 | | | | | |
In lugnet.space, John P. Henderson wrote:
| |
Great work. I love being reminded of the space sets that first got me into
the theme, as some of the recent posts here have done. ...Still have a
couple of X-1 Patrol Crafts myself, kicking around still assembled since days
of old...
|
Thank you. And, yes, I too like the X-1! They are simply cool-looking. I’ve got
a couple on my file cabinet, one I made in all white (I like playing with color
too much).
| |
But one thing I never understood: How the heck do the space guys fly using
only a steering wheel?
|
I’ve often thought of this. I suppose one can imagine them using a steering
wheel in combination with pedals. Or, imagine the steering wheel’s column is
movable to allow for pitch control, like on modern aircraft, but with the right
computer/electronic support to account for vacuum conditions. This could be
simulated with a hinge-brick, btw, that works pretty well. Often, in MOCs, I
tend to do away with the steering wheel and leave the piloting to the computers.
:o)
-best,
Wolf
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
In lugnet.space, Wolf Read wrote:
| |
In lugnet.space, John P. Henderson wrote:
| |
Great work. I love being reminded of the space sets that first got me into
the theme, as some of the recent posts here have done. ...Still have a
couple of X-1 Patrol Crafts myself, kicking around still assembled since
days of old...
|
Thank you. And, yes, I too like the X-1! They are simply cool-looking. I’ve
got a couple on my file cabinet, one I made in all white (I like playing with
color too much).
|
Playing with color can be fun. It is Futuron, not true Classic, but I do have a
copy of the Stardefender 200 that I built in the Blacktron I color scheme.
| |
| |
But one thing I never understood: How the heck do the space guys fly using
only a steering wheel?
|
I’ve often thought of this. I suppose one can imagine them using a steering
wheel in combination with pedals. Or, imagine the steering wheel’s column is
movable to allow for pitch control, like on modern aircraft, but with the
right computer/electronic support to account for vacuum conditions. This
could be simulated with a hinge-brick, btw, that works pretty well. Often, in
MOCs, I tend to do away with the steering wheel and leave the piloting to the
computers. :o)
|
Yes, now that I think of it, a single control, if it could move in three
dimensions, would work much like the control stick that many aircraft of the
early 20th century had. This simplicity meant many safety and navigation issues
were left perhaps too much in the hands of the pilot, but at the same time it
was relatively easy for a novice to learn how to fly the machine.
...One could move along with that logic and consider the Classic Space craft to
be parallel - early pioneering in the technology, wherein the controls were kept
simple to allow new pilots to learn quickly. As the small “open canopy” craft
might be designed only for space or lunar transport, that meant complex
computers were only required in the larger vessels that would need the
computational features for entering and exiting a planetary
atmosphere...Interesting...
-Hendo
| | | | | | |
