C!T ROM 2/ctrom_ii_b.zip/ctrom_ii_b/FLIGHTSI/VLIEGTUI/PL_B314A/CLIPPER.DOC

Text File | 1992-12-19 | 15KB | 312 lines

             Pan American Airways Boeing 314A Clipper - Rod Conklin 76525,3706


Files In This Package:

             CLIPPER_     - This is the aircraft for use with FS4.  To use,
             CLIPPER_.SIM   copy these two files to your FS4 directory and
                            select like any other aircraft.  Nothing else
                            is required (just make sure you takeoff on water!).

             CLIPPER.MOD  - To add alittle historical accuracy, I have prepared
                            a mod file that starts out at the docks by
                            San Francisco.  The aircraft is configured with
                            instruments similar to those in use in the 1930's
                            and 1940's.  If  you use this mod, make sure
                            that the Clipper sim files have been moved to your
                            FS4 directory.


             CLIPPER.AFX  - This is the packed aircraft for use with AAF.

             REF-B314.SIM - This is the source SIM file I used to create
                            the final aircraft.


Aircraft History and Specifications.


       You might say that this aircraft was the B-747 of it's day.  At the
time of its introduction to commerical airline service, it was the largest
commericial aircraft in the world.  Only twelve were build to serve the
Pan American Airways routes to Europe, Asia, and South America.  After
World War II, aircraft technology had advanced to the point where land-based
commerical airliners could easily fly the longer distances without the
need for "island-hopping" refueling stops and the flying boats became
obsolete.  Of the twelve 314A's, one crashed in Spain and the others were
eventually scrapped.

       During the short period of the 314A's commerical existance (late
1930's to the early 1940's), it provided a service that was as revolutionary
to airline travel as the 747 was when it first came into being.  During
the 1930's, commerical aircraft were limited in their range and capacity.
Flights across the Atlantic to Europe and back were dangerous and
not practical for the average traveller.  Pan Am had at the time been
successfully establishing flying boat routes from the United States
to South America with some success.  It's goal was to establish routes
to both the Far East and Europe and to establish a profitable business
in long range travel.  To reach this goal, required aircaft that could
fly the long distances while carrying enough passengers and cargo to
be profitable for the airlines.

       During the early 1930's, the first flying boats used to accomplish
this goal were the Sikorsky S-42 and The Martin M-130.  They both had
long range capability (1200 and 3200 miles, respectively) and could
transit the oceans with reasonable reliability.  The Boeing 314A was
the last and most elaborate of these unique aircaft.  Introduced in 1939,
It had the ability to carry up to 74 passengers in luxury (for that time) and cover longer distances (5200 miles).  The 314A offered amenities unheard of on aircraft of the day, a complete formal dining room seating 15 persons,
a lounge, and, with a smaller number of passengers, complete sleeping
facilities. Some versions even offered a honeymoon suite in the rear of the plane. All of this did not come cheap.  The average airfare to Europe was
$675.00 round-trip and probably much more to the Orient.  However, the
flying boat offered a faster alternative to the ocean liners and enough
luxury to attract passengers.

       The reason for the concept of the flying boat was simple.  The
routes that it flew before WWII did not have modern airport facilities
so there was no way to land an aircraft on a Pacific island without
a hugh investment by Pan Am to build facilities.  The alternative was
to use flying boats which didn't require runways.  The airline could then
simply build hotels and refueling facilities which was a much cheaper
accomplishment.  Pan Am actually built up Wake Island in the Pacific
to complete a chain of refueling stops for the trip to the Phillipines,
Japan, and China.  They also built luxury hotels for passengers at all
the stopping points in the Pacific to try to make the journey as
comfortable as that taken on an ocean liner.

      Pan American's standard route to the Orient was a "leap frog" affair.
The trip started in Alemeda (San Francisco Bay) and progressed non-stop
to Honolulu.  From the Hawaiian Islands the route proceeded to Midway,
Wake, Guam, and finally Manila which had connections to other Far East
locations.  Each one of these "hops" was accomplished at an average altitude
of 8000 to 10,000 feet at an airspeed of around 150 knots.  Comfort to
people of the 1930's must have meant something somewhat differant than
it means to us today.  Imagine spending all those hours in the air with
the infamous Pacific storms lurking about (no weather radar!) and the
droning of four powerful radial engines constantly in your ear!


Aircraft Specifications:

     Boeing 314A Clipper Flying Boat

     Dimensions:

          Length: 106 Feet
          Wingspan: 152 Feet
          Height: 28 Feet
          Gross Weight 84,000 Lbs.

     Performance: Maximum cruise: 199 Mph (Approx 173 knots)
                  Normal cruise: 150 Mph
                  Service Ceiling: 21,000 Feet

     Fuel: 4,200 Gallons (later expanded)

     Capacity: Crew 10-16, Passengers: 74 (34 with sleeping facilities)

     Power: 4 Wright Gr2600 Twin Cyclone Radial engines @ 1600 Hp each.


Reference Sources:

     An American Saga: Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire by Robert Daley
       -1980 Riviera Productions/Random House.

     The Pictorial History of American Aircraft by Bill Yenne
       -1988 Bison Books Corp

     Keith Higgins who was nice enough to give me some leads on the
      idea of doing a flying boat and provided me with techinical
      specifications.


Flying The Flying Boat:

     What I have written above is the about the real world aircraft; now
we come to the realities of the Flight Simulator.  I have developed a
flight model that I hope feels more or less like the actual
aircraft.  There is obviously room for improvement and that is why
I have included the files to re-build the 314A.

     This is a large lumbering aircraft.  It does not perform like a
jet and will probably kill you (in a simulated way of course) if you
try to fly it that way.  I have designed the handling for slow, deliberate
turns --even standard rate turns of 30 degrees may be to steep.  With the
actual aircraft, Pan Am pilots did their own flight testing.  These are
some observations I put together while flight testing the beast:

     Takeoff:

        The model shows alittle too much power on takeoff, but that had
     to be left in to get the airborne performance close to correct.
     To takeoff, aim the nose at open water, put on 10 degrees flaps,
     90 to 100 percent throttle and rotate at about 90 knots.  If you
     take on more fuel, this technique will have to be modified.  The
     actual takeoff procedures for the 314A involved getting airborne
     and then holding the aircraft just above the water at 100 knots
     until the crew was sure that all the engines were going to function
     properly.  Then they would begin their climb-out.


     Climb-out:

        Once airborne, begin a slow-gradual turn to your desired heading,
     while trying to maintain 500 FPM.  I say trying, because the flight
     model tends to want to jump up to 1500 FPM or more which limits
     your available airspeed for manuevering.  Watch your turns or the
     aircraft will tend to slip and skid sideways and you may end up
     flying sideways back into the water. The actual procedure for
     climb-out after take was this:  Once an altitude of 750 feet was
     achieved, the crew would throttle back to about 60 percent power
     and climb at a rate of 110 knots.  This may or may not be possible,
     but interesting to try.

     Cruise:

        The power setting for cruise will depend on how much fuel you decide
     to take on for the trip.  Needless to say the flight model is not
     exactly like the real thing.  The actual procedure for power settings
     was probably trial and error, because Pan Am's pilots did have to
     develop their own procedures for flying the aircraft.  Needless
     to say, if you are planning to fly the plane on any long trips,
     the lowest power setting that keeps you in level flight is the
     right one.

     Landing:

        Landing the beast is pretting straight forward -- reduce power and
     it will go down -- fast(Grin).  I tried 30-40 degrees flaps and
     tried a longer slow descent which seemed to work best.  This
     approach means that you won't have much power for sharp turns, so
     it is best to plan your final approach ahead of time.  I have found
     that the aircraft will not glide with the power too low or off, so
     loss of control is very possible under those conditions.  I don't
     know if that was a characteristic  of the real aircraft or not, but
     I can imagine that with all that weight, it probably was not easy
     to handle at low power settings.

     Handling:

       One thing I tried hard to duplicate was the sluggish handling of
     the aircraft.  The large aircraft of that period had no boosted
     controls (power steering) and also, in this case, had large control
     surfaces.  That mean't that you didn't flying this thing with your
     pinky.  Fly by wire had a whole differant meaning back then -- as in
     a wire running from the control column 106 feet straight back to
     the elevators, etc.!


