I'm trying to improve upon an experimental high-mach passenger airliner in FSX (the aircraft is the excellent B7072 from Tim Conrad).

 

I've managed to make it reach mach 4.6 at 75,000 feet in a stable and very controllable way, but I have two problems that I'm not sure how to fix.

 

Problem #1 - It needs too much nose-up to give a certain vertical speed. Basically it's bad enough that I can't see the runway on approach (using normal approach speeds and profiles). How do I do something that effectively increases the wing incidence angle (or makes it look that way)? I basically want the plane to provide more lift for a given apparent pitch (as measured by looking out of the virtual windscreen, not as indicated by the instruments - so purely "visual" suggestions are good too).

 

 

Problem #2 - The aircraft thrust increases with speed (which makes sense for jets like this one). But the problem is, that once I'm above mach 3.7 the engine generates so much thrust that even with the throttle at idle, it keeps accelerating. So when it comes to slowing down after cruise, I either have to use flaps or spoilers, or cut off fuel to the engines.

 

Low speed handling is fine (even taxiing). I need all the "full throttle" thrust it currently has to be able to get to the mach numbers I'm aiming for. But is there any way to reduce "idle throttle" thrust at high speeds?

 

Thanks,

 

Luke

FSX is limited to a maximum Mach number of 3.2.

I believe it's limited to 2666 knots groundspeed or mach 4.7. Here is a screenshot of this plane at mach 4.62:

 

I should have been more precise. The maximum Mach number allowed in the tables in the .air file is 3.2. At higher Mach numbers FS will stick at the values for 3.2M.

Problem #1 - try adjusting cruise_lift_scalar. I don't remember if higher values decrease cruise pitch but I think so. If not, then use a lower value obviously.

 

Problem #2 - increase parasite_drag_scalar

It should affect higher speeds more than lower speeds, which sounds like what you're looking for.

 

In either case, never use negative numbers (-1.5) use for example, 0.5 instead.

Thanks. Will try those suggestions when I get the chance.

 

Another issue - at high speeds the elevators gradually stop working and I have to control the plane with the pitch trim. I tried changing the [keyboard_response] speeds, and that didn't work. Neither did changing the elevator_area...

 

Any ideas?

 

Perhaps I should just post the air file and cfg files and let forum members tweak them themselves. Is there a forum for that?