RAF Manston/Spaceport Lydd David Henderson http://www.aibs.org.uk/orbiter/ Ariane 5 launch complex meshes freeware by Thomas Ruth. All other consituents released under the terms of the LGPL. INTRODUCTION ============ This is a recreation of how RAF Manston in Kent might look if converted to a spaceport! ;-) It includes the runway in the correct location, seven VTOL pads, and an Ariane 5 launch tower. Ariane 5 is available from the CVE-lite homepage http://projectganymede.sf.net/cve-lite/ Additionally, London Ashford Airport (or Lydd aerodrome to anyone who knows that it's nowhere near London nor Ashford) is included. Lydd is surrounded by empty marshland and so has more room for launch pads. Presently, in addition to the four VTOL pads, an ample ramp and two runways, Lydd sports Proton, Soyuz and Energia towers and thus requires Baikonur 1.01 to be installed. INSTALLATION ============ IMPORTANT! READ THIS ELSE YOUR INSTALLATION WILL NOT WORK AND ORBITER MAY LONGER START. Download Baikonur 1.01 and install it according to its instructions. http://www.orbitmods.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=20 Open ~/Config/Baikonur.cfg and insert the key work "PRELOAD" at the end of every "MESH" section. If you don't do this, performance *will* suffer as you orbit over Kazachstan. Next, extract the Manston archives, with folders intact, to your Orbiter directory. You will find in ~/Config the file Earth.cfg. Open this in notepad, and edit the following: NumBases: increase this value by TWO. BaseNN = Manston +1.332 +51.348 where NN is the next number in the logical sequence and should be one less than the number you just put in to NumBases. then BaseNN = Lydd +0.975 +51.00 where NN is the next number in the logical sequence and should be the same as the number you just put in to NumBases. ***PLEASE NOTE*** There seems to be a bug that means the two nearby bases can't have nearby base numbers, else the lighting goes a bit screwy after dark. The solution (for now) is to swap the numbers of one of the higher bases with Lydd. That is: move the Lydd line to Base10, say and move the Base10 line to the end, swapping the numbers to keep in sequence. Sorry about this, I haven't found an explanation yet. ***************** Then paste the follwing into the "Fixed surface observation points" section. Manston:On Runway: +1.332 +51.348 10 Lydd:On Runway: +0.975 +51.00 10 These additions are also included in the file Earth_addme_manston.cfg for your easy addition. That's it! Run the Manston-Lydd-Default scenario to get your lovely new base in the Garden of England. CREDITS ======= Thanks to Thomas Ruth for the generously freeware Ariane 5 launchpad mesh. Thanks to YesRushGen for the instructions on calculating tile positions. The satellite photo is a low-res ESA image. CHANGES ======= 1.1 Changed format of the .dds textures to a fancy new thing I'd never heard of. 2.0 Manston runway 28 ILS added. Lydd added. Manston and Lydd given landing pads on the runway ends to facilitate easy setting up. 2.2 McDope's meshes removed, Baikonur dependency added. FURTHER INSTALLATIONS ===================== In addition to the Manston-Lydd-Default scenario, there is a Manston-Lydd-Addons scenario. This loads these two airfields of Kent with more than the normal Orbiter fayre. The following additional packages will be needed: Ariane 5 CVEL-Soyuz launchers Proton K Aircraft.DLL All are available from http://www.orbithangar.com SIGHTSEEING IN EAST KENT ======================== Kent is known as the "Garden of England" as on the whole it's a green and pleasent part of the world. These were the skies above which "The Few" won the Battle of Britain, and at ten thousand feet, it's obvious why: at its closest point, Kent is only twenty six miles from the Pas de Calais in France. Former RAF Manston is a ex-world war 2 bomber airbase. It boasts an ample runway and copious aircraft parking space. For that reason an Ariane 5 launchpad and its assembly building has sprung up in our virtual world. Manston itself only has an NDB, which Orbiter doesn't support, therefore there is a VOR located at Dover (DVR 114.95) associated with Manston. Manston has ILS on runway 28, but none on 10. Manston is surrounded by towns, both small and large. Ramsgate is a medium-sized old fishing town with a small harbour and lies almost due east, and you're likely to launch Ariane 5 directly over their heads. Be considerate, please don't launch at night. ;-) Margate lies north of Ramsgate and is a traditional daytrip destination for the London east enders. There is a mile-long seafront packed with arcades amusements and jellied eel, whelk and chip shops. To impress the grokles, be sure to perform a flypast in your high-performance aircraft along the north Kent seafront before coming around to land. Canterbury is ten miles west-south-west of Manston and is an historic city, boasting a superb cathedral which is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the executive head of the Anglican churches worldwide. Fifteen miles due south of Manston are Dover's famous white cliffs, and the closest point of call to France. Despite the pleasing setting, however, Dover is little more than a small town with a ruddy great castle and an even ruddier great ferryport. Not worth the fuel to perform a victory roll down here, the truckers are unlikely to care. Fifteen miles south of Canterbury and twenty miles west of Dover is the market town of Ashford. Famed primarily for its International passenger station and its Norman Church, it is, to all intents and purposes, dead. Jettison your excess payload here. Lydd airport is grandly titled by its owners as "London Ashford Airport". It is, of course, about ninety miles from London, and even fifteen miles from Ashford. Whoever titled Kent the "Garden of England" had probably never been to Lydd. It's situated in a desolate, flat and windswept part of the the world known as Romney Marsh, which makes it great for a virtual spaceport, but a pretty manky place to be after dark. Lydd has two runways, 04/22 and another 14/32, however only 04/22 are licenced for use, and therefore the shorter crossing runway should be used for emergencies only. Due south of Lydd is the most southerly point of Kent: Dungeness. It is famous for its twin lighthouses, and its abundant tropical sealife. Tropical sealife? At 51 degrees latitude? Indeed. Dungeness A and B nuclear power stations use seawater as a heatsink, and the warm water offshore has started a micro-eco logical system! When taking off from Lydd's runway 22, or on approach for runway 04, try to avoid flying over the power station. A crash is unlikely to cause a containment breach, but is generally considered bad form. LANDING PADS ============ Manston: 1 Ariane 5 Launch tower 2-5 Heavy VTOL pads beside taxiway 6-8 Heavy VTOL pads beside hangars 9 Runway 28 (heading 277) 10 Runway 10 (heading 97) Lydd: 1 Runway 22 (heading 213) 2 Runway 04 (heading 33) 3 Heavy VTOL pad beside apron 4-6 Light VTOL pads beside apron 7 Proton launch pad 8 Soyuz launch pad 9 Energia launch pad