Project Here goes nothing: The Delta-StarLiner G42

[Moach]

kinda...


well, you should't need a very high angle to stall during hypersonic flight... at those speeds, you're basically in a constant stall, since the wings cut through the air faster than it can "wrap" itself back around it...

i'm sure there's a more technical explanation for exactly what happens, but you get the point... this basically implies that lift at high mach numbers comes mostly from brute-force deflection, rather than from the conventional principles


i definitely think i'll dump the stock DG lift code and write up my own, in a way that accounts for this factor as well as for ground-effect lift

 

[River Crab]

Isn't coming it at a stall angle more of a belly-flop than a dive? :lol:

Truth.
I tried experimenting with a pitch-up aerobraking maneuver, in which the craft is pitched to +90 degrees AoA above a certain altitude.
It did greatly help slowing down, but under 85 km, it became impossible to maintain, even with trim. I used the 2010 Attitude RCS MFD set to "rad(up), roll +0, yaw +0", but it didn't work under 90 km- kind of useful since it pitched down automatically, but there is still too much force on the wings to maintain +20 degrees and up below 65 km.
A CoG shift or something is necessary in order to prevent huge wasting of RCS fuel- all I could hear in the cockpit was "boom! boom! boom!"
My attempt at S-turns ended up being more like ζ-turns (Zeta-turns), causing my Starliner to flip almost to the point of ☆Get Down☆.
The plane at 00:29 is me:

:rofl:
Yeah, I think that's it for my reentry attempts until the next model is out. I will keep testing stuff though. :thumbup:

 

[Izack]

My attempt at S-turns ended up being more like ζ-turns (Zeta-turns), causing my Starliner to flip almost to the point of ☆Get Down☆.

ζ-Turns? Sounds...painful.

 

[River Crab]

Photo time!
I wanted to see how well it would texture, so I made a new skin. It's named Satori, which is a Japanese word roughly meaning "enlightenment". It was also a beautifully restored boat that I knew of.
Hopefully the world will be enlightened some day with the advent of cheap space travel and fully reusable spaceplanes.
The first pic makes it look good, but there's a ton of problems with the texture that need to be addressed. First of all, it's too small. I took the liberty of quadrupling its size (to 4096x4096) to make this. It's at least 4 times as big as the XR1 so logically its texture should be much larger. The XR2 is even higher res/area than this, and 4096x4096 is still too small for nose art. More to come.

 

[River Crab]

In the first pic, it's obvious how much darker the texture looks in-game. This is weird, because with the XR2 the skins end up much lighter, and with the XR1, they are about the same. I think it's the material you used.
In the second pic, some bad texture areas are highlighted. The flat projection you used ended up badly warping the name on the nose, and the logos on the wings are bent. I do like the curves, but I think if you removed or smoothed out those blocky bulges from the outer wing's upper camber, it would look better and less warped. Also, you might want to subdivide on the tail where it says "ΔStarliner G42", since that will likely be a prime location for text.
On a good note, you can make out "Ordem e Progresso" on the wing (the texture shown is actual size)!

 

[River Crab]

Two pics just for show.
Orbital daybreak with Satori, filled cargo bay:

 

[River Crab]

One more graphic flaw I've seen: when viewed from afar, the G42 appears as a red dot- probably left over from the Deltaglider.

Also, more photos! These are just concept art, so please don't point out the lack of continuity (and textures).
Satori grapples TI Carina in LEO:

 

[Izack]

River Crab, you're on a roll!! :thumbup: Nice texture, and those pictures really brought out the shape of the Starliner!

I just noticed, the thing looks like the offspring of a B-2, a Concorde and a Deltaglider!

Er, wait...that's three parents... :uhh:

 

[River Crab]

By the way, did you notice something else about the name?

I didn't even realize the flag thing until after the skin was done! I just thought a round flag looked cool! It was Koishi I swear.

 

[Eccentrus]

from what anime is that?

btw, looks really nice, how's the programming going?

 

[Izack]

from what anime is that?

It's from Touhou, a shooting game with obviously horrible art, and something that seems to be popping up all over this forum suddenly. Which is sort of my fault...sorry. :uhh:

 

[jaybtlr]

what are the complete key-map layout so far, having trouble with the controls, thanks

 

[Kendo]

This is Georgeous. I know its in its early stages yet, but could i suggest you lighten the mesh a little and add a slight shine to it. It would help the textures a lot and enhance the shape. Please keep up the fabulous work, this is going to be great.

 

[River Crab]

what are the complete key-map layout so far, having trouble with the controls, thanks

Besides the standard Orbiter keys, there are:
G - Raise/lower gear
N - Raise/lower visor
B - Open/close bay
However, be warned that the bay currently opens only when the static pressure is exactly zero, so to open the bay you must go where there is no pressure or switch to the 2006 legacy model. Also note that the docking port is invisible.

Remember, this is still a very early version, nota beta release. It's not going to have the same dev cycle as the XR2. You should not expect to be able to complete a full mission with the G42 at this stage.
However, your interest and bug reports are welcome here. Happy Orbiting!
:hail:
(Sorry if :threadjacked:, I don't pretend to manage this project! I'm just a very interested ⑨rbinaut! )

 

[Eccentrus]

bugs? hmm... the plane likes to tilt a lot, much more unstable compared to DGIV or XR2, wait, it's not even a bug isn't it? oh well...

 

[Moach]

wow :blink: whoa, man, you rule!:10sign:
i'm not even done mapping the UVs and you have already repainted it! rock on!:thumbup:

now i know who's gonna be in charge of texturing that thing :rofl:



i know the flight model is notoriously unstable... i'm currently tuning it up for a smoother ride... (i have it pretty easy on the stick now, feels like the DG almost, but heavier) - it does have fly-by-wire, so it really shouldn't be hard to fly... so the current difficulty in doing so could indeed be considered a bug-like "misfeature"

still, delta wings are know to be unstable, specially without rudders that's why aircraft such as the B2 bomber do have FBW... however, the version you guys have right now, does not , so it handles like it would without any stability aid, i guess :lol:

i didn't really program for a stability augmentation system... instead, i just tweaked the values to make it "unnaturaly" stable :hmm:


probably the textures are looking darker in-game because of the albedoRGB settings left over from the stock DG code... i'll check into those as well as the "little red dot" thing - thanks for pointing that out :thumbup:


and remember, as Crab said, this isn't beta - its pre-pre-idontevenknowyet-undefined-cowboycoding-early-alpha stage :lol: so you're bound to run into some* glitches

(* read: "a possibly infinite amount of...")

 

[River Crab]

wow :blink: whoa, man, you rule!:10sign:
i'm not even done mapping the UVs and you have already repainted it! rock on!:thumbup:

now i know who's gonna be in charge of texturing that thing :rofl:

Really!? I accept! :woohoo:
Glad to be of assistance in this awesome project!

and remember, as Crab said, this isn't beta - its pre-pre-idontevenknowyet-undefined-cowboycoding-early-alpha stage :lol:

:rofl:
It's "Unfinished Fantastic Object".

 

[Izack]

Cowboy coding!! I'll go get my Stetson and flight equipment! :woohoo:

 

[Eccentrus]

so, am I suppose to go "Yee Haa go on little rocket, we shall go retrograde and rule the wild west" when riding this, err... Horserocket :hmm:?

 

[River Crab]

so, am I suppose to go "Yee Haa go on little rocket, we shall go retrograde and rule the wild west" when riding this, err... Horserocket :hmm:?

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_coding"]Cowboy Coding[/ame]
I like your description too, though. :lol: