XS458 60th anniversary since first flight
Went to Cranfield the other week for a get-together of people who used to volunteer on the Cranfield Lightnings, tocelebrate XS458's 60th. Had a surprise visit of an F Mk. 6 cpckpit too, that was cut off at Cranfield 31 years ago. It was the first time the two jets had been re-united!
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Splendid! Great to see reunions like that.
Is it possible, at some point in the future, to get some pictures from each side of the ground generators / air carts and other ancilaries so we can recreate them in FG?
Yes, should behaving a few more visits over the summer.
I can also have a go with photogrammetry to produce 3d models.
I also recently bought a set of ex-RAF 'A' ladders which I can model at my convenience at home. These have been used on aircraft since the 1960s, some aircraft you could use them for cockpit access if you didn t have the correct access ladder, but the Lightning's cockpit is so high, these would only be used to climb onto the wing. I bought them for gardening:
scottbouch.com
I've actually had quite some success turning images into 3d models recently - I was going to start a thread about it but haven't had the time.
Those ladders are as cool as heck - very jealous!
This is far from perfect but a nice start at a Lynx nav display:
With a retexture of the text it'd be perfectly usable.
Same with this generic clock from the 50's
and I think this was a wheel and tyre off a bomb cart maybe.
All produced from just one image and converted on a free plan with meshy.ai - I hope to maybe buy a paid plan and have a better go with more images next year - the issue is finding good images that we can use under a compatible license.
They look really good!!
The trick in taking the images for photogrammetry is in thinking what the software would want to see, ie, avoiding 'shadows', getting overlapping details in all angles, etc.. Lighting is hard to get right, outdoors on an overcast day is best.
Reflections are a big problem, but Gaussian splats sorts that out.
I have had success with (open source, free) Meshroom on Linux, before Gaussian Splats was a thing, and now see there is a plugin/addon that can give it that capability, so will have to try that next... I had a bit of a failed attempt with a flying helmet due to reflections, would be good to try again.
The ladders came from an aviation art family company called Dappr furniture in Bury St.Edmunds, they have a good website of artwork they have made with aircrat parts, plus selling off unmodified stuff on ebay.
scottbouch.com