Today, after fixing some annoying issues with the mesh, I was finally able to upload the whole model into Second Life’s Beta Grid. I slapped on a quick coat of paint and, before it was even dry, I dropped in an older flight script and took it up for a spin.
There’s still a lot of work ahead of me, though. As you can see, the mesh needs some tweaking around the trailing edge of the wings. The cockpit, too, needs finishing, which is a huge job — I plan to have working instruments for flying in the first-person view.
After that is the task of writing a script specifically for this plane and building and scripting a HUD in the same style as the plane. Finally, the plane needs a proper paint job. A few options, maybe, just for variety. It’s a slog.
But even so, the first flight is a landmark in the development of any plane — even a virtual plane.