by Algernon » Tue Mar 04, 2014 10:16 am
Very interesting question! And one that's difficult to find out the answer to with a brand new and secret aircraft. From watching videos of their simulators, it appears that vectoring forward is indeed controlled by the throttle, but I haven't seen any evidence of it vectoring backwards yet - I assume it can, but I don't know how you control it.
So at the moment, in my FCS, once in STOVL mode, with the throttle at idle, the main nozzle vectors beyond 90 degrees to bring the aircraft to a hovering halt. Opening the throttle tells the FCS to use the main nozzle to get some forward motion - opening it full will bring the aircraft up to above its forward flight stall speed - closing it again, the aircraft will stop itself again. Stick forward and backwards is vertically up and down (I am presuming the the aircraft does not pitch in pure vertical mode, why would it?), stick left and right rolls the aircraft up to 10 degrees for sideways motion.
It's very early days for the FCS, but getting it to hover successfully felt like a significant triumph. Now I just have to make it stay in the same place.
AlgernonFGUK -
A FlightGear community in the United Kingdom and Republic of IrelandDeveloper: Eurofighter EF2000 - English Electric Lightning - Handley Page Victor