Piglets XB-35.

[Jafo]

Here's your first repaint:

looks like fun...but gonna need to find me a few more motors...

[warchild]

thats a hell of a kit bash.. and red octopus?? hmmmm..

[Jafo]

Is there any form of paint kit in existence or is this something I'll need to reverse engineer and create from scratch?
I did that for Tim's A12A Avenger II cos I was enlarging everything to 4096 - the whole plane was effectively on one bitmap and thus detail was being lost a bit....even at 2048.
This one's essentially on 3 at 2048 so is probably fine as is...

[dvj]

looks like fun...but gonna need to find me a few more motors...

Hail Hydra!

[Seahawk72s]

Free hand book:

http://aviationarchives.blogspot.com...-handbook.html

Free maintenance manual:

http://aviationarchives.blogspot.com...intenance.html


Looks like a good resource:

https://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/flying-wings-visual-history-northrop-xb-35-and-yb-49

[Seahawk72s]

If those cars are to scale..!
Interesting article: http://danielsimon.com/hydra-flying-wing/

[Seahawk72s]

Using a screen shot of the VC and some Connie gauges to fly with.

[dvj]

[dvj]

Anyone have any ideas for the placement of smoke under and behind the wings?

- d

[Josh Patterson]

Using a screen shot of the VC and some Connie gauges to fly with.

How did you get the gauges in? I tried using some from Milton's B-26, but nothing was visible. Which Connie did you use, the JF or A2A? (I have both.) Could you post the [VirtualCockpit01] section of the panel.cfg you made?

[Seahawk72s]

Josh Patterson

Originally Posted by Seahawk72s
Using a screen shot of the VC and some Connie gauges to fly with.



How did you get the gauges in? I tried using some from Milton's B-26, but nothing was visible. Which Connie did you use, the JF or A2A? (I have both.) Could you post the [VirtualCockpit01] section of the panel.cfg you made?


Sorry, I didn't explain it well.
I only have a 2D panel at the moment based on a screen shot of the VC.

[Milton Shupe]

You are welcome to use any of my (Scott Thomas's) gauges; just offer some credits where due.

Thanks
Milton

[Josh Patterson]

Josh Patterson

Originally Posted by Seahawk72s
Using a screen shot of the VC and some Connie gauges to fly with.



How did you get the gauges in? I tried using some from Milton's B-26, but nothing was visible. Which Connie did you use, the JF or A2A? (I have both.) Could you post the [VirtualCockpit01] section of the panel.cfg you made?


Sorry, I didn't explain it well.
I only have a 2D panel at the moment based on a screen shot of the VC.

Okay, I see. I wonder if there is no layer in the VC panels for the gauges to lay on? I expected to see a jumble of gauges on the panel that I could size and fit into the proper spots but I have nothing showing.

[Josh Patterson]

You are welcome to use any of my (Scott Thomas's) gauges; just offer some credits where due.

Thanks
Milton

I was just going to use the B-26 on my personal wing, but you'd allow us to use them for release on SOH with credits? If so, I'll take a stab at finishing the VC. I may not be ready to make and code gauges from scratch, but I did an okay job re-gauging IRIS's freeware MiG-27 with stuff from my library, so I think I could do the XB-35.

[Milton Shupe]

I was just going to use the B-26 on my personal wing, but you'd allow us to use them for release on SOH with credits? If so, I'll take a stab at finishing the VC. I may not be ready to make and code gauges from scratch, but I did an okay job re-gauging IRIS's freeware MiG-27 with stuff from my library, so I think I could do the XB-35.

No restrictions as long as the released product is freeware and credits given.

have fun :-)

[lazarus]

The VC has no gauge polygons. I'm working on sliding a set in. Just a bit busy with the world right now - you know; overthrowing governments and subverting the totalitariat... Keeping the screws tightly wound is a job, innit.

[Josh Patterson]

The VC has no gauge polygons. I'm working on sliding a set in. Just a bit busy with the world right now - you know; overthrowing governments and subverting the totalitariat... Keeping the screws tightly wound is a job, innit.

Okay. When you get it ready let me know and I'd be happy to get gauges placed in the instrument panel and FE panel.

