As a Christmas present to all the simmers out there, I’m releasing the DCS campaign I’ve been working on for the past 3+ years for free. It includes 30 playable aircraft over 7 missions and is set in the Marianas island chain ca. 2015 where the world is reeling from a deadly pandemic.
I chose Patreon to handle the hosting since other people who do altruistic projects did the same over there 🙂 Anyway, here’s the release trailers, a couple of kneeboard examples and the link for my new Patreon free stuff site 🙂
If you’re wondering what’s going on with the F-20A – I’m still working on that, the campaign just felt like a nice Christmas present so I had to ready it as a solid Early Access release. I’ll get back to the Hammerhead in 2026 – I promise! 🙂
Spent a lot of time updating the Block 12, so much so that it’s now renamed Block 20. New skin with IR masking, lots of fixes, longer flight time, throttle issues minimized, dynamic lights now work and a bunch of analogue instruments added 🙂
This jet is an homage to the F-20 Tigershark that never really got its proper place in aviation history, although it and the F-5 could be called the grandfather of perhaps the F-16 and the F/A-18, maybe even the JF-17. Conceptual stealth fighters are becoming very visible as technology looks towards the future generations in fighter aviation.
Concepts like 6th gen FCAS, NGAD, Tempest and J-36 spring to mind. They give a fleeting insight into what the next generation of air dominance fighters might look like. The ideas have captured smaller industries as well – Turkish TAI TFX or Swedish Flygsystem 20 seem to be serious proposals for native fighter concepts. In 2019 a Lt. Col. in the Royal Danish Air Force pitched the idea of a fighter concept that could support Denmark’s F-35’s in maintaining national borders and in other specialized roles.
The design should also align with the ideals put forward by the fighter mafia: That a fighter should be small, nimble, easily maintainable and be inexpensive to keep flying. Which meant the design quickly adopted roots in the F-5 and F-20 – out of respect for those designs the designation F-20 was maintained. This concept is a thought experiment visualized in Microsoft Flight Simulator, the virtual aircraft draws heavily upon the F/A-18 in the sim, which is what the real concept would also have to do: Be based on existing parts and technology. That is why the engine is an F110 engine borrowed from the F-16’s that danish ground crews already know very well and why the glass cockpit / avionics look similar to 4th gen. The aircraft design itself is based on the YF-23 ( you can tell by the pelican tail ) the F-16 ( small size, big engine ) the SR-71 ( the chines around the nose ) and the F/A-18 both in multi rudder functionality – and finally the F-35 thrust vectoring from the B model, nozzle design and the diverterless intakes.
The aircraft was also designed to operate from austere airfields, the dorsal intake helps in this regard as well as making sure the engine is fed air no matter the orientation or air speed of the aircraft. The canards help with high maneuverability and grants the jet limited STOL capability.
So what do you do for fun around here? – well for me – I’m really into flying these days – And currently I’m midway to having my real world private pilots license, but on the side I’m also creating a campaign for the most complicated combat simulator accessible for civilian use – and here’s the teaser trailer! because, you know, why not commercialize it and have my hobby work for me? 😀
A while ago a Royal Danish Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, “TIB” Guilbert, contacted me about making a prototype stealth fighter to demonstrate a concept he described as being a small, but very maneuverable jet fighter with limited stealth capabilities. I did several drafts and kept the project going as a fun pass time when I wasn’t teaching or working with hard deadlines. During June / July 2022 I discovered there was a possibility to implement the model I had created in MS Flight 2020 – and now it’s almost fully functional – it’s lacking a few things in the cockpit, but exterior wise it’s pretty cool – even comes with thrust vectoring and multi rudder controls. Needless to say the Lt. Col. is very happy with the result 🙂
You can check out the F/A-20A Hammerhead exterior test here, as long as you forgive me for being a super bad pilot when I’m steering the plane from that angle
Thrust vectoring and multi rudder controls are functional! 🙂Modding MSFS is easy in the beginning, but then it gets super detailed and the SDK support is a little flaky at this point ( it is getting better by every update though ).
The aircraft design itself is based on the YF-23 ( you can tell by the pelican tail ) the F-16 ( small size, big engine ) the SR-71 ( the chines around the nose ) and the F/A-18 both in multi rudder functionality, but I also had to lend a great deal from the F/A-18 in MSFS to emulate a jet fighter, especially the afterburner. – and finally the F-35 ( thrust vectoring idea from the B model, nozzle design and the diverterless intakes ). Here’s a few sketches and pics from the development process:
One of the final concepts of the Hammerhead, seen here in “beastmode” with exterior weapons mounted and a Su-75 looming ominously behind it!A very early concept blueprintFusion 360 render after CAD modeling was done ( note the small droptanks – these were later increased in size to hold 300 gallons each ). Early concept with a very short airframe, this was lengthened ( but only to 12 meters / ca. 39 feet ) which makes the jet extremely agile, but shortens its effective range significantly, hence the droptanks and conformal tanks that are present in most images and videos of the aircraft 🙂
Speed painting of the jet in a FOB ( Forward Operations Base, basically a highway with a fuel truck ) – the silly characters are part of a cartoon universe I’m creating that also uses the jet – you can find out more about that here
Here’s a preliminary study on how the control surfaces would work in conjunction with each other:
3D printed version, I really wanted to know if I could make a DIY kit that would allow users to print their own, paint and display it as a model at home – the landing gear was the hardest part, but it works 🙂
PLA print with airbrushed camo scheme – decals are “stolen” from an F-16 model.
I also did an airflow study, sadly the digital wind tunnel was only able to emulate relatively slow speeds, so the study only really shows that the design would generate lift while on the approach ( which is ofcourse, a good thing 🙂 ):
As you can tell – the canards are missing here, they were added later to ensure the high level of maneuverability that the Lt. Col. requested.There’s still a few things that need fixing before the jet can be released on the MSFS 2020 marketplace, but hopefully during 2023 it will appear as an item on there 🙂 – naturally we want to syncronize the release with the other related merch and the board game, so stay tuned 🙂
I’ll leave y’all with a short desert test flight 🙂
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