Stuka Stunt Main Forum · 10 of 10 known posts recovered
Have a look around there and see what you can find.
Tony
edit: This link may get you to the Stunt Rib down load. If not, check under "Documents", then "General" at the top of the home page,..then scroll to the bottom,..S-Rib should be there.
He made that program for his (and our) enjoyment and it should be available for all of us.
BTW, if he decided to charge a couple of bucks fot it it would still be a helluva deal!
I heard he's now developing a sofware called "Stunt Plane", or someting like that, that will build the whole darn ship, not just the wings.
Larry never suceeded in making me understand exactly wht his job is, but I know he's a good C programmer, and most certainly a well payed professional.
He told me he ain't no programmer, I wonder what he would come up with if he was one...
I saw the source code for Stunt Rib, the code was sloppyly written, (no bugs, of course, but not a tidy sight, he broke all rules I have read on all "How to write in C and C++"books... 
) which is the hallmark of programmers that can write a code with a hand tied behind their backs...
Ion 
thanks again 
StuntRib is not "public domain". Larry retains the copyright, ownership and such. But it is free, thanks to Larry's generosity.
Works very well too.
Second, the only reason I don't release the original Stuntrib code to public domain is that I don't (quite) have it! I managed to have a disk crash, and all I had was an earlier version of the code. To be fair, most of the code is correct, but the user interface (which is pretty well crap, even in the release) is even more pathetic in the surviving code. However, anyone who is very interested in this is certainly welcome to it - just email me.
Third, Ion and I (and many others) are indeed brothers in Christ, but that doesn't prevent me from having fun with him, at his expense. For example, I sent him the source code for Stuntrib (the pre-release version), just to add to his confusion and to play with him! Poor fella, he thought he was looking at something.. 
(If he thinks THAT code is weird, wait until he sees Stunt Ship, and it's in VB!)
Fourth, I'm having fun at Randy's expense as well.. Don't let Randy kid you - he's an excellent programmer himself. He's wisely decided to conceal that particular talent.
Actually I hope to get some more time to work on the Stunt Ship program later this year when I'm off after surgery. Looks like my operation gets moved into December now, so I should have some time to work on it then.
What I (currently) do for a living is to design (digital) controller hardware for special applications. For example, I currently am working on controllers for radar jammers. I'm fortunate to be able to do design for a living. I've had some very interesting work. I normally write programs only to punish programmers by saying "Here ya go. THIS works.." Naturally, my hacks make them want to puke.
What I'd really like to know is some of the aerodynamics that Brett Buck understands. But I'm too lazy to work for it. I once had to do some orbital ballistics calculations for a technical report for the (local) "Spaceport" here north of Las Cruces. I have to tell you I haven't been bored like that since my Math 392 class.. Somebody shoot me, PLEASE! Nutation, indeed.
I've found that it is more fun being lazy and worthless, and tweaking noses of people, particularly those I really like (e.g. The Daniel). I enjoy putting that guy on the spot, trying to get him to defend his silly politics, otherwise yucking it up at his expense.
Wuhhh huhhh huhhh! Wuhhh huhh huhh.
My current hero is Burt Rutan, who I understand really WAS a control line flyer. With all due respect to all the great designers here who create the stunt ships we have today, I can't help but wonder what Burt would come up with (composite, I'm sure!) to "solve" this particular flight problem of ours. (What go me off on this subject tonite is a Discovery Channel presentation (3 hours of it) about the X Prize - all very good stuff!)
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"If a computer cable has one end, then it has another." -Lyall's Conjecture
Just didn't want someone pirating your code without at least a "by your leave".
>>Fourth, I'm having fun at Randy's expense as well.. Don't let Randy kid you - he's an excellent programmer himself. He's wisely decided to conceal that particular talent.<<
Sheesh! I'm a hack programmer. Pretty good and finding faults in other's code, and not too bad and some rudimentary coding, but I'm no programmer, that's certain.
And if you think orbital balistics are boring (just love those Hohman orbit and transfer calculations), spend time with spherical geometry. Yikes! Haven't messed with it since college, but it still gives me the shakes. I'm sure Brett eats this for lunch with Trappy's hot sauce, but for me they were pure torture. Probably why I ended up in mental health.
AhAhAhAhAhAhAhEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Larry for all your work for the stunt world.
After reading your response re the StuntRib program I had a question about the program available on the Pampa site. You mentioned in your reply that the version you have saved after a disk crash isn't the latest version. Is the one at Pampa a useable version with a few bugs? I've downloaded your three part series on airfoils for stunters found under general documents at Pampa and your "Using the Stuntrib Program" listed under new items at the Pampa site (the article that actually started the original question). I would like to give the program a try since I use AutoCad at work and a DXF output file would work fine.
PS
Sorry I asked about the "public domain" program but the first sentence of your "Using the StuntRib Program" article said the StuntRib program was released to public domain in January 1996 in conjuction with your three part article for stunt news. Didn't mean to imply any copyright infringement etc. and I would never offer to use the program for anything for personal use.
thanks again
Gary Akers
The program (executable) which is released is the latest one. Problem is, the source for that one is lost. The compiled program is there, of course. It surely has bugs, although nothing too strange (that I know of).
The Stuntrib program is an MSDOS executable, but if you read the newest documentation on using it, you'll see how to easily use it on any Windows system.
I have no problem with anyone seeing/using the C source, as long as they don't go make a million bucks off it or something (no danger of that!) (I'm joking - if you can make money off it somehow, God bless you.) Just email me if you want it, my email address is
If you're interested in the algorithms, the three articles pretty well explain everything involved and my method. Nothing exotic is involved, high school algebra only.
The DXF outputs should work just fine for importing into Autocad. If you want a quicky test, just run the DOMBDXF.BAT batch file (in the zipped self-extracting file Stuntzip.exe , and it will make you a set of 10 (original Mo'Best) ribs, as DXF files, which you can either open directly in Autocad, or import using the DXFIN command.
Nothing to using it, latest documentation walks you through, step by step. You may also email me with questions. I have another Excel spreadsheet which will generate a modified single rib template, with the high point moveable from the normal NACA 30% of chord position. Steven is going to post it for general download I think. Meanwhile, email me if you want it sooner.
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"We've got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." - George W. Bush
thanks for the info. I'll give it a try with the example MO ribs you mentioned. I don't need any of the source code.
gary