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B9 5.0 pre-release (with download)


K3-Chris

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The S3 cockpit is pretty impractical, purely logically speaking it's inferior to the S2, it's heavier, it's larger, it's mechanically more complex etc but it's about 100 times cooler.

Of course, Rule of Cool justifies it all. I'm even craving for a smaller version of S3 cockpit, 1.25m-sized one.

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Of course, in real world, it would be much better suited for supersonic flight than S2... Pity not even FAR simulates this.

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http://i.imgur.com/xJcAyMu.png

Further progress on the S3.

Considering a simpler version of the windows with less glass pieces:

http://i.imgur.com/n5Vs7jk.png

what do you guys think? Which is nicer?

I prefer the second version. But, honestly, I like the current version of the model as well with the thinner 1-kerbal cockpit.

I get that you're trying to set it up so that you have two seats at the forward face, but is that strictly necessary? If it was one seat, you could have a much thinner, much sleeker design.

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Current model isn't possible to make an IVA for, a kerbal doesn't fit into the moving part of the model, their head sticks out of it.

Base shape behind the cockpit is still the same as an S2 so I don't see how you can make it sleeker really.

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Nose is hinged like concord, allows you to land in IVA.

I see your point, but I prefer landing with whatever information is showing on my monitors anyway (the couple of times I've been successful, I should say, which isn't often - more often I create a bloody fiery mess - so you might be on to something).

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That isn't realistic though, you can't get an airplane certified to fly if the pilots can't see what they're doing if all power goes out, you need a "manual" backup, concord had a feature which allowed the nose to drop even with no power or working hydraulics by disconnecting the linkages and just letting it drop from gravity acting on the hinge.

In theory a plane doesn't need windows at all, cameras and displays could do it fine, until you got an electrical fire and it all went dead and you're blind.

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7h+ of arguments and tweaking later:

33zeWoz.png

Subsonic windows have some angle to them now to deflect air sideways, visor adjusted to fit over the wedge like shape, visor goes down into the nose to that position without clipping into anything btw.

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Heh everyone and their mother-in-law has suggestions about S3 changes...

mrBlaQ thinks the visor windows don't need to be as long:

eys4JTL.png

After - Before

U0Hm0yw.png

Tavarious wants a lot less heatshielding:

Screenshot_110.png

(dark gray shapes are heatshield stand-ins, green suggested removed heatshields)

And Bac9 has given me this:

RfqeUDO.jpg

After

Before

Chamfered window edges and slightly inset windows vs frames were already in my plans, prefer to keep the geometry simple while still exploring it, split visor window to avoid that really sharp edge and tie the side windows into the design is a neat touch.

r5oACuQ.jpg

And he rustled up that to explain a change in the movement to accomodate a straight edged visor and wedged supersonic windows in a couple minutes, in SketchUp, no I have no idea how he does it either.

What do you guys think? I'm considering combining Tav's and mrBlaQ's suggestions to make the visor windows less tall like that and cut back the heatshielding to just be a pretty narrow line around the windows, I'll obviously implement all of bac9's changes except the two angle movement was possible to avoid by keeping the visor angled, but the windows straight.

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Javascript is disabled. View full album

What do you guys think? Small window on the visor is pretty weird looking atm, I need to tweak that somehow, some bac9 changes left to implement obviously, primarily window corners and window inset, though I prefer to hold off on that until I'm happy with the other parts, when you add that kind of detail it gets more time consuming to do tweaks.

I guess the control stick to set the nose angle needs a warning label about dropping the nose/visor/both during re-entry.

Edited by K3|Chris
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"Concord" and the Tu-144 were almost similar as two drops of water. The creators of "Concord" was accused of stealing a Tupolev many technical solutions. But to prove it and failed. I must say that despite the superficial similarity, the aircraft still quite different. Thus, TU-144 was significantly larger in its western "twins": Soviet ship could transport up to 150 passengers, and "Concord" - no more than 128. Moreover, despite its size, That was much more maneuverable and had a smaller run-up to take off than the "Concorde", which was less

And more ..

The first flight of the Concorde 2 March 1969

The first flight of the Tu-144 December 31, 1968

Tu-144 and Concorde were being developed more or less simultaneously, and, as RussianIvan already pointed out, Tupolev managed to beat Concorde and build a working prototype earlier. Moreover, Tu-144 was the first commercial aircraft to reach Mach 2.

However, early version of Tu-144 was, should I say, a bit incomplete. It had to use suboptimal turbofan engines and resort to afterburner to maintain supersonic cruise speed; as a result, cabin noise was far too much to be comfortable. This was only fixed in a later version, Tu-144D, equipped with turbojets.

Also, look at these canards: they are retractable and were used during landing (because delta wings at low speeds required high angle of atack - hence the tipping nose in both designs). As far as I know, Concorde featured no such thing as retractable canards.

Ah, right. There was probably a whole lot of accusation throwing going around on both sides at that time.

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