ANTIC PRESENTS... VINTAGE AIRCRAFT - An Amiga 3D DESIGN DISK By David J. Stuart VINTAGE AIRCRAFT is provided on an unprotected disk because the author and Antic both believe that the buyer should be able to make backup copies for his or her own use ONLY. Because it is unprotected we expect you to respect the copyright and NOT give, sell or lend copies of this program to anyone else. The author spent many hours designing, writing and testing this product. His income depends on it's sales. The unauthorized reproduction of the VINTAGE AIRCRAFT DESIGN diskette is illegal. Please help us protect and enforce the author's rights in this product so that we may continue to provide you with unprotected software. No part of this product may be reproduced and/or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Antic. Please make sure you know how to use this product properly before doing important work with it. Antic and the author disclaim responsibility for any damages resulting from the use or misuse of this software product, and disclaim liability for losses of any kind or nature, financial or otherwise, incurred or alleged to have been incurred as a result of the purchase and use of this product. ANTIC is a trademark of Antic Publishing, Inc. MAKING BACKUPS This is a standard double-sided disk. You can use the workbench copy method to make backups of this disk. REQUIREMENTS Minimum requirements for effective use of this Disk is 1 megabyte of RAM and at least one Floppy Drive. For quality results in animation and ease of use, 2 megabytes of RAM and a Hard Drive is suggested. ON THIS DISK Disk 1 Insignia (dir) DRCROSS.silver FR 2.silver FR R.silver UK R.silver UK2A.silver US R.silver USS1.silver Junkers (dir) JCL FUSE.silver JCL MTR1.silver JCL PROP.silver JCL STRT.silver JCL TAIL.silver JCL TFIN.silver JCL WHLS.silver JCL WING.silver JDR FUSE.silver JDR TAIL.silver JDR TFIN.silver JDR WING.silver MAX TWIN.silver MOUNT1.silver VICK50AC.silver AirCoDH5 (dir) DH5_Axel.silver DH5_Cowel.silver DH5_Fusselage.silver DH5_Prop.silver DH5_StrutI.silver DH5_StrutO.silver DH5_Tail.silver DH5_TailFin.silver DH5_Wheels.silver DH5_Wing1.silver DH5_Wing2.silver scenes VK9MM WC.silver WIRE 1.silver WIRE 2.silver Camel (dir) SC AXEL.silver SC COWL.silver SC FRWAL.silver SC FUSEL.silver SC HR.silver SC HT.silver SC LDGR.silver SC LW M.silver SC LWALR.silver SC PROP.silver SC TW M.silver SC TWALR.silver SC VK9MG.silver SC VR.silver SC VT.silver SC WHLS.silver SC WST I.silver SC WST O.silver Disk 2 Guns (dir) MAX TWIN.silver MAX9MMWC.silver MOUNT1.silver SC VK9MG.silver VICK 50A.silver VICK50AC.silver VK9MM WC.silver Bomber (dir) BCOWL.silver IRAC 1.silver IRAC 2.silver IRAC 3.silver IRAC 4.silver SI DECK1.silver SI FUSE1.silver SI NOSE.silver SI STR 1.silver SI TAIL.silver SI TAILR.silver SI TFIN.silver SI TFINR.silver SI WINGL.silver SI WINGU.silver Spad (dir) S13 CWL1.silver S13 DISC.silver S13 FUSE.silver S13 PROP.silver S13 STRI.silver S13 STRM.silver S13 STRO.silver S13 TAIL.silver S13 TFIN.silver S13 WHLS.silver S13 WNG1.silver S13 WNG2.silver VICK 50A.silver CREDITS No work is complete without giving credit where it is due and that ofttimes can be difficult in that one has to make a tough choice as to who gets top billing. Let, therefore, the following people and institutions share equally in this accolade !!! Charles Cherry, without whose interest and creative appreciation this never would have happened; Frank and Elizabeth Stuart, without whose collaboration the world would have been deprived of such a gifted talent as myself and ... this never would have happened ... ( they deserve a footnote in history, too ); All the people at AMIGA Plus Magazine, ANTIC Publishing Co, and ANTIC SOFTWARE, without whose co-ordinated efforts, this never would have happened; The RAND-McNALLY Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft from 1914 - 1980, a most enlightened source of facts and information - as well as fine authentic paintings, design studies, and engineering plates...; Last, but not the least, All Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines who helped get us all from then to now ..... ABOUT THE OBJECTS Once you have made back-ups of everything and created various workfiles of your own format and to your own satisfaction, you will, of course, want to start working with your 3D Models of the various aircraft. You might first note that, although some parts - such as propellers, engines, decals, and the like appear to be somewhat generic in design, that is not the case. In way of example, the pro- pellers are each different in their own way. The actual parts were made from different materials. Some were made of teakwood; others were made from maplewood; still others were made from aluminum. This was a time of experimentation with the various materials in a search for those properties which might best serve the purpose because of the peculiarities of stress and the requirement for durability as well as lasting uniform function. The four fighters and one bomber in this collection were all prototypes in various stages of the development of the practical military aircraft. The propeller was one of the obviously indispensible parts of the whole. It was possible to land or take off without the landing gear; the craft could remain airborne with radical impromptu design modifications to the wings or fuselage; but it would not work at all without a propeller, consequently, improvements were continually in demand. Often, design changes and applications were made on a daily basis. The point here is that such was the case with virtually all parts