Transformer

technoid

technoid

Well-known member
When I first started uncle twist coined a phrase for my original designs as fantasy planes, which fit just fine. So I thought I'd go in that direction again with what I call Transformer. It goes along with what I've been doing recently, reworking one of my old planes to be something new. This came about when I was flying one of @FederFlyer airports wishing I could land on the water too. So I'm taking my Stagger Sport EP and will try to create a plane that transforms into a float plane with the flip of a switch. Not floats with wheels but a landing gear and float transformation. I used Stagger because it's very aerobatic so you'll have that too. I'm not sure if I'll keep Transformer for the released plane, but the name fits. Here's a picture of the start.

Transformer 01.jpg
 
I reworked the landing gear so it will retract and hide inside the fuselage. The gear rotates in towards the fuselage and to the back and up so it hides inside the fuselage. This is definitely a fantasy plane. Next I need to work on the floats. They will be mostly hidden centered inside the fuselage with only a little of the bottom of the floats sticking out the bottom of the fuselage. Then when the tranformation takes place the floats will move down and forward and out to position them correctly. Anyone thinking scale better close their eyes during the transformation.
 
The plane I based this project on was made with an old version of the editor so I had to do a trick to get it to work. But that trick removes all the smoothing groups, so I had to redo them. I started working on the smoothing groups tonight but the center part of the top and bottom of the wings where the rib cage used to be remained strangle looking even when the smoothing groups was redone. So I had to do the old trick I used to do which is exporting it as an OBJ and then importing that into the main file again. Now everything looks good again. I think that trick recreates the normals and that's what fixes stuff like that, but I don't know for sure. But it's fixed so I guess that's good enough. I've used that trick a lot for stuff like that and it always seems to work.
 
I finished the smoothing groups for everything but the four-stroke engine. The plane this project came from had three engines so you could create a 4stroke, gas, and ep version of it. I deleted the gas engine but I'm not sure what I want to do with the 4stroke so I'll leave it hidden for now and decide later. I planned to create an EP version so I may delete the 4stroke engine too. Right now it has my older tires that didn't have rounded sidewalls so I grabbed the tires off the Techair Commander and will use them.
 
I just finished replacing the tires so now it has rounded sidewalls. Now I need to start working on the floats. It's going to be interesting to see all those parts moving and rotating when the transformation from gear to floats happen. Ha.. lots of stuff moving. I guess it's no worse than the transformer movies doing the same thing.
 
I did some work on the floats today and have the front and rear struts retracting for the left float. I haven't worked on the float yet but that's next. I'm only working on the left float and figured I'd mirror all the left float parts when I get done to create the right float.
 
technoid said:
I got the left float working so here's a video of the gear / float transformation. I hope the physics follows the position of the float.

Click to expand...
If you`re open for suggestions.....How about using one float in the fuse too come straight down or pivoting down, that would eliminate the gear struts from crossing the float, and then also have retracting wing floats.....say like on a PBY Catalina.
 
uncle twist said:
If you`re open for suggestions.....How about using one float in the fuse too come straight down or pivoting down, that would eliminate the gear struts from crossing the float, and then also have retracting wing floats.....say like on a PBY Catalina.
Click to expand...
I'm using a linear actuator to position the floats and struts and they move both axis at the same time so without doing a lot of tweaking I can't go down and then out so the parts crossing is just part of it. Sorry, this time it is what it is. I knew it would look strange which is why I mentioned that in the beginning, to forewarn so to speak. I considered the PBY type floats but for this plane I didn't think they'd look right.
 
I added the right float so here's another video of everything moving. Yeah it looks a bit odd, but it gives me what I want. That is the ability to have normal gear and normal floats to explore island-based airports so I can land anywhere. I just didn't want floats with wheels.

I realize there are ways to force the floats to come down and then the struts to come down. But I'm not sure I want to mess with it. Even with that it would look odd, how do you really have floats come down by their selves. not realistic. So a fantasy plane for sure.

 
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I started getting ready to create the mapping. Most everything is mapped but there are a few things that need to be mapped. The new tires I put on and the floats. Not a lot so it won't take very long. I just finished connecting the new parts in the schematic so next will be the actual mapping. I'll have some physics to do after I get all that done but it's moving along. I'm not sure I should upload this one to the swap pages or just use it for me playing around.
 
I just finished mapping the new parts and remapping a few parts that changed. I need to go back and move a couple of things in the map, but other than that it looks good. But I wanted to take a break before I did that.

On another note, the DX11 beta is looking really good. The finished product will be great news for RealFlight.
 
I went back and moved a few parts in the map to make it look a little cleaner. Now I need to 1x1 map the floats and then I should be ready to make a new color scheme for it. I'm not sure I already have 3 color schemes for the plane I made it from but I think I'll probably make a new one for this one. Don't know why I guess just to have something to do, this isn't a plane many would want.. just a fun plane for me mostly.
 
Hum.. maybe off topic but does anyone here drive an EV? So how do you charge it and how long does it take. I'm considering a new car but all the hype is on EVs these days, thus the question.
 
I updated the color scheme with the new mapping and painted the new parts. @uncle twist I thought about what you said and realized it was worth some of my time to improve the way the transformation looks. I added three modifiers in the physics so I could tune the timing of each of the parts being retracted. (landing gear, floats, and float struts). So take a look at this video and see what you think.

 
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