DeltaGliderIII

DeltaGliderIII
DeltaGliderIII in low Earth orbit
Description
Role	Glider
Full name	DeltaGliderIII
Crew	1
Passengers	4
First flight	date unknown
Entered service	date unknown
Manufacturer	unknown
Dimensions
Length	17.76 m
Height	- m
Wingspan	17.86 m
Wing area	- m2
Masses
Empty	12,000 kg
Fuel	11,400 kg
RCS fuel	600 kg
Max. take-off	24,000 kg
Inertia PMI	15.5 / 22.1 / 7.7 m2
Performance
Max. delta-v	1,800 m/s
Max. accel	38 m/s2
Stall CL	1.0
Stall AOA	20°

DeltaGliderIII is a successful attempt by Daniel "DanSteph" Polli to create an improved version of the standard-issue Delta-glider for the Orbiter space flight simulator. It has been built upon the now discontinued DeltaGliderII and has been succeeded by the more efficient DeltaGliderIV, "first flying" in May 2007.

Since the release of the DGIV, the DGIII is no longer avalable to download.

Features and capabilities

The DeltaGliderIII has been a major improvement over both the standard-issue Delta-glider Mk.2 and DeltaGliderII - complex, realistic yet easy to use. It features:

• realistic crew support:
  • a living crew that realistically reacts to the flight conditions; G, temperature, cabin O2 level etc.
  • you can actually kill the crew if you vent-off the atmosphere of the craft
  • life support and alerts
  • you can actually hear your astronauts breathe as you travel between spaceships.
• improved cockpit:
  • realistic panels with many user friendly and rather intuitive features
  • 40 integrated sounds; button, panel, systems, pilot's heart beat, afterburner, warnings, animation etc. etc.
  • onboard flight computer with many displays and autopilots and ability to load user-defined programs
  • a complete panel in three part with many systems; life, apu, engine etc.
  • an autopilot that will help you during ascent, re-entry, landing etc.
  • MMU also has panel and sound
  • a new Check-list MFD
  • realistic refueling that requires pilot's attention
• improved physics:
  • crew can EVA and re-enter the ship
  • crew can be exchanged between two DeltaGliderIII's (rescue mission available)
  • a ship reacts to flight conditions (no more unrealistic re-entry or landing)
• improved visuals:
  • new animations (deploy the ae35 antenna, see the air intake opening, open the canopy)
  • reworked Delta-glider mesh that reflects the correct number of crew inside
  • new hi-res 1024x1024 textures with many skins available
  • can have many ships with different skins in one scenario
  • 3 hi-res skins included with the base package
  • strobe light
  • engine smoke, ventil smoke, crash smoke, fuel dump smoke, dope smoke etc.
• improved configuration support:
  • a config program that will help you set the skin, crew, payload, power, fuel, life reserve, etc.
  • custom installer, no known install problems

History and evolution

DeltaGliderIII is a natural progression from the DeltaGliderII developed by the same author. The first official version of the DeltaGliderIII was released on 19 July 2004. On 15 May 2007, the successor DeltaGliderIV entered public beta testing, with final release being close.

External links

• Dan's Orbiter Page

Precis

This article has a precis and appears in the Random addon or Random article section on the Main Page. The precis can be found at DeltaGliderIII/precis and is displayed below.

The DeltaGliderIII was a vessel addon designed for Orbiter by Dansteph. It featured highly realistic and fully functional cockpit instruments, included flight instruments along with controls for the life support system, electrical systems, and fuel systems. The DeltaGliderIII simulated a live crew which could be killed by incorrect cabin pressure, temperature or CO2 level. Unlike most vessels in Orbiter at the time, the DeltaGliderIII was able to simulate damage due to overloads such as extreme G-forces or reentry temperature, damaging or destroying the vessel. Crew onboard a DeltaGliderIII were able to perform Extra-Vehicular Activities, also a first for Orbiter vessels at the time. (More...)