[ranchoth]

I was just wondering...would it be possible to make some kind of plugin that would allow an aircraft with normal, conventional landing gear to be started off on a runway sitting on it's tail, like a rocket? (Maybe by making X-Plane think you're being "air dropped" by a stationary aircraft pointed straight up, parked on a runway?)

I ask because I've got a little spacecraft project I've been working on...if not for this one sticking point (which I've tried working around, believe me), I'd be able to have a spacecraft launch like a rocket, open cargo bay doors, deploy a payload, decend from orbit, and land like an aircraft. In 7.6x.

Can anyone help me out, by any chance? Or am I going to just have to abandon the project and find another windmill to tilt at?

[Indi-]

Seems do-able enough.

If I did it I'd make it a plugin that rotates the aircraft after x-plane has taken care of dropping it on the runway.

This keeps the work of the plugin to a minimum and gives you an accurate value for the terrain elevation where the aircraft has been dropped without having to write an ENV or DSF parser.

It'd be good if you could find applicable uses for more than just one aircraft though... any other cases that need something similar ?

I guess it could incorporate R/C style hand launching, though theres probably some kind of throw dynamics and bunjy cord(rubber band/catapault, whatever) launches that people would want.


Good luck with it, sorry but I can't offer any time towards this one at the moment.

This post has been edited by Indi-: 19 February 2005 - 05:00 AM

[Bong_Joos]

There are a few x-planes that would benefit from this also.

[ranchoth]

It'd be good if you could find applicable uses for more than just one aircraft though... any other cases that need something similar ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Probably a host of other spacecraft/spaceplanes that would launch in a similar way. (The U.S. Space Shuttles and the Soviet Buran, to name a couple. Or the X-20 "Dyna Soar," ESA's "Hermes," or the VentureStar/X-33.)

And...maybe even for more accurate depictions of zero-length fighter launch systems?

[ranchoth]

I need a way of attaching the aircraft to a launch platform, so I want the 'carrying' aircraft to be a lauch pad or similar.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There's the "Florida" scenery pack (By the X-Plane Freeware Project) that has a detailed Cape Canaveral and shuttle gantry at Pad 39, and I know there's a shuttle gantry object that's been floating around since v5.

[Guy]

Marcello aka "lemonade" at one time made a Saturn 5 rocket. He made a waepon that was 10 X heavier than the the rocket could lift and attached it to the exhaust. Even hurricane winds could not blow the combination to the ground. The weapon looked like a cocrete launch platform. Right after ignition, the "weapon-bomb" was released and the Saturn was on its way. I used te same trick one time to launch the default Space Shuttle (a very crude adaptation of...). Probably would work for the zero length TO as well.

Latst year I asked AM if he could introduce a launchrail with explosive bolts and which could be inclined from 10 up to 90 degrees; he would look into it. If more people show an interest,... who knows?

[ranchoth]

Marcello aka "lemonade" at one time made a Saturn 5 rocket. He made a waepon that was 10 X heavier than the the rocket could lift and attached it to the exhaust. Even hurricane winds could not blow the combination to the ground. The weapon looked like a cocrete launch platform.  Right after ignition, the "weapon-bomb" was released and the Saturn was on its way. I used te same trick one time to launch the default Space Shuttle (a very crude adaptation of...). Probably would work for the zero length TO as well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I tried that, on my new project. It still wouldn't allow my Shuttle to start up on it's tail while it had any normal landing gear installed. (Even with the first three gear in a "tailsitter" configuration.) And with a zero-length TO fighter, I'm afraid the sim would just have the base weapon buried in the runway. (Unless you had a special landing gear arrangement—which would make it hard to land the fighter again, normally. )

[lemonade]

Hey, I appreciate y'all quoting my Saturn here. I used that "weight" attached to Saturn's base not to keep it upright, but to hold it on the ground while starting the engines. Also to avoid it crashing to the ground, as X-Plane world seems to be a bit shaking

What makes the Saturn stands upright are four landing gear arms placed at rockets's bottom. I would enjoy to have an option in Plane-Maker to set a craft with usual belly landing gears, ans still some way of placing/launching it inclined (as on a ramp) or upright (as a rocket). There was too many interesting projects in www.luft46.com to spend these ideas.

Cheers,
Marcelo.