Oh man, I loved that movie! The Santa Cruz is definitely one of my favorite fictional prop planes, up there with the Sanka from Sky Crawlers. Detailing on this one is great, it looks really smooth. Excellent work!
@lastv801 It was never meant to be a replica, I'm happy with the amount of engines it has. Besides, I guess most of the thrust is coming from these four turbofans above the fuselage anyways, lel
@Mustang51 That never seems to work for me, could never figure out how it works. I always select the option to have them include trim, but it never seems to do anything.
@Mustang51 Thanks! I've got to say, this one forced me to practice a lot of stuff that was new for me, lol. Getting the several fuselage parts covering the wings to work on something so large was new for me, as was making these airbrake-rudders.
Nice! I got to see one back when the TAM museum still existed in São Carlos. Half of it painted in German markings, the other half in Brazilian Naval Aviation colors. Beautiful bird, you did an amazing job recreating it.
@Tessemi Indeed, I thought that was properly hinted at in the start of the description lel
It's a night raven but dumbed down for low part count and I really did it just because I wanted to see what would happen.
@Mustang51 My main inspiration for this was the X-31, but it does have serious baby Typhoon looks to it. Except this time there's no fly-by-wire... at least you won't lose the plane due to pitot failure, lol.
@Zanedavid @Mustang51 @JohnnyBoythePilot @Tarquez Thanks, guys! I made this one on a streak of AC3-fueled inspiration for the memes, but it ended up being quite fun to fly around in.
@Mustang51 Oh, I have a lot prebuilt from before, lel. I'm actually quite slow at making them, and I don't do it regularly. You're looking at what must be over one year of stock here - without counting all the ones I don't deem worth posting, that is.
It's running out, though; these ones I've been posting in the last few days are, most of them, pretty recent (not all are in chronological order, the Corvus is one of my older ones). the Arara is one of my most recent birds, in fact. After all this, I'm only going to have what... Some three or four planes? I need to check, but that's about it. I
I'm working on a new one right now, I've got a teaser post about it. When you see that one ready, that's when you know I've run out, lol.
@Mustang51 I'm still amazed, honestly. I was hoping one of my builds would be featured in the future, but I was definitely not expecting it to be this one, nor so soon.
I cannot help but wonder whether it was the aesthetics, or the performance/functionality, or both, lol.
@MSGamezYXZ360 I just eyeball things, no blueprints. I do use reference images on my phone, and try to replicate the features in my aircraft sometimes to get the feel. I've tried using blueprints in SP and it just isn't for me, I prefer eyeballing things. When you're doing fictional aircraft, this also helps as you're more free and not bound to a blueprint.
Also, no, I'm not in any SP server (I assume you mean Discord and the like), at least not for the moment.
@RailfanEthan Yeah, and the external shapes are coming along nicely too IMO. It'll be a while until I finish and post it, but I can tag you when I do if you'd like me to.
@Mustang51 If it looks right, it will fly right, someone once said. I gotta admit I made this one mostly for the looks of it, but I was surprised when I took it out for a spin and saw it handled pretty well.
@Brields95 Doesn't it? I ended up growing attached to this little thing, lol. I think it's the prettiest plane I've ever built, even compared to more recent ones. Glad you liked it!
@Mustang51 I feel your pain, I'm trying to do aircraft with simple cockpits as of lately and changing to that has been... interesting. Dunno if I'll stick to it as it consumes a lot of time (and parts), lol.
@Mustang51 Thanks a lot! I should have a "I can't believe it's not a Tucano" coming out on a few days, if you're interested in COIN birds. It's one of my most recent ones though, so it's pretty far down the list.
@atgxtg Oh, I did mess around with that too. I used all sorts of angles on the canards, and with one of them I got really good trim, but I found it didn't turn as sharply anymore. Decided to keep it as is. If you want straight flying though, setting the canards to 0.5 to 0.7 degrees, or making it a semi-symmetrical airfoil does the trick nicely indeed.
@RareHeroicDancer Oh, for now I'm posting the pile of designs I've got sitting around, planes I did quite some time ago. I've still got a lot to go through in that list, lol. Next up is a maritime patrol aircraft.
I have no idea what I'm gonna do after I'm finished with all these, I do things when the ideas pop up in my mind, lel.
It gives me some slight Cutlass vibes, if the Cutlass had been developed a few years later with supersonic aerodynamics and all. Its design screams late 50's, I love it.
@Denniscx With the landing gear it currently has, I wouldn't put it anywhere near a carrier, lel. But if you want to mess around with it, sure. SimplePlanes has the "sucessor" system for that exact purpose, I think.
