I found an old file on Flightsim.to for NUQ. It’s not the greatest but it fills the space. It was made about 5 years ago and whomever made it at the time was obviously using visual references of the time when Hanger 1 was skeletal and Hanger 2 were under construction. It still shows Hanger 3 as well which as I’m sure you know is completely gone. It is for 2020 only. Might be a starting place for you? Just a thought.
Well, I am too old for this right now but would be willing to make a donation towards the effort if somebody like @Vincent1064 wanted to take a shot. People can reach me here by PM or yesavage at stanford dot edu. I doubt this could be viable financially as an add on, but as a charitable project might have a life. Maybe somebody could start on a P3 but I doubt there are Lockheed Electra models lying about either. 
Needs to be some memory of this place.
As previously stated, there’re too many specific buildings here for my skills. I can participate for the ground layout and areas that do not required custom made object. The big part of this project seems to be mandatory handcrafted buildings and hangars. Team work!
Yeah, I know what you mean… if you look at the 20 year old video above we used to hard code every building in C++ to get it to run fast. I would not even know what language the code would be written in today.
In the day I was doing this I wrote most of it myself but also we could be some low-priced Stanford CS students to help. I have funds at the University that could be used for student projects. There is still a lot of interest in flight simulation in relation to cognitive function. What screwed up up was the transition to the glass cockpit since the cockpit/simulator we used was a Frasca 141 that had analogue gauges. In our research we wound up with pilots in transition to the glass cockpit (like I did) which made consistent testing impossible since that all had different levels of practice.
Frasca eventually also moved to glass cockpit but I gave up trying to figure out the interface. The old one was very simple with understandable TTY calls.
At one point we transitioned to a version of the software that ran on a laptop inside an MRI machine. I think we did one paper on that. The PI was a Dr. Adamson.
PS No way to move the 2020 code over to 2024… some smart AI somewhere?
Hello folks,
I am taking a break from working on another scenery and got inspired by the current Artemis mission. I used to visit Moffett quite a bit when I was a teenager, especially the airshow. When I was in college I also got a chance to tour the Ames facility, and that was very memorable.
This is only a first attempt at some of these buildings, just as a general impression because my modeling is not that great. But I think with a little work, this can end up better than the default airport. I also depicted only Hangar 2 because it seems Google already dismantled Hangar 3, as mentioned upthread. I used the renderings of Hangar One in the NASA PDF, so some things may look funny compared to real life. The doors still look a bit wonky to me…
Much of the airport surroundings and Ames are already present in PG, so this would just be a supplement with key buildings, rather than total rebuild of the airport.
Any comments are welcome and indeed helpful.
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Is this available anywhere?
Not available yet, sorry. Still in progress.
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Very encouraging. Any way I can buy you a cuppa coffee to keep your creativity going?
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I will have to look into that. Live overseas so don’t have the usual donation modes like Venmo. Much appreciated though.
Latest update - have added more of the ANG facility, an improved Hangar One model, the old Ames hangar, and the museum with its static collection. Also the P-3 on Cody Road.
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Well, hope you can be successful at it. In the day (circa 1985) I spent a lot of quality time in the P3 simulator that was lodged in Hanger 1 at the time.
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Thank you for doing this!! It definitely is sorely missing in the sim. Especially as it’s a very notable fixture of the south bay and Silicon Valley. I was the one who originally started this thread. I worked many of those planes back when they flew as a controller in the tower. A couple tips: Hanger 2 should be a touch greener (sort of an aqua/turquoise, see one of my pics further above in the post). Second, I don’t know if it’s still true but back in the day (late 70’s/early 80’s) generally Hanger 1’s doors would be open about halfway on the 32 side (the side shown in your last picture). Great work!
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Hi there, thanks for starting the thread (and for USN ATC service…I’m sure you worked my uncle’s flights in the 80s before he got moved to NAS Whidbey Island!)
I will look into what can be done about the color of Hangar 2. It is difficult to get aerial photos of the full hangar that I have clearance to use for textures, but I will keep hunting around.
