Project Gemini Paraglider

[Donamy]

The paraglider and cushion don't look scaled big enough in the -Z (aft) direction.

 

[MJR]

Hmm. Yeah I kind of noticed that. How big would you think the cushion would be in real life. I just thought that if I scaled it too big it would look unrealistic.

---------- Post added at 08:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 PM ----------

The parachute and cushion have been scaled larger with the new update. Another thing. I give credit for Donamy with his excellent parachute and cushion mesh. Liber for help and a small drogue chute.

 

[MJR]

Here is a picture with the parachute scaled larger.

 

[Andy44]

Hope you are planning a version with wheels, like the one in the Smithsonian picture.

I'm being greedy, of course, you're doing some good stuff. I always thought this would be a cool add-on and wondered why no one had done it yet. Ever since I saw that capsule in the Udvar-Hazy Center in person I thought it would've been awesome if NASA had gone ahead with that version of Gemini. And I bet the astronauts were disappointed, too; all the safety of a capsule with the coolness of a runway landing. Gemini was already known as a pilot's spacecraft, this would've been even hotter.

 

[MJR]

Hope you are planning a version with wheels, like the one in the Smithsonian picture.

I'm being greedy, of course, you're doing some good stuff. I always thought this would be a cool add-on and wondered why no one had done it yet. Ever since I saw that capsule in the Udvar-Hazy Center in person I thought it would've been awesome if NASA had gone ahead with that version of Gemini. And I bet the astronauts were disappointed, too; all the safety of a capsule with the coolness of a runway landing. Gemini was already known as a pilot's spacecraft, this would've been even hotter.

I definitely am. I just got to work around the retraction and extending of the gear. Since the capsule is curved and not smoothed on the edges, it is a bit harder to do this. The rotation points always seem wrong, but I assume they are right because I used MeshWizard.

Plus the wheels would be too small without a huge gap in the hull. It has been done before, so I'll just take my time on this. I almost had it, but then those peculiar problems struck those ideas dead.

 

[Donamy]

The wheels were attached perminantly to the capsule, and dropped from a plane. no where to put retractable gear. Skids maybe, but that could be a hard landing.

 

[MJR]

I never knew that. Thanks for the heads up. Skids would be a rough landing especially since a capsule doesn't have much lift along the X axis. Not very much aerodynamics.

 

[MJR]

Anyine see anything that should be added that I don't?