Howard 500 N4362F
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  1. #1

    Icon2 Howard 500 N4362F

    With the release of the FSX native Howard 500 from Milton and now I'm embarked on a mission to upgrade the few repaints I've done.

    This is a early wip template from what I extrapolate from pics. Nothing been adjusted yet, just measuring what I see.

    Based on measurement of the windows so it's best guess?






    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  2. #2
    Your attention to details is just amazing. Looking forward to these updated paints.
    Don H

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  3. #3
    Awesome work, Ted ! Well done, sir !

    Cheers,
    Jan

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by modelr View Post
    Your attention to details is just amazing. Looking forward to these updated paints.
    Quote Originally Posted by Javis View Post
    Awesome work, Ted ! Well done, sir !

    Cheers,
    Jan
    Thanks I have two fan's!!!

    Slapped on the old racing stripes, but this will be updated to reflect what's on the real bird.




    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  5. #5
    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    You have more than two..! Great stuff!
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by PRB View Post
    You have more than two..! Great stuff!
    I've done three other... N134U, N500HP, and a Cargo variant about six years ago for the revised tail version.

    Testing them in the FSX native version.



    Did a test on the windscreen frame since most Howard's were painted with the same color. That does effect other parts as with the windows and dash pad.
    Also the wing deicer is low quality texture and has some discoloration so paint that black will fix this.




    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  7. #7
    Nice! Love seeing old birds restored to former glory!

    Now, if that would just work on us...

  8. #8
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    Magnificent

  9. #9
    Thanks guys! Working on the wings next since the Howard 500 used Ventura wings. The old pattern I did years ago are not correct pictured here. The pattern is not suppose to be squared with the deicers as you see here. That's why the black non-skid was angled that way. It following the rivet pattern as seen in N500HP.




    Here's a good angle of the wings showing panel line that tapers. Interesting too is that N500LH had three different non-skid patterns.

    Last edited by TuFun; April 22nd, 2019 at 14:32. Reason: Add pic



    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  10. #10
    Wing wips...






    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  11. #11
    Those new textures are looking great TuFun.

  12. #12
    Thanks! Just the basics... fine tuning later.




    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  13. #13
    Wow ! ....... magnificent work, Ted !
    Cheers, MZee ...

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    All white "Arctic" build.

  14. #14

    History of the Howard 500 Origins

    (Excerpt from A History of the Howard 500 by Dave Cummings)

    Along comes the Howard 500


    A newer version of the R2800 was being used on the DC-6 aircraft and Dee thought it would be very well suited to the 500. The P&W R2800/CB-17 engine rated at 2500 hp with two stage supercharger and water injected ADI was a perfect choice for the plane. Light weight, at 2390 lbs it put out more hp/lb than most other engines on the market. It was the newest thing out there, having been developed in 1954 -‘56 and readily available in 1957 it was produced until 1967.


    Dee bought about 30 something PV-1 aircraft from the Canadian and South African Air Forces in order to get the parts he needed to get the 500 in the air as soon as he could. From these planes he would take most of the accessories, engine mounts, tail wheel assemblies, wheels, hydraulic systems and various other small parts. He was faced with building jigs for both the wings and fuselage, but had bought originals from Lockheed in Burbank to use as patterns. While the jigs were being built, improvements on the design of the 350 were being done. The wing needed to be redesigned because the PV-1 wing just ran out of lift and speed at about 20,000ft. The new plane would also need huge wet fuel cells built into it to give the high end CB’s the endurance necessary.


    The biggest improvement would be that of a remarkable pressurization system, one that would allow complete cabin comfort at 20,000 ft and beyond. The heart of the system would be based on the Garret Air Research engine driven compressor that the early Convair 580 and P-3 Orion aircraft were using. Howard was certainly a believer of the, “lets not reinvent the wheel” philosophy. This way he could get the job done fast and inexpensively. He was like the Japanese with their reverse engineering. He took what was being used successfully and made it better. He was able to pump his new fuselage up to an incredible 7 to 1 differential. This meant at 20,000 ft you could easily have a cabin of less than 2000 ft.
    As Dee sat across the street at his favorite lunch place Jims Café with Ed Swearingen, he thought up ideas and drew them out on napkins. He said, “were going to have to accommodate this new engine and get a handle on the weight and balance for the plane, we need a bigger lever”. He promptly went back to the office and asked his top engineer how much of an extension the Howard 350 would need to be stretched to give it what he was looking for. He estimated that 4 ft would do it, so 4 ft it was, now the new plane would be 4ft longer. To prove it, with the least expense of time and money he took one of his PV1’s and cut it in two. The modified conversion flew weeks later and proved to be a whole new plane. They were very pleased with the performance changes.


