OHM SR-71-R - 0.4.0

[OrbitHangar]

Author: blake

Add-on Description:

A fictional space plane based on the SR71 Blackbird featuring a detailed and functional virtual cockpit.

0.4.0 changes

- Fixed issues with AOA indicator.
- Added flight clock with elapsed time and stop watch functions.



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[BEEP]

Just the way I love it.

An amazing show of talent and dedication. A real "skunk" work!

Just took off , climbed to 7000 (m) and met two VOR´s enjoying this beauty as a platform for my usual ControllerMFD testing. By this time I was so impressed by the detailed preflight, the vessel handling, the 3D cockpit visual and operation that my thanks could not wait for the landing.

Thank You!


Now I can go back and complete the flight.

Beep

 

[-Pv-]

I think an SR-71 model which behaved like a real SR-71 in atmosphere would be more interesting and fun rather than converting a very interesting jet aircraft into a space ship.

This would give the "Purists" the chance to fly this amazing plane in a free simulator.

This is kinda like converting a 747 into a space ship.

-Pv-

 

[Star Voyager]

Alphasim/Virtavia has a pretty darn accurate version that I fly on FSX. It's hard to get airplanes right in Orbiter because it wasn't built specifically to do that kind of simulation, just primarily spaceflight.

That being said, I did try out this add-on and it is wonderful. The way it handles in the atmosphere is a tad sluggish (might be worked around through joystick settings) and the Blackbird could do 450 KEAS without overspeeding at any altitude, but this is a very solid and very fun add-on. I've taken her into orbit, but the real fun is hopping to different bases around the world (Maldives, Antarctica, etc.). Blake definitely did his homework and it shows. Thank you, Blake!

 

[speedademon]

cool

The cockpit interfaces are really cool.
Maybe most cool 3d cockpit I've ever seen.

 

[Lisias]

This is kinda like converting a 747 into a space ship.

To tell you the true, I was wondering what it would take to convert the 747 to being able to fly on Mars...

 

[Blake]

To tell you the true, I was wondering what it would take to convert the 747 to being able to fly on Mars...

Where else but Orbiter could you even entertain such thoughts!

 

[boogabooga]

To tell you the true, I was wondering what it would take to convert the 747 to being able to fly on Mars...

Try implementing it as a spacecraft3 vessel.

 

[Lisias]

Excellent work. Congrats.

In the spirit of driving improvement, allow me to give my impressions:

POSITIVE:
* The Cockpit is marvelous.
** The instruments mimics almost perfectly the SR-71 Era.
** The Sun glares into the instruments!
* The power management is nicely modeled and interesting.
* The atmospheric autopilots are useful

NEGATIVE
* The orbital autopilots works on ground. Worst, they actually moves the plane from the ground! - dropped.
* There's no way to refill the cryogenic tanks without quitting Orbiter Fixed!
* The horizontal and vertical wheels on the autopilot setting are too much gross!
** While trying to adjust AoA, I came from 1.87º to 57.30º and then to 114.60º. No way to set 0º...
* The Atmospheric Autopilots are using RCS thrusting.
* The engine thrusting vector is not aligned to the CoG (the nose "goes up" at full thrusting in air and in space) Fixed!

MISSING
* Air breaks Implemented!
* Navigation Lights, Beacons, Strobe Implemented!
* Refuelling while landed and docked Implemented!
* Polarized glasses on the cockpit, as it was one with Altea's XR1
** Darkening the cockpit glasses would improve the instruments visibility.
* Specialized Dialog Box on ScenarioEditor to control vessel's specifics.
** (and refill the cryogenic tanks). not needed anymore, cryo are refuelled while landed or docked.

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS
* UMmu - not that useful for single seat planes, but would allow a ejection scenario if damages would be implemented
* UCGO
* Manually refueling fuel and cryogenics while docked or landed. Implemented!
* When the AoA of the vessel is out of the range [-5...+20], the AoA Instrument goes to 0º. I think it should stick on upper or lower limit.
* The Altitude Autopilot is a little jumpy on high speeds/high altitudes.
** Or in Mars.

---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:47 AM ----------

I did a atmospheric flight from Cape Canaveral to Mataveri Int Airport.

I set the autopilot to maintain heading and speed (Mach 10), set the elevator's trim to +0.2 and this setup keep me flying at 135.000 feet of altitude (+/- 3K). Then I gone watch TV.

I could not use the Altitude Autopilot - it became too jumpy (perhaps on a faster computer?).

Of course, I overshoot badly the Airport (+800 Km!) and had to fly back at Mach 3.0. :lol:

6.900 kms on 1 hour and 41 minutes total (including the fly back due the overshoot), landed with 35% of fuel left but only 20% of RCS. The on air flight autopilots are using RCS thrusting while in atmospheric flight!

I'll try a fly from Mataveri to Carl Sagan Space while I'm cooking.

---------- Post added at 11:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 AM ----------

So, I did a flight from Mataveri to CSSC.

