X-Plane.Org Forum: Dark Edges - Stealth VTOL - X-Plane.Org Forum

The Dark Edges could be a shadowy prototype or an unidentified thing that watches Groom Lake restricted skies or a JSF Contest runner-up (or the winner JSF from an alternate reality as well!). Its name, somewhat cheesy for an stealth aircraft, refers in fact to its very shape, full of sharp angles made on purpose to improve the Dark Edges LO role. It's powered by a custom version of the strongest engine out there, the F136.

If you like custom and VTOL planes you may enjoy this one, but expect it to be tricky to control (it needs a lot of work on the lift fan and maybe the CG, so if you want to fine tune it and you know what you are doing then go ahead).

Some other notes: conventional take off is hard; flaps don't work quite well; although that's what it's meant for it won't get supersonic (the reason of this issue could be both a design fail or the drag generated by the large amount of misc. bodies the plane has); instruments panel is too basic; it flies better and looks sexier on X-Plane 9.45 but, after batch-converting, any VTOL capability is lost.

03/12/10 update: fuel tank is no longer at the CG and lift fan has been tuned to help improve overall balance.

* Cockpit object is from Andrew Bright's F-16 XL USAF (XP864) *

And I must acknowledge Barry x's influence here since I learnt the "edge" trick from him. I have this concept in mind since 2006 (it's one of my first designs on Plane-Maker 8.00 and the lift fan air intake still remains from that version) but never figured out how to make it look more "stealthy" until I saw Barry's T-50 beta and knew that was what I was looking for.