[warchild]

It has come to my attention that you folks may need some enlightenment regarding this craft; That some of you think this is an "airplane". This is NOT an airplane. An airplane has a fuselage, an empanage, a wing, a horizontal stabilizer, a vertical stabilizer, an elevator and a rudder.
This craft is a wing. It uses ailerons for elevators. It also uses them for a rudimentary rudder and speed brake. Theres wisdom to be gleened from the rudder being the speed brake; a surface which almost doubles the thickness of the wing exactly at the point needed to cause the entire rest of the craft to rotate around it.

A Normal plane banks round its longitudinal center. The wing doesnt have a longitudinal center. It banks around the center of the angle of the bank ( to put it in very simple terms ). Instead of it being like a pencil being twirled in your fingers, its more like a block of wood being swung on a string, hanging from the mirror of your car as you drive it around a corner. And sitting in the pilots seat, thats exactly what its going to feel like.

Now, I've only just begun dialing this flight model in, and already i can see how i can change the rudder/brake to make it easier to maneuver without doing cartwheels through space.. However, the easiest way to turn the plane is, dont use the rudder. It's not needed except perhaps on the ground. Your turns are, by the very nature of the lift of the wing, "coordinated". As the wing tilts up, It's lift, pulls you towards the direction you are banking, and newtons laws kick in here as an object in motion tends to maintain its direction until acted upon by a stronger force. In this case, the high pressure of the air on the bottom of the wing during the turn, facilitates the wing turning gracefully into the turn. However, you are going to lose altitude. So, dont use the rudder. Your not flying an airplane. Your flying a gigantic metal leaf thats already got an agreement with nature that you cant overcome without a fuselage and tail.
In the video i'm linking, the B-2 makes a number of banks. Most look almostnormal, but the last bank it does just before it makes its bomb run, shows exactly what i'm talking about.. I hope you enjoy..
Pam

[Jafo]

I've been known to do 2D panels from screencaps of the VC....***uming there's a good VC with bitmaps to hang gauges on...
Here's an example....it's 2D.
On my Thud panel I did a fair bit of xml coding...but it was hit-and-miss as all I can do is work from example...and hope I don't break things...


Embedded [coded into the model] gauges become a problem as they then have to be fudged together as separate xml for any 2D derived from the VC.

[Jafo]

BTW...it's cute how arse-suming gets edited....maybe I need to spell it 'mulesuming'...

[Sundog]

It has come to my attention that you folks may need some enlightenment regarding this craft; That some of you think this is an "airplane". This is NOT an airplane. An airplane has a fuselage, an empanage, a wing, a horizontal stabilizer, a vertical stabilizer, an elevator and a rudder.

All aircraft rotate around their center of m***. A flying wing has adverse yaw, just as any other aircraft does; well any aircraft with an elliptical lift distribution. A Prandtl-D lift distribution has proverse yaw, but there aren't any full size aircraft, at least uncl***ified, flying with that yet. As such, the split aileron/drag rudders act to counter adverse yaw in the same fashion as a vertical stabilizer and rudder do. Only it uses a drag force at the tip of the wing instead of a lift/induced drag force at the tail. The problem with flying wings isn't so much dynamic control, but static stability. The B-2 controls this by modulating drag at both wing tips until it goes into full stealth mode, where it's bank angle is limited and both dynamic and static yaw is then controlled by differential thrust. It's been awhile since I looked into static yaw stability in a flying wing like the XB-35, though. I would just model it by correlating the moment induced with drag rudders to what an actual rudder effective force would be in the FDE. It shouldn't need too much drag with the large moment arm the wing offers. I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great.

I'm just hoping someone has it serving long enough to act as an ecm aircraft in Viet Nam, like the Connies, so I can see it in SEA camo scheme. I would also love to see it with the rear tail cone replaced with a long MAD boom, call it a Stingray, and make it an ASW aircraft. The big wing would be perfect for cruising in ground effect for long range patrols, since it would be able to so in most sea states.

[edit: Apparently the forum looks for a-s-s within any word and replaces it with ***. Well, that's a-s-s-i-n-i-n-e.]

