Thrust SSC and Black Rock Scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator
Version: 1.2 Date: 31-May-2000
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/thrust-msfs.html

(c) 2000, Austin Tate <a.tate@ed.ac.uk> (Mach One Club Member No. 4088)
          and Iain Murray <irmurray@computing.dundee.ac.uk>
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Thrust SSC achieved the world's first Supersonic Land Speed Record at an average of Mach 1.02 on a two way run within the hour on 15-Oct-1997.  Congratulations to project director Richard Noble, driver Andy Green and all those associated with the project.

This model has been built as part of a project to create scenery for the Black Rock Desert Area, Nevada.  This is centred around N41* 00.00 W119* 00.00 just North of the town of Gerlach.

Quick Start

Flight Simulator 2000
   1. Place Thrust folder in FS2000\Aircraft folder.
   2. Place Pilots\Thrust SSC for FS2000 in FS2000\Pilots folder.
   3. Install the Black Rock scenery if you wish, see Scenery\S_readme.txt.
   4. Select Thrust SSC as the aircraft and/or startup situation.
   5. Ctrl/E starts engines in FS2000.

Flight Simulator 98
   1. Ensure that you have the Flight Shop Aircraft Converter installed.
      Available from http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsim/
   2. Place Thrust folder in FS98\Aircraft folder.
   3. Place Pilots\Thrust SSC for FS98.stn in FS98\Pilots folder.
   4. Install the Black Rock scenery if you wish, see Scenery\S_readme.txt.
   5. Select Thrust SSC as the aircraft and/or startup situation.

Special Visual Features

Engine afterburners glow when speed increases.
Key / to deploy/stow the parachute
Key L to show/hide a dust trail

Known Problems

The driving characteristics have not been adjusted very well in this version. However, with care, you can keep it on the ground up to Mach 1.02. The back wheels lift up as the speed increases though. Let us know if you adjust the flight dynamics to get it to Mach 1.02 and keep the tail safely on the ground, and that you can then stop (use the parachute at first, the brakes at lower speeds), turn around (use differential engine thrust) and go back the other way with the hour:-)  Take care to head down the longest stretch at Black Rock Desert. You will need all the space there is to accelerate and slow to a stop.

Build\AF99
   Files to allow the visual model to be modified in Aircraft factory 99 are included.

Build\DynKit
   A special version of Thrust SSC in which the parachute can be deployed by using
   "Gear Up" is included as ready-to-use craft in Flight Simulator as this is
   useful for building Dynamic Scenery with DynKit.

Pilots - Startup Situations
  This places Thrust at the Southern end of its actual run location on Black Rock Desert
  on 15-Oct-1997.  The course is around 13 miles long and runs roughly at a heading of
  14 degrees from N40* 42.50 W119* 17.50 to N40* 51.50 W119* 02.00. The return run is,
  of course, at a heading of approximately 194 degrees. The tower is set to the actual
  location of the Thrust SSC Base Camp and Pit Station at N40* 44.00 W119* 16.50
  alt. 3900ft. in FS98 and 4000ft. in FS2000.

Scenery

See file S_readme.txt for details and for instructions on enabling the scenery
in FS98 and FS2000.

Revision History

Version 1.0 - 15-Jan-2000 Used for testing dynamic scenery and limited review.

Version 1.1 - 30-Jan-2000 First release.  Improved textures and visual model.
                          Improvements to flight dynamics.

version 1.2 - 31-May-2000 Thrust vehicle is same as version 1.1.
              Includes Thrust related static base camp and dynamic scenery from
              Iain Murray. Altered startup situation position to correspond to
              course tracks in Thrust-related dynamic scenery.

Credits

Austin Tate initiated this project and build the Thrust models. Thanks to Shane Pickering for help with the flight dynamics. Thanks to Iain Murray for work on the Black Rock Thrust-related static and dynamic scenery. 

Usage Statement

This model is for your enjoyment.  Commercial use is not permitted.  This text file must remain attached to the distribution.