of these early aircraft, just as the same holds true today to some degree. With these 3D models, if you magnify them to their greatest size and inspect the way they have been constructed, you will find that I have taken the same pains as if I were working in the actual materials. Everything differs in some way from one part to another and from one model to another, just as in the real world. Another point I would like to make at this time is that EVERY object has a unique object name so that there will be no name conflict between files. All of the propellers may be loaded into one object group if you so desire to do this. In fact, providing you have the memory and since there are less than eighty objects in all, it is con- ceivable that you could load all four complete fighters AND the bomber into one set-up and manipulate them accordingly. This would require a lot of memory and more patience than most people pretend to, but it can be done! Earlier, I mentioned the decals... Please note that French, British, and, in some instances, Canadian and American as well as Russian Military groups seemed to have this odd penchant for painting targets on their aircraft. Nobody has ever offered a rational explanation for this, however, they all did agree to make them different in some manner so that they could be distinguished one from the other. With these models, this distinction only becomes apparent when the finished model is viewed in color. Britain used a red, white and blue target for the army while the Royal Flying Corps was simply red and blue with a thin black outer ring. The Naval Air Corp, on the other hand, used a large white circle inside a red ring. The French markings were identical except for the color code. They went with a blue, white and red target. The US Army Air Corp, therefore, got stuck with white, blue and red. This did not sit well with some factions, so later on in 1918, we chose to throw out the target and replace it with a white star in a large blue circle with a red dot in the middle - still a target, but somewhat more in keeping with the national theme. The Imperial Russians chose a large white circle with an outer ring of red separated by a blue ring. The Familiar Red Star and Hammer- and- sickle did not appear until the 1920's. Italy also used a blue, white and red target. In fact, Germany, with their unique variations on the Croix d'Guerre, were the only ones who seemed to deviate radically from the target theme except for the Swiss, the Swedes, and the Chinese. These latter were not what you would call major participants in the war to end all wars, however. The Swiss used their white cross on a red field while the Swedes incorporated three black coronets (crowns) on a grey field. The Imperial Chinese used a multifaceted star. In the end, if any really serious errors occur while your objects are being manipulated, you can always go back to the originals for a re- placement. That's the beauty of Computer-Aided-Design. Again, we stress multiple files and regular backing up of your work. That is the key to losing only a few minutes to errors and power failures instead of hours or even days! Let's discuss file structure for a moment. The aircraft on this disk are complete objects, stored as separate parts for easier loading in low memory situations and greater flexibility in animation. This also makes it easier to remove parts of the objects which won't be visible when it is rendered, which will save time and memory. You can load/merge the parts to make the complete models. Although the current aircraft are authentically armed, you may want to deck them out with additional firepower different from what they come with. There is a complete collection of period Aerial Machine Guns in the GUNS directory. There are Lewis Guns, Maxim Guns, Thompsons. Take your choice! Of course, you can take parts from one plane and mix them with parts from others to create your own clever aerial fantasies... One of the more interesting uses for these models, however, is in the creation of your own Animations. If you already have Darrel Anderson's Architectural Design Disk, you can build interesting City- Scapes to use as backgrounds against which to fly your planes. HISTORY and STATISTICS The following information is just that - a brief history and some vital statistics on the bomber and each of the four fighters..... THE BOMBER: Sikorsky Ilya M E. This was built by Imperial Russia by a group known as the RBVZ - the Russo-Baltic Railway Factories - in 1917. It is the fifth of a series that were preceded in 1913 by the world's first officially designated "heavy bomber", the Bolshoi Bal'Tisky S A. The Bolshoi was a classic that was nothing more nor less than a flying railway coach; a smoking car with wings. It was meant to be the Imperial Russian version of our own Air Force One. However, I chose the Ilya E because it was not only a bomber of some sophistication for the times, but the largest operational aircraft prior to the '20's save for the dirigibles and blimps. It was also the prototype for the entire line of Boeing and Mitchell bombers to later be produced in the west. The flight deck for the B-36 was taken directly from this vintage counterpart. The Ilya was powered by four 12-cyl. in-line liquid-cooled Renault V- block engines producing 270 hp each. The wingspan was 124 ft. 8 in. and the overall length was 57 ft. 5 in. It weighed 15,400 lb and could only reach a top speed of 85 mph with a ceiling of 13,120 ft. However, it would stay aloft for better than five hours. It was manned by a crew of 7 under normal conditions; armed