This is a brief description of the aerodynamic parameters used in Chuck
Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer.  This is NOT a lesson in aerodynamics,
although you may learn something about some of the forces acting on an airplane
in flight.  Please feel free to invent your own planes, if you make something
that flies in an interesting way, please send it as a text file, or on disk to:
Electronic Arts,
1820 Gateway Dr
San Mateo CA., 94404
Att: Paul Grace

First some notes:
The plane files are in the AFT subdirectory, you can indentify them as *.FLY
files.  They are ordinary text files, and can be edited with any wordprocessor.
They have the form of one signed numeric and a return character per line.  The
numerics are unitless; that is, they are not in Knots, Knewtons, or whatever.
They are just scalars, so do not assume otherwise.  I suggest that you copy an
existing plane that is similar to what you want to make to a temporary file
such as TEST.FLY, then edit TEST.FLY changing only one or two variables at a
time and test fly the plane to see what your changes have done.  When
everything is right, you can rename your plane as you like, but remember to
include the .FLY extension.  Do not call customer service with questions,
Electronic Arts will not support this feature.

                            (you're on your own).

Some aerodynamic conventions: (PLEASE see the manual pps 32, 33)

Alpha is the angle the wing makes relative to the airstream as viewed from the
end of the wing.  Note that a plane flying straight up can have an Alpha of
zero.  Alpha is also known as the Angle of Attack.

Beta is the angle the centerline of the plane makes relative to the airstream
as viewed from above the plane.  Beta is also known as the Sideslip Angle.

Pitch is the rotation of the plane around its lateral axis

Roll is the rotation of the plane around its longitudinal axis

Yaw is the rotation of the plane around its vertical axis 
________________________________________________________________________________

plane name                          no hints here...

wing: 0=bi, 1=high, 2=low, 3=test   This affects the look of the cockpit too...

roll due to beta                    Sideslip causes the plane to roll, because
                                    flow over the upstream wing is different
                                    than flow over the other wing.

roll damping                        Be careful with all of the damping terms,
                                    they create dramatic changes in aircraft
                                    stability at varying speeds.

roll due to ailerons                This is the effectiveness of the ailerons.

roll due to rudder                  Because the rudder is above the center of
                                    gravity of the plane, the yawing force also
                                    has a roll component.

roll due to engine                  The torque of the engine/propeller rolls
                                    the aircraft.

pitch due to velocity               As the plane changes velocity the center of
                                    lift moves fore or aft relative to the
                                    center of gravity, inducing pitch.

pitch damping                       See the warning above about the damping
                                    terms.

pitch due to elevators              This is the effectiveness of the elevators.

pitch due to angle of attack        As the plane changes Alpha, the center of
                                    lift moves fore or aft relative to the
                                    center of gravity, inducing pitch.

pitch due to landing gears          The drag of the landing gear is below the
                                    center of gravity, so the gear tends to
                                    pitch the plane down. 0 means gear are not
                                    retractable.

yaw due to beta                     As sideslip increases, the vertical
                                    stabilizer tends to straighten the plane.

yaw damping                         Another damping term...

yaw due to rudder                   This is the effectiveness of the rudder.

yaw due to nose wheel               This is the effectiveness of the nosewheel
                                    for steering on the ground.

drag with flaps                     The drag induced by extending the flaps.

drag with no flaps                  The basic drag of the aircraft.  If this
                                    term is the same as the above, then the
                                    aircraft will not have operable flaps. This
                                    term combined with the thrust constant
                                    determine the top speed of the plane. This
                                    and the thrust constant also combine to
                                    determine the maximum altitude of the plane.
                                    (a high-thrust, high-drag plane will have a
                                    high ceiling, and vice-versa)

drag due to alpha                   As Alpha increases, the wing creates more
                                    lift and therefore more drag.

side force due to beta              Beta slides the plane sideways

side force due to rudder            The rudder also slides the plane sideways.

adjustment for alpha=0 lift         The basic lift term. This is a term you
                                    should experiment with.

lift due to alpha with flaps        As Alpha increases, the wing creates more
                                    lift.  Experiment with this too.

lift due to alpha, no flaps         come on now... get with it. (are you paying
                                    attention?)

lift due to change in pitch         A transient effect, related to the
                                    circulation of air around the wing during
                                    changes in pitch.

nose heaviness of plane             The plane's natural tendency to pitch down
                                    affects the planes "static stability".

braking efficiency                  Obviously, but these are ground brakes only.

flap pressure limit                 When will the flaps jam?

positive G force limit              When will the wings rip off?  Be careful
                                    here, these are instantaneous
                                    measurements, and transient G's can be much
                                    higher than RMS values.  When in doubt, use
                                    a very big number.

landing gear friction            ...When on the ground.

thrust constant                     Have fun with this one...  see my comments
                                    about drag above.

thrust loss due to velocity         The faster you go, the harder it is to go
                                    faster.

dummy                               All "dummy" terms hold values used by the
                                    aerodynamic model, but are not plane-
                                    specific.  Don't change these.

pitch limit on landing              Landing parameters...   There are more at
beta limit on landing               the bottom of the list.  They control the
roll limit on landing               "sturdiness" of the landing gear.
ground impact limit on landing

dummy                               See the comment about the "dummy" terms.

yaw due to aileron                  The use of ailerons tends to yaw the
                                    aircraft in the wrong direction, that is,
                                    when you bank to the right, the right
                                    aileron decreases lift (and therefore drag)
                                    while the left aileron increases lift (and
                                    therefore drag)  The right wing has lower
                                    drag than the left wing, which tends to yaw
                                    the plane to the LEFT (oops!  That's why
                                    some modern fighters use spoilers instead
                                    of ailerons).

time limit upside down              Some planes use gravity feed fuel systems,
                                    which limits the amount of time they can
                                    spend in negative-G positions.

negative G force limit              In the manner as the positive G limit,
                                    remember transients can be very high.

pilot red out G force               Just how tough ARE you?
pilot black out G force

red line                            This is when the "exceeding Maximum
                                    Velocity" warning comes up.  Choose the
                                    velocity you want for the warning, and
                                    divide (or is it multiply? I forget) by .73

roll damping on ground              These are landing gear characteristics. Me,
roll spring force on ground         I'm into flying, not taxiing.
pitch damping on ground
pitch spring force on ground
0 speed ground attitude

forward pitch limit when landing    This should go up with the other landing
                                    parameters...
dummy
dummy
dummy
dummy

limit on steering                   More steering parameters...
p turning rate limits               Steering
q turning rate limits               Steering
r turning rate limits               Steering
                                                                                        