BUILDING YOUR FIRST AIRCRAFT

1. The first thing you will need to do when you build an aircraft is to set up the directory structure in the PLANES directory of your current X-Plane folder (note that with the constant updates, you may have more than one X-plane folder)

   As a general rule, I keep my development aircraft in a separate folder [Homebuilt]. You will require an AIRCRAFT NAME FOLDER

   Inside this folder you should place four more folders (although these are not 'required' it is a good practice to follow)
   AIRFOILS
   BITMAPS EXTERIOR
   BITMAPS INTERIOR
   SOUNDS
   Make sure you get them spelled correctly or some parts of the aircraft may not function correctly.

2. Now that we have the folders in place, lets start up PLANEMAKER.EXE in the root directory of X-plane.
3. You should now have the build menu up in front of you with a simple tube shape on the screen. If there is an aircraft on the screen please go to the menu bar. Go to FILE and then select NEW.
4. Next go to STANDARD and choose FUSELAGE.
5. This will pull up the empty FUSELAGE GEOMETRY screen. From top to bottom on this screen you have the following: The RADIUS of the fuselage cross-section. This is the tallest or widest your fuselage is going to be. This decides how wide and tall the PANES (below) will be. By default these are at 3ft so the PANES below are 3ft wide and 6ft tall. Next is the COEFFICIENT OF DRAG. This declares how 'dirty' your fuselage will be. A zero means that your aircraft's fuselage creates no drag. Some examples are found next the the box you'd set the values. FUSELAGE CROSS SECTIONS or PANES are where you shape your aircrafts fuselage. This is broken down in to four parts:
   1. The top box is how far back from the zero-point (nose) the pane is in feet. By default the panes are spaced out 2ft apart starting at the nose. You can change these values (even positive or negative) be there is a special rule. NO TWO PANES CAN HAVE THE EXACT SAME VALUE !! If you do this X-plane will crash when you try to load the aircraft.
   2. The PANE itself is a nine-point curve that you can form in to a shape for the fuselage.
   3. The COPY-SEC box is a doubleheaded arrow and is used to copy one PANE to the PANE next to it. This is handy for building a constant shape for a length.
   4. Lastly is the offset box. This isn't used very much anymore as X-plane has a top/side/bottom view option that replaces this.
6. Now lets fill in the details for our quick aircraft. Set the RADIUS to 2.5ft. This is going to be a small aircraft with a 5ft wide fuselage. Set the COEFFICIENT OF DRAG to 0.100 for an average fuselage. Next we'll set the PANES spacing. Change the eleven panes to the numbers shown. This will space out our PANES for the nose, cockpit, and tail. Now click in the first (leftmost) PANE and you'll see all nine point change to one point. Center this on the left-middle of the PANE (this is the center of the aircraft). Do the same for the last (rightmost) PANE as well. In the second PANE shape the points like you see here. Now click on the word SEC in the COPY - SEC arrows below and it'll copy to PANE three. Move a couple point in PANE three and then copy it to PANE four. Continue it until you hit PANE ten. If you need to ZOOM IN on PANES use the Z and X keys to do so. DO NOT use the RADIUS size for this or you'll damage your aircraft. Note that PANE 5 and 6 are your cockpit.
7. Close the FUSELAGE window and see what we have so far. You can use the W,A,S,D keys to rotate the view. Use the Z and X keys to zoom in and out. Use the I,J,K,L keys to move your point of view. BEWARE of the F,N, and T keys as these are advanced shaping keys that could damage your aircraft. SAVE YOUR WORK... X-PLANE DOES NOT HAVE AND UNDO FUNCTION!!!!!!!!!
8. Now lets slap a wing on this thing.

