Version 6.30

New Features:

Plane-Maker can now equip an airplane with weapons that you design, so that you may begin designingweapons and airplanes now for X-Plane COMBAT, coming soon!

Tilting wings now available for steering! These are used by some "trike" ultralights, but you are welcome to try it on a 747 if you like... The wings must be well ABOVE the center of gravity to work though! (So you would have to modify the 747 or most any other plane in this respect). The effects are interesting because the control effectiveness in roll gets WEAKER as you go FASTER since the damping effects get stronger but the rolling moment does not! It is high G-LOADING that makes the roll more effective, since it is the tilting of the lift vector that rolls the craft! So while we are used to seeing more control effectiveness at higher SPEED, here you see it at higher G... in zero-G arcs there is NO control effectiveness!

New failure window: Remove any part of the aircraft at all. This is a in preparation for damage-modelling in X-Plane combat, but is avail in the civilian version as well.

New artificial stability system option to track G-load rather than angle of attack... as used in real Airbuses and fighters.

World-Maker now checks for duplicates when saving Navaids and airports... add new airports without fear of getting mysterious duplicates... WM will tell you when you save!

New landing gear type: 4 wheels abreast. Get those Ilyushin 76's just right, complete with the high drag of all that landing gear stacked abreast when exteneded!

Pressurization systems now simulated... you want that detail? You got it! See the pressurization instruments in Plane-Maker instrument screen, and set the max pressure differential in the hydraulics/pressurization screen.

Mars flight more realistic by shrinking the planet down to the right size... We used to fly on a Mars by flying around a planet as big as Earth with the scenery scrunched together to emulate the smaller size of Mars... it works fine for short distances, but for full orbital stuff it was not accurate... Now that we are putting together PLANETWIDE Mars scenery with full accurate Martian orbital dynamics, Mars is now the right size so all the planet-wide scenery and orbital dynamics are right on the money!

Tech Improvements:

As used in the fabulous swedish Viggen fighter, there is an option in Plane-Maker to have the flaps auto-sync with the landing gear. Just move the landing gear where you want it and the flaps go right with it. Gear down: full flaps. Gear up: no flaps. Also available is automatic reverse-thrust on touchdown option in Plane-Maker, also as used in the Viggen!

Data output now goes to file data.out, not X-Plane.out, to keep your output data in a seperate file.

General Improvements:

Airfoil-Maker has scaled reference-lines to help you get your airfoils in there perfectly.

ECAM displays now different for planes vs. helos, giving better failure-notification for the type of craft you are in

Plane-Maker does NOT list all the instruments in one huge list, but lets you choose from categories... pressurization, EFIS, radios, etc.

Graphic plotting much better now to see small details... This is really needed to get those artificial stability systems perfected... particularly when doing guided-missile design, as you will be able to do soon with X-Plane Combat.

Spoilers not drawn too large any more... now they are sized correctly based on the actual chord ratio of the design as specified in the controls screen in Plane-Maker, so both spoilers and speedbrakes are now drawn at a good location and scale.

Fuel tank centers and weapons hard-points now visible in Plane-Maker wire-frame view.

More data output as always: fuel tank selection, auto-feather enabled, pressurization system, and weapon status this time.

When using the "beside runwway" view mode to fly RC planes, you can now use the arrows to walk around and find the perfect flying spot. Use the SHIFT-arrows to RUN!

New angle of attack indicator instrument: military style that cues up, down, or on-target.

Carriers and frigates show up on the moving map now... not something you find on most moving maps but still useful. Also, get full ATC vectors for ILSs to both the carrier and the frigate from the regular ATC interface.

Bug Fixes:

Rudders move accurately even when placed on the WINGS

VORS now show to/from/nav flags again... they were missing in 625.

Auto-flight mode from special menu does not ever leave you out of control of the plane when you exit auto-flight mode.

Small digital ECEM digital engine readouts fit nicely now.

World-Maker set all nodes to flat or square works as intended.

Pause button in IOS pauses all machines on the network properly.

Quit all button on IOS quits all machines on the network.