CBLong
29th Nov 2002, 14:44
Having read several threads on this fine board about the famous 'four forces' and all the surrounding topics, I thought it would be useful to have some software to allow investigation and visualisation of the 'four forces' under various flight conditions. I couldn't find any such software on the net, so I've started rolling my own... I'd be very interested in hearing opinions from flying instructors as to whether this idea is worth pursuing as a teaching aid (or any other purpose). I think it could be useful (when sufficiently developed) for demonstrating that (eg) lift is less than weight in the climb, etc.
If you'd like to have a play, the program is available for download here: http://www.oview.co.uk/fourforces/fourforces.exe . It'll run on any recent Windows (Win95/98/2k/ME/XP etc) and doesn't require any fancy graphics hardware or anything. It's about 80K to download. (Standard disclaimers apply - I've got no reason to suspect that the file carries a virus or has any potential to do any damage, but you download at your own risk etc.)
There's no installation - just download it and then double-click on the fourforces.exe file from Windows Explorer.
Select "Help | About" for some instructions, but basically you can control the pitch angle of the aircraft by pressing the 'A' and 'Z' keys, and the engine power using the '<' and '>' keys (unshifted).
The three black lines represent lift, drag and weight, the green line is thrust, the red line is the resultant force, and the blue line is the velocity... (this should make sense as and when you run the program!).
This is very rough and ready at the moment - I don't want to waste too much time on it if it's not going to be useful - so any feedback would be much appreciated. Reply here, or mail [email protected] if you prefer.
Thanks!
cbl.
ps I should probably point out - it's not my intention for this to be a commercial product - this and any later versions will remain free downloads. I just enjoy the programming, and hopefully it'll be useful in some way...
If you'd like to have a play, the program is available for download here: http://www.oview.co.uk/fourforces/fourforces.exe . It'll run on any recent Windows (Win95/98/2k/ME/XP etc) and doesn't require any fancy graphics hardware or anything. It's about 80K to download. (Standard disclaimers apply - I've got no reason to suspect that the file carries a virus or has any potential to do any damage, but you download at your own risk etc.)
There's no installation - just download it and then double-click on the fourforces.exe file from Windows Explorer.
Select "Help | About" for some instructions, but basically you can control the pitch angle of the aircraft by pressing the 'A' and 'Z' keys, and the engine power using the '<' and '>' keys (unshifted).
The three black lines represent lift, drag and weight, the green line is thrust, the red line is the resultant force, and the blue line is the velocity... (this should make sense as and when you run the program!).
This is very rough and ready at the moment - I don't want to waste too much time on it if it's not going to be useful - so any feedback would be much appreciated. Reply here, or mail [email protected] if you prefer.
Thanks!
cbl.
ps I should probably point out - it's not my intention for this to be a commercial product - this and any later versions will remain free downloads. I just enjoy the programming, and hopefully it'll be useful in some way...