Aircraft - Wings at War - WIP - youngheart80

[youngheart80]

Well, I've been watching this thing for too long not join in. Course, now that means I'm going to have to shell out the $200 for a new replacement dongle so I can actually use LW again. Not sure how much of it I'll complete, but here it goes.

The company is Alliance-Western Aero, an aerospace corporation located in Arizona, USA that sprung up to challenge the current big guns on the street. The design is a number of years into the future and will use a number of highly engineered materials.

Attached is the company logo, a letter from the president and CEO Richard Wyle, his Wikipedia entry and the preliminary design. Please feel free to read up on the company and the president. Company will get a little more fleshed out soon and hopefully, I can actually start modeling this monster soon.

[bmckain]

Oh yeah, so many ideas.

[youngheart80]

A little more - the aircraft will be a blended body type design so that the fuselage helps in creation of lift, thus affording a lot more lifting potential for the same amount of fuel burn. The aircraft is designed to be hyper-efficient - it's even going to be using a completely new style of aileron/trim surface that should reduce the amount of drag. Will be powered by General Electric geared turbofans, similar to Pratt's PW 4000 only bigger.

It's designed to be able to carry the equivalent of 5 M1-A1 Abrams tanks and as mentioned in the letter, is meant to be the replacement for another very large plane manufactured by a company who shall remain nameless, lest I curse them straight to you-know-where.

[BillS]

LOL love the wiki!

[Rigel]

Nice build up to this.

[ALp]

I would hope someone replace and upgrade on the Galaxy nice thought

[youngheart80]

It's funny - the design idea came first but now that I've gotten into this, I find I really like the story aspect of it a lot. It's fun to create the man who's pushing this thing forward. Reminds me of crafting a character for a stage production - you have to know who they are if you're going to play them right. Same thing here - the design will probably be influenced by the personalities I'm creating who will build it.

[DELTA]

Welcome aboard..

[youngheart80]

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered my new dongle - should arrive in 3-5 days. I'm hoping it's closer to three so that I can actually work on this over the weekend. I'm pretty close to San Antonio so there's a good chance that'll be the case.

Oh, and if anybody is interested, if you loose your dongle, order the new one and then find the original, just send it back to Newtek and they'll refund you. Nice!

So with that out of the way, nothing further to report... maybe later when I've had a chance to work up a little more of the company background.

[ALp]

Originally Posted by youngheart80

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered my new dongle - should arrive in 3-5 days. I'm hoping it's closer to three so that I can actually work on this over the weekend. I'm pretty close to San Antonio so there's a good chance that'll be the case.

Oh, and if anybody is interested, if you loose your dongle, order the new one and then find the original, just send it back to Newtek and they'll refund you. Nice!

So with that out of the way, nothing further to report... maybe later when I've had a chance to work up a little more of the company background.

I hope you get your dongle soon, because as Galaxy transports Ospreys , Titan will probably be needed to transport FAIRlifters

[youngheart80]

Ooo! Too fun an idea. Get me the basic dimensions of the FAIRs and I'll make sure I have enough room inside.

[youngheart80]

Well, it looks like my dongle replacement order got lost in the Friday shuffle, so they confirmed it today and it should be on it's way. So, maybe this weekend I'll get something done on this bird. Oh the agony of waiting!

[ALp]

If you look at the design in my thread, Asymmetric Aerospace say the container it carries is a standard 40-foot naval container, so it seems to be around 80x60x15 feet or so with container attatched, though the FM will be a tad bigger I suspect.

Hope your dongle arrives soon, cant wait to see the Titan

[youngheart80]

IT'S BEEN DELIVERED! Haha! Now I can finally begin. Yes, my dongle finally arrived via UPS today. I'll have to run home and try and get the customer support guys on Newtek on the phone so that they can give me my new key and then I'm off and running.

I was actually doing the math - I haven't even openned LW since August of last year, right before my daughter was born. Dang! I've got stuff to get caught up on. Who knows if I'll even be able to remember how to make a box?

[ALp]

YAY don't forget the FAIRlifter

[BillS]

Its like riding a bike. You may wobble a bit at first but you'll be fine.

[youngheart80]

Some updated design work before I get to working in LW. Got rid of the tail and am liking the smoothed look a lot more.

[bmckain]

You know, I actually like this, it falls right inline with many current design concepts.

[BillS]

nice clean lifting body with a hint of B2 in it. NICE!

[Artificial Imagination]

Nice lines, very sleek and sexy!!

[youngheart80]

Originally Posted by BillS

Its like riding a bike. You may wobble a bit at first but you'll be fine.

Well, wobbled. Then fell down a couple of times, and then finally remembered how to actually use the darn thing.

Screen caps later tonight.

[BAROBA]

Is that a human standing next to it?
That thing is huge
Got any dimensions on it?

[youngheart80]

Originally Posted by BAROBA

Is that a human standing next to it?
That thing is huge
Got any dimensions on it?

Yes, it is. (Actually, he got left in accidentally) I need to go back an recheck my scale to make sure I've gotten it right. As for actual dimensions, I'll upload those when I post my screencaps later tonight.

And, no it not huge. It's FREAKIN' ENORMOUS!

[ALp]

Originally Posted by youngheart80

And, no it not huge. It's FREAKIN' ENORMOUS!

Just how we like it

[youngheart80]

Here's the update I promised for last night - daughter decided that I need to spend time with her, so I didn't get it done right on schedule. Decided to spline and patch to get the basic shape. Ended up with a lot more polys than I might have otherwise, but I'm behind enough as it is and wanted to get going. Not too heavy though at this point - only about 6k.

[ALp]

The next thing Titan should have are the cargo doors

[Rigel]

Very smooth; a good start.

[bmckain]

That is a really smooth model, anxious to see more.

[youngheart80]

More coming - I promise. Only get about 40 mins a night with this bird between dinner, honey-dos, baby girl, and sleep. And when you haven't used LW for a while, those 40 mins don't turn into too much.

Still, I've redone to scale back to what I originally had, and I've got the main landing-gear pod done and am staring work on the nacelles and engines. After that, just have the secondary landing gear pods, loading doors/ramps, and window for the rest of the main structure. Then it's off to detail land!

[youngheart80]

Main landing gear pod and nacelles are done. Next up - secondary landing gear pods, engines, and doors and ramps. Staying really close to the design at this point as it just seems to be working.

Thought I'd show it in the olive drab look as well, since that's more the color it will probably be when finished.

Haven't cleaned up the mesh at all yet - there's a lot of optimization that I could do, especially in the wings.