@Mumpsy I see, I suspected it was going to have something to do with airfoils, these have caused me much trouble in the past, lel. Thanks for the heads-up!
@Mumpsy just a disclaimer, it's one of my older birds and I didn't bother messing around with it much before posting. But please do, I'd love to know and would really appreciate it. Glad you liked it, btw!
@BlackhattAircraft This was one of my first birds I felt was worthy of sharing, lel. In fact, I did this one right after I had just learned how to balance things out properly. I've given it a few touch-ups here and there since then, but it's mostly the same.
@Mustang51 Yeah, I thought about adding some wing struts last second but couldn't think of a way to get them to look right. Perhaps one day I'll rework this little thing into an "older" version with fixed gear, struts and a serious remodelling on that nose, which I'm not quite happy with.
@Mustang51 Yeah I did back in the day, and at least then, they didn't allow corrective surgery either. I'm happy with the path I chose instead though, so there's that.
And it's funny you mention that, our version of the "Thunderbirds" flies A-29s! They're a blast to look at, and because prop aircraft have unique characteristics such as torque they can pull off some crazy stunts at near stall speed. My favorite one is an adapted variation of the Lomcovak.
As for the F-35, that's a complicated subject, lel. We meme a lot about that plane, but honestly it's a pretty damn good aircraft, and with the way it's being conducted it's not going to end up being too expensive for countries to buy (let's see how operation/maintenance will turn out), especially considering the capabilities it brings to the table. It's been through some troubled development, sure, but I'd wager a good part of that is higher ups wanting to rush things. At the end of the day I think it's going to be an amazing fighter. I used to dislike its looks but it's grown on me lately.
@Mustang51 Oh, I do plan on getting a license on day, but flight hours are expensive around here (well, I suppose around the world as well, avgas ain't cheap) but right now I've got my hands full with trying to get to be able to build them, lol. I passed the written exam for the Air Force Academy but couldn't cut the physical ones (got eliminated by eyesight, it's just good enough that I don't need glasses but AFA around here doesn't accept anything less than 20/20. We've got few planes and the folk flying them have got to be the best of the best) so since I've always had an interest for figuring out how stuff works and why, and a lot of interest in the subject, I decided to go for engineering.
Also yeah the Mirage 2000 lags behind a bit, especially on electronics and payload, but with its looks I can definitely forgive it for that! Pretty good lift at high AoA though, vortex generation in slender deltas is nothing to scoff at.
Also yeah, sadly there's not much that can be done once we get part a certain point, where combat is decided mostly by electronics and you've gotta get a radar as big and powerful as possible on that plane, enough ECM gear, etc. Still, there are some pretty good planes that still follow the general outline of that concept - adapted to today's reality, where you can't make things so simple or cheap anymore, but you can reduce maintenance time/requirement and operational cost. The F-16 itself and the Gripen are two neat examples of this.
And yeah, light attack aircraft have a special place in my heart. The Universal/Tucano family also has quite the interesting story that would make an entire post on its own, but suffice to say it's got some German influence in it and a man named Heinrich Focke is involved. I quite like the Skyraider (though it's not exactly "light") and the Bronco too, the guys who flew them back in Vietnam had guts.
And likewise, it's great to talk to someone who enjoys planes that much, as well. It's a rare opportunity, even for a guy doing aeronautical engineering. Most people here want to work in banks and such.
@Mustang51 Thanks! I didn't have the Vautour in mind, but now that you mention it, there's definitely a resemblance with how the engines are spaced apart, and the way the intakes are made. Might have been my subconsious after one hour too much of War Thunder...
Oh man, I loved that movie! The Santa Cruz is definitely one of my favorite fictional prop planes, up there with the Sanka from Sky Crawlers. Detailing on this one is great, it looks really smooth. Excellent work!
@lastv801 It was never meant to be a replica, I'm happy with the amount of engines it has. Besides, I guess most of the thrust is coming from these four turbofans above the fuselage anyways, lel
@lastv801 the sky, maybe, but not my potato laptop that's already cooking itself trying to run the 570 parts on this thing, lel.
@Mustang51 That never seems to work for me, could never figure out how it works. I always select the option to have them include trim, but it never seems to do anything.
@Mustang51 Thanks! I've got to say, this one forced me to practice a lot of stuff that was new for me, lol. Getting the several fuselage parts covering the wings to work on something so large was new for me, as was making these airbrake-rudders.
