Tangmere's Lightning Sim - Update
Posted: 06 Aug 2009, 17:46
Those of you who remember me posting photos of this pile of "junk" sitting on a hangar floor at Tangmere purporting to be a Lightning simulator...
...might like to know that it now looks like this and is progressing steadily towards final assembly.
Most of the interior has been resprayed and the working parts refurbished and brought back to full working condition.
Fortunately, the control rods and linkages are still in place so the original stick, rudder and throttles will be used. They are currently being connected up via carbon fibre-rods attached to the control linkages to linear slide potentiometers which sense their movement. Here you can see the one for the rudder with another, waiting to be connected, underneath.
Although still connected to the old control links, the stick just "flopped" around so after experimenting with various spring arrangements, adjustable bungee cord is now in place to hold the stick central and to give it an appropriate "feel" when moved.
The original throttle box is now working but it's causing a few problems getting it connected to the pots - the movement range, especially into reheat, is considerably more then the linear pots can cope with so we're looking at various solutions including geared rotary pots for each throttle.
The original stick hand grip has been refurbished and re-wired so that the various buttons - trim, fire etc. - are now available for use. The hand brake was missing from the grip but an exact replica has been made in the workshops here at the museum and will be added (fully wired) to the grip soon.
Once everything has been wired-up, the potentiometers and switches - gear, flaps, etc. - will all be connected this magnificent little interface device which, in turn, is connected to a computer by a USB lead and will make it think that the inputs from the various pots and switches are coming from a computer joystick. A registered copy of FSUIPC is the only other thing we'll need (I hope!).
One of the problems with this project has been that it arrived unexpectedly at the museum after the budget for this year had been set so it's been something of a "back-burner" project, especially as the team working on it - Hugh Trevor, John Elvins, Mike Stanton, Kieran Wiesley and yours truly - were all involved in other projects but, as it nears completion, the pace is picking up and I'm hoping to see it working by October.
Pete
...might like to know that it now looks like this and is progressing steadily towards final assembly.
Most of the interior has been resprayed and the working parts refurbished and brought back to full working condition.
Fortunately, the control rods and linkages are still in place so the original stick, rudder and throttles will be used. They are currently being connected up via carbon fibre-rods attached to the control linkages to linear slide potentiometers which sense their movement. Here you can see the one for the rudder with another, waiting to be connected, underneath.
Although still connected to the old control links, the stick just "flopped" around so after experimenting with various spring arrangements, adjustable bungee cord is now in place to hold the stick central and to give it an appropriate "feel" when moved.
The original throttle box is now working but it's causing a few problems getting it connected to the pots - the movement range, especially into reheat, is considerably more then the linear pots can cope with so we're looking at various solutions including geared rotary pots for each throttle.
The original stick hand grip has been refurbished and re-wired so that the various buttons - trim, fire etc. - are now available for use. The hand brake was missing from the grip but an exact replica has been made in the workshops here at the museum and will be added (fully wired) to the grip soon.
Once everything has been wired-up, the potentiometers and switches - gear, flaps, etc. - will all be connected this magnificent little interface device which, in turn, is connected to a computer by a USB lead and will make it think that the inputs from the various pots and switches are coming from a computer joystick. A registered copy of FSUIPC is the only other thing we'll need (I hope!).
One of the problems with this project has been that it arrived unexpectedly at the museum after the budget for this year had been set so it's been something of a "back-burner" project, especially as the team working on it - Hugh Trevor, John Elvins, Mike Stanton, Kieran Wiesley and yours truly - were all involved in other projects but, as it nears completion, the pace is picking up and I'm hoping to see it working by October.
Pete
. Nice to see museum projects not getting left DIW (not that I'm pointing any fingers in the direction of Weybridge) 
