DC-3 -one of my favourites, nice picture too!
Re: How does it fly? How is the flight model worked out?
As you probably know, the 3D model and the flight model are two separate entities in Flight Simulator, so the actual physical appearance of the aircraft doesn't affect the flight handling at all. In practical terms this means you could make a model of the Whitehouse and assign a Boeing 747's flight model to it, and it would fly just like a 747. Obviously this is useful in the case of the previously posted 'tail-less' TF-29, (the one that looks like a bird), as it would probably be very unstable in real life and need a fly-by-wire system to keep it under control if such a design was ever really attempted. The flight characteristics are all handled by the 'Aircraft' file in the aeroplane's FS folder, which can be edited in notepad, here's a bit of this particular one:
[airplane_geometry]
wing_area = 245.80
wing_span = 41
wing_root_chord = 8.42
wing_dihedral = 5
wing_incidence = 0.0
wing_twist = 0.0
oswald_efficiency_factor = 0.80
wing_winglets_flag = 0
wing_sweep = 19.5
wing_pos_apex_lon = 9.22
wing_pos_apex_vert = -1.65
htail_area = 29.33
htail_span = 12.30
htail_pos_lon = -11.43
htail_pos_vert = 2.40
htail_incidence = 0.000000
htail_sweep = 23.20
vtail_area = 24.46
vtail_span = 6.44
vtail_sweep = 44
vtail_pos_lon = -8.51
vtail_pos_vert = 0.18
elevator_area = 10.90
aileron_area = 33.08
rudder_area = 19.69
elevator_up_limit = 26.00000
elevator_down_limit = 20.00000
aileron_up_limit = 19.480565
aileron_down_limit = 19.480565
rudder_limit = 23.491270
elevator_trim_limit = 19.480565
spoiler_limit = 60.000000
aileron_to_spoileron_gain = 0.000000
spoiler_handle_available = 1
min_ailerons_for_spoilerons = 0.000000
min_flaps_for_spoilerons = 0.000000
spoilerons_available = 0
auto_spoiler_available=1
spoiler_extension_time=0.500000
positive_g_limit_flaps_up=8.000000
positive_g_limit_flaps_down=5.927350
negative_g_limit_flaps_up=-4.000000
negative_g_limit_flaps_down=-3.000000
In the case of this, and the TF29 Swallow thingy I previously posted pics of, all I did was to assign the flight model of another pre-existing aircraft to these new ones (I used the flight model of the Flight Replicas Me262). In this case it doesn't really matter what flight model it has, as all I will be doing with these particular models will be taking FRAPS footage of them performing various moves and then editing the shots to look like they are dogfighting one another, although I will have to send the models to a friend and FRAPS some of this online with a buddy flying them alongside for the formation shots, as this will be easier than arsing around editing it to look like that. I may possibly do some of the dogfight sequences like that, in a pre-rehearsed routine, because in the story, the green two seater has to defeat three of the much sleeker 'enemy' planes. This will be right up my friend's street, as he's the one who's flying that A6 Intruder right up my ass in some earlier screenshots I posted on the previous page, and he's a real aerobatics nut (in real life too as it happens).
I will have to edit some of the flight model parameters to get the navigation lights in the right position and maybe alter the wheels geometry to suit them for take off shots, although I hadn't planned to show them taking off, so at this point they don't actually have (or need) any modelled 3D landing gear at all (of course that might change). In actual fact, in the story, the green two seater fighter/bomber pictured above does not take off from a runway, but is launched from a large airborne 'carrier' on the edge of space, which is why it has rockets, rather than jet engines.
Chock