Sweet!

Thanks :D

but it wasnt as simple as that:

the texturing was basic and simple, and the font used for the
N number on the wing is "AmarilloUSAF" i cant remember where i downloaded it though, im not totally happy with it, but it will do,

the real fun was in building it in x-plane and researching it,

i used the pics on this page as a visual reference
" http://www.airminded.net/h1/h1.html " ^_^

i went to Nasa's NACA archive website to find the data to shape the airfoils that i then made in partmaker after carefully calculating lift, drag, and a bunch of other stuff from the offset and chord ratio values i got from a 1930's airfoil research artical i found in the NACA archive using a special program, i had to interpolate the data to get a smooth enough airfoil,


i also looked up the Pratt & Whitney R-1536 engine specifications...
this was hell...
most pages i seen specs for this engine on had TOTALLY different horsepower and max rpm ratings, the engine is supposedly rated at
700Hp, but the H-1 is said to have >1000 Hp

i finally figured as a guess that Hughes aircraft had modified the
engine somehow and possibly used higher then rated octane fuel,

but this was just a potshot, so i set it at about 1072 horsepower and got a realistic speed out of it after calculating the min and max rpms and adjusting the pitch of the prop to optimize it for around 350Mph

i also had to factor in basic stuff like maximum g-loading, max speed, stall speed, stall with flaps, minimum take off speed, control surface deflection, wing dihedral and pitch, viewpoint offset...

and finding that damn AmarilloUSAF font took ages...

then i had to figure out how to safely fly the thing:

when your sitting on the runway waiting for takeoff, your staring at the SKY because of the steep angle the plane rests at due to the tall landing gear, because of this its not always easy to keep the nose from diving into the runway due to the fact the center of gravity is almost directly over the main gear, and violently pitches down as soon as you turn the throttle up a hair,

ground loops are easy if you don't use the rudder on takeoff and landings, but this should be avoided, as it has to potential to damage the plane, as well as the pilot (can you say whiplash?)

the torque from that huge 10 foot diameter aluminum prop and powerful engine will flip you like a pancake as soon as you leave the ground if you don't hold the stick left and trim the ailerons, this would suck because your plane would land on the ground with the wheels up in the air, and you in the hospital/morgue

...ouch

if your engine fails and your not ready,
all the anti-torque trim you added to keep you from flipping over, will send you into a violent roll if you don't zero the trim quickly,

it glides well, but will easily slide through a beet field should you run outta gas and crash land it, ^_^

its VERY maneuverable, even more so then the P-51 that comes with X-plane, this means even the lightest joystick deflection has a great effect on movement, this makes it a little hard to land though,

i admit: I'm no pilot, i have never flown inside a real plane
i dont even have a drivers license,

but i think i have learned enough basic aeronautics and physics reading up on this and studying how the airfoils work to understand some of the basics of flight and aircraft construction,

from what i hear, some pilots don't even know how an airfoil works,
but that's okay as long as they know how to keep the plane in the air

i realize how complex a radial piston engine is,
and i do realize how much engineering was put into
making such a powerful machine.

but i also like the charm and beauty of planes like this,

i look at a A320 or a Cessna 172 and go bah
but these old planes sort of have a magic around them,
so many records were broke and so much was learned,
not to mention all the dreams that came true for so many
inventors and pioneers and engeneers that made these planes,

the H-1 was all about speed, and a mans dream,

an airbus is just a machine fabricated for transport and cargo,

and a cessna 172 is just a plain plane,


so yeah, i guess it is pretty sweet,
but its also very complicated, historic, and fascinating

^_^ and to think, i learned all this just out of curiosity...


i have never flown before but:

i once got to sit in the cockpit of a Huey helicopter that landed at our school when i was little,

i also went to an airshow once,
i got to see a bunch of cool planes, an F-117 flyby and the inside of "FiFi" which is the only airworthy B-29 in existence,

see: http://www.warbirdalley.com/images/b29fifi.jpg

My father was a pilot before WW2 and flew Navy OS2U floatplanes. I grew up around aircraft and competed with my three brothers to see who could identify a plane first. My late brother was a docent at the NASM and one of the designer/ payload specialists at the Naval research Lab in Wash. DC. He and his collegues created the Dragoneye UPV now used by the military along with many other projects. We spent many an hour at the NASM and the H-1 is one of the many historic aircraft we studied. The place to see the most interesting collection is the soon to be off-limits
Paul E. Garber Restoration facility in Silver Hills , MD. There they have all the strangest aircraft and spacecraft waiting to be restored and added to the NASM's downtown museum and at Dulles.
My particular fondness is for the military aircraft of WW1.

i live in Akron Ohio, The (used to be) Rubber capital of the world,

my great grandpa worked on Corsairs at the Goodyear Airdock (supposedly)and my great grandma was a Rosie the riveter

i have a uncle that currently works at Lockheed Martin (who now own the Airdock)

but none of the family know what he does there cause its supposed to be
confidential or something.

i remember reading in the paper they were working on a high altitude airship capable of heavy lifting but i havnt heard anything since,

i have another uncle who used to be stationed at Edwards AFB in the early 70s but i dont know much about what he did there,

i became interested in aviation simply out of curiosity,

i used to play a couple of games("F-22 intercepter" and "LHX Attack Chopper")
on my old sega genesis

(which are probably the slowest flight sims ever created, but still fun)

when i got my first computer, i got a flight sim (Pro pilot) and although i enjoyed it,
it was a sort of dry enjoyment because there was only so much you could do,

later i got X-plane 5.54 and a nice joystick. i upgraded that to 5.66, and then 5.99
and that is what i still use since this old pc cant handle much else.
since im using such an old version, its hard to find planes to download
so i end up making them in plane maker myself just to try em out :D

its still just a hobby for me though, and i will probably never get a chance to fly a real plane,... maybe one day though ^_^

it had to be awesome getting to work around all those historical aircraft,

and as for WWI and prewar planes, i like em too :D