Nice! I got to see one back when the TAM museum still existed in São Carlos. Half of it painted in German markings, the other half in Brazilian Naval Aviation colors. Beautiful bird, you did an amazing job recreating it.
@Tessemi Indeed, I thought that was properly hinted at in the start of the description lel
It's a night raven but dumbed down for low part count and I really did it just because I wanted to see what would happen.
@NirvashTec Mihaly intensifies
@Mustang51 My main inspiration for this was the X-31, but it does have serious baby Typhoon looks to it. Except this time there's no fly-by-wire... at least you won't lose the plane due to pitot failure, lol.
@Mustang51 tagging
@Mustang51 I'd say whether it flies well is debatable, lol. This thing made me a slight bit traumatized with variable sweep wings...
@animations Yes and no
It is a flying pancake, it's not the flying pancake
@Zippy6 Not quite
More like
Angry birb noises
@Zanedavid @Mustang51 @JohnnyBoythePilot @Tarquez Thanks, guys! I made this one on a streak of AC3-fueled inspiration for the memes, but it ended up being quite fun to fly around in.
@Mustang51 Oh, I have a lot prebuilt from before, lel. I'm actually quite slow at making them, and I don't do it regularly. You're looking at what must be over one year of stock here - without counting all the ones I don't deem worth posting, that is.
It's running out, though; these ones I've been posting in the last few days are, most of them, pretty recent (not all are in chronological order, the Corvus is one of my older ones). the Arara is one of my most recent birds, in fact. After all this, I'm only going to have what... Some three or four planes? I need to check, but that's about it. I
I'm working on a new one right now, I've got a teaser post about it. When you see that one ready, that's when you know I've run out, lol.
@Mustang51 Thanks man! This one's pretty simple, but it was fun to mess around with
@XxHELLCAT2GOOD4UxX Sure thing.
@Mustang51 I'm still amazed, honestly. I was hoping one of my builds would be featured in the future, but I was definitely not expecting it to be this one, nor so soon.
I cannot help but wonder whether it was the aesthetics, or the performance/functionality, or both, lol.
@MSGamezYXZ360 I just eyeball things, no blueprints. I do use reference images on my phone, and try to replicate the features in my aircraft sometimes to get the feel. I've tried using blueprints in SP and it just isn't for me, I prefer eyeballing things. When you're doing fictional aircraft, this also helps as you're more free and not bound to a blueprint.
Also, no, I'm not in any SP server (I assume you mean Discord and the like), at least not for the moment.
@SakuraSaku Thanks! I hope you had as much fun with this as I did.
@Mustang51 Original plane, do not steal lol
Thanks man!
@Mustang51 this is the one I was talking about the other day
Not!-A-Tucano
@RailfanEthan Yeah, and the external shapes are coming along nicely too IMO. It'll be a while until I finish and post it, but I can tag you when I do if you'd like me to.
@randomusername You should probably go get something to eat, lel
I hope I didn't disappoint with false hopes
@Mustang51 If it looks right, it will fly right, someone once said. I gotta admit I made this one mostly for the looks of it, but I was surprised when I took it out for a spin and saw it handled pretty well.
@BlackBoA yee, with 54 parts no less
I now recall I had been asked to tag ya, so here we go.
@Mustang51
@Brields95 Doesn't it? I ended up growing attached to this little thing, lol. I think it's the prettiest plane I've ever built, even compared to more recent ones. Glad you liked it!
@OmegaDestroyer Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed fliying it! I know I had a lot of fun building this thing.
@Mustang51 Thanks! the Vought "pancakes" always fascinated me. I had to do it at some point, lel.
@asteroidbook345 Imagine my shock the first time I pitched up in this thing, lmao.
@Mustang51 I try! Thanks, man.
@Mustang51 I feel your pain, I'm trying to do aircraft with simple cockpits as of lately and changing to that has been... interesting. Dunno if I'll stick to it as it consumes a lot of time (and parts), lol.
@Mustang51 Thanks a lot! I should have a "I can't believe it's not a Tucano" coming out on a few days, if you're interested in COIN birds. It's one of my most recent ones though, so it's pretty far down the list.
Now this is what I call a high-effort, high-performance meme
@Ultra0 It's not small, it's tiny! It packs a punch a lot larger than itself, though.
@atgxtg Oh, I did mess around with that too. I used all sorts of angles on the canards, and with one of them I got really good trim, but I found it didn't turn as sharply anymore. Decided to keep it as is. If you want straight flying though, setting the canards to 0.5 to 0.7 degrees, or making it a semi-symmetrical airfoil does the trick nicely indeed.
