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7.2. CREATING AND ADDING SLUNG LOADS 85
Figure 7.2: Launching the Open Weapon dialog box, from Plane Maker’s Default Weapons dialog box
Navigate to your weapon file’s directory and select it. Then use the standard position controls
(as described in the section “Fundamental Concepts” of Chapter 3) to position the weapon on the
aircraft.
If the weapon is attached to a moving surface, such as a flight control or a landing gear, select
that part of the aircraft in the “attach” drop-down menu.
Finally, if the weapon is located inside the aircraft and thus does not change the craft’s aerodynamics
except by adding weight, check the box labeled “internal.”
After saving your aircraft file, your weapons will be loaded with the aircraft in X-Plane.
7.2 Creating and Adding Slung Loads
Objects such as vehicles, cargo containers, or even other aircraft can be “slung” from an aircraft
(most often a helicopter).
Objects used as slung loads are simply standard X-Plane OBJ files with a weight specified. To
specify a weight in an already existing OBJ file, open the file in a text editor (Notepad, Emacs,
TextEdit, etc.) and scroll to the end of the file. There, just before the lines
end
object
add the following:
slung load weight x
(where x is the weight in pounds for the object).
Thus, for an object weighing 500 pounds, the .obj text file looks like this: . . .
slung load weight 500
end
object
To use a slung load in X-Plane, you must first use Plane Maker to specify the weight able to
be slung from the craft. This is done in the Weight & Balance dialog box (found in the Standard
menu). There, the maximum weight for a slung load is set as a “jettisonable load” weight. After
setting this weight, check the box to the right labeled “jett load is slung,” indicating that this
weight is available for use with a slung load.
Figure 7.3: Setting the jettisonable load weight as a slung load