XB-70 Valkyrie work in progress

Yes SR-71 consolidated the high speed technologies and made flying at Mach 3 a reliable and long time and distance possibility, but the XB-70 was the pioneer, it was the first non-rocket aircraft to reach Mach 3 and the second prototype was capable of maintaing such speed for long time and at very high altitude. With a new glass cockpit it still could seem a modern plane!

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Just discovered this thread and this looks awesome Airmax, keep going this plane will really be awesome in MSFS.

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when will this be available and where will I download it from?

Apparently the plane is almost complete, but in fact it is still troublesome, mainly because of phisical, aerodinamical and engines issues and lack of information about the real parameters of the actual plane. Also many animations and gauges have to be completed.
Maybe that a reasonably pre-release version will be available at the beginning of summer, if the most important issues will be solved. I still haven’t decided how to make it public, if as a donationware or in some other way. I have some offers too, but my previous models were almost all freeware and I would like to share my work with people that love this plane as I do…!

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No, no Douglas, come this side, can you see what I’m seeing ?

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Can you please upload this plane to flightsim.to when done as well as your already completed planes?

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I’m willing to pay for it, or donate for your time spent on this project of yours. The model looks astonishing, the cockpit looks quite as nice. This is a truly unique bit of aviation history.

But firstly, i, for one, would like to actually THank you, for making this project of yours possible. I’m pretty sure It’ll be ready when it’s actually deemed ready, no sence in asking the question.
How many hours did you put into it so far, Airmax? :sweat_smile: It’s probably way too many to actually count, yet a great labour of love.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Kindest Regards,

Steiny

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I will be original and say that I would not like to pay for the aircraft release but I would like to pay for you to continue improving the aircraft after release. I’m sure it will have some bugs (as any aircraft) and also some missing things or little details that could be improved. If you make it free it would be very easy to say ā€œthat’s it, I’m not even getting paid for itā€. So if you make it donationware I would be happy to send my donation so you can have a small flux of money to keep dedicating time to the project.

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Thanks Steiny for your encouraging words, yes I spent a lot of hours on the first, basic but very ā€œpioneeristicā€ version (free) probably for FS9, can’t remember exactly, that was adwarded by FlightSim in 2004. Then I developed a more advanced version for FSX, that was distributed by Wingsware, but soon after FSX was closed by MS and Wingsware was closed. Now, after about 15 years, I decided to revive this project and make it a native MSFS 2020 airplane. The FSX version flew very well at Mach 3.15 and very high altitude with no issues. Now I have to fix many things to have the same performances in MSFS 2020, very hard to make it realistic and still working, but as you can see (I hope) MSFS 2020 allow great improvements with PBR materials, lighting, ambient occlusion, shadows, and flight model. I really appreciate your support, It helps me to keep on this complicated task!
Massimo

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Wow, thanks Luis, yes I hope that if I make it a donationware someone will help me with a free offer (I’m not going to indicate any amount for donations, maybe even 0 of course, but if someone will support me I will go much further in developing the plane even after it will be published).
I still have to decide where to publish it, I should open a site, all is to be defined yet. I have some contacts with a big company that showed interest in my plane, but for the moment at least I want to be free and develop it as I like, with no links. But I need some help, and the big company offer also this, and this is the main reason for me to keep this way open…!
Best wishes and thanks again for your words.

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A couple of other resources, which you may or may not be aware of…

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/

Excellent people at these forums with lots of development experience.

And for finding differences between files…

Awesome, awesome work, I salute you!

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Awesome, cant wait.

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I appreciate your goal of keeping it free/donationware, but I also would encourage you to consider the company help (as long as they’re a company you trust). There’s no shame in getting paid for your hard work, and if they can help make it the best it can be, it’s a win for everyone!

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The plane is improving gradually, and every new flight is more exciting! I fixed the gauges glass reflection, now it seems pretty realistic. HSI is now fully functional, with DME, CDI and GSI, both HGD and Course knobs are working, and autopilot is performing well. NAV1 and 2, COM 1-2 knobs and displays activated, a lot of things are now operative!

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Parts of the cockpit are visible inside glass reflection.

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That cockpit looks really really nice!
Have a blast testing!
Just make sure you don’t get close to your escort aircraft ok?

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Started working on the interior. Quite simple at the moment, but the base is essential to study how and what to render in more detail. I had an argument… with the metalness and specular parameters, very difficult to find the right balance, because the result in MSFS is much different from blender/cycles!



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And for the lovers of this plane… can’t miss the encapsulation sequence! A pretty hard work to have it fixed but the result seems good to me!

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Pull yer legs in and grab the cords.. or something or other… That animation man, wowsers… Very nicely done. You have got some skills!!!

Thanks for the updates!

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Thanks! I noticed that the bottom of the chair is interfeering with the lower clamshell. I fixed that, and in the next days I will post a new video, also with the pilot on the seat! The shell also misses the windows, that allowed the pilot to see at least something outside of the capsule.
Unfortunately when the XB70 N. 2 had it’s terrible accident, the pilots had great difficulties in getting encapsulated, because of the centrifugal force. The capsule saved at least one, though, but an arm caught between the shells prevented the air cushion to be depleted before landing…

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