BRISTOL SCOUTS Types "C" and "D" for Microsoft's FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004/2002 and COMBAT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2 -------------------------------------------------------- This set of files includes three different models of the 1915-17 Bristol Scout, for FS2004, FS2002 and CFS2. It has not been tested with CFS3. The set includes one model of the Scout for both FS2004/FS2002 and CFS2. As the differences between the three models mainly relate to their armament, the two additional models are available only for CFS2. Please note: ------------ If you downloaded this copy of the Scout from Simviation, you can find the other two versions (for CFS2 only) on my web site at http://tede.org.uk//ww1home.htm. Historical notes ---------------- The Bristol Scout was the first of a series of aeroplanes designed by Frank Sowter Barnwell for the British & Colonial Aeroplane Company Limited (better known today as Bristol). He went on to design many other famous aircraft for the Bristol company, including the F.2 Fighter, the M.1 monoplane, the Bulldog and the Blenheim. Barnwell probably began the design work late in 1913, and a single example had been built by February 1914. Already given the name of "Scout", it was an elegant little sports biplane, which was the star of the Aero Show at Olympia (London) in March of that year. In tests, the prototype reached a creditable speed of 95 mph (153 kph). As a result, it was entered in a number of air races, ending with the London-Paris-London race of 11 July 1914. Unfortunately it ran out of fuel on the return trip and the pilot, Lord Carbery, was forced to ditch in the English Channel. His Lordship was rescued, but the prototype (later retrospectively dubbed the "Type A") was lost. Two modified examples, constituting what was later known as the Type B, were built in the summer of 1914, and were bought by the RFC on the outbreak of the First World War. They went to France in September ,and one machine was allocated to each of Nos. 3 and 5 Squadrons. No.5 crashed theirs on 20 November 1914, but the sole remaining example of the Type B soldiered on until October 1915. Even at this early stage of the war, attempts were being made to arm these aeroplanes, using rifles fixed to fire obliquely past the propellor disc. Both the RFC and the RNAS placed orders for the Bristol Scout towards the end of 1914. The first production model became known as the Type C, and altogether 161 of this version were built. As far as is known, no Squadron of either service was ever equipped exclusively with the Scout: instead, one or two of these machines would be allocated to each unit for use as it saw fit. In the case of the RNAS, this included early experiments in naval aviation, and on 3 November 1915, Bristol Scout (Type C) No.A.1255 became the first wheeled aeroplane in the world to take off from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier while the ship (HMS Vindex) was under way. The Scout quickly gained a good reputation for its sensitive handling in the air, although some pilots appear to have found landing the type tricky. Many of the surviving photographs of Scouts show machines which have been tipped up onto their noses during the touchdown. J.M. Bruce has suggested, however, that this may have been partly due to a lack of practice, given that all the pilots in a squadron would have had to share the use of just one or two Scouts. Nevertheless, both services recognized the Scout's excellent flying qualities, and spent a lot of effort trying to devise machine-gun mountings for it. The RFC tended to be cautious, using methods which avoided firing through the propellor disc. The RNAS took a much more robust view, and many of its pilots happily pointed their Lewis guns straight ahead through the disc. To judge from the large number of photographs showing this practice, it must have worked better than might have been expected. Apparently the propellors did not in fact shatter when hit, and such holes as did appear were simply plugged and taped over by the ground crew. Despite its good handling qualities, it became apparent in service that the Scout was under-powered. Fitting a more powerful engine resulted in the development of the Type D, of which 210 were built. The "D" type could be recognised by various subtle modifications to the airframe, including a re-shaped tailplane and rudder, shorter ailerons, single aileron link wires, re-positioned wing skids, and a re-shaped cowling. The extra power also enabled some of these aircraft to carry a Vickers gun, at last synchronised to fire through the propellor arc. Although most Bristol Scouts served in France, some also went to Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean, as well as to Home Defence squadrons in the United Kingdom. Those on the Western Front were mostly withdrawn from first-line duties during 1916, and reallocated to training units. There, with their armament removed, the little biplanes were able to show their true flying qualities, and many became the prized personal aircraft of senior officers and instructors. In his commentary to Leonard Bridgman's 1936 book The Clouds Remember, Major Oliver Stewart RFC said of the Sopwith Pup and the Bristol Scout: "They were both great flying machines, and although of the two the Pup was probably superior, they both gave their pilots the authentic sensations of man-controlled flight in a way that few, if any, other machines have ever done." Simulation features ------------------- The FS2004/FS2002 version has a full set of moving parts, including the Gnome rotary engine, propellor, wheels, control surfaces and control wires. The end of the joystick, which protrudes through the floor of the aircraft, also moves. In the interior (virtual cockpit) view, the controls move as well. However, in the exterior view I found it impossible to make the pilot's limbs move to my satisfaction, and accordingly in this view the controls do not move either. Because of the way that CFS2 is implemented, the throttles and control cables do not move in those versions of the model. All versions include a working virtual cockpit, with moving joystick and rudder bar, and detailed fuselage interior. In FS2004/FS2002, the virtual cockpit is probably best viewed at a zoom of 0.5 or 0.67. Because this aeroplane was intended mainly for CFS2, the textures do not include alpha channel "reflectivity" information. This was a deliberate design decision. The textures do, however, incorporate a specular shine, which can be seen in the exterior view. Model versions -------------- The first version of the Type C in this set, common to FS2004/FS2002 and CFS2, represents probably the most famous individual Bristol Scout. Carrying the service number A.1611, it was delivered to the RFC's No.1 Aircraft Park in France on 12 June 1915. It was then sent to No.6 Squadron RFC on 26 June as a replacement for A.1609, which had been used mainly by Captain Lanoe George Hawker of that unit. The 25-year-old Hawker was an aggressive fighting airman, whose motto was said to be "Attack everything". He had already been awarded the Distinguished Service Order for a single-handed bombing attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Gontrode in April 1915. In an early attempt to create a viable fighter aircraft, Hawker had then tried fitting a Lewis gun to A.1609. Machine-gun synchronisation gear had not yet been introduced, so the gun was mounted on struts on the left-hand side of the fuselage, outside the cockpit, with the muzzle angled outwards so that the bullet stream would not pass through the propellor disc. When A.1611 arrived at No.6 Squadron, Hawker transferred the Lewis gun and its mounting to his new aeroplane. On 25 July 1915, Hawker met and attacked three German aircraft in succession during a single patrol. The first went spinning down after Hawker had emptied a complete drum of bullets into it; the second was damaged and driven down to the ground; and the third, which Hawker attacked at the then unusual height of about 10,000 feet, burst into flames and crashed. For this exploit, considered unique at that time, Hawker was awarded the Victoria Cross. Lanoe Hawker subsequently became the RFC's first ace, ending his career with a total of 7 victories, and came to be regarded as the father of British fighter aviation. Soon promoted to Major, he went on to command No.24 Squadron RFC. On 23 November 1916, while flying a D.H.2 near Bapaume, he met an Albatros D.II behind the German lines, and fought it in one of the longest and most famous dogfights on record. Finally, low on fuel, Hawker made a dash for the British lines. He had almost reached safety when a burst from the Albatros's guns hit and killed him. His opponent was Manfred von Richthofen, and Hawker was his 11th kill. The pilot in this model of A.1611 represents Captain Hawker, after a painting in Osprey's Men At Arms 351: British Air Forces 1914-1918 (Part 2). He wears a fur coat, leather gauntlets and helmet, and a pair of red rubber 1914 service-issue goggles. Look closely, and you may be able to see his moustache. Because of the sideways-pointing Lewis, CFS2 users of this model are recommended to do their fighting from the virtual cockpit! ------------------ The second version (for CFS2 only) depicts another "C" type RFC machine, given the service number 4662. Originally used at Farnborough in the summer of 1915, it was flown to St. Omer in France on 12 October by one Captain B.C.Hucks. It was issued to No.12 Squadron RFC on 4 November 1915 and remained with that unit until January 1916 before being struck off establishment for reasons now unknown. No.4662 carried its Lewis gun on a Christy mounting above the upper wing. The gun butt could be swung down for re-loading, in which position the rear handle was secured by a large clip in front of the windscreen. A simple metal gate sight was fitted next to this clip, and the gun was fired by the rather primitive method of pulling on a cable attached to the trigger. The pilot is depicted as a member of the RFC, in typical flying gear of the mid-war period. He wears a long flying coat, gauntlets and helmet all in leather, Triplex goggles, and a pair of semi-official "Overshoes, gaitered" to keep his feet warm. ------------- The third version (also for CFS2 only) depicts a well-known machine of the RNAS with an unusual history. No.8996 was an early "D" type Scout, without the cowling bulges found on some later machines. Shipped to the Aegean aboard SS