This Flight Simulator 2004 aircraft was produced with Abacus FS Design Studio 3.5.1, FS Panel Studio 2004, and Paint Shop Pro X.
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Installation FS2004:
1) Extract the contents of the main zip file K28USNZJ1.zip into FS2004's Aircraft folder. This should create a structure something like the following:
- c:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9
--- Aircraft
----- K-Ship USN ZJ-1
-------- model
-------- panel
-------- sound
-------- texture
2) RADAR FILE: Copy the file TrafficRadarXML.dll from the \K-Ship USN ZJ-1\panel folder to the FS9\Modules folder. No need to overlay if you already have this file. This is a public domain radar gauge component developed by Arne Bartels.
-Once these files are extracted, Flight Simulator 2004 should exhibit a new entry under Aircraft/Select Aircraft on the menu bar:
-- Goodyear / K-Ship Blimp / US Navy K-28 ZJ-1
NOTE: Highly recommended add-on scenery ==> aship_j.zip by John Stinstrom, containing 8 WWII blimp bases with hangars.
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Flying the K-Ship:
=Speed and Trim
This K-Ship can be flown with flaps or without, to provide a 'slow flight mode' and a 'regular flight mode'. There are of course no flaps visible, and this is just a tweak to the flight dynamics. Use FS commands F8 and F5 to add and remove flaps.
Pitch trim is applied using the elevator trim buttons on the joystick, or elevator keyboard commands numpad 1 and 7. A fair amount of time will be spent trimming the ship, particularly after large changes in throttle settings.
Look at the inclinometer and the manometers in front of the pilot's seat to get a visual sense of trim settings.
See accompanying .PDF file for background on pitch trim in this model and in actual blimps, using ballonet air management.
=Elevator, Rudder, Ailerons
In K-class blimps the left-side pilot controlled the elevator with a big wheel attached to his seat. The right-side pilot controlled the rudder with a steering wheel on a column.
K-ships had no ailerons, but this model does respond to joystick aileron movements.
=Engines
Engine starters and magnetos, mixture and carb heat can be controlled from a 2-D cockpit popup window, or from the mechanic's station in the VC. In FS9, you will need to use an alternate view in the VC to get back there (numpad 5 + 7).
The K-Ship had fixed-pitch propellers, so there is no propeller RPM control.
=Landing Gear
There is no landing gear lever in the VC. A manual landing gear crank is activated when the gear is lowered using the FS keyboard command G.
=Drift Meters
There are working drift meters on each side of the car, just behind the cockpit. If the blimp is drifting due to crosswinds, you can rotate one of the drift meters to align with the motion along the ground, and read the drift angle.
You need to position yourself in the VC above and behind the drift meter to do so. Here are the commands:
FS9 Virtual Cockpit How To Move About:
-- Ctrl-Enter to move aft
-- Ctrl-Backspace to move forward
-- Shift-Enter to move up
-- Shift-Backspace to move down
-- Ctrl-Shift-Enter to move right
-- Ctrl-Shift-Backspace to move left
=Weight and Balance
You can add or remove weight using the Aircraft / Fuel and Payload dialog. You can make the K-Ship as light as 25 pounds.
At that weight, with flaps, you may be able to fly at 5 mph or slower, but use very little power or the model will overstress.
Normally, K-Ships flew between 1000 and 2000 pounds net. With 1500 pounds of fuel this K-Ship model will fly almost 20 hours at 50 mph.
=Doors
Main exit opens with Shift-E. Other doors open with Shift-E-2, Shift-E-3, Shift-E-4. Note that the numbers are the keys above the letters on the keyboard, not on the number pad.
=Trailing Antenna
The radio trailing antenna is activated with the FS tailhook command. You have to set that up in Settings/Controls/Assignments.
=Outrigger Air Scoops
Use cowl flap commands Ctrl-Shift-V and Ctrl-Shift-C to open and close.
=Background
Flight Simulator does not simulate the 'static lift' from helium, which provides over 90% of the lift for a real blimp.
Therefore a Flight Simulator model must make compromises with reality, and try to simulate a light airplane that might give the 'feel' of a blimp.
Bill Lyons's excellent blimps use the flight dynamics of a plane weighing about 90 pounds, with a 5-hp engine.
This model takes a slightly different approach, attempting to model a net weight of 2000 pounds with 200-hp engines and 250 gallons of fuel.
Dennis Simanaitis kindly permitted the use of the flight dynamics of his 'Russkii Vityaz' 1913 large biplane as a basis for this blimp model. The file was heavily modified by me, so any flaws in the flight dynamics of the blimp are my responsibility.
See accompanying .PDF file for background on compromises made in the flight dynamics.
The virtual cockpit may be better viewed if you hit the minus (-) key once or twice, to get back to a 75% or 50% zoom.
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Known issues:
-Non-historically realistic controls:
-- Superheat gauge would really display the temperature difference between the gas inside the blimp envelope and the air outside. This model's gauge just displays arbitrary numbers based on the weather.
-- Gas pressure gauge would really display the overpressure of the gas inside the envelope. This model's gauge just shows an arbitrary number based on altitude.
-- Dampers and Air Valves - Most are non-functional. Two are used to simulate fore-and-aft ballonet pitch trim.
-- Helium release valves actually activate a spoiler, below 40 mph. This simulates a loss of lift.
-- Fuel tanks - Eight fuel tanks are visible in the ceiling of the VC, with a fuel gauge under each tank. The model only has two actual tanks, Center1 and Center2. The forward gauges show Center1 and Center2 levels, and all the others are duplicates.
