Simviation Forums

Please help a newbie modeler out.

When you seasoned 3D modelers start out, where do you get your aircraft dimentions, performace, etc?

3Views and specs...
www.airliners.net

My favourites:
http://www.bearcraft-online.com/museum/#
http://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/misc/ram/
http://www.airwar.ru/indexe.html (specs) and http://www.airwar.ru/other/drawe.html (3views)

Manufacturer sites can do too

You'll find that many modellers are pack rats as to aircraft data.  Some, like me, collect scale aircraft modelling magazines, encyclopedic anthologies, and surf the net for many sites that have plans and specifications.

There are aviation magazines (Air International, Air Enthusiast, Air Forcees Monthly, The Aeroplane Monthly) that cover the gamut of modern and vintage aviation.

Basically, just do a search for waht you're looking for ...

Some of my favorite resources are in the Simviation Design Utilities pages.

FAA Type Data Certificates provide offical data for FAA certified aircraft.  

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgMakeModel.nsf/MainFrame?OpenFrameSet

Google works nicely, but make sure when searching that you search for both the official and unofficial names of the aircraft.

Regards,
Stratobat

You could just make it all up as you go along, like me... ;-)

But, WTAS.  Incidentally, the R/C model magazine tip is really good especially if a plan is included.  There is your nice scale outline.

Nobody ever models (R/C)  the wierd, rare and odd aircraft that interest me though.


Kev

I know what you mean gnome ......

Like Stratobat said, Google is a great tool for this.  If you're looking for 3-views or pictures, just click IMAGES and then type in the name and search.  If you're looking for tech info, try typing in the following:

(aircraft) technical information
(aircraft) specifications
(aircraft) performance

Just replace the (aircraft) with whatever you're searching for.

For flight dynamics the best sources are the Flight Manuals for civil a/c, Dash-1s for USAF a/c and NATOPS pubs for USN a/c.
The latter are available through the FoI Act etc.

You can also use Janes All the worlds Aircraft but go to your nearest reference library and they will have a lot of aircraft books to look at.

Then get DATCOM and/or ESDU and compute S&DCs from the dimensions.

Ian

once you've got the basic stuff right, dig into www.airliners.net, www.jetphotos.net and http://airshowpics.com to get the details right. most of the 3views are not that detailed and can have some inaccuracies in them, photos don't lie. well, not too much at least  ;)

-juri

[quote]photos don't lie. well, not too much at least

nice one!

caveat observator!

-juri

Sort of like the tri-jet B737 in the "photos" forum?

(It's gotta be troo, I saw it on the Internet!)

LOL

Thanks for the reply's guys.

In general, the answer is, "in all sorts of places"

Once you get hunting on the web, you find all sorts of neat places.  The listings in this thread are chock full of great resources, and you never know who has something tucked away in a folder, book or magazine that will be glad to scan and send!