Military AI Works

Post support related comments for the MAIW EAI Boeing 707/E-3/E-6 Family Conversion package in this thread.

Update 1.1 is now available in the hangar, adding the missing E-3D and E-3F models.

They are also being added to the next update of Matrix Europe.

Thank you for adding the E-3D and E-3F's! Do you know where I can get flightplans for the British E-3D's? I had them in FS9, but I can not remember where I got the plans from (I checked Matrix, but they were not in there).

Why not convert the FS9 plans, or did you throw them away?

Firebird wrote: ↑20 Apr 2019, 05:26 Why not convert the FS9 plans, or did you throw them away?

I don't have the FS9 plans anymore.

They were in a package by UKMILAI. I can't seem to find that online at the moment.

*EDIT*
Just found it https://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=80257

Firebird wrote: ↑20 Apr 2019, 07:12 They were in a package by UKMILAI. I can't seem to find that online at the moment.

*EDIT*
Just found it https://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=80257

Thank you.

I had a flightplan for a E-3 aircraft and in the plan the aircraft speed was at 500. That seemed a bit fast to me so I looked in the aircraft cfg file for the Reference Speeds. It had the cruise_speed= at 270. Is that right? That seems a bit slow to me considering the speed of a 747-400 is 490 in AIG plans.

Here is the reference speeds section

[Reference Speeds]
flaps_up_stall_speed=130.0
full_flaps_stall_speed=108.0
cruise_speed=270
max_indicated_speed=594.000000
max_mach=0.887012

The E3D (and presumably earlier versions) cruises at Mach 0.72, or a still-air groundspeed of 490mph/425kts at 30,000’, which is a fairly typical cruising altitude for that aircraft. The 747 cruises at M.85, or 575/500 - though it would rarely be as low as 30,000’. At a more typical 38,000’, .85 translates as 560/490. I assume the FS speeds are in knots, in which case the E3 is way out.

The cruise speeds and max speeds are of different types.
The cruise speed is KTAS (Knots True Air Speed) whilst the max speed is KIAS (Knots Indicated Air Speed).
KIAS varies at different altitudes, due to the difference in air pressure.

As Tim indicates in his reply one of the big flaws in the AI system is its simple speed calculations. To be honest it would help the AI engine no end if they altered the cruise speed to a mach number or even as KIAS rather than KTAS.

Taking it a step further if they had the speed set to a max of 250 KIAS up to FL400 rather than FL080 for ATC control it would be more realistic. MS please take note for the new sim.

In your specific case I think that the person doing the fde got confused and is thinking about 270 KIAS and not 270 KTAS.

Yes, Steve, it would be useful if in further developments of P3D, or the new MSFS, a more comprehensive flight envelope for AI was allowed for!

I'm aware that some AIR files have been developed to give acceptable flight behaviour at low level, particularly in the circuit, at the expense of realistic speeds. I've seen several AI types that fly at unrealistic airspeeds, yet if the speeds are altered they behave strangely in various ways - there are a number of examples referred to in these pages. I guess that's a function of Microsoft's relatively simplistic interpretation of aerodynamics (X-Plane does it better, but is far from perfect!). Whether that's the case for this model, I've no idea.

In this case altering the cruise speed to the same setting as say the MAIW C-135 family of 460 kts would be better than the 270 kts.

Now whether it can actually get to that speed at cruise height is another matter and is one that Tim alludes to and is nearly always NOT a simple fix and all you can do is hope that the fde designer tests the range of performance when he is building it.