AERIAL ACROBATICS & HIGH-G MANEUVERING
Simulating High-G Maneuvers
Pictured here w/ Marjorie Tilton, manager of logistics for Blue Angels who tried my F/A-18 simulation alongside her cousin.
The Blue Angels are considered some of the world’s best aviators. It takes thousands of hours of flight experience before you can even apply to join the team.
Flying Blue
KEY FEATURES
World’s first framework for modeling the formations of the Navy Blue Angels.
360-degree motion in the pitch and roll axes provides authentic feedback for high-G maneuvers
Aerodynamically accurate model of the F/A-18 Hornet
Simulated the F/A-18 Hornet and the flight formations of the Blue Angels. A model of their formations was developed by observing airshows of the Blue Angels and translating the telemetry data into FSX. The result is a simulation of their performance that could be used for acrobatic training.
This simulation was generated from the perspective of Blue Angel #4, the slot, where the pilot was tasked with staying in formation with the rest of the Blue Angels. The model simulated 4 critical maneuvers the Blue Angels are known for.
BLUE ANGELS FLYOVER
In this video, you see the real Blue Angels fly overhead as a friend pilots a simulated Blue Angel inside the cockpit of the simulator!
Meeting the Blue Angels
Pictured here with John Greenlee, maintenance chief for the Blue Angels.
After spending nearly a year building a simulation about the Blue Angels, I was thrilled to meet some of the crew at Aviation Roundup in October of 2018. I even received a signed poster after showing some of the crew the simulator and model of their team I had been working on.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS FROM AIRSHOW
Pictured below is someone who’s name I wish I knew. I met this man at the end of the day as we were wrapping things up at the airport. I saw him wearing the military uniform and thanked him for his service and he asked me about my simulator. After a bit of conversation, he mentioned that he really enjoyed helicopters and asked if I could put together a helicopter simulation. So I put together a rough simulation of an Apache helicopter flying over the deserts of Jordan. He seemed to pilot the helicopter quite well. As he walked away, I saw a Chinook helicopter performing a hover test over the airport. I later learned this man was the trainer for the state of Nevada’s, National Guard Chinook helicopter program…
RELATED PAPERS
A Method for Handling Multi Axis Input for a Motion Based Flight Simulator [Oct 2018. New Orleans, LA]
A Framework for Virtualizing Joystick Controls in a Flight Simulator Training Environment [Mar 2019. Journal]