-- Radar - This model includes a simple radar gauge that displays a ground map and AI airplane traffic. Ideally it should display surface vehicle traffic, but does not.
-- Autopilot - Blimps didn't have autopilots, but this model has one in the 2D cockpit if you want to use it.
-- Fuel pump, primer, fuel valve, tank selector switches - All fictitious, but may be necessary to allow cold starting in FSX.
-Sound. To save space, this model comes with a sound.cfg file that points to a default sound package, the DC-3.
Authorship:
The visual model is completely original. The textures are original. Most of the gauges are original, and some are modified from XML gauges supplied in FS2004, with original artwork.
The radar gauge uses radar.cab and trafficradarxml.dll by Arne Bartels, which he generously placed in public domain.
Additional camera views, additional fuel and engine controls, creative consulting by Bob Familton.
Additional 2D Door Gauge by Georg Aubele and Bob Familton. Copyright Georg Auberle. Used by permission of Georg Aubele, and may be used or modified as long as it is in a freeware product.
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Special Thanks:
New England Air Museum (Windsor Locks, Connecticut, http://www.neam.org/)
Personnel:
-Russ Magnuson, Crew Chief of Goodyear Blimp Car Restoration Team.
-John Craggs, member, Goodyear Blimp Car Restoration Team.
-Don Scroggs, member, Goodyear Blimp Car Restoration Team.
-Al Charlevois, former Marine and Pan Am pilot and museum docent.
Dennis Simanaitis, for permission to use the flight dynamics of the Russkii Vityaz.
Bob Familton, for enhancements noted above.
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Background:
This model represents the U.S. Navy blimp K-28 with features not yet installed on the restoration project at the New England Air Museum. These include a radar operator's station, relief crew seats under the bunks, smoke bomb chute and crate, and a navy gray paint scheme.
The Goodyear K-class blimps were used in World War II by the U.S. Navy for anti-submarine work. One hundred thirty-five were built for the Navy by Goodyear.
Their Navy designation was ZNP-K, and they were referred to as 'K-Ships' or 'King Ships'.
This model is of the K-28, delivered to the Navy in December 1942, the 22nd K-class blimp in service.
It was assigned to squadrons ZP-14 and ZP-24 during the war, and was based mostly in Weeksville, North Carolina.
It was the subject of a photo booklet titled "An Operational Flight" published by the Navy in WWII and now residing in the Smithsonian and the Naval Aviation Museum.
Later it was assigned to utility squadron ZJ-1, probably in Key West, Florida.
It was purchased by Goodyear in 1946 and converted to a commercial advertising airship, pioneering the use of automatically-controlled message light arrays.
It was dismantled in 1948 and the car was stored upside-down for years. Goodyear donated it to the New England Air Museum in Connecticut in 1980, with almost all equipment stripped out.
The New England Air Museum has been restoring the K-28 blimp car for the last 18 years, in view of the visiting public, under the direction of crew chief Russ Magnuson.
The restoration is about 85% complete. Almost every interior component has had to be re-manufactured, usually without any original drawings or specs.
The K-class blimps were filled with over 400,000 cubic feet of helium. Their gross weight was over 28,000 pounds, but the net flying weight was typically about 2000 pounds.
This was called 'flying heavy' and was normal for Navy blimp operations. The 2000 pound net weight had to be provided by aerodynamic lift derived from the blimp's forward speed.
Rather than popping straight up, blimps often made a fairly long takeoff run, similar to an airplane. However, they might climb out at a 40-degree pitch.
=Other K-Ship facts:
.Two complete K-Ship cars survive today. One is being restored at the New England Air Museum in Connecticut. The other is on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.
.Airship K-74 was shot down during a running battle with a German submarine, U-134, on July 19, 1943. Nine of the 10 crew survived. The submarine was damaged, but escaped, only to be sunk weeks later attempting to return home for repairs.
.Out of 89,000 convoy ships escorted by blimps in WWII, only one was lost to submarines.
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References:
New England Air Museum, Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks, CT http://www.neam.org/exhibits/blimp.asp
'Noon Balloon', Official Newsletter of the Naval Airship Association, spring 2008, fall 2009, spring 2011, summer 2011
J. Gordon Vaeth, 'Blimps & U-Boats', Naval Institute Press 1992
James R. Shock, 'U.S. Navy Airships', Atlantis Productions 2008
VADM Charles E. Rosendahl, USN (Ret.), 'United States Navy Airships in World War II', Atlantis Productions 2007
Lawrence F. Rodrigues, 'U.S. Navy Airship Picture Book', EastWest Institute 2004, e-book at http://BattleBlimps.com/
Don Kaiser, 'K-Ships Across the Atlantic', Naval Aviation News, spring 2011
'An Operational Flight ZP-24', Naval Aviation Museum website, http://naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/doncoms/Display.php?irn=16045350
War Department, 'Airship Aerodynamics Technical Manual', University Press of the Pacific 2003 reprinted from 1941 edition
Gabriel A. Khoury and J. David Gillett, eds., 'Airship Technology', Cambridge University Press 1999
Navy Department, 'Rigid Airship Manual', U.S. Govt. Printing Office 1928
Thos. Blakemore and W. Pagon, 'Pressure Airships', Ronald Press Co. 1927
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This model is freeware.
All comments and suggestions welcome.
E-mail: george_diemer@msn.com
