FSX Tigercat SOH Native Conversion Progress

[gman5250]

Looks superb. I can't believe how well this project has progressed.

Will there be a "small faired spinner" (as per La Patrona) model too?

Interestingly, I learned from this project about the large diameters spinners featured in these screens. I had never seen those until a few months ago, and prior to commenting on them being too large, discovered that indeed, the prototype, did have them, just as shown in the screenshots. Makes me wonder how that resulting tiny ring of open surface area managed to provide adequate cooling to the engine - I suspect that the deletion of the large faired spinner had something to do with that ... speed gain (if any) was marginal against the cooling lost? Just guessing here ... but it was an interesting discovery - thanks to Milt and co., who modelled it and made me research ...

dl

I did do a set of La Patrona “what if” spinners for the F7F1. La Patrona will be a special variant of the F7F3 with spinners, special textures and a unique second seat bubble canopy.

[gman5250]

My limited understanding of the F7F1X is that originally the P&W R2800s over cooled. I would assume the large spinners were an attempt to control airflow over the jugs. Maybe one of our experts could provide more light on this factoid.

[stansdds]

It is my understanding that the prop spinners were found to not improve cooling nor make any significant improvement in the performance of the F7F, so they were deleted from production.

[Dutcheeseblend]

What I conclude from the latest-generation radials, is that they indeed used big spinners. Look at the Sea Fury, the FW190: these were high-performance, high-speed fighters.

From the side, these fighters look very streamlined, something achieved by the big spinners. Only a small gap is left between the spinner and the cowling, to allow a part of the total mass flow (that flows onto the nose) bleeding into the engine compartment, thereby cooling the engine.
Look at the Bristol Mercury and Pegasus. Between cylinders, 'guide plates' were placed to guide the air exactly alongside the cylinders to effectively cool them. But, this is still very un-streamlined, since the air has to change direction in a very unpleasant way (the basic principle of streamlines). If you determine the required air massflow to cool the engine, make a smallest possible gap to let that massflow through and make the surroundings of the gap as streamlined as possible, will result in these spinner/cowling configurations.

So, I guess the required mass flow to cool the engine, isn't that big as we expect.

Just my 2 cents as budding engineer

[Mach3DS]

[hairyspin]

Regarding spinners and other fighters, the Fw190A series had a fan behind the spinner and was extremely effective at cooling. The airflow inside the cowling was directed so it actually flowed forward between the BMW's cylinders afaik. Hard to imagine but the designer was one of the best of his era.

Oh Daan, streamlined airflow is not as efficient a coolant as turbulent air, but turbulent causes more drag: the continual engineering problem of trade-off!

[hairyspin]

Regarding airflow in the cowling, I may have got my info wonky. The airflow entered the engine bay central area and flowed outwards around the cylinder heads, but the annular oil cooler just behind the spinner did have air drawn forward from there to cool the oil. There was therefore a measure of air recirculation going on, before the hot air exited the rear cowling. Now back to the bad kitty!

[Dutcheeseblend]

Thanks Tom, makes it clearer!

Gordon: if we want bombs and the like on this sweeet kitty, you'd have to model them as well and tagging them with a visibility tag. TP has models of the armament of course, but they only show up while being jettisoned or fired. I can write the background code, if you want.

Just to let you know

[gman5250]

Thanks Tom, makes it clearer!

Gordon: if we want bombs and the like on this sweeet kitty, you'd have to model them as well and tagging them with a visibility tag. TP has models of the armament of course, but they only show up while being jettisoned or fired. I can write the background code, if you want.

Just to let you know

The F7F-3 variant has a variety of armament modeled. What may be lacking we can surely add, I'll do some background but anyone wishing to contribute is certainly welcome.
I'll be moving on the F7F-3 as soon as we release the F7F-1...then the fun begins with cannon, missiles, bombs and the tanker.

Once I get a flying beta for the F7F-3 we can start integrating the code.