Trojan Prince in the late summer of 1916, it was allocated to C Flight of No.2 Wing RNAS, based on the island of Imbros. There it became the mount of Flight Sub-Lieutenant G.T. Bysshe, who fitted it with a pair of Lewis guns. In true RNAS fashion, Bysshe's guns were simply fixed to the fuselage, one on either side, and fired straight ahead through the propellor arc. Quite how well this worked it is hard to say, but on 17 February 1917, Bysshe was forced down by Offizierstellvetreter Emil Meinecke, a German pilot serving with Flieger Abteilung 6 alongside the Turkish air force. Bysshe was unhurt, but taken prisoner. His machine was repaired, given Turkish markings, and flown by its captors until Meinecke wrote it off in a forced landing after an engine failure. The pilot is depicted as an officer of the Royal Naval Air Service in early 1917. For the warmer Mediterranean climate, he wears the official RNAS issue blue woollen flying coat, with his rank shown (perhaps unofficially) on the shoulder straps. His helmet and gauntlets are leather, and his goggles are the Triplex type. Underneath his coat he wears Royal Navy uniform with a white polo-necked jersey and black field boots. Contents -------- In full, this set consists of the following packages: FS_Scout.zip No.1611 (Lanoe Hawker): visual model, flight model, sound, configuration and damage profile files for FS2004/Fs2002 CFSc1611.zip No.1611(Lanoe Hawker): visual model, flight model, sound, configuration and damage profile files for CFS2 1611text.zip Textures for both the above versions. Scoutpan.zip Panel for all versions CFSc4662.zip No.4662 (RFC, wing-mounted Lewis): visual model, flight model, sound, textures, configuration and damage profile files for CFS2. CFSc8996.zip No.8996 (RNAS, twin Lewis): visual model, flight model, sound, textures, configuration and damage profile files for CFS2. Installation ------------ For FS2004: ----------- 1. Unzip FS_Scout.zip to your FS2004/Aircraft folder. Be sure to have Use Folders ticked in Winzip before unzipping. This will install everything to a folder called FS2004/Aircraft/Gmax Scout. Note that the sound is aliased to the FS2004 Cessna 182. 2. From Scoutpan.zip, unzip the file gauges.zip to the folder FS2004/Gauges. 3. Unzip the rest of Scoutpan.zip to the folder FS2004/Aircraft/Gmax Scout This will install the panel folder. 4. Unzip 1611text.zip to the folder FS2004/Aircraft/Gmax Scout This will install the texture folder. For FS2002: ----------- 5. Unzip FS_Scout.zip to your FS2002/Aircraft folder. Be sure to have Use Folders ticked in Winzip before unzipping. This will install everything to a folder called FS2002/Aircraft/Gmax Scout. Note that the sound is aliased to the FS2002 Cessna 182. 6. From Scoutpan.zip, unzip the file gauges.zip to the folder FS2002/Gauges. 7. Unzip the rest of Scoutpan.zip to the folder FS2002/Aircraft/Gmax Scout This will install the panel folder. 8. Unzip 1611text.zip to the folder FS2002/Aircraft/Gmax Scout This will install the texture folder. For CFS2 (No.1611, Lanoe Hawker): ---------------------------------- 1. Unzip CFSc1611.zip to your CFS2/Aircraft folder. Be sure to have Use Folders ticked in Winzip before unzipping. This will install everything to a folder called CFS2/Aircraft/Gmax Scout 1611. Note that the sound is aliased to the CFS2 Zero. 2. From Scoutpan.zip, unzip the file gauges.zip to the folder CFS2/Gauges. 3. Unzip the rest of Scoutpan.zip to the folder CFS2/Aircraft/Gmax Scout 1611. This will install the panel folder. 4. Unzip 1611text.zip to the folder CFS2/Aircraft/Gmax Scout 1611. This will install the texture folder. For CFS2 (other versions): --------------------------- 1. Unzip CFS_4662.zip or CFS_8996.zip to your CFS2/Aircraft folder. Be sure to have Use Folders ticked in Winzip before unzipping. This will install everything to a folder called (respectively) CFS2/Aircraft/Gmax Scout 4662 or CFS2/Aircraft/Gmax Scout 8996. Note that the sound is aliased to the CFS2 Zero. 2. If you have already installed one of the other versions for CFS2, you can just alias the panel to that version. Otherwise proceed as below. 3. From Scoutpan.zip, unzip the file gauges.zip to the folder CFS2/Gauges. 4. Unzip the rest of Scoutpan.zip to the folder CFS2/Aircraft/Gmax Scout 4662 (or 8996). This will install the panel folder. Flying the Scout ---------------- The flight model is fairly docile and should not cause you any great problems. HOWEVER: for some reason that I can't yet fathom, the elevator trim defaults to a very strong negative value. Unless you change it, this may prevent you from getting off the ground at all. Using the digital trim gauge on the panel, set the trim before starting your takeoff run. (This problem does not seem to be present in FS2004.) In FS2002 the trim setting should be about +12 for takeoff. In CFS2, it should only be about +1 (too high a setting will cause crashes). CFS2: further information -------------------------- Because the building of flight models and damage profiles is more of an art than a science, aeroplanes by different authors may not be fully compatible over the battlefield. (Put another way, some of them are easier to shoot down than others.) The set included here is broadly compatible with aircraft which can be downloaded from