GOLD SPECIAL
This is now Updated, It Flies very smooth now
Reworked the FBW
This is Phase Two so no Nose Strakes sorry
Project Summary (from NASA)
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, used an F-18 Hornet fighter aircraft as its High Angle-of-Attack (Alpha) Research Vehicle (HARV) in a three-phased flight research program lasting from April 1987 until September 1996. The aircraft completed 385 research flights and demonstrated stabilized flight at angles of attack between 65 and 70 degrees using thrust vectoring vanes, a research flight control system, and forebody strakes (hinged structures on the forward side of the fuselage to provide control by interacting with vortices, generated at high angles of attack, to create side forces).
About Phase Two
Phase Two featured major hardware and software modifications to the HARV – a multiaxis thrust-vectoring control system featuring vanes attached to the aft end of the aircraft and a research flight control system. Three paddle-like vanes, made of Inconel®1 metal (a nickel alloy containing chromium and iron that is heat resistant), were mounted around each engine's exhaust. They provided both pitch (up and down) and yaw (right and left) forces to enhance maneuverability when the aerodynamic controls were either unusable or less effective than desired. The engines had the divergent portion of the exhaust nozzles removed to shorten the distance the vanes had to be cantilevered by about two feet. The subsonic performance of the engines, including afterburning, was largely unaffected by the modifications, but supersonic flight was no longer possible – a penalty unique to this experimental project. The thrust vectoring control system added 2,200 pounds to the total weight of the aircraft. In addition, the inclusion of a spin parachute for safety plus an emergency power system and ballast added a further weight penalty of 1,500 pounds. The HARV also carried 419 pounds of other equipment and wiring not directly associated with the thrust-vector-control system.
Features
- A lot of Bugs
-Post Stall Maneuverability
-Thrust Vectoring
-Semi Detailed Cockpit
-Auto Deploying Flaps (Flaps auto deploy when under 500kph
**-AoA Limiter
-Gforce Simulated Cockpit View
Creators Notes
I have been working on this day and night just to make it fly and look better. The fuselage is a little bit Thin because i screwed up the first stage on building this and not realized when i finished the whole plane. The Elevator funky trees came from GuyFolks Pixy with some tweaking and I know it doesn't work well and still buggy. I will start to become Semi Active because school will start at September 12 here in the Philippines. This is the best i can do for this Jet. It was really hard making a very Stable plane become unstable without moving the Landing Gear.
This does not have weapons or flares because its just a Experimental Flight Research Aircraft
Add your own weapons to your custom version of this
Controls and Activation Groups
AG1: Activate Thrust Vectoring
AG2: Open Canopy
AG4: Tail Hook
AG7: Fold Wings
Flaps: Override Flaps
Screenshot Time
Big Thanks to @NatsukiHoshino for taking this beautiful screenshots and giving tips on making the plane
I could update this sooner or later depending on the Problems i find
I will not making a Lower Part Version of this because it already took too much of my time
You can turn this into a Fighter Version if you want just Credit me for the original Plane
Specifications
Spotlights
- StarrySky2077 2.2 years ago
- NatsukiHoshino 2.2 years ago
- ShiroNeko 2.2 years ago
- Fineilldoitmyself 2.2 years ago
- Icey21 2.2 years ago
- MrShenanigansSP 2.2 years ago
- Erc90F4RU 2.2 years ago
- NARGII 2.2 years ago
- ManManTheWeaponsMan 2.2 years ago
- JesusChrist 2.2 years ago
- Zaineman 2.2 years ago
- MrCOPTY 2.2 years ago
- 1VirtualRealityConversion 2.2 years ago
General Characteristics
- Predecessor Flight model fix
- Successors 23 airplane(s) +287 bonus
- Created On Android
- Wingspan 40.9ft (12.5m)
- Length 58.6ft (17.9m)
- Height 16.2ft (4.9m)
- Empty Weight 32,041lbs (14,533kg)
- Loaded Weight 46,483lbs (21,084kg)
Performance
- Power/Weight Ratio 1.305
- Wing Loading 86.2lbs/ft2 (421.1kg/m2)
- Wing Area 539.0ft2 (50.1m2)
- Drag Points 4050
Parts
- Number of Parts 758
- Control Surfaces 8
- Performance Cost 3,322
Update summary:
Update 1
Reworked FBW, it now flies very smooth
Really Unstable when Ag1 is on, pulling too hard will result in kulbit, Just a slight pull will do a short Backwards Flight
Update 2
Reworked on the balancing and PSM is now good and it can fly backwards for longer
If You want to see the Build Progression Of This, just click every Predecessor
If you found any problems, Feel free to comment what it is so i can fix it
Yes this can PSM but its better to do it under 600kph
Can you make a f-18 super hornet?