@RareHeroicDancer Oh, for now I'm posting the pile of designs I've got sitting around, planes I did quite some time ago. I've still got a lot to go through in that list, lol. Next up is a maritime patrol aircraft.
I have no idea what I'm gonna do after I'm finished with all these, I do things when the ideas pop up in my mind, lel.
It gives me some slight Cutlass vibes, if the Cutlass had been developed a few years later with supersonic aerodynamics and all. Its design screams late 50's, I love it.
@Denniscx With the landing gear it currently has, I wouldn't put it anywhere near a carrier, lel. But if you want to mess around with it, sure. SimplePlanes has the "sucessor" system for that exact purpose, I think.
@MSGamezYXZ360 Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it.
@Mumpsy I see, I suspected it was going to have something to do with airfoils, these have caused me much trouble in the past, lel. Thanks for the heads-up!
@Mumpsy just a disclaimer, it's one of my older birds and I didn't bother messing around with it much before posting. But please do, I'd love to know and would really appreciate it. Glad you liked it, btw!
@Mustang51 Perhaps attached to these wing sections between the aleirons and the flaps? I guess that'd work.
@BlackhattAircraft This was one of my first birds I felt was worthy of sharing, lel. In fact, I did this one right after I had just learned how to balance things out properly. I've given it a few touch-ups here and there since then, but it's mostly the same.
@Mustang51 Yeah, I thought about adding some wing struts last second but couldn't think of a way to get them to look right. Perhaps one day I'll rework this little thing into an "older" version with fixed gear, struts and a serious remodelling on that nose, which I'm not quite happy with.
@Mustang51 Yeah I did back in the day, and at least then, they didn't allow corrective surgery either. I'm happy with the path I chose instead though, so there's that.
And it's funny you mention that, our version of the "Thunderbirds" flies A-29s! They're a blast to look at, and because prop aircraft have unique characteristics such as torque they can pull off some crazy stunts at near stall speed. My favorite one is an adapted variation of the Lomcovak.
As for the F-35, that's a complicated subject, lel. We meme a lot about that plane, but honestly it's a pretty damn good aircraft, and with the way it's being conducted it's not going to end up being too expensive for countries to buy (let's see how operation/maintenance will turn out), especially considering the capabilities it brings to the table. It's been through some troubled development, sure, but I'd wager a good part of that is higher ups wanting to rush things. At the end of the day I think it's going to be an amazing fighter. I used to dislike its looks but it's grown on me lately.
This is a friend-shaped plane. It's adorable, and I love it.
@Mustang51 Oh, I do plan on getting a license on day, but flight hours are expensive around here (well, I suppose around the world as well, avgas ain't cheap) but right now I've got my hands full with trying to get to be able to build them, lol. I passed the written exam for the Air Force Academy but couldn't cut the physical ones (got eliminated by eyesight, it's just good enough that I don't need glasses but AFA around here doesn't accept anything less than 20/20. We've got few planes and the folk flying them have got to be the best of the best) so since I've always had an interest for figuring out how stuff works and why, and a lot of interest in the subject, I decided to go for engineering.
Also yeah the Mirage 2000 lags behind a bit, especially on electronics and payload, but with its looks I can definitely forgive it for that! Pretty good lift at high AoA though, vortex generation in slender deltas is nothing to scoff at.
Also yeah, sadly there's not much that can be done once we get part a certain point, where combat is decided mostly by electronics and you've gotta get a radar as big and powerful as possible on that plane, enough ECM gear, etc. Still, there are some pretty good planes that still follow the general outline of that concept - adapted to today's reality, where you can't make things so simple or cheap anymore, but you can reduce maintenance time/requirement and operational cost. The F-16 itself and the Gripen are two neat examples of this.
And yeah, light attack aircraft have a special place in my heart. The Universal/Tucano family also has quite the interesting story that would make an entire post on its own, but suffice to say it's got some German influence in it and a man named Heinrich Focke is involved. I quite like the Skyraider (though it's not exactly "light") and the Bronco too, the guys who flew them back in Vietnam had guts.
And likewise, it's great to talk to someone who enjoys planes that much, as well. It's a rare opportunity, even for a guy doing aeronautical engineering. Most people here want to work in banks and such.
@Mustang51 Thanks! I didn't have the Vautour in mind, but now that you mention it, there's definitely a resemblance with how the engines are spaced apart, and the way the intakes are made. Might have been my subconsious after one hour too much of War Thunder...