   Go to STANDARD and then to WING1. The following menu should pop up. There is a lot here, but it isn't very difficult to handle:

   1. WING SEMI-LENGTH- This is the length of the wing from where it attaches to the wing tip. This is not measured from the front or rear edge, but from a point 25% back from the front. This is called the MAC (mean aerodynamic chord) and is basically the center of lift for most airfoils.
   2. ROOT CHORD - This is the length of the wing root (where the wing attaches to the aircraft) from the leading edge (the part that would hit you in the head if the plane rolled by) to the trailing edge (the part you'd wait to pass over your head before it would be safe to stand up again).
   3. TIP CHORD - Like the ROOT CHORD but at the tip end of the wing. This number is usually the same or smaller that the ROOT CHORD (but still hurts just as much if it hits you in the head)
   4. SWEEP - This is the angle at which the wing is angled back (or forward if negative numbers are used). Note that this is measured at the MAC (see SEMI-LENGTH above) and means if you are copying a real design you may have to do a little calculation as most books list the sweep from the leading edge (duck) rather than the MAC.
   5. DEHID - This is the dihedral angle of the wing. If this number is zero the wing is straight when viewed from in front or behind. If this number is positive the wings will be angled upwards (Boeing 747 or outer wing panels of an F-4 Phantom II). If this number is negative it is called anhedral and the wings will look bent downwards (IL-76 or C-5 Galaxy)
   6. LONG ARM - (no this isn't "the law") This is how far back the wing starts (the root) and is measured from the MAC.
   7. LATRL ARM - this is how far 'out' (left/right) that the ROOT is attached. If this value is zero then the wing will be one continuous piece. In general this number is more important for WING2 and WING3 as these are often attached to the ends of WING1.
   8. VERT ARM - This is how far above (positive) or below (negative) the center of the aircraft the wing is attached (from the ROOT).
   9. # ELEMENTS - This is how many 'parts' a wing had for X-plane to develop the flight model. This number can be from 4-8. The more elements the more work the sim has to do, bu the more detailed the design is. If you have a simple wing (rectangular) then you can get away with fewer parts. If you have a complex twisted wing with complex airfoils you'll most likely want more elements (or blades).
   10. INCIDENCE - This is the angle at which the airfoil is mounted on the aircraft. If this value is zero the when the aircraft is level so if the airfoil. Many aircraft have wings mounted at angles and/or with twist (look at the B-52 that comes with X-plane to see what I'm talking about). Note that the leftmost side is the ROOT and the rightmost side is the TIP.
   11. FLIGHT CONTROLS - The checkboxes under INCIDENCE are to allow you to add flight controls to your aircraft. Again the more elements (blades) the more checkboxes. Leftmost being the ROOT and rightmost the TIP.
9. Time to build your WING1 structure!
   1. Set the SEMI-LENGTH to 15.0. This will give you a 30ft long total wing length, measured down the MAC (not a big deal here, I'm building a simple wing)
   2. The ROOT CHORD (duck) will be 4ft.
   3. The TIP CHORD (duck again, good reflexes) will also be 4ft (the wing will be rectangular)
   4. SWEEP will stay zero. (straight wing)
   5. DIHED will be 3.0. This will bend the wings up slightly. This was done for stability issues.
   6. LONG ARM is 5.0. This attaches the wing 5ft back from the nose. This is measured to the MAC, which is 25% of the ROOT which is 1ft back from the head-banger since the ROOT is 4ft.
   7. LATRL ARM - is 0.0 since this is going to be a continuous wing.
   8. VERT ARM - is 2.2ft above the centerline of the fuselage. This will put is right on top of the 'cockpit'.
   9. # ELEMENTS - is seven. This was done for looks more than flight detail.
   10. INCIDENCE - is zero across the board, just keeping it simple
   11. FLIGHT CONTROLS - The first column is over the cockpit so I left it off. Sections 2-5 have flaps. Section 6-7 have aileron1 set.
10. SAVE YOUR WORK... X-PLANE DOES NOT HAVE AND UNDO FUNCTION!!!!!!!!! SAVE YOUR WORK... X-PLANE DOES NOT HAVE AND UNDO FUNCTION!!!!!!!!!