Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack version 2

[snsfro]

Here we go! Its done! Big improvements:
1:Better looking!
2:SW and SE Direction fixed!
3:Unique Death Animation
4:Both Swept wing and Spread wing Default .FLCs included!
5: Plane able to "switch" in between Swept and Unswept wing configurations in game!!!
6: Civ-Specivfic Tupolev trademark "Stars" on wings and tail.
Getting Bbetter every day!!!
BTW: F-117 Version 2 coming out soon with completely different looks anf more detail!

Here it is!!!:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Tu160Blackjack.zip

Swept wing and Spread wing configuration preview here:

 

[snsfro]

Mind the NE and NW directions, they may look off on this GIF, but in the game it is fine!!!
Here's the Spread wing:

 

[snsfro]

Here's a comparison:

 

[victorhadin]

Ack. I'll have to replace version 1 now.


Keep it up. Good work.

 

[snsfro]

OK!!! I have decided to delay the new F-117 because I have begun working on a MiG/MAPO-35/39 1.42 (Mnogofunktsionalny Frontovoi Istrebitel - Multifunctional Frontline Fighter)! I have the model. It is a plane designed by Russia to rival the American F-22! According to its creators, it is "more stealthy, has better range, has better agility, and can outproform the F-22"! Russia probably won't have enough funding to buty them though, so its main customers are China and India. It also has competition from its "other" rival, the Sukhoi S-37 (Su-47) Berkut. It is sceduled for production around 2007! It will be the hardest and best one of my units yet!!!

 

[snsfro]

BTW, I was rendering the model and I was surprised at how similar this airplane looks to BeBro's EF-2000! I realized that I could just simply add on another tail to the EF-2000 and give it different colors and it would be a MiG-35/39. I have decided not to however, I believe that there will be no satisfication in plagerism, so I am making this unit from my model. If it comes out similar, just know that I haven't copied anybodies unit!
Here's a picture of the MiG/MAPO-35/39 MFI:

 

[snsfro]

Russians have extremely advanced technology. They have the best radar system in the world. They have made some of the best fighters in the world. And I believe that this MFI is at least as good as the F-22. The problem is money. Russia doesn't have enough to build them. If they were built, Russia wouldn't have the equipment necessary to keep it in good condition. The Russians even kept the cost of the MFI down to $70 million, thats as much as the Eurofighter, and half the F-22.

 

[victorhadin]

The 1.42 is almost certainly not liable to go into production in any case, so the issue is rather moot. It is possible for such an aircraft (which as you can see uses a certain amount of wing/ fuselage blending) to achieve a low RADAR cross-section, but the all-moving canard foreplanes would subtract from that during manoeuvres, and the large double tailfins are not exactly an asset. Either way, from what I see, it is largely a conceptual aircraft, not a fighter-to-be.

The Russians do have a lingering pool of expertise left from the Cold War, but it is steadily haemorhaging to Europe and the United States and will not last forever. In addition they simply do not have the funds required to keep their research and development going. What we see now are largely cold war legacy programs. Development projects like the BAe 'Halo' concept (as yet just that; a concept, combined with a half-scale testbed, but with the potential to advance further if need be) are unlikely to take shape in the future without huge amounts if additional funding.

Russia is having enough of a problem paying for the current latest generation projects, which will compete with aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale and, eventually, F22 & F35. With it's resources streaming away, it will certainly be unable to continue future indigenous development unless massive improvements in the Russian economy are achieved.

 

[victorhadin]

And the Su27 is not as massively agile as some would make out. It is more agile than would be expected for an aircraft of it's size and it can sustain control during very high angles-of-attack, but the latter comes at a huge cost in airspeed. Specialist manoeuvres aside, it's agility is surprising, but not at the leading-edge by any means.

 

[victorhadin]

Well the Eurofighter (another low-observables aircraft, to an extent) has a very 'boxy' intake as well.

A good question would be "are the engine compressor stages visible through the intakes from the front?" In aircraft optimised for lower RADAR cross-sections the intake stages are usually arranged to prevent that.

Of course, I know little about the MiG 1.42, so excuse any wrong assumptions.


You are of course right about Russian avionics. In part this is due to a poor pool of expertise in the field and, in part, due to the old Soviet doctrine of over-reliance on ground RADAR installations, making the pilot, effectively, a systems-operator and little else.



As for visual identification, I doubt this is the kind of ideal held by certain large interceptors, the MiG31 in particular, which is designed for networking to scan a region 900 miles in width with a networked group of aircraft.

 

[snsfro]

Wyrmshadow, I knew that the Blackjack could carry 12 cruise missiles, I was refering to AAMs (air-to-air-missiles), of which the Tu-160 CANNOT carry. The Su-37 is probably the most agile fighter in the world! Have you seen video of it? It has thrust vector control and proformed a move where it was actually moving backwards! It is not stealthy though, and is prety expensive. I think that the Russians are cabable of becoming a world leader in technology, they just have to get their economy on its feet...and kick out the Russian Mafia.

 

[Steph]

Originally posted by snsfro
The Su-37 is probably the most agile fighter in the world!

Hm... It should be the harrier... Can your Su37 hover?

 

[victorhadin]

Extreme high-alpha manoeuvres are useful on occasion, but in your typical dogfight it is to be used only when absolutely vital. What is more vital is to be able to sustain high rates of turn without losing vast amounts of airspeed, along with possessing a very high thrust-to-weight ratio.

Yes; a Su-37 or S-37 could perform some absurd manoeuvres in order to get a lock on, but this won't help it if it is the aircraft under threat rather than the aircraft in a favourable position.



As for inter-aircraft networking, Wyrmshadow, it is quite common in modern Western aircraft. All the new 'next-generation' aircraft incorporate it to a degree and even the humble Tornado F3 can act as a networked 'mini-AWACS'.

 

[snsfro]

Check this out, I had some palette problems, so this unit won't be as colorful as I wanted it to be. In fact, It looked perfect, hours of just doing the paint job, but then I converted it into a storyboard pcx and it lost most of the diversity. Its still good, but not perfect. You can't even see the changes in the game (I wasted all that time!). Anyway, I got the default done, here it is:
Do you think I should make the Tupolev stars on the wings civ-specific, I like them to be red, but I made them civ-specific.

 

[snsfro]

So it would fit civ-3, and it did look perfect before the palette problems!

 

[victorhadin]

Originally posted by Wyrmshadow
Hmmmm, then the special I saw on Discover Wings about the Mig-31 was very out of date.

That depends on the degree of networking. The Tornado F3 can act as a mini-AWACS in that it can network with a large group of smaller fighters, such as Hawks, and use it's RADAR to coordinate them and give the Hawk pilots a detailed view of the airspace which they would not ordinarily have.

Whether they can be networked between groups of other F3s flying abreast as the MiG31s do I do not know, however.

 

[snsfro]

This one would work, but the pallete sucks!!! I can't find a pallete that won't join the colors together to create "wet paint"!

 

[snsfro]

Is it better?
Wyrmshadow, are your models pre-colored or not, and if not, do you simply copy a color scheme from a picture of the plane on the internet.

 

[snsfro]

So you just start with a blank model and paint for hours!!!

 

[Steph]

I don't think he paints for our, because he's using a model, not simply doing copy & past... So he applies the texture to the model, and let his software paint for himself