New UV Mapping Option

[some_yahoo]

So I have a wheel, (basically a cylinder). I have marked ALL the edges for cut, and I want to overlay all the segments so that they all have the same uv coordinates.

Wings wants to unwrap it all in a pinwheel. What I'd like is a way to perform the following "macro"

1. Find the longest side of the polygon (object level of course, not face)
2. Rotate until that side is horizontal.
3. Do this on as many items as are selected.
   

After that, I can align them all center, do a 180 flip on any that are upside down, and scale to taste.

Is there anything like that, or alternately how do I get started writing a plugin for this beast?

Because I have hundreds of these to rotate and align, and a computer would be able to do this in a flash.