DeltaGlider-XR1

The DeltaGlider-XR1 is a high-performance Spacecraft created for Orbiter by the Altea Aerospace team. The XR1's mesh and basic concept are based off of the DG-S included with Orbiter 2010, hover doors and scramjet doors added by Don Gallagher. Coding work to add multiple subsystems, failure modes and UMMU support was done by Douglas Beachy, as with other vessels in the XR series. The initial 1.0 release came on May 14, 2007, and the most recent release was 1.10 on May 13, 2012.

DeltaGlider-XR1 in Low-Earth Orbit over Africa

Design Concept

The XR1 is designed as a single stage to orbit, reusable spaceplane able to carry up to 5 passengers to low Earth orbit and beyond. The exact design parameters for the XR1 are variable, depending on the preferences set by a user in the configuration file, but with realism settings set to their highest levels, the XR1 proves quite challenging to fly succesfully. Scramjet engines are typically used during the bulk of the ascent to orbit, providing orbital velocity in the high atmosphere before conventional rocket engines are used to provide the final orbital insertion.

Features

XR1 on Final Approach to KSC

XR1 Virtual Cockpit View

XR1 2D Cockpit Composite

XR1 Undocked from ISS

Current features of the XR1 include:

• A 2D instrument panel with native support for 1280-, 1600-, and 1920-pixel-wide video modes. To use one of the new wide-screen panel modes, set 2DPanelWidth in your Config\DeltaGliderXR1Prefs.cfg file.
• All-new instrument panels at native 1280x1024, 1600x1200, or 1920x1200 resolutions with 24-bit color. The main panel is low-profile in the center for maximum visibility.
• Virtual cockpit similar to the standard DG-S VC.
• Reentry heating simulation with realistic heat damage; e.g., overheating a hull surface will not cause that surface to fail instantly: the more a surface overheats, the higher the chances of a hull breach. Typical failure within eight seconds.
• SCRAM engine overheating damage simulation.
• Full configuration of the XR1's settings via the DeltaGliderXR1Prefs.cfg file; e.g., selectively disable/enable each different type of damage, set pop-up HUD colors and transparency, choose easy or realistic thrust levels, choose fuel setting for "ISS-only", "Moon", "Mars", etc., choose O2 and APU fuel levels.
• New [CHEATCODES] support in the DeltaGliderXR1Prefs.cfg file that allows you to directly set certain ship values such as the ship's mass, max engine thrust, fuel tank capacity, etc.
• New SCRAM and Hover doors using a custom mesh by Don Gallagher.
• New Multi-Display-Area (MDA) touch screen on the main instrument panel with multiple modes showing custom autopilots, hull temperatures, ship damage status, etc. For example, you can switch the readout between degrees Celsius, Kelvin, and Fahrenheit by clicking an area on the MDA screen.
• Efficient Attitude Hold autopilot to hold a given pitch/AOA and bank while neutralizing yaw; typically used during reentry or to hold attitude while braking with the hover engines in a vacuum. Autopilot can hold a stable reentry even at 10x time acceleration and can operate at 100x in space.
• Efficient Descent Hold and Auto-Land autopilot to hold a descent or ascent rate; engaging auto-land mode will land the XR1 in a hover efficiently and smoothly every time. With a good frame rate (~100 fps), autopilot can auto-land even at 80x time acceleration and can operate at 100x in space. This means you can auto-land the XR1 even with an effective frame rate of only 1.25 frames per second, and you can hold a set ascent/descent rate with an effective frame rate of only one frame per second.
• Efficient Airspeed Hold autopilot to hold a given airspeed within 0.1 meter-per-second. Useful during atmospheric flight and when taxiing.
• Reentry Systems Check MDA mode to verify that the ship is property configured for reentry.
• A new pop-up data HUD listing all the new XR1 keyboard shortcut keys.
• A new high-resolution exterior skin (1024x1024).
• Extensive damage and warning modeling including wing load limits, dynamic pressure and heat limits for different surfaces, and gear collapse on landing. Crew may be injured or killed by a hard landing or crash.
• Altitude, speed, damage, warning, failure, and docking distance callouts.
• Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) with (optionally) limited fuel that powers hydraulic systems such as flight control surfaces, landing gear, wheel brakes, etc.
• APU and O2 consumables management. Ship's mass is affected by LOX (Liquid Oxygen) and APU fuel loadouts in addition to main, RCS, and SCRAM fuel, and crew members.
• Internal systems coolant management; use the ship's radiator to cool internal systems. Overheating the system by waiting too long to deploy the radiator will cause internal systems to fail.
• Two pop-up mini-HUDs: secondary HUD is fully configurable and shows flight data such as altitude, airspeed, etc. in Metric and/or Imperial units. Tertiary HUD shows ship's status and warnings.
• Extensively tweaked flight model to allow realistic reentry at 40-degree AOA. Also fixed the unrealistic "floaty" feel to gliding and landing.
• Fixed the nose-up push that the stock DG exhibits when accelerating. The XR1 is much more neutral than the stock DG.
• Redesigned SCRAM (Supersonic RAMJET) engines that operate up to ~Mach 18. A good pilot can reach LEO with most of the main engine fuel remaining. Or if you're in a hurry, push both the SCRAM and main engines to full power and accelerate into orbit at 2.5 G's. The SCRAM engines are also useful after reentry if you are short of your landing site and don't have enough main engine fuel remaining (assuming you kept some SCRAM fuel in reserve!) New SCRAM engines operate at peak efficiency at Mach 7-8.
• 238 new sound effects and voice callouts; Requires the new OrbiterSound 3.5 release from DanSteph.
• New auto-starting Mission-Elapsed-Time (MET) timer plus two manual interval timers.
• Refueling and LOX resupply/dump support. Configurable settings for main fuel, APU fuel, SCRAM fuel, and LOX levels.
• Fuel cross-feed available between main and RCS tanks.
• 49-page XR1 Flight Operations Manual in PDF format along with screenshots.
• Support for the scenario editor.
• EVA and crew support via UMmu from DanSteph.
• High-polygon astronaut meshes developed by Greg Burch; used with permission.
• Astronaut mesh is easily configurable; users can use Greg Burch's high-polygon astronaut meshes, the standard bulky astronaut mesh included with UMmu, or any other custom astronaut mesh.

Reception

The initial release of the XR1 met with some criticism, but provided the code base from which all other XR vessels are be based. In spite of its high quality, the XR1 appears to not have attracted the same recognition as the XR-5, XR-2, and the DGIV, but is still considered a very solid addition to the Orbiter addon community.

The XR1's homepage is here: Doug's Orbiter Page

For additional details refer to the XR1 Flight Operations Manual