Da Vinci's Flying Machine for First Eagles

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

I had some free time this week, so, just for fun I made one of Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machines. The wings, ropes, and pilot are all animated. The animations are tied to the engine, so you can use the throttle to control the flapping speed, and you can use "ctrl+I" to glide. You have to be careful when taking off or landing because the wing tips come very close to the ground.

There is a cockpit view, but there isn't much to see except the pilot's hands.

I tested it in both FE1 and FE2, in Easy and  Normal modes. 

Put the folder named "DaVinci" into your Aircraft folder.

DaVincisFlyingMachine.zip

 

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by Stephen1918

[Skyviper 1,101]

Nice!

I was just thinking about Da Vinci's work and how society might have been changed had his invention worked back then. That an Nikola Tesla's work. Maybe we'd be as advanced as Star Trek by now?

Well maybe not that advanced but still more scientifically advanced than we are now.

[33LIMA 972]

That has to be one of the most elegant aircraft in FE, if not in any flight sim. Something to do with the blending of bird-like, bat-like and man-made characteristics, and a reflection on the artistry of the original creator and of this new version.

[+Crusader 2,101]

Reminds me of ThirdWire's First Flight: The Wright Experience Flight Simulator

http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_076a.html

Probably hard to find now...

[+whiteknight06604 934]

I love this. thank you s much.

[+VonS 1,424]

This is a lovely surprise - I look forward to flying it in FE2. And perhaps also testing it in "what if" dogfights against German-flown MS Type G variants....

Was thinking about the Wright Flyer B (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Model_B) and more dangerous Flyer C (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Model_C) variants over the last few days...so this is an interesting coincidence to see a "very early" model ready for FE2. Thanks for this Stephen.

Link to history of various Wright aircraft:

http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Airplanes/Wright_Airplanes.htm

Von S

Edited May 3, 2019 by VonS
Added link.

[Wrench 9,865]

Man, that's AWESOME!!!!

[+VonS 1,424]

Took a break from my early WW2 tweaks to work on the FM for Stephen's wonderful Da Vinci flyer - enclosed in the file below is an updated sounds list for your FE2 flight folder, a new sound that works well for flapping wings, and the tweaked data ini for the aircraft.

Some notes:

top speed about 70 kph

ceiling about 750 m if you really pedal well 

is somewhat unstable because of lack of traditional rudder (stable flying requires good coordination of throttle, left/right rudder, wing warping, also up/down elevator...a real workout and requires a bit of practice)

tip to take off smoothly: increase throttle slowly to about 50-60% while keeping the tail down and direction stable

other tip: to turn more easily left/right while flying, ease up on the throttle while using rudder and warping

throttle is now an approximation of slower and faster pedaling

to glide, turn "pedal engine" off  with whatever key you've mapped to toggle engines - can also pick what position to lock the wings in when pedaling is off (wings up, level, or slightly down - this requires external view to check of course as you turn the engine off - seems to alter glide behavior slightly depending on the "off" wing position chosen)

excessive dives and maneuvers will make you lose the wings, also the tail sometimes

tweaked all sorts of other little lift values, alpha numbers, and added outer left/right wing panel data and outer left/right warping data as well

ai flies it well (although the type is hard to fly on some of the high-alt dromes such as on the Galicia map, that are above 700 or 800 m alt...should work better for Flanders, Cambrai, Palestine, etc.)

have included the Lebel rifle on the type and two reload chances (gun located roughly in the middle of where the two wings join the main wooden spar)

will include the modifications eventually with a ver. 10.0 of the FM update pack but I'll leave the package here for now under this thread

EDIT: Have included the Da Vinci FM tweaks with the Der Flieger package in the post further below (May 5, 2019).

Happy flying,

Von S

Edited May 5, 2019 by VonS
See post further below for the consolidated download folder, updated May 5, 2019.

[Gatling20 753]

Love it !! 

[Silberpfeil 363]

Nice job, Stephen 1918 and Von S, for bringing FE2 its first stealth aircraft model!

[+whiteknight06604 934]

you know it's only a matter of time before someone adds a lewis gun via the fake pilot trick ;)

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

The more I work with First Eagles, the more impressed I am with the quality of TK's game engine. The parameters and methods built into the objects are so well thought out that the potential seems to be unlimited. His design makes it possible for VonS to create hyper-realistic flight modules and Geezer to make hyper-realistic planes - not to mention the many excellent skins, terrains, ground objects, and campaigns that are being produced. I am impressed that more than ten years later we are still finding new ways to apply his software. I am sure he never thought of something like this, but his design makes it possible.

Even today, there is nothing primitive about First Eagles. The possibilities are limited only by how hard the modders are willing to work. We all owe TK our gratitude.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Stephen1918

[+VonS 1,424]

While patrolling the front today, I was attacked by this strange fellow - it seems that the Kaiser has a new instrument . To install, copy Stephen's DaVinci folder, rename as DerFlieger, and copy over the files included in the package below following the relevant file structure (the skin is Stephen's but I've re-colored a few things in Paint3D...should make for a good opponent to the DaVinci). The FM is similar to the DaVinci tweak but with slightly more pedal power and a slightly better ceiling, also a bit more weight so watch your dives since these things are delicate (top speed around 75 kph on this one from various tests near SL).

Happy flying,

Von S 

EDIT: Files removed, will be included in mini ver. 9.9 update of the FM pack under the relevant thread.

Edited November 27, 2019 by VonS
Removed files and links.