reg; Concept aircraft
>Is there anybody here in the market of constructing the plane and cockpit from >the given files and exporting to a working mdl file.
Sure: I’ve seen a few concept aircraft on various sites, and I am working on one now (having trouble getting the Virtual Cockpit to display correctly in FS but that is a different issue). I’m also going to have to develop custom instruments eventually.
Start with three view drawings just as if you were making a Balsa Wood aircraft back in the old days. Back then we used to say “if it looks right, it will fly right” Once built it was a matter of adjusting weights (the C of G) until it balanced at about the ¼ to 1/3 point back of the leading edge of the wing, depending on the airfoil shape. The main gear had to be placed just back of the C of G in the case of a nose gear aircraft, visa-versa for a tail dragger.
So doing this in the 3D world, you would design your drawings; load them into Gmax; model your aircraft; scale off your drawings or scale from a screen capture of the 3D model, and load the specifications of the aircrafts physical size into a program like FSEdit or AirWrench; load the aircraft in FS; and “Push the balls to the wall” (aviation speak for “peddle to the metal”). From there you start to adjust the dynamics until the aircraft handles the way you envision.
>Also, in terms of flight dynamics, what kind of time-frame is needed to assure the plane is even flyable?
As I said above, if it looks flyable, it will fly. Interpreting what exactly each data field in FSEdit is asking for is a different matter and you will need to go over the SDK in detail (if you are like me, then more than once). In my case, the first few times I tried to load the aircraft it just fell over and crashed, yet if I loaded some other aircraft first, then switched them in flight, my design would fly (read – wheels in the wrong place). Stuff like this is easy to fix because you could just change the numbers. No hardware to rebuild in the 3D world. If your final CFG specs are different enough from your initial design to bug you (as in my case), you can adjust your 3D model in Gmax. (and that’s why they build prototypes).
So I always gab a chance to show off my aircraft. Have a look at
www.dickert.ca/swift Give it a test flight. It’s a hot little number. Warning: Don’t move the stick too much, just think roll. 360 degrees per second.
