FSX SP1 Republic/Horten Atomic Rocketplanes

SP1 Republic/Horten Atomic Rocketplanes. Fifteen repaints for the CDesigns Horten XVIII C. Just some fun and color. When one looks this luftwhatif, one can see what influenced Von Braun in the 1950's when he did the Disney film with Heinlein and Bonstel, and the influence on Bonstel and Heinlein's visulizations of the Atomic Rocket future of the space age. This thing looks like all that 1950's speculative art of brightly colored, swept wing rocketplanes on orbit; servicing that streamlined silver spacestation . Rocket Robinhood's spaceships; Tintin's DESTINATION MOON ship. Chris Foss and Angus McKee's Artwork. Rocket Punk at its finest! This file includes 15 repaints for ADC, SAC, NRO, RAAF, UN Sky Marshal, Mars Aerospace Force, and Federal Space Agency; Spaceplane FDE's; FSX default Garmin glass VC; FSX default steam gauge VC; flight instructions in the readme file; external camera veiws, VC and nav/strobe lights; smoke system; reworked detailed VC textures and pilots. 689,000 ft+/2234 kts groundspeed in a 70 degree climb and global range with a Nuclear Gas Core Variable-Cycle Rocket engine. Requires the Ho XVIII C, by Christian Drawz (HO18_FS9.ZIP). By Mike Barnes.

Install the model in your FSX install. toss away the gauges. Replace the config and air file with the 2 new files. Ad the lines for the original textures if you want to use them. Replace the Panel folder with the one provided. There is also a simple FSX default 'steam gauge' panel if you want to fly the stock bomber in FSX. These mods have only been tested in FSX SP1.

The Spaceplane: The CDesigns Horten XVII C is an FS9 model, relesed in 2008. A little rough, and it has an annoying glitch in the texture mapping of the ends of the wing tips, but not too bad. Heck; its one helluva a lot better than anything I've managed to make in GMAX. For the spaceplane, I painted up a bunch of skins inspired by the above mentioned sources; greebly'd up the cockpit textures; changed the pilots (if you were a kid in the '60's, you'll recognize 'em) wrote up an FSX default VC panel; put in external camera veiws, smoke, and lights; and wrote a FDE that will let you climb to 600,000 ft/2200+Kts.-Orbital altitude/speed is considered to be 400,000ft/2200Kts there abouts. Why Republic-Horten? Had to have some sort of backstory, and Republic did a lot of early work on Super and Hypersonic ram and variable cycle powered combat aeroplanes.

Take Off: At low altitudes, the Spaceplane accelerates very quickly, and handles like a garbage truck. For take off, select full flaps, and select engines 1 and 3.(E+1+3) This is the air-breathing Variable cycle turbine-Ram-SCRAM installation. keep the throttle down to .25% on take off. Rotation at about 140KTS, you will have to pull into a fairly steep climb to keep the speed under 250kts untill the gear and flaps are up. Cruise climb at 450-600 kts to 30,000ft. The handling improves at higher IAS. establish your course. Select E+1+2+3 to bring the Nuclear Gas Core Rocket on line. Push up the throttles, hold altitude level and let the speed build up to 1400+kts. The more the better. Select Afterburner(Shift F4) and rotate the nose up into a 60-80-deg climb,and get on the elevator trim to hold the climb hands off. Smooth,gentle control inputs,as the Spaceplane has a lot of inertia, and little resistance at high altitudes. Make sure the yaw damper is on. It takes a little practice, but its not difficult. You can also blast off with all engines engaged, max the throttles, pull her into a 90deg climb and zoom straight into space right off the runway. Remember, flight controlls quit working at about 408K Ft, so watch your attitude on the way out.

On orbit: Space starts at 400,000ft, and the craft can coast as high as 650K+.You can then shut down engines, and fly a Sanger profile of skip gliding - descend to 350,00ft, aerodynamic controls become effective at 400,000ft, maintain a 10 deg nose down to build up IAS to about 180kts, at 350-300,000ft gently pull up into a 10 deg climb, and the Spaceplane will glide back up to 450,000-550,000ft, unpowered. Let it start to decend, and do it again. I flew a boost-glide profile from Sangley to Iwakuni unpowered after the intial boost to 600,000ft. 60 minutes chock to chock. Way cool. Alternativly, after engine shut-down, hit the slew key (Y) punch the velocity to 2900kts and hit F4 untill you are at the altitude you want, then punch F2 to hold altitude, go for orbit and enjoy the veiw. SLEW takes the place of orbital mechanics that don't exsist in FSX, as well as gyros and reaction attitude control thrusters.

Descent: When its time to de-orbit, set attitude 20 deg nose up, wings level, belly-whopper forwards (thats normal flight attitude, that is) and descend. The Spaceplane is a great supersonic glider, with lots of cross-range. at 20,000ft, select E+1+3 and Ctrl+E to get the air-breather fired up, and continue on your way, or crank up all 3 and blast into space again. If you start to loose it, a quick double tap of the SLEW(Y) key will stabilize things (kinda like big-assed gyros). De-orbit is executed 20deg nose up. At 400,000ft, you'll get some air bite, and the craft will start to pitch nose down. gently pull the nose up to a -10deg descent to manage speed and altitude. Easy on the control inputs, pole her about like a gentleman.

Landing: use lots of room. It handles like a arthritic cement truck at low speeds. Full flaps, keep the throttles at 40% or so and manage airspeed with the speed brake. Approach speed 180kts, come over the fence at 150kts and throttle back. Reversers are avalable.

If you get bit by the spaceflight bug, check out ORBITER.

Its a high fidelity, freeware spaceflight simulator, with lots a waay kewl add-ons available. (XR-2 RAVENSTAR ! I'd like to see that one adapted to FSX) Its has a steep learning curve, nice graphics, few bugs, good suport, and is a very light-weight install on the Hard Drive. Its also a complete universe, with the appropriate add-ons in. Even extra-solar planetary systems and neutron stars. The ground graphics are simple, but that sim is about space. Highly recommended.

This package is freeware, and must remain so. I do this stuff for my own enjoyment, and to give back to the FS community. Comments are appreciated, but support is limited. The images in the image file may be freely used and uploaded. Some great screen savers in there. This package may be modified, reposted, uploaded or repainted anyway you like. Its all YOURS now.

WITH ROARING JETS OUR SOARING ROCKET FLY! BEYOND THE EARTH! BEYOND THE SKY!

Have fun. 3/7charlie. Near-human dystopia, Some where on the left coast.

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