    The new 500 would incorporate dramatic changes that most believed to be simple conversions to the then PV-1. This is however not true. The most important fact about the Howard 500 is that it is a new aircraft, carefully designed by Dee and his staff. Those that say that it is a conversion know very little about what they are saying or what Howard did. While it is true that the 500 is somewhat of a “highbred” in that it used many parts from other planes. Again this kept cost down and saved time. For example, the propellers are Constellation blades and the spider or hub comes from an F4U Corsair, a # 60 spline 4 bladed propeller. The Landing gear, straight off a PV-2 (the PV-1 gear was just to light for the increased wt of the 500) but with some huge mods such as how it attaches to the airframe.


    Concerning the airframe, how could it be that one could simply put glue on an existing PV-1 structure and get it approved as a pressurized plane certified under the then CAR 4B (transport category) certification? That is not only absurd but impossible. You must design around the fact that you are going to pressurize the aircraft. The 500 has a fuselage former every 6 inches. The PV-1 has them about every 20 inches or more much like a DC-3. The designs were indeed similar and one lead to the other, many parts from the PV-1 interchange, but not without some modification. Dee modified almost every part that came from the Ventura.

    As a pilot/mechanic for 8 yrs on this particular aircraft and nearly 1500 hours in it as captain I can tell you that there are very few, if any parts that are a direct interchange. I have had to learn the hard way what mods to make on the parts I repair or exchange. It is definitely an on going learning process to be certain. I can see his point of view, or the evolution of each piece as I mess with them or repair them. We all tend to come up with ideas on how to improve a product when we use it for any given length of time. That is exactly what he did with the Model 350 as it lent itself to the design changes found in the 500. (Dave Cummings)


    By late 1958 Howard had finalized the design of the 500. Certifying it was another thing as the now defunct CAA gave way to the ever changing FAA. This dynamic institution was trying to figure out how to harness the huge leaps and bounds in aviation that the world had witnessed due to the advancements that WWII and the Korean wars’ provided.
    The construction of the Howard 500, proceeded with out too many changes in the airframe design, but went through many system, electrical, and hydraulic alterations. It seemed like, as the FAA transport category certification requirements changed, so did the plane and it was tough to keep up with the two. Some of the design features that were required to meet the FAA requirements included; a rudder boost and elevator boost system to aid the pilot in holding the plane controllable during single engine demos. They deemed that 180lbs of pressure was just a tad too much for the average pilot. Next the plane needed a yaw limiting system and compressor disconnect in the event the left engine were to fail. An elaborate AC electrical system provided everything from heated windshields to hot food in the galley. The brakes and gear system are both backed up with nitrogen systems. There are quite a few ways to get the gear down in the 500 and it is one of the fastest deploying gear I have ever seen, in fact you really need to be extra careful when performing a static gear swing as the momentum of the huge gear and wheels will sweep the plane right off the jacks. But in flight it sure is a comforting feeling to see the gear there every time and in record fashion.


    The first flight of the Howard 500 took place about may of 1960 and as recounted by Dee Howard, “When we stepped out of the plane I told ‘Rusty’ (Elton Rust his test pilot) ‘I think I might need to go see the doctor, my face is hurting something fierce’, Rusty replied, “ Do you think it has anything to do with that huge smile you’ve had plastered from ear to ear since we pushed the throttles forward and raised the gear?”, “All I could do was laugh some more” responded Howard.


    According to “Cisco” (Bulmaro Alarcon) Dee’s shop and field supervisor from 1955 to 1992, Howard built nearly 60 conversions of the 250 and 350 combined. The 500 was built from 1958 to 1963 and only 16 were produced. Cisco was there for the entire Super Ventura and 500 programs.

    ... for more of this story, see the Docs folder in your copy of the FSX native Howard 500 folder.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Milton Shupe
    FS9/FSX Modeler Hack

    My Uploads at SOH - Here
    Video Tutorials - Gmax for Beginners

  15. #15

    Dee Howard

    Dee Howard was a respected inventor and legendary in the aviation industry for his many creative accomplishments. Dee had over forty US and foreign patents issued in his name for both aviation and automotive products and the aviation companies which he founded and which bore his name held more than one hundred FAA Supplemental Types Certificates (STCs) and Type Certificate (TC).

    An amazing human being!



    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  16. #16
    That's great info Milton. BTW, do you know if Ed Swearingen worked for Dee or was he just a friend?

  17. #17
    Really looking forward to that revised N500HP skin. Thats the only one I fly with. The latest one I have, TFR-H500HP, you did doesnt seem to work well in P3D v45. Would love to see somebody do a reworked high resolution cockpit for this bird too!

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by ejoiner View Post
    Really looking forward to that revised N500HP skin. Thats the only one I fly with. The latest one I have, TFR-H500HP, you did doesnt seem to work well in P3D v45. Would love to see somebody do a reworked high resolution cockpit for this bird too!
    Does any of the default paints work ok? The photoreal N500HP looks pretty good. I only stage test in FSX-SE to check lighting effects, no longer fly sims.