It’s super fun to fly but landing on the carrier with TVC is a nightmare
@Lifewald magic
@IICXLVIICDLXXXIIIDCXLVII how tf did you upvote an unlisted
@Lifewald Btw you should check out the comment sections from your older backups of this plane, you might find something interesting.
Thrust vectoring F-18 NICE
High AoA : checked
For research purpose : checked
Is a vehicle : checked
Work fine by me.
I also have some suggestions for this plane, here goes:
- I agreed with Zainman for the pitching and controllability, that happened because the plane have somewhat negative stability (just ignore the CoM and CoL, it's just a rough representation) and when aoa is high enough the plane will want to fly backward on it's own, there are many ways to fix this, increase nose weight, move CoL rearward, increasing speed and range of motion of horizontal stabilizers, increasing drag scale for horizontal stabilizers or a combination of all I've said. I assume you've somewhat fixed it but it still present at high speed.
- Lucky you can understand the code, rudders are almost useless in correcting unwanted yaw because the sensitivity is too low, YawRate/150 is too low, I've tried YawRate/40 and the difference is night and day.
- You can also play with angle of slip if you brave enough lol, it's just aoa but sideway.
- The main limiting factor of flying backward is rudders itself, when speed s high enough the rudder will try to flip the plane to face the airstream regardless of the FT code, it's just nature of having rudders. (Just imagine throwing a dart backward, it can fly backward up to a certain speed until it flip to face the air stream)
@Lifewald Wow ! That's perfect, exactly what I meant ! Btw, that's why I sent you a copy of my build. So you could see what i mean by ease of controllability. My build is nowhere NEAR complete. Lol but I appreciate the advice !
@Zaineman fixed it, it should now PSM better and improved backwards flight
First, Upvoted & Spotlighted. The cockpit is just outstanding (thanks for adding variables so the hud works, so many people don't) I'm so jealous of the pinstripes (genius) My ONLY complaint is, I wish it was more snappy and controllable in PSM mode. For example, let's say Im pitching the aircraft backwards making it spin. When I pitch forward to make it stop, it feels like I'm "Too late" and it continues to spin backwards another 180° before it stops. Please don't think I'm knocking your build. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm going to send you a private link to show you what im building and what i mean
@Khanhlam it doesnt have bugs now exept landing gear drifting in low physics, yeah i used guyfolks sorcery to fly
@GuyFolk i managed to fit your Pixy's fbw to this plane, I was lucky i can read that ft
@Lifewald ah ok.
@IceCraftGaming The engine inside is connected to a rotator, the pads dont do anything to the exhaust flow, if you mean the code of the pads, just reverse engineer the FT i used
btw, how did you make the TVC pads work?
@Lifewald XD
This looks real nice
@Lifewald I Don't Have Any Idea About PSM Aircraft, But After I Read The Description (The 1st 3 Words 😅) I Think That Aircraft Is Concept To Check The New Programs The Make Aircrafts More AoA Capables And Avoiding The STALL In The Same Time.
GOATed build
@Khanhlam thank you, if you need help just tag me
Easily one of the most well made planes I’ve seen on here in a while. I find it handles better with the
powerMultiplierof the big pointy engines set to 1. That could just be me, though. I’m a sucker for speed!