World Airport Import -- suggestions

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Mgellis
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World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by Mgellis »

Some suggestions/requests for the World Airports import...

1. I notice that all the runway lengths seem to be the same, regardless of whether the airport is "small," "medium," or "large." For the sake of realism, would it be possible to replace the current single unit airports with the following:

Small <-- use #1593 - Single-Unit Airfield (1x 1401-2000m Runway) -- Generic (Generic), Invisible, Large Aircraft

Medium <-- use #1712 - Single-Unit Airfield (1x 2001-2600m Runway) -- Generic (Generic), Invisible, Very Large Aircraft

Large <-- use #1714 - Single-Unit Airfield (2x 2601-3200m Runways) -- Generic (Generic), Invisible, Very Large Aircraft

2. Would it be possible to create a Cold War DB version of the airports import? Obviously, some of these airports did not exist in, say, the 1950s, but those could be edited out by scenario designers on a case-by-case basis. Just being able to import the airfields would save people a lot of time; they would not need to hunt down exact locations, etc.

Thanks for considering these ideas.


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Randomizer
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RE: World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by Randomizer »

I do not actually see how "realism" would be advanced or worth the effort involved to build this for import into the CWDB.

Before 1958 or so the vast majority of civil airfields used runway lengths of about 2000-2600 metres or so since the heaviest commercial piston engined transports (DC-7c and L-1649A) could generally operate from runways of about these lengths under most conditions. There were exceptions for high-altitude fields like Lima, Peru or Addis Abba, Ethiopia and locations where civil and military shared facilities but these are comparatively rare. It was only after the introduction of commercial turbo-jets in the West (B-707 and DC-8) starting in late 1958 that runways of 3000 metres became common but for commercial reasons this happened over a comparatively short time frame. Note that the original short-lived DH-106 Comet 1 could operate from the existing short fields and the Soviet TU-104 had a rough field capability but could still only fly from a handful of airfields in the USSR until the mid-1960's so neither had any real impact on airport infrastructure in most of the world.

So, about half way through the CWDB period, runway lengths underwent considerable change globally over a fairly short timeframe and it seems like much work for little substantive gain to model this for generic airports.

Just my $0.02 CAD.

-C
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Mgellis
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RE: World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by Mgellis »


For the CWDB, I was thinking more of convenience. :) The airfield import is enormously useful. It is a huge time saver for me. It would just be nice to have something like it for the CWDB, too, if it was possible to do it.

ORIGINAL: Randomizer

I do not actually see how "realism" would be advanced or worth the effort involved to build this for import into the CWDB.

Before 1958 or so the vast majority of civil airfields used runway lengths of about 2000-2600 metres or so since the heaviest commercial piston engined transports (DC-7c and L-1649A) could generally operate from runways of about these lengths under most conditions. There were exceptions for high-altitude fields like Lima, Peru or Addis Abba, Ethiopia and locations where civil and military shared facilities but these are comparatively rare. It was only after the introduction of commercial turbo-jets in the West (B-707 and DC-8) starting in late 1958 that runways of 3000 metres became common but for commercial reasons this happened over a comparatively short time frame. Note that the original short-lived DH-106 Comet 1 could operate from the existing short fields and the Soviet TU-104 had a rough field capability but could still only fly from a handful of airfields in the USSR until the mid-1960's so neither had any real impact on airport infrastructure in most of the world.

So, about half way through the CWDB period, runway lengths underwent considerable change globally over a fairly short timeframe and it seems like much work for little substantive gain to model this for generic airports.

Just my $0.02 CAD.

-C
blh42
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RE: World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by blh42 »

WorldAirports-2.0.zip from my archive contain both requests

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... =drive_web
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Mgellis
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RE: World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by Mgellis »

Quick feedback...

1. I really appreciate you doing this.

2. The CWDB World Airports seems to have something wrong with it...I can't get anything to load from it even when I'm editing a CWDB scenario...it keeps telling me it is an incompatible database.

3. The DB3K World Airports seems to work fine, but the command to add a country's small airports adds 35mm AAA cannons rather than airfields. (I'll bet this was just a typo...the airport uses record #1593 and what shows up is #1583 - AAA Plt (35mm Oerlikon KDB x 2 [35 ItK 88], Upgraded Super Fledermaus FCR) -- Finland (Army), 2001.)


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Mgellis
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RE: World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by Mgellis »

Figured it out...

Yes, the problem in the DB3K version is that the wrong database entry is being used. 1583 is being used, but it should be 1593. This can be edited easily enough by just opening up each .inst file in a text editor like Notepad, but it is tedious.

The problem with the CWDB version is more complex, but also easy to fix. The DB id is set to 1, when it should be set to 2. In addition, the database entry numbers seem to be off. For example, medium airports are listed in at least of the .inst files as 1000400, when the number is actually just 400. Again, this can be fixed by anyone who really needs a particular airfield. You need to track down the right number (easy to find...listed in the database viewer) and then open up a particular .inst file with a text editor like Notepad and make the changes.

Mind you, because I'm lazy, I hope blh42 will just post corrected versions, but until he does the files can still be used if you don't mind doing a little extra editing.



blh42
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RE: World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by blh42 »

Sorry I'll have it fixed today. I'm a bit off on the inst files since I havent done any for quite a while now. Thanks for giving suggestions and telling whats wrong :).

blh
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Mgellis
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RE: World Airport Import -- suggestions

Post by Mgellis »

Downloaded the new version (2.1). So far, it seems to be working fine. Very cool! Thanks!

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