The Aerodrome, http://www.aer.ip3.com/. The wing-mounted Lewis of No.4662 poses a small problem. If the gun flash is correctly positioned for the external view, most of it is also visible from the virtual cockpit, through the top wing. If the flash position is moved sufficiently to prevent it from showing through the wing, it no longer looks correct in the external view. The position eventually used was a compromise: it still shows through the wing a little, but looks reasonably good from outside. If you want to change the gun flash position, alternatives are given within the damage profile scout.dp. An alternative position can be activated by removing the semicolon at the beginning of the line. Don't forget to insert a semicolon at the start of the line you no longer wish to use. The panel --------- Although there was an official instrument-panel layout diagram for the Type C, period photographs suggest that in service it was largely ignored. The layouts of the panel and virtual interior are therefore based on photographs in Albatros Publications' Windsock Datafile 44: Bristol Scouts, especially figures 78 and 84-87. The digital trim gauge was made by H & R Geier, and is used here with their kind permission. IMPORTANT NOTE. The 2D panel has been designed in a style similar to that of the excellent panels contained in Alpha Simulations' Combat Aces add-on for CFS2. However, no part of any of the bitmaps (background or gauges) included in this panel was taken from Combat Aces. By clicking on the compass on the main panel, you can open up a second panel depicting a simple navigation board, with map, clock and compass. Clicking on the map will close the navigation board again. The navigation board can also be opened in the virtual cockpit, though not by clicking on the virtual panel (sorry: I just couldn't get that to work!): use SHIFT-2 instead. How the navigation board works 1 Trench map (click here to close the navigation board window) 2 Clock 3 ADF (modelled on a WW1 British marching compass) 4 ADF frequency (click to tune it) 5 List of ADF frequencies used in Combat Aces 6 Autopilot To operate the autopilot, click on the boxes with the ticks and crosses. Ticks mean On, crosses mean Off. The one marked "Navigation" is the autopilot master switch. "Heading" and "Altitude" capture the current values; "Speed" doesn't work! Tools and acknowledgements -------------------------- My grateful thanks and acknowledgements go to: J.M. Bruce, the author of the invaluable Windsock Datafile 44: Bristol Scouts. All the splendid and ingenious chaps at Freeflight Design Shop and its forum, (http://www.freeflightdesign.com/) for their generous help, advice and tuition. Michael Fletcher, for his remarkable and invaluable CD compilation of early aircraft drawings: see http://members.rogers.com/nieuport/. Stuart Green (http://www.domicilium.com/peveril/hangar/hangar.htm) for explaining to me how to animate the controls in CFS2 (and for raising the standards of First World War modelling for Flight Simulator and CFS2). The various Scout models were built using Gmax by Discreet Products. Textures and panel graphics were made using Paint Shop Pro 7. The gauges were modified and panel made using FS Panel Studio by Ed Struzynski: see http://www.fspanelstudio.com/. The pilot's face is based on an original in Greg Pepper's Beechcraft 18, also available at Freeflight Design Shop. Legal stuff ----------- No responsibility or liability is accepted for any problems caused to your hardware or software by the use of this package or any of its contents. By installing this package, you accept that its author bears no responsibility or liability for any such problems. (But I can't see why there should be any.) This aircraft is released as Freeware. Copyright Stephen O'Leary. As freeware you are permitted to distribute this archive subject to the following conditions. The archive must be distributed without modification to the contents of the archive. Redistributing this archive with any files added, removed or modified is prohibited. The inclusion of any individual file from this archive in another archive without the prior permission of the author is prohibited. This means, for example, that you may not upload an archive that uses the visual or flight models with your own aircraft or include it in a package containing a panel or aircraft sounds without first obtaining the author's permission. No charge may be made for this archive other than that to cover the cost of its distribution. If a fee is charged it must be made clear to the purchaser that the archive is freeware and that the fee is to cover the distributor's costs of providing the archive. The author's rights and wishes concerning this archive must be respected. Copyright 2004 by Stephen O'Leary. All Rights Reserved. The Gmax working files for this aeroplane can be found on my website (address below). You may modify it as you see fit, but if you decide to upload the results to any site, you must include this readme file. Feedback -------- If you have any comments, bug reports or suggested improvements, I'd like to hear about them. You can reach me at the address below. Stephen O'Leary (Pilot Officer Prune) tede@tede.freeserve.co.uk http://tede.org.uk//ww1home.htm Leeds, UK April 2004