Precious Metal v0.8

Added are: Rudder and elevator finished and animated, spinner size increased, number 38 added to both sides of vertical stabilizer.

To do: Gear animation, and finish adding painted items to fuselage and tail.

Any idea if the props are featherable in the real airplane? I think it's uncommon for the prop to be featherable in a single engine airplane, but this airplane has so much propeller that it glides like a brick at idle power.

Precious Metal nearing completion

Skipped ahead to version 0.7, with the addition of main gear, exhaust stacks, rear sides of props are painted black, and number "38" added to wing texture. Not much left to do: gear animation, tail surface animation, fuselage textures.

Precious Metal update, v0.5

Version o.5 is posted. This one has working flaps and ailerons; outer gear doors (not yet animated); new nose shape; new exhaust stacks started; wing fillet; clipped wing tips with winglet; engine tweak (rpm limit now 3200).

Precious Metal update

Version 0.4 is up, with a better instrument panel arrangement, including new RPM and MAP instruments. The engine and prop files have been tinkered with a lot, trying to get higher speeds. It's been an interesting process, and the main lesson learned is that you have to slow the props down to keep the helical tip Mach from eating up all your power. I've slowed them to 1500 rpm, and I'm still getting a helical tip Mach of .913. I'll try slowing the props down a bit more. Here's a screenshot showing relevant parameters during a high speed run.

Word: don't pull more than about 30 inches of MAP for takeoff or you'll overspeed the gear for sure.

Precious Metal update

I've switched the textures in Precious Metal over to DDS format, just as a test. The textures aren't big enough to give me any feedback on performance, however the size difference is interesting. I've heard there might be problems rendering these on a Mac, so I've kept the old textures around in case I need to revert.

The torque problem has been fixed using an idea from Ron Jensen in which a torque opposite to the engine torque (moments/l-prop-lbsft) is added to the FDM's roll section.

S-3B update

Version 0.6 is up, with windshield wipers working on pilot's side ("d" key), refueling probe ("f" key), hook geometry improvements, wing texture, wing folding geometry.

S-3B update

Updates include: flaps and slats, and the bottom edges of the fuselage are more rounded.

Precious Metal flyable

Precious Metal is now flyable, with most of the instrument panel in place. The great amount of torque is annoying, but I hope to get that fixed within a week. Still lots of work to do, but the model is already very sharp looking.

Precious Metal

I saw a photo of this unlimited class air racer and just had to make one. It's a highly modified Mustang with contra-rotating props. Work is in the very early stages, so no pre-release yet.

EDIT: More work done, so the 0.1 version is in the hangar, projects section. Note that there shouldn't be any torque (or very little anyway), so that needs to be fixed.

S-3B update

The Viking progress continues. The airplane is flyable and passed the sea trials. Still quite a bit to do. I'm calling it an S-3B, but it might turn out to be an S-3A. Markings are for VS-32, and will be the older two-tone, high-visibility scheme.

The engine spool-up time is very long, so you have to plan ahead in the landing pattern. Final approach to carrier at about 110 knots looks good for a gross weight of 30,000 pounds.