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Natural topographic airfields


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to make it simple: no more flat-horizontal airfields like in most sims but airfields going with the terrain flow.

ps: in the pacific, beach airfields were mostly flat, but when this sim will move to other areas, such airfields will be encountered, so it has to be set within the game-engine from the beginning, especially the AI need to be able to handle take-off's and landings on such airfields.

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3 hours ago, Boo said:

please can you provide examples.

If you do some searching based around how flat runways are you will find that not even our modern airports have perfectly flat runways. First runways are generally higher in the middle and slop down towards the edges to allow rainwater, melting snow, etc. to drain quickly and prevent pooling. Second, the amount of time it would take to get perfectly flat end to end would be extremely time-consuming, it is something we do not even accomplish today at major airports

Very common for runways to look like this. 

Why do I see airports runways in the videos have wave-like slopes rather  than completely flat? Is it meant to be? - Quora

 

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5 minutes ago, Skelthos said:

If you do some searching based around how flat runways are you will find that not even our modern airports have perfectly flat runways. First runways are generally higher in the middle and slop down towards the edges to allow rainwater, melting snow, etc. to drain quickly and prevent pooling. Second, the amount of time it would take to get perfectly flat end to end would be extremely time-consuming, it is something we do not even accomplish today at major airports

Very common for runways to look like this. 

Why do I see airports runways in the videos have wave-like slopes rather  than completely flat? Is it meant to be? - Quora

 

Oh if thats what we are taling about Im in full agreement. I was inmagiing some MSFS bush strip! That said I think id still be sick before takeoff on that one. Worse than the A15. 

I would think that it could be something of a task for the devs to reproduce airfields to a high a degree of historic accuracy. I guess data on the topology and geology would help to imform this. Just as I know zilch about hame engines I also know nada about construction and had a childish notion in my head that compacted coral would be an easy-ish material to work with. Ive since read it wasnt as simple as that!  I assume many airfields still remain as abandoned areas and those gradients would still be there but also imagine a lot ore also out of bounds or completely overgrown.  

As an aside, the contruction units would have been a noticable feature of the airfields so thier equipment is a kinda "must" have for realism.  Come-on Jason, get to it! 🙂 

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7 minutes ago, Boo said:

As an aside, the contruction units would have been a noticable feature of the airfields so thier equipment is a kinda "must" have for realism.  Come-on Jason, get to it! 🙂 

Some construction equipment for sure, but you might be surprised how much raw manual labor was used.

Here is a photo from the construction of the Tacloban airstrip in the Philippines during WW II

Corbin_Figure4.jpg?ver=7gKwT7D_7x8GkVwPpVm7Pw%3d%3d

 

 

12 minutes ago, Boo said:

I assume many airfields still remain as abandoned areas and those gradients would still be there but also imagine a lot ore also out of bounds or completely overgrown.  

Many still exist, in fact, it was announced in December 2023 that the USAF plans on reclaiming and reopening the Tinian field that the B-29s were launched from.

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21 minutes ago, Skelthos said:

Many still exist, in fact, it was announced in December 2023 that the USAF plans on reclaiming and reopening the Tinian field that the B-29s were launched from.

They only budgeted $78 million for the project which seems quite low to me considering how much of it, the runways and infrastructure, has been reclaimed by the Jungle since North Field was first abandoned in 1947.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Field_(Tinian)#Reuse

 

Wheels

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m4tsig-1.jpg.904ee58d95dd093266899d1cb845809a.jpg

Download Missions, Skins, & Essential files for IL-2 1946 and several other game series from Mission4Today.

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4 minutes ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

They only budgeted $78 million for the project which seems quite low to me considering how much of it, the runways and infrastructure, has been reclaimed by the Jungle since North Field was first abandoned in 1947.

It depends on how much they intend to restore. At least one of the runways is still usable, they were landing C-130J's there during the COPE exercises in 2020. 

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https://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/american&military_history/Rogers-SeabeeOps-WW2-Aug2011.pdf

This wasnt what I was looking for but its interesting. What I was looking for was a heavy tome on airfield construction in the Pacific that I stumnles on this morning but hey ho. 

 

9 minutes ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

They only budgeted $78 million for the project which seems quite low to me considering how much of it, the runways and infrastructure, has been reclaimed by the Jungle since North Field was first abandoned in 1947.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Field_(Tinian)#Reuse

 

Wheels

I know a bunch of lads in Newark who always seem to have some left over tarmac going for song.....I'll give em a call.....once i find out what name they are trading under today and their pay as you go mobile number ..... cash only mind. Satisfaction (initially) guaranteed.  

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On 5/31/2024 at 8:24 PM, Major Lee said:

European Air War had some downhill runways in southern England, down on the channel coast. Also had some odd placements of large hangars near runways... 😳 

DCS has some downhill lakes in the Marianas 🙂

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I do appreciate the joke, Calos, but these people above are simply asking a developer he pushes the envelope a little further. This is how combat flight sims get improved year after year. I guess Jason and Carlos will tell if whether or not uneven airfields are possible in the "Combat Pilot" sim.

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13 hours ago, 343KKT_Kintaro said:

I do appreciate the joke, Calos, but these people above are simply asking a developer he pushes the envelope a little further. This is how combat flight sims get improved year after year. I guess Jason and Carlos will tell if whether or not uneven airfields are possible in the "Combat Pilot" sim.

I hope the joke doesn't stop us from learning about the possibility of unevenness 😎.

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Take a good look at Henderson Field, it's a prime example of a none level airfield, having an upper level and a lower level depending on which side of the runway your on.  Caused a bit of difficulty under wet and muddy conditions in movements of aircraft.  You can easily see the slopes in photo's when you know to look.

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I’ve seen non-level airfields in several current flight sims.  I don’t think IL-2 does that, although it’s been several years since I played that, and I could be wrong.  It’s 2024, so I imagine that this kind of terrain modeling would be considered a modern standard.

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„2D“ airfields were the bane of FSX. Some moron thought it was a great idea to obviously make things easy for him. His IQ must have been below room temperature, as there are virtually no places on earth with a size of a mile by a mile that have identical elevations on each corner. Unless we are talking about the sea or a lake of some sort. Anyone remember the AFM tool? („Aerodrome Flattening Mesh“) Wasted lifetime.

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Ah, yes, the flatten airfield button in the old terrain editor in Strike Fighters. Also good for making lakes that didn't run uphill. One could always "paint" a more realisticly shaped flattened area, as elevation was based on a shade of green. The AI aircraft had a more difficult time with landing on a slope and flat just worked better. I'll be interested to see how CP handles pitching carrier decks and AI aircraft... 

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