or open) position.

2) You must be refueling from a tanker which has a matching type of connection; either "probe" or "boom" type.

3) You must be in "the box" behind the tanker.

When conditions are met you will start taking on fuel, and a small green light will illuminate on the fuel gauge. Fuel will go in to all tanks at an equal rate. If the fuel gauge only shows tank[0] quantity, then the tank[0] quantity will increase slowly until the other tanks are full.

The download rate is 6000 lb/min, which is hard-coded in JSBSim.

AI Models

I'm adding a section to the hangar for AI models. These are low poly-count models with no cockpit, no landing gear and minimal texture. These models are intended to be airborne, hence the removal of landing gear. My goal is to have AI models of support aircraft, such as tanker, cargo and surveillance types, which can be added to your simulation as objects of type AIAircraft.

The first AI model posted is an E-3 AWACS. Poly-count for this model is 1090, and the texture size is only 3 KB! It does have one animation - a rotating radome, spinning at 6 RPM. Getting this animation to work took a severe hack, since I couldn't figure out how to get the spin animation to accept a "value". It seems a "property" is required, so I found a property at "sim/session" that has (or usually will have?) a value of 1, which I could then multiply by 6.0. Ugly, but it works.

Lost airplane

Does anyone have a copy of my MC-205 model? I've lost the latest version of it (and several other airplanes). I have an older version, so I can restart the project at some time, but it would help a lot to have the latest version. Thanks!

P-47D

Working on an AlphaSim P-47D also. This one is going to be textured as Bud Mahurin's airplane, "Spirit of Atlantic City, NJ".

AI KC-10

I've just converted a very old, and very low-poly, MSFS2K KC-10 for use as an AI tanker, and I'll be posting it to the hangar soon. While testing it I tried for the umpteenth time to get refueling to work with my airplane models, and failed again. Is there anyone handy with nasal here who would like to get that working?

Rocket for scenery

"Alpha-J" has started a new hangar , and in it he's posted a Mercury Redstone rocket that can be installed as part of the Cape Canaveral scenery. When you click on the rocket it shoots into space. This is a scenery object, not an AI object per se , so it doesn't use the AIBallistic FDM. It uses a home brew FDM scripted in nasal.

Typhoon progress

Borrowing heavily from the AD-4 model, I've got the Tiffy flying. More model work and animations to go. Oh, and maybe a different engine and prop :)