About 1 hour at Mach 15 (about 9.100 kms). This beast needs airbreaks, I cut off the engine 1500Km before destiny, but overshoot it by another 1.000 Km!

I took almost another hour to come back at Mach 1.5 (to save fuel). :lol:

It takes 30.000 lbs of fuel to reach cruise speed, and I spent less than 10.000 lbs on cruising! Cruising is cheap, it's the ascending that is expensive.

But since I overshoot the target, I had to spend about 35.000 lbs flying back... :facepalm:

Flying this vessel is a delight. Congrats! :tiphat:

The only serious annoyances are the RCS fuel being wasted by some Atmospheric Autopilots (Attitude, as it appears) and the lack of aerodynamic breaks.

 

[Blake]

Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate all the suggestions. I'm glad people are liking the cockpit, I did spend a good deal of time there.

Now that summer is over (off-season for Orbiter work) I will be getting back into this for round two.

My short list:
- Clean up aerodynamics including air brakes (I have already toyed with several ideas, this is on-going).
- Support for Orbiter v-next.
- Improve some visuals; interior textures, beacons, etc.
- Get the code in a releasable state.
- Better management of consumables (cryogenics etc.).

 

[Lisias]

- Clean up aerodynamics including air brakes (I have already toyed with several ideas, this is on-going).

I think you have some interesting opportunities here.

Speed breaking this vessel is a formidable task, she simply wants to keep flying no matter what.

One possible solution is to have breaks in both wings and rudders.

The rudders would turn outside just like F22 and MIG29 (in SR71, perhaps turning inside to take advantage of the rudder inclination), and the wing's ailerons would spawn like Delta Glider.

This would allow doubling the breaking without doubling the stress in the control surface - a welcoming feature since we do powered reentries and, so, have lots of kinetic energy to wave before landing.

-------

I did a free flight (air and space), and I think I realized one of the reasons that RCS is fastly depleted on flying: the thrusting is not aligned to the CoG.

I take off with full thrusts and without rotating, and she gone ballistic to a 90º AoA as soon as she is airborne (even by trimming the ailerons to -1.0) . Once in space, full thrusting induces a X axis positive rotation (the nose "goes up").

Some kind of gimbaling would be needed to correct the anomaly in different thrusting levels (this can be automatic - get the thrusting vector and the CoG and see the difference from the Z components). I don't expect to get more than 3 or 5º, so I don't think it will worth the hassle to animate the engine gimballing.

(I edited he original post)

 

[Lisias]

Hi.

This is to notify that I dropped one of the "negative" points from my list of suggestions.

It happens that almost every vessel suffers from that (that one I'm coding didn't because it's too heavy - but I just saw it doing that when landed a low gravity body!). So it's not a issue about your vessel, it's a issue about Orbiter itself, and it's not up to you to fix such thing.

I edited the original post again.

 

[White Owl]

Just started playing around with this plane, and I love the cockpit! Sensible, easy to read, easy on the eyes. Perfect.

People built planes with those round gauges not because they didn't know how to make a digital display, but because they're easier to read.

 

[Lisias]

Sizing

I'm building a mega Scenario with all the vessels I have (and the kitchen's sink), and I found SR-71r a bit small. She is smaller than a Grumman Gulfstream II (the NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft).

So I did what I did while building my vessels, I look for real life pictures and try to reproduce them with Scenario Editor.

What I found is that, well, you are right. The SR-71r metrics matches, it was my vessels that are wrong! :-D

Below, the pictures I used in this little research:

 

[Lisias]

By random lucky, I found this page about the SR-71C, aka "The Bastard". I'll not say anything further - go there and see for yourselves. :lol:

Isn't interesting how Orbiter can mimics "Real Life(tm)"? This is precisely the reason I love this Simulator!

 

[Blake]

By random lucky, I found this page about the SR-71C, aka "The Bastard". I'll not say anything further - go there and see for yourselves. :lol:

Isn't interesting how Orbiter can mimics "Real Life(tm)"? This is precisely the reason I love this Simulator!

From what I read, these planes had their own unique personality. I don't think this one was much loved.

Its current home, Hill Aerospace Museum, is a fun place to visit if you are ever in northern Utah.

 

[Lisias]

From what I read, these planes had their own unique personality. I don't think this one was much loved.

Yes. And the interesting thing is that many of the problems and characteristics that page describes matches the ones on this thread.

It's interesting to read tales from the pilots about how the aircraft behave, and then thinking "Yeah, I know what he means".

It's what separate a videogame from a Simulator: we must deal with the hash parts too!

 

[Abloheet]

Where can I get the version which supports Orbiter Beta? Can you make a build for the Latest orbiter beta?

 

[Blake]

Where can I get the version which supports Orbiter Beta? Can you make a build for the Latest orbiter beta?

Working on it, I hope to have something up sometime this weekend. Nose steering is not working, but that is a minor issue.

 

[Lisias]

I think this can be of interest:

SR-71 Blackbird: 20 things you need to know about the coolest warbird!!