I did a slight update to Buran – I added rocket engines, some of extra geometry like OMS and parachute holders, and main fuel tank (it’s not yet perfectly precise). It works well, but I don’t have correct engine settings for Buran right now (thrust and fuel consumption).
These are some screenshots (I’ll start painting it, and making fuselage even more close to real Buran soon):
It’s time to start working on on-board computer system and landing autopilot. And yes I know it looks ugly, I will work on making it eye-candy once it flies good.
I updated mission schedule page with Buran test missions, and here is a new video:
I updated shuttle geometry, and some misc tweaks to rudder (proper angles for speedbrake too). It works great now – and what is interesting is that landing speeds match the ones the real Buran had (I landed at 277KPH in that video, the real Buran landed at 260KMH..310KMH). Besides I found out how to properly land it (you need to drop speed right before touchdown, without falling down while loosing lift though).
I added parachute to it, and as you can see I put it on top of Mriya An-225:
(I’m sorry, the mount point is slightly off).
I require another pilot who is able to fly Mriya An-225 (for proper tests and air launches I would like to have real person who could land the An-225 after dropping Buran). Oh yeah, I want to start virtual airline (sort of) called X-Plane Space & Aeronautics Group, which would primarly focus on space/orbital flights, extreme aircrafts, and heavy load transporting (I was thinking of making new network, possibly partially integrating with VATSIM or that other one, but I’m sure VATSIM people don’t want space crafts in their orbit).
I’m interested in russian space-shuttle look-alike called Buran. It is a very similar concept to Space shuttle. I should really stop writing posts at night, and actually add something meaningful to them, but I’ll do this later (later as in like I did with this post).
Anyway, I’m working on creating Buran space shuttle for X-Plane, complete with launching and re-entry stuff. Yes, I’m gonna get a huge rocket and slap it on that, possibly some automatic guidance system and stuff like that (for some time it’s gonna be purely manual).
Today I completed the chassis of Buran, I used some schemes for reference, mostly this one (I sat with ruler and calculator converting centimeters to feet on full scale, and doing all measurements, fun job):
Right now I have chassis (slightly different from the drawing, I’ll be working on fixing that), wings done (airfoil is wrong, I will create unique airfoil for Buran eventually, also wings might have aileron placement slightly wrong), horizontal stabilizer (rudder placement is wrong, but it doesn’t really matter, and I don’t know if Buran has a speedbrake), and elevator (works just like on the Buran, possibly it’s area is slightly smaller though). Wings have some geometry problems – they don’t perfectly match yet (my mistake).
I conducted two aero-tests today – dropping Buran from B-52 (later will be replaced with special Mrya, just like real ones), and then gliding down and landing at Edwards AFB. Here is the video of second test:
I corrected aileron angle deflections during first test, so it’s less shaky when you roll now. Sorry for really crappy painting, the windows and all elements are not drawn where they should be.
Eventually I’ll add on-board systems including Buran’s computer system (I got some information on it), and maybe even program automatic reentry autopilot. Not mentoining adding the rockets, and somehow making X-Plane to put Buran facing sky, not horizont (pitch it by 90 degrees).
Oh yeah, also adding engines on it, and OMS, and making actually flyable in space (didn’t test this though, the only Buran I have right now is just a glider).
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