One argument for the shirt-sleeve thing, is that, being a space plane, there isn't so much a launch, as there is a take-off... actual rocket-powered flight only happens on the final leg of the ascent, so there should be plenty of time to discover pressure leaks and other problems...
We don't see airline pilots wearing ACES suits (thankfully), so why should G42 pilots wear them?
Essentially, the G42 is a LEO-liner, so it should, theoretically, be rated for unpressurized suit for it's crew
Cheers
that was pretty much my line of thinking...
in a spaceplane, you're (thankfully) not strapped atop a large pile of highly volatile substances that combust violently in a "controlled" explosion which we almost sadistically call a "launch"
so that somewhat removes a lot of the stress associated with these situations... a takeoff in the G42 (which i've done quite a few times, by now) doesn't just feel close to an airliner takeoff - it feels EXACTLY like so :lol:
with the recently revised FD settings (proper wing area and aspect ratio), we even have the "rotate" speed at just over 160 knots, not unlike a heavy airliner...
i have also had a major insight about what was keeping us from reaching orbit before the tanks became full of nothing :hmm: - get this:
Orbiter doesn't account for fuel and oxidizer, it's thruster model is based on a single "propellant" mass value...
in order to accomodate the existance of oxidizer in a separate tank aboard the G42, i added another tank, and "manually" emptied it out proportionally to the oxy/fuel ratio as the engines ran in rocket mode...
what i didn't pay attention to, is that Orbiter drains the tanks based on an ISP value (which is actually measured in effective exhaust vel, for some reason) - so by emptying out the oxy tank "manually" - i failed to account that the engines ISP was set for a single propellant source, burning away ignorant of the fact that a large portion of the "propellant" feed should be, in theory, coming from the other tank....
for that reason, the engines chugged away as if fuel and oxidizer were both the same and stored in that one tank.... i had programmed the oxy tank to empty out accordingly, so it just followed along :facepalm:
anyways - what i found is that when simulating a multi-tank feed system like this, the engines ISP value should be set higher than its specification, higher in the same proportion as the oxy/fuel ratio
and with this, i got results a LOT closer to what one should expect of this ship :thumbup:
i have also found that the G42 should have capacity for a lot more fuel than oxidizer, which would perfectly suit its design requirement to fly a plane-intercept leg before launch (a straight-up launch without such leg should not require a full tank load)
this is good! - i expect the next flight will bring us to space (the right way, this time :lol
cheers!
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