[SSI01]

With its low radar signature (for radars of that time frame, anyway) this thing would make an excellent electronic ferret aircraft. Plenty of storage for electronics in the bomb bays, the ravens would be accommodated in the center of the wing and could even access some of the gear in flight. Antennae could be mounted flush with the wing surfaces. Would be a nasty-looking sight in a gloss black paint scheme with subdued markings. It would complement the RB-36s, RB-50s, RB-69s, P2V-5Ws, P4Ms and RB-29s in use for the same purposes.

[warchild]

All aircraft rotate around their center of m***. A flying wing has adverse yaw, just as any other aircraft does; well any aircraft with an elliptical lift distribution. A Prandtl-D lift distribution has proverse yaw, but there aren't any full size aircraft, at least uncl***ified, flying with that yet. As such, the split aileron/drag rudders act to counter adverse yaw in the same fashion as a vertical stabilizer and rudder do.

I was attempting to keep the explanation as simplified as I possibly could. Prandti-d lift distribution and proverse yaw are concepts still not fully understood and are still being researched. I have to a-s-s-sume that the majority of people i'm communicating with, are not aeronautical engineers here. So, i pitched it in the simplest yet most accurate way i could ( given my own limitations with communicating ), from a position of what is experienced by the pilot. In a standard airplane, you can bank without changing trajectory due to the nature of its design, with its fuselage empanage, etc. You cannot bank a wing without changing trajectory. It will side-slip or pendulum if you will, up onto its edge, moving at least one half of the wings span to the side as it climbs up into its turn ( providing you do a 90 degree bank ). It will then, bite into the turn and begin its turn. Its a clearly defined two stage phenomena that is clearly seen in the video i posted. This pendulum effect is what sets the wing apart from all other aircraft, and it is the only type of aircraft which experiences it. This is also mentioned by one of the original Northrop engineers in the film " The wing will fly" when he talks about the planes constant searching side to side instead of flying a straight line. The behavior very much imitates a leaf on the wind ( or in this case the seed of the alsomitra macrocarpa gourd which is credited for being the wings inspiration ): a behavior I am unable to fully duplicate in FSX sadly. More sadly, all flying wings were destroyed by the mid 1950s. They were cut up into pieces and scrapped at the orders of the air force, by the very people that had put their blood and bone into making them..

[Sundog]

IIRC, the pendulum effect is actually part of the dutch-roll mode, which Sperry finally got rid of in the YRB-49 (too little too late). BTW, do you have the Pilots Handbook, the Erection and Maintenance Manual and the wind tunnel data from the Langley wind tunnel? I have that and a few other things if you need any of it. I also have an engineering book which is only about the aerodynamics of flying wings that I could scan parts of you need it.

[warchild]

IIRC, the pendulum effect is actually part of the dutch-roll mode, which Sperry finally got rid of in the YRB-49 (too little too late). BTW, do you have the Pilots Handbook, the Erection and Maintenance Manual and the wind tunnel data from the Langley wind tunnel? I have that and a few other things if you need any of it. I also have an engineering book which is only about the aerodynamics of flying wings that I could scan parts of you need it.

I believe you may be correct about dutch roll.



Although not as exaggerated as this example here, Dutch roll is exactly what the plane experiences, as opposed to the coupled yaw we see in aircraft such as the X-3, X-1, X-15 and F-104. It's caused when " the dihedral effects of the aircraft are more powerful than the directional stability" ( wiki ). To be blatantly honest, i'm only a neophyte when it comes to understanding these forces. However, the xb-35 has @10 degrees of dihedral spanning the entire half of the wing. With a wingspan of over three times its length and no fuselage, the xb-35 had one hell of a dihedral and very little in the area of directional stability, of which, the main suppliers were the four propeller shaft housings mounted on the tailing half of the wing.
The B2 was designed with a much more enlightened understanding. It has the classic 10 degree dihedral, but only in the very center of the aircraft, from whence if curves up and out till by the time you reach 0% MAC, the dihedral is non-existant. This curvature, coupled with the crew nacelle on the top of the wing, forms a type of synthetic fuselage, which greatly aids directional stability.
The YB-49 didnt fare any better than the xb-35 when it came to directional stability either. when the jet engines were installed they removed the propeller shaft housings, and immediately regretted it. The lack of directional stability was so great, that Northrop was prompted to install the four little vertical blades we see on each side of the engine housings..