I am not much of a modeler so I use an AI tool for the initial generation and then do some cleanup in Blender. I did try some Hangar One models with the doors partially open, but it would consume too many resources because I would still need to show the internal structure, and it’s too much metalwork unfortunately.
One model I want to improve is the tower/flight ops building. It is hard to get good angles of it from image searches. If you happen to know anyone who has a full-on shot of the whole building from either the ramp or Cody Rd, that would help a lot to improve it.
Will this be available for the 2020 sim?
Hello, I understand about the inside of the hanger. That’s put more than one person off making it. I’ve only found a few images of Ops (the tower’s building). Probably ones you’ve seen. Drawing from memory:
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On the second floor there were single windows on both ends of the center hallway that ran the length of the building. The hallway windows were more the square type (as seen on front pics) rather than the wide rectangles.
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On the first floor side (the 32/Bayshore Freeway side) there was no windows as it was a blank wall and that section of the building used to hold Bay Approach back in the old days (i.e.: darkened radar room).
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On the same end (32/freeway) front side of the first floor it was blank wall save for a double (I think double?) solid metal entry door that was used for tech ops entrance (see one of the pics…the part that protrudes). FYI, if you put a regular 70’s plain metallic green Chevy van parked by that door you’d have what was where a tech (ET2) we called “Beetle” (as in Bailey) actually lived!
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@1.5 story below the tower there was one square window (smaller than the hallway squares) on the side of it where the tower breakroom was.
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On the Hanger 1 side of the building I think there was another square “center hallway” window on the first floor. I’m also pretty sure there were the wider rectangular windows on the first floor which were offices on either side of the hallway.
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On the 32/freeway side there was only one wider rectangular side window to the front side of the building (car parking lot side) on the second floor (above tech ops/Bay Approach). That was the secretary’s office.
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I’ve included some detail roof shots of Hanger 2 for reference. You are correct Hanger 3 is completely gone now.
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If you look at the picture I posted way further up on this thread (the one with the Cessna in position) that IS the color of Hanger 2. The live shots from the web don’t do the color justice.
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Also, Hanger 1 is much more of a silver metallic. I think that depends on the underlying background colors of the COMP files but not sure (aircraft painters would know what I’m talking about). The rotating beacon in the old days was on top of Hanger 1. I don’t know if that’s the case anymore.
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BTW, your blue on the tower and ops building is correct. Basically Air Force blue. The pic of the group shot is way too over exposed.
Hope this helped.
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Thank you for the background info - I also didn’t know BAY APP used to be in that building. When did they move to Oakland, I wonder? That explains the large VHF array near the NASA water tank by the freeway.
I have the same reference photos you posted. For Hanger 2 though, I can definitely use one of those photos, as I don’t have it in my collection. And the green color can be captured quite well from it I think - big help, thanks!
The renovated Hanger 1 cladding is indeed quite shiny depending on the sun angle in RL. I tried a couple of PBR applications for the model, but it was too shiny and ended up funny looking. So I went with a slightly lighter color than gray so that it will be more reflective in the sim sun. I dunno…still not happy with it, but may have to choose lesser of two evils. Not the easiest building to depict!
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Yes, I am working on it with the 20 SDK, so it will work in 20 and also 24.
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Bay moved just before I got there in 79 and went up to Oakland. They moved to Sacramento by MHR (Rancho Cordova) in 2002 when all the approach controls in northern CA except Fresno combined into NORCAL (NCT), including Reno Approach which is located at NCT as well. As far as the “water tank” if it was that tall rectangle with “NAS Moffett Field” on it that was actually called the paraloft and was used to pack parachutes. I don’t know if it’s still standing. As for Hanger One I do have a very old version of NUQ for 2020 (maybe originally for FSX?) that has the inside depicted although it is just a suggestion of the skeletal framing. I am able to go inside. From a distance it’s acceptable but up close not so much. That file which still shows Hanger 3 can be found on Flightsim.to at Moffet Field NASA airship Hangar KNUQ San Jose airport buildings - MSFS Add-on - Flightsim.to . Maybe it’ll help. Cheers!
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