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F-16C for Flight Dynamix and Consumer Version for X-Plane

The F-16C now has been delivered to the customer, Flight Dynamix, who uses it as part of a complete F-16 cockpit simulator.  



For more information on the Flight Dynamix F-16 cockpit system, see their web site here:
http://www.flight-dynamix.com/f-16sims.html


To complete the consumer version, I need to build a virtual cockpit and model the displays. The F-16 will come in two versions:

• Pro Version - This will consist of the F-16, HUD which runs on one monitor, and the Flight Dynamix MFD Display software which runs on a 2nd monitor. It won't have combat capability built into the Flight Dynamix software as a lot of that is sensitive. It will sell for about $60.
• Consumer Version - This will consist of the F-16, HUD, and virtual cockpit with simplified MFD displays. The MFD displays will still include air and ground radar, navigation, weapon configuration, and systems status screens, enough to support combat capabilities. This will sell for about $30.

Features:

• Built-in Fly-by-Wire system with auto flap control
• Accurate flight model - the plugin tunes engine thrust and drag coefficient dynamically so you get correct sustained turn rates as well as accurate landing speeds, AOA values, and stall speeds
• Advanced air-to-air HUD with several missile and gun modes.
• Air-to-ground HUD with HARM missile mode and CCIP/CCRP bombing modes
• Navigation, ILS, and terrain avoidance HUD modes
• Custom KC-10 with realistic refueling functions.
• Advanced sound engine with realistic external and internal sounds. Fly by the tower at M1.0 and you'll hear a sonic boom. I'm very happy with these new sound effects. The plane sounds quite real in external views, much more so than X-Plane currently supports.
• Will work with my new X-Combat plugin... see separate thread on that in the plugins forum.
• Custom loadout menu so you can select a variety of weapons not just in the default X-Plane configuration.
• Several paint schemes with normal maps and nice external and internal lighting
• Custom engine module to give accurate accelerations, takeoff speeds, climb rates, turn rates, and correct supersonic acceleration and level speed numbers
• Custom engine, fuel, electrical and hydraulic systems with support for the EPU
• Emergency failure selection window lets you fail specific systems at various altitudes, times, speeds, or randomly
• Battle damage - various parts of the plane can become damaged by SAMs with visual damage displayed
• Detailed systems manual with performance charts.

When building the F-16, I used videos to tune the aircraft performance. It's not hard to build a plane that can fly at level speeds comparable to performance charts but getting the dynamic performance correct is much more difficult. I have one really good DVD taken from an F-16 HUD during a demo at the Paris Air Show. I modified the engine performance, airfoils, drag (adjusted dynamically depending on G load, altitude, airspeed) so that I could fly the Paris routine with the speeds being accurate throughout. It's definitely my best aircraft so far and the real F-16 pilots are quite pleased with the flight model.

Here are some screenshots showing the F-16: