A guide for Aircraft Development for Beginners

What you should not do… and what you should do!

Being an aircraft developer is so… slick! So, you might think… “I’m going to build the best/full/study Airbus A380 ever existed!” How many times I’ve heard that, from guys that never done anything before? A ton! You know something? You are not going to do it!

Aircraft development is the single most complicated, full of frustrations, time consuming, and a lot more, thing you can do in X-Plane. It is a task that must be approached with great respect. It is not for the faint-hearted.

What you should NOT do!

1. Do not try to make something complicated, start with the simpler you can find!
2. Do not start anything if you don’t have at least all the required data collected. Operating manuals, diagrams, detailed photos etc.
3. Do not post, anything, anywhere if you don’t have something solid! Probably you are going to make fool of yourself!

Here is what you should do!

Start making a freeware plane for start. Or edit an existing one. Make it better. The community will appreciate your effort, even if the results will not be the finest.

But, you will learn a lot! Hear the criticism with open mind. Improve yourself before expose yourself to the market.

There are some minimum requirements to be, possibly, able to develop a payware quality airliner.

1. TEAM: If you think that you can do it alone…think again! Not only you need a team, but must also each member have an area of expertise. I could say that the minimum crew is:
   • Someone who knows to work with Planemaker and have some knowledge of aviation principals (aerodynamics, performance,  systems etc.)
   • Someone who can read and understand aircraft manuals, performance charts, etc.
   • A very capable 3D artist, who can balance between high quality and performance.
   • A very capable programmer.
   • Someone to create high fidelity liveries.
   • A pilot who actually flies (or flew) the plane in real life!
2.  TIME and PATIENT: This kind of endeavor, takes a lot of time. The whole team must be patient enough to work hard, but not get any payment,probably, for a few years.
3. CO OPERATION: In the team must be members who know and understand about aviation, and can introduce to the rest of the team the concept…”how things work”, so everyone is in the same page. For example, you might have in your team the best programmer, but if he (she) don’t understand the logic of a system, or how the interaction with the 3D objects (manipulators/animations) work in X-Plane, you are not going anywhere!
4. RESOURCES: I may put it last, but sure is not least! Take the best team. Without the right resources they can do…nothing! Gather (find/buy) before you start, operating manuals, technical manuals, extremely detailed photos, sounds maybe, etc.

Having established the above, then you should decide if you should proceed with the project, or not.

All the above is not to discourage to start working. The opposite. Is to help you understand the challenges ahead.

*Disclaimer: The “lists” above is not exhaustive. May be there are more things. I’m not writing this article as the one with the best knowledge around. Just provide a help…a sense of reality!