In the initial project teaser post (https://www.simpleplanes.com/Forums/View/1603131/Project-A500-Teaser), I said that I still needed a tow aircraft for the glider. Well, I finally finished the tow plane, which I have decided to name "Protolaunch 1".
The "Protolaunch 1" has a maximum airspeed of 650mph (about 1046kph) TAS, and a maximum altitude of 60,000ft (about 18,288m). Hopefully, this will be enough to tow the A500 "Stratoglider" to a reasonable altitude.
Thoughts or suggestions? Let me know!
@TheFlightGuySP Fair enough! I saw that and it works quite well!
Maybe I'll be an easyway to implement dynamic weather in a mod...?
At least the "lore" of your build still works :)
@MethaManAerospace However, I learned this after I had already completed and released the Stratoglider, so it still has the rocket booster, which works very well.
@MethaManAerospace A little while ago, I learned that it is actually possible to have updrafts in Simpleplanes, by simply using the
SetWindSpeedcommand.Ever since then, whenever I cruise in a glider, I use updrafts to keep it in the air, and even allow the glider to gently climb. It's quite useful.
@TheFlightGuySP Nice plan! I've been thinking about how to do dynamic aerology (thermals and soaring etc...) for a while now and it seems complicated... A simplified version could be doable though in theory but idk how to mod for SP so that's annoying... Sadly SP physics gets a bit annoying at high altitude... And it's also hard to make (quite) realistic FMs...
@ReinMcDeer Both aircraft kind of look like Scaled Composites aircraft.
Reminds me of the Rutan Voyager
@MethaManAerospace Yes. In fact, that's the main inspiration for this project. However, without thermals/air-convection simulation, or more realistic wind simulation, it will require an alternate source of propulsion to climb. So far, the plan is to tow the glider to about 50,000-60,000ft, detach, and then fire up a small, low-power, detachable solid rocket booster, which will hopefully provide enough thrust to get to at least 75,000ft, and maybe even to 90,000ft.
ever heard of the Perlan Project? The glider SOARS up to ~70,000 ft.
Perlan
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