Airplanes taxiing on the dirt ground

[Vinny002]

Hi, guys!

 

I'm not 100% sure, does real planes like A-10C, P-51D, and boeing jets such as the boeing 777 can taxi on the dirt ground very well or no? Thanks!!

 

Cheers,

Vincent

[esb77]

They used farm fields as airfields for planes like Spitfires and the P-51 during WWII.

 

Modern jets are a LOT heavier, but the tire contact area isn't all that much bigger, so they are likely to have problems on soft dirt.

 

On packed dirt, like a dirt road or dry lake bed, an A-10 and most of the Soviet jets should do just fine.

 

That's in real life.

 

In DCS terrain seems to be broken down into: paved, not-paved, water.

 

The airplanes only function well on paved surfaces.

 

This may be a matter of map quality rather than physics engine. With rain, ice, and snow, you can see differences in aircraft taxiing behavior.

 

So something like coefficient of friction, roughness, or rolling resistance (drag basically) has to be accounted for in the model.

 

For the most part it's not that important for the missions in DCS and the various modules, so whether it's a physics simulation limitation or a lack of information about the driving qualities in the map files so I'm not really sure what the exact cause is.

 

So to answer your question, including the implied parts:

 

In real life some aircraft in DCS can taxi on unpaved surfaces, some can't.

 

In DCS the taxiing properties of surfaces that are not runways or taxiways may not be very accurate.

[doright]

Really depends on soil condition, aircraft weight, tire radius, and rolling contact area. So most WW2 planes like P51 no problem. A10C only under optimal conditions. 777 has another problem of sucking the grass, topsoil, and some subsoil into the engines if it were to try taking off from a runway without a hard surface.

[Vinny002]

Hi, guys!

 

That is what I thought! I'm wondering if DCS world 2.0 will have taxiing on dirt behavior like in real life? Thanks!

 

Cheers,

Vincent

[VincentLaw]

Sukhumi has a dirt parking area that I use sometimes, but the AI won't taxi through it or park there.

(That An-2 could use a new model too.)

Edited September 3, 2014 by VincentLaw