AIR.C74.NET

Well.. urr.. cross your fingers that this slightly experimental move works as I've envisioned. If so.. here's at least a couple spy shots from the maintenance hangar. interior is out for overhaul also.. but i'll leave that to be an even bigger surprise later on.

You know, the military is infamous for trying to mothball ships, aircraft, and vehicles long before there time or usefullness expires. All because, usually, there's something a little flashier or quicker out there to be had.
You've brought new life to a chopper that looked to be retired when, for all practical intent and purposes, it flys very well, and does the job it was intended.
Thank you for putting the time and effort needed to bring this stallion back to the race track. Your efforts are respected and appreciated here...

Vlad

lets see, now that I think about it.. it's way past "evo 2".

I think, if memory serves, the 430 began at v7.30.. maybe 7.10. This single model is up there in longevity age with the x700, Malibu and 150 that all began late v6, early v7. The "Bell 430" began as I had gotten a micro r/c helicopter with the 222 body. I wanted to do a 222.. or 230.. but information for those was not available, at the time, the information available was for 430. It was a personal project, done by choice, for myself. Several years later, the University of Tennessee "UT430" was commissioned during early v8.. maybe 803 or 810. At that time the panel material was done, and the UT paint. By mid to late v8.. support for the 430 was waning and I retired it. An outpouring of requests to bring it back came in, so it came back for the remainder of 8x as... thinking... B430 ... I forget, I gave it a name to suggest it was a revival, return, and to continue through the remainder of 8x at least. The same thing happened at the beginning of v9. I really wanted to retire the 430 outright, leave it behind in v8 as to bring it forward into v9 would require all-that-3d. I was yet again pursuaded to keep the 430 going, to keep it's data current, I redid the 3d interior some then, and did a couple hybrid object replacements for the overhead and wheel house wings. But acf & obj surfaces rendered differently, different lighting and at the intersections.. so.. Criminy did the dark black based paint that obscured those intersections... but through present.. it just looks dated and "acf" and yet again.. the 430 found itself at the bottom of the Helicopter page list. and up for retirement and removal.

After doing the 206 acf-to-object conversion, and working through some new methods, processes and techniques that resulted in the 206 turning overnight from flat bright acf, to a fully object body, fully render baked, and basing it's new textures on it's pre-existing textures. It's *not* an acf/obj hybrid but it does use the pre-existing material to generate the improved new paint material. So.. how does this apply to the 430....

The 430 has a special place in my heart. Its' one of the domestic brands that is powerful, fast, smooth, svelte, and has history that extends back to the 1974 222 and the "Airwolf" series. The 430 is big, bad, fast, powerful.. compare it to the Agusta 109... the 430 just exudes presence in every way.

So.. lessee. v7->v8 evolution1, v8_early to v8_late evolution2, v8 to v9 evolution3. and now v9_acf to v9_obj... evolution4.

With this Evolution IV.. the 430 gets vaulted back up to the top of the pack, to directly rival the A109.. and pose a grand alternative for the ultra-modern EC135.

I think there's no way not to do the famous "black & white" paint. We'll have to see if the UT livery works.. it's multi-stripe banding is a huge PITA... huuge. And I think I want to do some that lend themselves to the Flight Ooperations missions and OPSEC missions.

Simply unbelievable. This is very exciting... definitely inspires me to start brushing up on my chopper flying skills. This resurrection is a perfect example of why life at C74 continues to be the most exciting place to "hang out" in the X-Plane world. I only hope the other 1100 some members will get "bit" and join in the fun. Thanks, Jason. We (or at least I) share in your excitement as we witness the evolution of this gorgeous aircraft. Look forward to the "roll out".
Peace,
H

You were right the first time my brother, it's definitely we!

POW. Released. Plus a bonus paint I snuck in, zipped in there with it, and it's live and in the open now. Main site pages updated, screenshot(renders) in place, interior shot in place.

The interior has night LIT treatment with blender 3d lights that are baked into the interior night LIT texture. I'm thinking about how to make the lights themselves look like they're on. and the LIT doesn't have any bearing on the cockpit, it's intended to be night view dark.. so there's nothing to see in particular. You'll have to setup a night flight to see it. it's dim white light that is also NVG compliant.

Two last minute flight model changes. I think one was necessary due to the other. Reciting the legacy of this model the other day, I remembered the rotor airfoils and rotor system entries. At the time, those came from a contributor source that was more comfortable than helicopters than I at the time. I really wanted to have a better full finger pinning down the factual and appropriate data for rotor foils and rotor system. So.. new rotor foils are chosen that match the specified main rotor foils, and the blade twist is updated to such that matches published rotor system properties. Exact blade twist and incidence #'s not available. so.. at present.. I choose to make the rotor system, with known-good foils, match published "proper" rotor system profile. That also meant that when doing some flight-on-AP testing, it needed an adjustment to the pitch-error-deflection.

I feel I must say, that this just has mojo twice or more over any other helicopter. To watch it fly, to fly it.. it's got it going on. One phrase that always comes to mind for some things that are just svelte beyond words is "sex on wings". LOL.. though to add any further descriptions would turn into porno enuendo. Just know that I've had a real sincere great time flying this around for countless fly it, lookit it, shakedown the rotor, check this, check that,.. and.. um.. yeah.. I'm sure i've joyridden the new model a few times that werent' for productive purposes.

Go get it.

BX430 9X

IT is absolutely beautiful!!!.thank you soooo much.ive been waiting for this about a year now.you really outdid yourself jason.I love it ut paint or not.terriffic work. Nick.

this should be good, since the prior entry here is from the last go-round on this and it's render.