Watch this video. It was recorded on older version of the program, but it behaves mostly the same.
During flight simply enable Landing autopilot AG and enjoy auto-landing. It will navigate your plane to runway and brake, using reverse thrust, until it stops. Tested on SimpleAirways aircraft.
This release makes it even more reliable than the previous version.
Features
- lands on Droo's runway
- lands both east and west
- tries to reduce speed to 130 m/s with flaps down for a soft touchdown
- is able to stop before end of runway using brakes, reverse thrust and flaps up
- aligns with runway centerline
- if initial position is very far away, it starts by going the shortest path to the runway, i.e. the orthodrome
- in phase 2 (descent) the throttle is fully automatic; in phase 1 you can control the throttle
- unlike builtin SR2 auto-pilot, it doesn't bank more than about 40 degrees (for passengers comfort)
Limitations
- It has been tuned on desktop. It may not work properly on mobile.
Future versions
What can be expected:
- fix to work on mobile
- auto take-off
- ability to land even if initial position with respect to runway doesn't let it land gently - it should fly away and turn around
- support for more planes
- maybe PID auto tuning for lighter crafts
- landing from orbit, a space shuttle support
GENERAL INFO
- Predecessor: SimpleAirways with landing program v1.0 (obsolete)
- Successors 1 craft(s)
- Created On: Windows
- Game Version: 0.9.508.0
- Price: $151,305k
- Number of Parts: 168
- Dimensions: 20 m x 60 m x 66 m
PERFORMANCE
- Total Delta V: 0m/s
- Total Thrust: 0N
- Engines: 4
- Wet Mass: 3.25E+5kg
- Dry Mass: 1.32E+5kg
STAGES
| Stage | Engines | Delta V | Thrust | Burn | Mass |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 0m/s | 0N | 0s | 3.25E+5kg |
4 Comments
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244 analyzer1+1 3.3 years ago
@kittman It's nice that you found it useful for other crafts! Yes, I haven't yet tested it on anything else since I was trying hard to make it work for just one craft - believe me, it wasn't easy :) However once it's quite stable I believe it may be tuned more or less easily. What you need to do is to decrease some PID coefficients for lighter aircraft. I'm going to write a brief guide about it later.
These lighter aircrafts are more easily maneuverable - they react with less force applied, but this program is currently tuned to apply quite a big force for the big and heavy Jumbo :) So the more easily maneuverable craft the more turbulent it will be probably. Making it auto tune would be quite a difficult thing to do, perhaps some kind of machine learning techniques could be used, but it's too much for Vizzy ;)
By the way, when I tried to manually land a shuttle in the shuttle landing challenge I finally succeeded after quite a lot of tries. It behaved in a hard to predict way at first, so it was difficult to maneuver and in particular I had to set quite large values in builtin PID controllers and control it very carefully. I think it may be a challenge for my autopilot too - that's one of my next goals to automate landing of a space shuttle :) To make it land from orbit would be even greater, but that's perhaps a very long term goal.
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4,250 kittman+1 3.3 years ago
ok. again, wow.
I've had success with it landing the 747... er, I mean the SimpleAirways craft you used, a small-ish, 737-ish 40 passenger jet I converted into a target drone, a DLJ-1fighter jet I converted into the DLQ-1 Target Drone, and the Super Albatros (huge eight-engined cargo plane that is over twice this size as the 747). The smaller planes looked like they were going thru some major turbulence yet still landed correctly. I think the larger the aircraft the smooooooother the approach and auto-landing is. I also like how the program will land both east and west, depending where the aircraft is when the auto-land is engaged. really cool. :) -
4,250 kittman+1 3.3 years ago
WOW.
I ain't gonna lie, I was skeptical this was gonna work. You proved me wrong!
very cool.
:)
@Elna512141 Possibly yes, but I haven't tested it yet. I'm going to start some work on shuttle maybe next month. A shuttle as I remember when I played manually was a tough thing to steer.