with seven Lewis and Vickers machine guns and normally carried 1760 lbs of "aerial torpedoes". As a sidenote of interest, Bolshoi Bal'tesky translates as "The Great Baltic" and Sikorsky's full name was Ignor Ivanovich. The Ilya M E was named for Ilya Mourometz, a pre-revolutionary hero of the Balkin Wars. It should also be noted that evry other country in the world laughed at these great Russian birds - except the Germans, much to their later regret. As late as 1917, the Allies, although many had bombers in the developmental stage, were still relying on the Russians to carry out the aerial bombardments of Eastern Europe. In all, the Russians developed prior to and independantly from the Western Allies, a total of seven major variations on the heavy bomber and during the post revolutionary twenties and thirties, they built what is still considered the largest of the heavier-than-air-craft. It was called the Illyushin Simon Gorky and had a fuselage 438 feet long (that's almost twice the size of a C-5A Galaxy and nearly half the length of the Graf Zeppellin Hindenberg. It was powered by ten Illyushin V-16's and could stay aloft for 34 hrs without re-fueling - however, it was often refueled in flight and was recorded to hacve stayed aloft at one time for seven days straight. Amoung other things, it contained a complete printing plant and spent most of its short 2-year life dropping pamphlets across Communist Europe by the tens of billions. Enough on this subject. I'm not pro-Russian, just mightily impressed by any realities that smack of H G Wells. The feats of the Sikorskys' and Illyushins are well-documented. AIRCO D. H. 5 Neuports and Spads made history in the hands of the Lafayette Esquadrille and the great British and Canadian Aces of the War to End All Wars made their mark in Sopwith Camels and Bristols, but when the chips were down, it was the agile and highly sought-after Airco DH 5's that carried the day. As one correspondent of the times put it, "they fill the skies over Europe in swarms that darken the sun..." and accounted for the vast majority of kills during the war. Designed by the famous avionics pioneer, de Havilland, the Aircoadvanced many unique features later adopted by most of the other notable aircraft of the day. Most significant was the back-stepped upper wing allowing for greater pilot visibility and the synchro- nised forward-firing Vickers machine gun later sported by the Sopwith CAMEL in a twin water-cooled arrangement. It's one drawback was that it was seriously under-powered. Built by Aircraft Manufacturing Co., Ltd (from which came the name) in 1917, it was powered by an unusual LeRhone 9-cyl. Rotary that produced only 110 horsepower. This craft had a 25 ft wingspan and 22 ft fuselage and weighed in at 1492 lbs. Max speed was 102 mph with a ceiling of 16000 and endurance of 2 3/4 hrs. It was a single seater with a single machine gun. JUNKERS CL 1 One of the most innovative aircraft was this late arrival that showed up in the last days of the war too late to really prove itself in com- bat, but holding its' own rather well for the duration. It was one of the few monoplanes of the time and set many standards for the aircraft of the future. Manufactured in late 1918 by Junkers Flugzeug-Werke AG, it was then classified as a ground-attack ship - what we would later call a dive bomber. Had the German war machine not run out of resources about this time, this plane and other late arrivals might well have turned the tide for the Imperial Powers. Powered by a strong Mercedes DIIIa 6-cyl liquid-cooled in-line developing 180 hp, this ship haad a wingspan just under 40 ft on a 26 ft fuselage and weighed in a 2310 pounds. Although it could only achieve 100 mph in normal flight, it had a ceiling of 19,600 ft and was known to reach 160 mph in attack posture, an unbelievable feat in those days. Because of its clever aerodynamics, it could remain aloft for better than 2 hrs on a small amount of fuel. It was a two-place craft and sported three machine guns as well as a number of bombs. Two maxim 9mm water-cooled full-synchro machineguns were mounted forward while a single 50 cal Vickers commanded a rear defense position from a turret manned by the bombadier. Although many were captured on the ground at the end of the war, none were known to have been shot down. They were too manouverable and fast in the dive, plus the advantage of a rear gunner for defense. SPAD XIII The best of them all was the SPAD and the best of the SPADs was the XIII. Introduced on April 4th, 1917, there were 8472 units built by no less than nine French manufacturers and many of these are still around today in perfect working order. They quickly became the most popular Allied aircraft and there is little doubt that they turned the tide of war, giving "The Great Western Republics" the air superiority they so desperately sought. Manufactured by S.P.A.D. of France beginning in early 1917, these hefty fighters were powered by a powerful Hispano-Suiza liquid- cooled235 hp inline V-8 that pulled them through the skies at a tremendous 138 mph and gave them a ceiling of 21,800 ft. They had a 27ft wingspan and a 20ft. 8 in. airframe. One of their big advantages over the Imperial forces was their ability to stay aloft for well over 2 hours. A single-place ship, it was armed with twin fully- synchronised 50 cal. Vickers water-cooled machineguns. They were quickly accepted and classified as pursuit/attack ships and lived up to their name. Since they were built by a Cartel, they took their name from this group - the Societe Anonyme Pour l'Aviation et ses Derives.....