B-52H Project Commencement

[JetFuelSuitcase]

Hello all,

I've been using Flightgear and lurking on the forums for a while now, but I finally made an account to announce this.

I'm going to start working on a new B-52, which will hopefully have custom textures, a full clickable 3D cockpit, detailed systems, realistic FDM, etc. I've found a model I can use for the base, at least during development, and have started writing a few .xml files and such.

However, I could use a lot of help with animations, .xml, texture mapping, systems, and pretty much everything else. I have a basic understanding of how Flightgear works, and some background on 3D modeling and coding from my college courses.

I realize that having a polished aircraft as complex as this is a pretty lofty goal, but I can work on it over several years, and hopefully learn more about how everything goes together.

Any tips about any part of aircraft development would be greatly appreciated, as well as help with modeling and coding.

[Octal450]

Welcome here and awesome goal! I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Please go JSBsim, as that way you can achieve realism!

Kind Regards,
Josh

[abassign]

In the G91R1B project we have many gauges that are used for the B52, you can use them without problems they are with GPL 3+ license But be very careful use JSBSim for better realism and systems management. The B52 is an epic plane, very complex, very carefully realized and I hope with precision, I personally would have started from a simpler plane like the B47 and then I would have derived the B52 which has many parts in common. Another rule that unfortunately in FGFS is little followed ... It uses many polygons and few textures so you will have a beautiful plane to see and fast in the framerate. I am sending you an example of our G91R1B which is an airplane of the same era.

[Octal450]

I disagree. Starting that is messy wheras starting from scratch will have alot less mess. Especially considering we don't really have a "good" B47.

Kind Regards,
Josh

[JetFuelSuitcase]

Yep, I'm definitely going with JSBSim. Is there any program to help with writing .xml files? I noticed that there was a project back in 2013 or so for YASim, but it was discontinued. There's also a JSBcommander that looks to be something similar, has anyone used that before? Otherwise, I'm thinking of using the .xml files from a similar aircraft as a template, is that something you'd recommend?

[Alant]

A good JSBSim template to start with is produced by AeromatiC+, which is part of the Flightgear distribution.

See http://wiki.flightgear.org/Aeromatic, which also describes its predecessor Aeromatic.

When used this way JSBSim employs the same aerodynamic coeficients and derivatives that are used by most aeronautical engineers worldwide.

Alan

[JetFuelSuitcase]

Alan,

Thanks for the input, I've made the FDMs for the engines and the aircraft file.

[cobe571]

Years ago I made this. The model is complete. Just waiting for a good FDM.

[JetFuelSuitcase]

Cobe,

That looks fantastic. Is it on Git? I could try my hand at making a half-decent FDM for it, if you want

[Johan G]

The development continues in the topic B-52H Build Thread.