Santos-Dumont Demoiselle in progress . . .

[Travis]

Here's a few shots of my Demoiselle project, in the works.  Any comments/suggestions welcome.

This is based on the version seen in the movie "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", simply because I think it looked better.  The main differences between the two versions is the frame is wider and the wings have a dihedral.

[Felix/FFDS]

Very nice looking.

For gmax "old" machines, download some of Dennis Simanaitis'  crates.

Before you ask the question, no, FS does not support true wing warping, plus you'd go crazy animating all the pulleys and wire motions...  best not to worry about it.

[Travis]

I need a pilot!!  Something very intricately made.  A person in pilot's gear would be perfect, but anything in the form of a human would be fine.

Needs to be pliable enough so I can squeeze him into the cockpit.  I know somebody has made one, and I'm going to be searching here in the next few minutes, but I would appreciate any links you can give me.

[Felix/FFDS]

[quote]I need a pilot!!

[X_eidos2]

Dave Eckert has a pilot shape available. One place to find it is over at the FFDS site. It's in three different file formats - FSC-Gmax-DXF.

[Paul_B]

That's a nice start!
Here's what I've been toying with... I modeled all the ribs and then covered them with "fabric". This was built with FSDS2.


Paul B.

[Travis]

Great!  I've been beaten to the punch!  Oh, well.  Yours looks better than mine does, so I'll give you the rights.

Dang . . .

[Felix/FFDS]

Ender - a wet polygon is being prepared your way.

Just because Paul's working on the same plane, doesn't mean you have to stop.  

Keep on with yours...  you may still beat Paul to the punch!

Heck - both of you should release them at the same time and have a fly-off!

[Travis]

Okay, well, I exported and got ready to test fly it, but when I pulled it up in FS, I got a message saying the model failed.  It exported just fine, with no errors of any kind, and the airfile and .cfg files are both fine, but they wouldn't have anything to do with this problem anyway.

What do you think, Felix?

(And yeah, okay, wet poly to head, got my bearings back)

[Travis]

Just as an update:

I watched the movie again "Those Magnificent Men . . ." and I noticed that the aircraft that is flown as

[Paul_B]

Ender,
Don't quit on your project! I build planes for fun and don't release 1/10th of what I build. This version was built from original 3 views available on the web. Yours sounds llike a "modernized" version. Building tail feathers that work like the original is alot of fun.
Paul B.

[Felix/FFDS]

Besides, EnderB, knowing Paul, he's going to whip up a version of the Wright Flyer as used in the GE (boo! hiss!) commercial - with a jet engine strapped on top...!  (Of course, his Demoiselle will probably be powered by an Atar 9R.)

[Travis]

Hey, in my second shot, do you see the two spars sticking out front of the plane?  I have those wong; they need to be bent much more, and meet in the middle.  The meet in the middle part I can do, but I'm not sure how to bend them.  What I did to get them the way they are is poly select and rotate the first three sections (out of four) and then move them up.  Then the outer two sections rotate, and then move them up.  Ekcetera.  What I want to know is, how would you go about it?  If there is an easier way, I would love to know about it.  If not, I'll just stick with my bumbling way.

[Felix/FFDS]

[quote]Hey, in my second shot, do you see the two spars sticking out front of the plane?

[Paul_B]

EnderB,
Here's a shot from FSDS2 when I noticed that the triangular uprights in the fuse were made of metal. I've also got a "piece" of textured bamboo that I copy and paste when ever I need another piece of wood to work with. This way anoy bamboo I use is pretextured.

Keep going with your project....  

As for the GE engine on the Flyer, I think I'll use Rudio's sample that came with FSDS..... LOL..
Paul B.