FlightGear Aircraft Models -- Stewart's Hanger

The purpose of this project, was to create aircraft for having fun in exploring the scenery, instead of real-life flight training.
None of the following models fly like a conventional airplane, and are easy for the beginner.

Welcome, this site has been accessed times since 2005.Mar.11

Of the following 5 "aircraft" models, 4 are loaded with

production quality features.                  List of features unique to these models
Hover capable
Capable of Orbital velocities
(but remember FlightGear is for flying near the ground, not in space)
Capable of walking around cockpit and around aircraft,
  out the doors or hatches to ground,
  or jump when airborne like a sky diver.
  Free fall with or without a parachute at terminal velocity.
Walker animations.
Variable Interior lighting at night.
Crashing can degrade performance
                    Other features that are not unique
Multiplayer
Digital cockpit.
  New venting and sparking effects.
Landing lights and nav lights.
Customizable color and/or textures for most surfaces.

New development continues in bluebird.

bluebird is released under GPL v2

The following models are copyright by author and trademarks of Paramount.

Conditions of Use: only for non-profit commercial or personal end use. Original mesh is freely available. Author must get credited.

Stargate Daedalus X-305 Starship

Horse models

Instructions:
For the primary package, bluebird-10.8.zip, danube-41.5.zip, etc.
Unzip in your flightgear data/Aircraft directory.
$FGBASE/data/Aircraft
(replace the variable $FGBASE with your actual location on your computer)

For the Multiplayer package, bluebird-ai-9.0.zip, etc.
Unzip in your flightgear data directory.
$FGBASE/data
The content will be extracted into the AI/Aircraft directory.

Starting Flightgear:
If you are running the newest version of FlightGear, version 1.9 or cvs built with OpenSceneGraph, start with:
--aircraft=bluebird
--aircraft=danube
--aircraft=shuttle6

If you are running FlightGear version 1.0 (with Plib)
--aircraft=bluebird-10
--aircraft=danube-10
--aircraft=shuttle6 (This will change once released for 1.0)

or if you are running FlightGear version 0.9.10
--aircraft=bluebird-09
--aircraft=danube-09
--aircraft=shuttle6-09
etc.

Support for FlightGear versions 1.0 and earlier is being dropped from development, and forked to a separate release package, as the new model animations are not very well supported. Version 1.0 barely allowed these improvements to work, and are noticably deficient in a few areas.
As this changeover occurs, I will leave one older version available on the download tabs.

Counter-grav controls, or VTOL (Vertical Take Off & Landing) can be controlled with the following input devices:

by the Joystick, it is keyed to the elevator trim, which is on the Hat of multi-button joysticks. Hold the modifier button, press the Hat up or down, and rate of assent or descent is controlled by your pitch (either nose up or down).

by the Keyboard, press [Home] and [End]. This method is not pressure sensitive to ascent velocity.

by the Mouse, in pointer mode, Hold the Middle Mouse Button, and drag up or down.

Help is available by pressing [?]

The simulator starts up with the power on, and engines on standby, ready for hover up and throttle up.
For a perfect flight, Hover Up first before Throttling Up or you will hear a rubbing sound as your landing gear rubs the tarmac. Newer version of bluebird start with wheels down so you can taxi around immediately.

Summary of useful keys:
[Home] Hover Up increases vertical thrust, increase altitude.
[End] Hover Down.
[Page Up] Increase throttle, speed up.
[Page Down] Decrease throttle, slow down.
[8] Keypad Up pushes the control stick up, or away from the pilot, to pitch nose down.
[2] Keypad Down pulls the control stick down, toward the pilot, to pitch nose up.
[4] Keypad Left moves the control stick left, steer left.
[6] Keypad Right moves the control stick right, steer right.
[b] Backwards, Reverse throttle direction only while held down.

In the UFO flight model, Flaps are not needed. The same keys are used instead to set the maximum engine speed, just like Gearing on a car with manual transmission. Faster speeds associated with escape velocity are not allowed in the lower atmosphere where the air is too dense for realistic flight. The ship's automated systems will reduce your maximum speed upon re-entry from space.
[ [ ] left square bracket increases Maximum Speed. Increment Gear speed, speed up.
[ ] ] right square bracket decreases Maximum Speed. Decrement Gear speed, slow down.

Several control buttons on the dashboard can be pressed with the mouse pointer.
[~] Tilde. Master power button. In bluebird, it is on the left panel, button #1 from the left. Trek LCARS panel is top middle bar.
[ \ ] Backslash. Toggle Secondary power system. For the bluebird, it is called CounterGrav or Fusion power, and turning this off allows you to drive around on the ground. In Trek, it is labeled Impulse.
[spacebar] Toggle Primary power system, the Nacelles. reduces maximum speed without any forward thrusting engines. In Trek, it is labeled Warp Drive, although it does no such thing, we'll just imagine this is required for faster atmospheric flight, and that the Impulse engines are somehow restricted in power output.
[v] increment View location.
[c] increment Cockpit or Camera location. Only takes effect when View location is set to Cockpit.
To leave the cockpit and become the walker, change your cabin/cockpit position with [c].
Walk around the cabin with the [w] and [a] [s] [d] keys. (WASD = Forward, Left, Backwards, and Right)
Another way is to teleport outside/inside quickly with [o].
[o] Toggle Outside or Inside location for walker.

[g] Gear up for Bluebird only.
[Shift-G] Gear down.
[Ctrl-g] Toggle Gear mode. Extend fully for landing, or crouch low for loading.
[Ctrl-w] Toggle Wheels up/down.

[f] Increment Door selected. Next to each door is also a button that can be pressed.
[ctrl-f] Toggle selected Door open or closed.

The configuration option menu is available by [TAB] or [CTRL]I
Most buttons on the instrument panel have a corresponding keyboard button.
The Walker animation control also pops up with [TAB] when outside.

If you still have questions and feel more instructions are necessary, email me with suggestions or questions.
Noah J. has made a video tutorial demonstrating the basic keys on YouTube 1NVDiLLl9tg

Reference links

Other similar aircraft links

If you encounter any problems, or bugs, please let me know. Hey, I'd like to hear positive things too!
The Daedalus for example, was made by request.

All of the work presented on this page, with the exception of meshes authored by others so noted, has been done by volunteer effort, and represents thousands of hours on my part.
You can help by showing your support, and keep this website going. Thank you.

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