Modeling Additional Features of an Aircraft

Plane Maker can model a large number of features of an aircraft which, though not strictly required to get an aircraft off the ground, add to the simulation’s realism in a significant way. These features include weapons, slung loads, rockets for a jet-assisted takeoff, and artificial stability systems.

Creating and Adding Weapons
Built into Plane Maker is a robust weapon creation tool, which can be used to create guns, missiles, bombs, drop-tanks, and lasers. These weapons are stored as .wpn files. The geometry of a WPN object is set in a way similar to the fuselage and miscellaneous bodies, and the WPN may be textured similarly to these other bodies. Once a weapon has been created, it can be attached to the aircraft similarly to other bodies.

Building Weapons
To begin creating a weapon, open the Expert menu and launch the Build Weapons window. It will open to the General tab.

There, using the buttons in the upper left, you can choose to either modify an existing weapon (by clicking Load Weapon) or create a new one (by clicking New Weapon). The weapon file must be saved using the Save Weapon button here; saving the aircraft file will not save changes to the weapon file.


 * [[Image:Weapon_file_editing_controls.png|thumb|266px|Figure 7.1: File editing controls in the Build Weapons window]]

When creating a weapon, first select its type in the Weapon Specs box on the left. Types of weapons available are:
 * laser, a mock combat laser which does no damage, but instead simply indicates a hit; this weapon fires perfectly straight and instantaneously, with no ammo limit
 * death laser, a true combat laser which destroys its target; this weapon fires perfectly straight and instantaneously, with no ammo limit
 * gun, a simple machine gun with limited ammo and limited accuracy
 * rockets (unguided), a rocket launcher for firing X-Plane’s default rockets
 * air-to-air missile (heat-seeking), a missile for air combat which passively tracks and follows a target using the infrared radiation emitted by the target
 * air-to-air missile (FAF self radar guide), a missile for air combat which tracks and follows a target using the target’s radar signature
 * air-to-air missile (FAF your radar guide), a missile for air combat which tracks and follows a target using your own aircraft’s reading of the target’s radar signature; to guide this type of missile, the target must remain in front of the firing aircraft
 * air-to-ground missile (TV-guided), a missile for attacking ground targets which is guided from the cockpit of the firing aircraft
 * air-to-ground missile (GPS), a missile for attacking ground targets based on the targets’ GPS location
 * air-to-ground bomb (GPS), a bomb for attacking ground targets based on the targets’ GPS location
 * air-to-ground bomb (laser guided), a bomb for attacking ground targets based on a laser signal from the firing aircraft
 * air-to-ground bomb (TV-guided), a bomb for attacking ground targets which is guided from the cockpit of the firing aircraft
 * air-to-ground bomb (free-fall), a bomb for attacking ground targets which is unguided
 * drop tank, an external fuel tank which can be dropped from the aircraft; fuel will automatically burn from this tank before the aircraft’s internal tanks are used

To use a texture with the weapon, simply store a PNG file named [WPN file name].png in the same directory as your .wpn file. The texture must be draped over the weapon using the Body Texture box, found in the Geometry tab of the Build Weapons window. There, you can specify the top, left, right, and bottom portions of the [WPN file name].png file to use on both the left and right of the weapon. For more information on texturing objects in Plane Maker using these controls, see the section “Fine-Tuning a Paint Job” in Chapter 8.

Attaching Weapons
Having created a weapon using the Build Weapons window, you can arm an aircraft with to 24 weapons using the Default Weapons window (found in Plane Maker’s Expert menu). These weapons will be present on the aircraft each time you open it in X-Plane.

In order to add a weapon, click the small square to the right of the location controls, as seen in Figure 7.2.


 * [[Image:Add weapon.png|thumb|800px|Figure 7.2: Launching the Open Weapon dialog box, from Plane Maker's Default Weapons window]]

Navigate to your weapon file’s directory and select it. Then, use the standard position controls (as described in the section “Fundamental Concepts” of Chapter 3) to position the weapon on the aircraft.

If the weapon is attached to a moving surface, such as a flight control or a landing gear, select that part of the aircraft in the “attach” drop-down menu.

Finally, if the weapon is located inside the aircraft and thus does not change the craft’s aerodynamics except by adding weight, check the box labeled “internal.”

After saving your aircraft file, your weapons will be loaded with the aircraft in X-Plane.

Creating and Adding Slung Loads
Objects such as vehicles, cargo containers, or even other aircraft can be “slung” from an aircraft (most often a helicopter).

Objects used as slung loads are simply standard X-Plane OBJ files with a weight specified. To specify a weight in an already existing OBJ file, open the file in a text editor (Notepad, Emacs, TextEdit, etc.) and scroll to the end of the file. There, just before the lines


 * end
 * object

add the following:


 * slung_load_weight x

(where x is the weight in pounds for the object).

Thus, for an object weighing 500 pounds, the .obj text file looks like this:


 * slung_load_weight 500
 * end
 * object
 * object

To use a slung load in X-Plane, you must first use Plane Maker specify the weight able to be slung from the craft. This is done in the Weight & Balance window (found in the Standard menu). There, the maximum weight for a slung load is set as a “jettisonable load” weight. After setting this weight, check the box to the right labeled “jett load is slung,” indicating that this weight is available for use with a slung load.


 * [[Image:Jettisonable_weight_is_slung.png|thumb|405px|Figure 7.3: Setting the jettisonable load weight as a slung load]]

With the jettisonable load set up, the box in the upper right labeled Slung Load Location will be usable, as seen in Figure 7.4. There, you can use the standard location controls (described in the section “Fundamental Concepts” of Chapter 3) to define the slung load should attach to the aircraft. Then, set the slung load cable length, the length of the line between the aircraft and the slung load, and the load will be ready to use in X-Plane.


 * [[Image:Slung_load_location.png|thumb|400px|Figure 7.4: The slung load location controls]]

With a slung load enabled in Plane Maker, open the aircraft in X-Plane. There, in the Aircraft menu, open the Weight and Fuel menu. In the Fuel/Payload tab there, drag the “jettison weight” slider up to match the weight of the slung load object you will use. Then, click the small box near the bottom of the window labeled “slung load object,” navigate to the directory containing your slung load object, and select it. When you close out of the dialog box, the slung load will be attached to your aircraft and you will be ready to fly.