Fokker F.VIIb/3m ‘Southern Cross’
Fokker F.VIIb/3m Trimotor "Southern Cross" (1:1 Scale)
There is no doubt that the ‘Southern Cross’ was one of the most famous of Fokker aircraft. The equally famous Australian aviation pioneer Charles E. Kingsford Smith used this machine around 1930 to make several historical flights. The flights by this and other F.VIIb-3ms, made the design Fokker’s best selling pre-war airliner.
The ‘Southern Cross’ began life as the ‘Detroiter’, a polar exploration aircraft of the Detroit News-Wilkins Arctic expedition. The aircraft had crashed in Alaska in 1926, and was recovered and repaired. Wilkins, who had decided the Fokker was too large for his Arctic explorations, met with Kingsford Smith and arranged to sell them the aircraft.
It was flown in the first-ever trans-Pacific flight to Australia from the mainland United States, a distance of about 11,670 kilometres (7,250 mi), in 1928.
This is the second plane in the Fokker series, F.VIIb/3m. It has radial engines I tried to represent. Modifications over the first version, the ‘Alaskan’, are 1.5m longer wingspan with enlarged fuel tanks, trimotor design, shortened nose according to the new engine setup, passenger interior, radio station in the aft cabin, lavatory, new paint scheme and some other decorations. Real ‘Southern Cross’ didn’t have passenger accommodation inside when it made the trans Pacific flight, instead it had a large fuel tank just behid the pilot seats which also blocks the cockpit door. My build is more of a mature version of the plane after those historic flights. Because in Stormworks there’s not ocean-wide distances to travel and also passenger seats are useful.
– Trimotor design for reliability, it can maintain level flight with only one engine, and takeoff with only center engine.
– Large wing and big suspension for landing & takeoff short uneven ground
– Rich interior with access doors and hatches
– Radio
– Two pilot cockpit
– Thermostat
– Fuel remaining time and max range instruments
– Reverse mode on ground
– Generator clutch for engine efficiency
– Altitude hold & Waypoint hold
– Rps-based throttle control
– Heater, reserve battery
– Various first person equipments
– A secret button panel hidden inside the plane.
Note: I didn’t use a modular engines because they are still being updated by developers.
1. Make sure Main Battery and Generator is ON
2. Fuel Pumps ON
3. Ignitions ON
4. Parking Brake OFF
5. Throttle Increase
Note: Fuel tanks are half full when spawned. Because it has very large fuel tanks, but you can still fill them to full in the hangar.
– PNG to XML Paint tool: http://rising.at/Stormworks/paint.php
– Tajin’s GPS Autopilot: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1583273886
– TheDrafter’s Fuel consumption calculator: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1618022072
– Thanks to Zachatttack227’s brillant method to make 1-block wide corridor walkable in his Ford Trimotor: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2260745978