    Maybe when P3D v.5 or Xplane 12 shows me something, otherwise I'm not interested. And Orbx TrueEarth covers my areas of interest too. Although TrueEarth Washington is at a whopping 200+GB! I'm in no hurry since I enjoy my Photoshop projects.



    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by TuFun View Post
    Does any of the default paints work ok? The photoreal N500HP looks pretty good. I only stage test in FSX-SE to check lighting effects, no longer fly sims.

    Maybe when P3D v.5 or Xplane 12 shows me something, otherwise I'm not interested. And Orbx TrueEarth covers my areas of interest too. Although TrueEarth Washington is at a whopping 200+GB! I'm in no hurry since I enjoy my Photoshop projects.
    The ones that came with the new package look fine. I did try the old Damian Radice N500LN and does not look good at all. All of the fuselage except for the rudders looks shadowed for lack of a better term. I also am looking foward to both of your paints as well!

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by RKinkor View Post
    The ones that came with the new package look fine. I did try the old Damian Radice N500LN and does not look good at all. All of the fuselage except for the rudders looks shadowed for lack of a better term. I also am looking foward to both of your paints as well!
    Exactly same here.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by TuFun View Post
    Does any of the default paints work ok? The photoreal N500HP looks pretty good. I only stage test in FSX-SE to check lighting effects, no longer fly sims.

    Maybe when P3D v.5 or Xplane 12 shows me something, otherwise I'm not interested. And Orbx TrueEarth covers my areas of interest too. Although TrueEarth Washington is at a whopping 200+GB! I'm in no hurry since I enjoy my Photoshop projects.
    I like the FTX sceneries and own most of them. I purchased True Earth Great Britain south and while it was pretty (especially London), it just sucked from a FPS point of view. I deactivated it and wont buy another true earth series product. FTX England in that case works great and to be honest, outside of the cities, looks better IMHO. I dont mean that to sound ugly at all. but I have a 2 month old custom built computer with an i7-8700k, 32GB of Gskill 3200 mhz dram and a RTX 2080 GPU, and P3D on its own 1 TB SSD, and True Earth made this sim crawl at like 8-15 FPS. I cant tolerate that. With regular FTX Im normally @30-35 FPS with all my normal settings and 3180x2160 Res.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by RKinkor View Post
    The ones that came with the new package look fine. I did try the old Damian Radice N500LN and does not look good at all. All of the fuselage except for the rudders looks shadowed for lack of a better term. I also am looking foward to both of your paints as well!

    When adding any repaints, remember to add a copy of the texture.cfg to pick up the bumps and specs maps, otherwise you get that upside down shading look.
    Just copy that cfg from any other livery from the original release.

    Also, read the comments at top of the aircraft.cfg regarding the models and which to use for older repaints.

    And to improve on the textures further, eliminate any old textures that are already covered in the common texture folder if they are the same texture and some are higher resolution, or have been tweaked.
    Milton Shupe
    FS9/FSX Modeler Hack

    My Uploads at SOH - Here
    Video Tutorials - Gmax for Beginners

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Milton Shupe View Post
    When adding any repaints, remember to add a copy of the texture.cfg to pick up the bumps and specs maps, otherwise you get that upside down shading look.
    Just copy that cfg from any other livery from the original release.

    Also, read the comments at top of the aircraft.cfg regarding the models and which to use for older repaints.

    And to improve on the textures further, eliminate any old textures that are already covered in the common texture folder if they are the same texture and some are higher resolution, or have been tweaked.
    Thank you sir! I had thought I had done it right but had missed the step on changing the aircraft cfg plus I might have put in an incorrect cfg. The Lady of the Night looks a lot better now!
    Last edited by RKinkor; April 28th, 2019 at 05:36. Reason: forgot a word

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by ejoiner View Post
    I like the FTX sceneries and own most of them. I purchased True Earth Great Britain south and while it was pretty (especially London), it just sucked from a FPS point of view. I deactivated it and wont buy another true earth series product. FTX England in that case works great and to be honest, outside of the cities, looks better IMHO. I dont mean that to sound ugly at all. but I have a 2 month old custom built computer with an i7-8700k, 32GB of Gskill 3200 mhz dram and a RTX 2080 GPU, and P3D on its own 1 TB SSD, and True Earth made this sim crawl at like 8-15 FPS. I cant tolerate that. With regular FTX Im normally @30-35 FPS with all my normal settings and 3180x2160 Res.
    I have three sceneries installed just to have a nice background shots. FTX Northern California, Monterey and Palm Springs. I have several saved flights that I load for static testing. Using Chaseplane to look around the aircraft to check aligment and lighting (bloom) effects. ModelConvertX for quick look see.



    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





  25. #25





    "Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once"





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