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Many months ago we were asked by the MAW group (http://www.medairwar.com/) to create 1% Flight/Damage Models for their freeware project. The MAW group was paving new ground with a new theater and new technology for CFS3. In addition, we also had several other friends who individually were pushing CFS3 to levels never imagined. In essence, the term 4.0 is to honor these hard working individuals for creating a CFS4 that MS BizDev took away from us.

We also wanted to reverse a trend of sim developers that were using a bias/opinion (or just plain junk data) to define the flight characteristics instead of physics.

As per our goal to simulate what it is like to fly these aircraft, we decided to push the MS Flight Equations as far as we could with the current technology we had. In addition to taking physical measurements off the aircraft itself, we had new software that allowed us to take measurements off photo’s and drawings.

We also had a implemented the techniques of Dr Jan Roskam (http://www.darcorp.com/Company/Personnel/Jan_Roskam.htm). Dr Roskam is famous for his work on aircraft stability and control. He has developed mathematical formulas and tables that allow engineers to accurately determine the stability derivatives of an aircraft. The stability derivatives are what give each aircraft its own unique characteristics. With our new software tool for taking measurements and Dr Roskam’s formulas, we’ve been able to accurately derive the individual stability derivatives for each aircraft.

Unfortunately, like all great plans we ran into problems. Regrettably, the main issue encountered being the MS Flight Equations being pushed to their limits. And this is where we spent a lot of time trying to develop work-arounds so we could still achieve our goals. We still feel the MS Flight Equations are some of the best for a desktop PC and certainly the best of any WW2 sim.

On the positive side, just about every part of the 1% Spreadsheet was updated. We were able to replace large portions of the spreadsheet with equations that produced more accurate data. The entire Spin code section was junked and replaced with new formulas that made use of the new stability derivatives that now dictate the quality and type of spin entry and the resulting full spin.

Drag curves, thrust, lift, you name it has been updated in the 1% Assembly Line Process Sreadsheet. And to help pilots fly the aircraft, new check lists (created directly from the aircraft equations) are now included with each aircraft. Just press the N key to bring them up.

There are also other changes for 4.0 that will be released later.

We hope pilots enjoy this new era in CFS flying over the next few weeks as aircraft are converted over and new aircraft are released.