     Fuel:

       The fuel load I have designated for the aircraft will probably not
     get you from San Francisco to Hawaii.  I had alot of trouble trying
     to get a good combination of power and fuel usage and this is the best
     I could come up with.  I did not have time for a twelve hour flight
     to check the actual fuel consumption at differant power settings,
     so I had to set the power as low as possible.  The values in the SIM
     file are not exactly like those of the real aircraft, but were set
     to try to get the performance close to the real thing.

       You can set the fuel amount to anything you want to achieve better
     flying range.  For those of you that are not very familiar with the
     aircraft editor in FS4, the fuel amount can be changed by selecting
     OPTION I off of menu 1 and then selecting OPTION C to get to the
     fuel amount. The fuel selection is B on the WEIGHT AND BALANCE
     SCREEN.  On this aircraft the fuel amount is expressed in pounds
     instead of gallons.  The current value is 40,000 pounds which
     translates to 6600 gallons.  Each gallon weighs 6 pounds. To change
     the amount, press B and enter the new fuel amount in pounds.
     The new value will stay in effect until you crash or select a
     differant mod file.  Ofcourse you can save the changed SIM file
     if you want.  I have managed to take off with 70,000 pounds of
     fuel on board, but performance was not fantastic.  I suggest you
     experiment with differant fuel amounts and empty weights.



     Navigation:

        Just a word about navigation.  The mod file that I have provided
     with the airplane is set up with no navigation aides other than
     ADF.  This somewhat mimics the limitations the pilots faced during
     the period that the 314A was flying.  PAN AM actually pioneered
     the use of Radio Direction finding for navigation and it was
     installed for use by their flying boats.  The primary source of
     navigation, however, was still by the position of the stars.  Because
     of the limitations we have in FS4, (100 mile range for ADF and no
     other radio sources), flights to the Pacific will probably have
     to involve a good guess.

     Where to Fly:

        Historically, these aircraft were used in the Atlantic, Caribbean,
     and, of course, the Pacific.  It is possible with the available
     scenery disks from Mallard and SubLogic, to duplicate most of the
     historic routes flown by Pan Am.  The main problem is going to be
     to time involved to make the flights.  At 170 knots maximum, you
     will have to be a hardened FS4 fan with a serious purpose to avoid
     the temptation to hit the slew key on the flight to Hawaii.

        If you are interested in duplicating any of the established
     Pan American routes here is a partial list of the routes for all
     three areas:


        Pacific Routes: (By The China Clipper)

            Alemeda (San Francisco) to Honolulu
            Honolulu to Midway
            Midway to Wake
            Wake to Guam
            Guam to Manila

            Alternate routes also went to the South Pacific,
            Australia and New Zealand.

        Atlantic Routes:

            New York to the U.K, Spain, and France (Marseille)

        Caribbean Routes:

            Miami To:

               Cuba
               All major Caribbean Islands
               Both Coasts of South America as far south as
                Valparaiso, Chile and Montevideo, Uruguay

            Note: For those who have not noticed it, Some of the
                  Mallard Scenery Disks contain South America,
                  although there is no detail to the continent.


Development Notes:

     1) If you have AAF, you will notice that the aircraft uses almost
        all available parts, I did not have room to put in extras like
        navigation lights.  In fact, because of limited space, I had
        to compromise somewhat so the number of windows is not exactly
        accurate and the bottom of the aircraft is not a differant
        color.

     2) The color I selected is supposed to represent silver.  While
        I realize it does not provide alot of contrast to make the
        features of the aircraft show up, I figured that it was more
        accurate.  The only pictures I had to work with were Black &
        White, but all of them showed the aircraft as aluminum-colored
        with the Pan Am logos.

     3) This aircraft was designed for water only, but since the floats
        on FS4 planes will also work on land, it can be landed on a
        runway.  Possible, but not too accurate.

     4) The bottom of the aircraft was modified from the actual "V"
        boat-shaped bottom to a flat bottom to make it appear as if
        it is sitting in the water.  This is the only solution I could
        come up with to get the appearance close to right.