Multiple attachment points

[EnderCrafter78]

I,m building the Arkbird in KSP but no engine has so much power to lift the plane. My idea was to place multiple engines at one attachment point (these green dots at the flat side of fuel tanks for example). Does someone know if that is possible and how I'm doing that. (Sorry for my english, greetings from Germany)

[Numerlor]

this or radial attachment points

[Fearless Son]

Like this, huh?  

I would probably use some radial couplers to attach lifting engines with fuel tanks, then detach those engines once reaching orbit.  The Arkbird does have engines of its own, but they are only intended to let it dip into the upper atmosphere for high-altitude atmospheric rendezvous before powering back to orbital velocity.  I suspect the Osean Federation originally launched it with disposable boosters, and it was never intended to land.  

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

[EnderCrafter78]

Thanks for you help and yes fearless son, thats the plane. I saw this multiple engines at youtube. David Nielsen build the F-16 with stock parts and he had the same problem.

[Cunjo Carl]

10 hours ago, EnderCrafter78 said:

I,m building the Arkbird in KSP but no engine has so much power to lift the plane. My idea was to place multiple engines at one attachment point (these green dots at the flat side of fuel tanks for example). Does someone know if that is possible and how I'm doing that. (Sorry for my english, greetings from Germany)

Yep! We can do that. There's a few ways depending on what exactly you had in mind...

 

The most accepted way to put more engines anywhere on your plane is to place nose cones (specifically the Advanced Nose Cone B) or radial attachment points ( as @Numerlor and @Fearless Son suggest) onto your plane, and then place engines on the exposed rear faces of the nose cones. Alternatively, you can use structural pylons for attaching both fuel tanks and engines.

A 'cheating' (but effective and commonly used) way to place many engines on a single 'green' attachment node is to (again) use a Radial Attachment Point part. Put a radial attachment point (from the structural menu) on your plane, and place an engine on it. Pick it up and hover it over the place you'd like multiple engines. Turn on radial symmetry (by pressing "r") and turn it up to however many engines you'd like. Finally, place all of these engines right in the center. This process is shown in the gif in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

 

For lifting a plane, Panther engines in wet mode have the best TWR (ability to lift for their weight) on the ground, and look awesome. Meanwhile Goliaths in 'reverse mode' (which push backward) are easy to use if you don't mind their drag. I'm imagining 1 Goliath surrounded by 6 panthers for your setup (thanks to @Fearless Son for the picture). Plane engines have very low TWR for lifting, so you need a lot of them. If possible, you can also use rocket engines for specifically the lifting task, and in this case, the "vector" and "Dart" aerospike rocket engines are easy to use because they will mount radially automatically. If this (and the other answers) don't work out, post a link to your craft and mention me in a comment (by typing "@" followed by my name, clicking the result in the dropdown window), and I'll be happy to take a look and see if we can get anything going for you!

In any case, best of luck with the Arkbird and welcome to the forums, @EnderCrafter78! And hello from California.

[EnderCrafter78]

Thank you @Cunjo Carl that helped a lot. I finished the Arkbird and want to share it with you. Could you tell me how to put files in here?

The Arkbird comes with:

- 16 main engines both sides

- 6 boosters

- 510 Parts

- 261 tons

- really low framerate

[Cunjo Carl]

51 minutes ago, EnderCrafter78 said:

Thank you @Cunjo Carl that helped a lot. I finished the Arkbird and want to share it with you. Could you tell me how to put files in here?

The Arkbird comes with:

- 16 main engines both sides

- 6 boosters

- 510 Parts

- 261 tons

- really low framerate

261 tons and only 6 boosters? Wow! This I have to see, I was imagining you were in the 100 ton ballpark with my Panther+Goliath suggestion.

Please feel free to use this random gmail repository I made to get started. Simply follow the link, and click the "add" button on the top left. Upload your file, then right-click it and select "get shareable link". Then post it here in the forums!

In the long run, I'd recommend making an account and using KerbalX for hosting your craft files, because they can be easily searched for and found by others. It can be done through browser, but they also have a handy KSP mod to upload a craft from directly within the game, and they have a helpful thread for those looking to get started. Thanks to @swjr-swis for teaching me about these.

I look forward to hearing about it here, but I'd also recommend you post The Arkbird in the Stock VTOL Showcase thread in the craft exchange forum! This sounds like a perfect match.

Low framerate is how you know you're playing KSP right

 

[EnderCrafter78]

I may have to dissapoint you but it's not a Vtol. The boosters are for getting forward speed for the Arkbird.           https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3d-TFp1xbmZRHp0dDAwMWZWRzg

[Fearless Son]

1 hour ago, EnderCrafter78 said:

Thank you @Cunjo Carl that helped a lot. I finished the Arkbird and want to share it with you. Could you tell me how to put files in here?

The KSP forums do not host files of their own, but you can link to files from here.  I see you already have a Google Drive for the .craft file.  

If you take any screenshots, you can upload them to an image sharing site (Imgur seems to be one of the most popular here) and embed the photo in the forum post using the "Insert other media" button below a new post and selecting "Insert image from URL".  

Edited April 7, 2017 by Fearless Son

[Cunjo Carl]

11 hours ago, EnderCrafter78 said:

I may have to dissapoint you but it's not a Vtol. The boosters are for getting forward speed for the Arkbird.           https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3d-TFp1xbmZRHp0dDAwMWZWRzg

That is a truly awesome plane. So others in the thread can see what I'm talking about, I went ahead and posted a couple quick shots in the spoiler. The wings are made in 2-3 levels, and connected using angled segments with flush seams to create a gentle bow. The engine compartment on the back houses whiplashes, panthers and nukes tucked just out of view to create an epic looking exhaust bloom. It also has a continental turn radius, befitting a plane of its gargantuan size!

If it sounded like fun to you, I'd definitely encourage you to share this as a new thread over in the craft exchange board- they'd get a kick out of it. No stress if you'd rather not, thanks for sharing it here!

Spoiler

 

And never too late to turn it into a VTOL! (mostly joking)

Edited April 8, 2017 by Cunjo Carl