Weekly Aircraft Development Competition

[NotAnAimbot]

1 hour ago, MiffedStarfish said:

slow single engine VTOL,

I'm getting some ideas for this...

[Servo]

6 hours ago, NotAnAimbot said:

I'm getting some ideas for this...

Ditto. I'll probably use my F-35 hinge, but on the airframe of a DeHavelland Sea Vampire. Twin-booms for life, y'all. 

[Skylon]

10 hours ago, MiffedStarfish said:

Ask, and you shall receive, I will include two categories in the carrier fighter challenge, prop and jet.

Thank you!

Unfortunately I'm not skilled enough to make a stock prop, but i guess I could try downloading one

Edited June 10, 2017 by Skylon

[valens]

Sadly I missed the deadlines for the two first challenges, but I might try my hands at the next ones... Already have some nice ideas departing from some of my planes...

[CaptainTrebor]

6 hours ago, Servo said:

Ditto. I'll probably use my F-35 hinge, but on the airframe of a DeHavelland Sea Vampire. Twin-booms for life, y'all. 

I have a design that I might enter that looks like a cross between a deHavelland Venom and a deHavelland Swallow.

Spoiler

Swallow

Venom

 

[MiffedStarfish]

With the Poll clsoed and the resutls in, I am happy to announce the winner of the military transport competition is... @Servo's C-120 Meridian!

Congratulations, have a shiny badge! (sorry about my terrible paint skills)

Onto next weeks challenge! I have taken advantage of the money readout, and introduced a new specification, Cost, which should at another challenge to building a winning plane.

Class: Single Engine Carrier Fighter (Jet)

You are to build a fighter designed for carrier operations, able to take off and land in 50m or less. For space and budget reasons, it can only have a single engine, and a max wingspan of 10 metres. It must have at least two missile hardpoints, and at least one bomb hardpoint.

Weight: maximum 20 tons

Speed: at least 150m/s

Payload: at least 2 guided missiles and one ore tank bomb

Range: at least 150km

Crew: at least 1 pilot

Cost: maximum 150,000 funds

Class: Single Engine Carrier Fighter (Propeller)

you are to build a budget single engine carrier fighter capable of taking off and landing in 50m. It must be light, but carry at least one missile.

Weight: maximum 15 tons

Speed: at least 60m/s

Payload: at least 1 guided missile

Range: at least 75km

Crew: at least 1 pilot

Cost: maximum 100,000

Notes: the carrier is 50m long and 10m wide, so build your plane around those specifications.

Craft files for you test with:

Carrier: https://www.dropbox.com/s/81eyctlw3pqhcr3/F-Tech ASC-1 Floating Fortress.craft?dl=0

Weapons if you can't build them:

Missile: https://www.dropbox.com/s/axk0kr5q383dfwm/F-Tech APGO-1 Pidgeon missile.craft?dl=0

Bomb: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ygm42ai2cfmv2up/F-Tech Ore Bomb.craft?dl=0

Sorry this took me so long to upload, I literally had to build the carrier from scratch. Enjoy!

 

Edited June 10, 2017 by MiffedStarfish

[Skylon]

The carrier looks very nice, but I'm struggling to land on it with my less than optimal computer. I'm getting better though. I'll uninstall a few graphics mods and see if it helps, though I don't really want to do this.

[Botanist Jeff]

@MiffedStarfish It looks like this:

  

Sorry about the image size and quality; I don't have a good way to put images in my posts yet.

That was about the bomber challenge

Edited June 10, 2017 by Botanist Jeff

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Skylon said:

The carrier looks very nice, but I'm struggling to land on it with my less than optimal computer. I'm getting better though. I'll uninstall a few graphics mods and see if it helps, though I don't really want to do this.

Is your anti-aliasing off? 

[Skylon]

2 minutes ago, dundun92 said:

Is your anti-aliasing off? 

No, I don't think so

Edited June 10, 2017 by Skylon

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Skylon said:

No, I don't think so

try that

[valens]

Quick question: I notice KLAWs on the carrier deck. Can we assume that these are placed in order to hold the plane as it spools up its engine, in a similar way catobar aircraft carrier work?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, valens said:

Quick question: I notice KLAWs on the carrier deck. Can we assume that these are placed in order to hold the plane as it spools up its engine, in a similar way catobar aircraft carrier work?

I thought they were used  for landing.

[Guest]

The swing-wing F-9A Firestorm carrier aircraft https://kerbalx.com/dundun92/F-9A   

Exactly 10 m wingspan. 16 t.

Edited June 10, 2017 by Guest

[MiffedStarfish]

25 minutes ago, valens said:

Quick question: I notice KLAWs on the carrier deck. Can we assume that these are placed in order to hold the plane as it spools up its engine, in a similar way catobar aircraft carrier work?

They were put there for attacking planes to the main ship after landing, but now you mention it, that's a great idea.

4 hours ago, Skylon said:

The carrier looks very nice, but I'm struggling to land on it with my less than optimal computer. I'm getting better though. I'll uninstall a few graphics mods and see if it helps, though I don't really want to do this.

Sorry about that, the entire bridge and anti air missiles are purely for aesthetics, you can remove them and remove a hundred parts or so.

  

5 minutes ago, dundun92 said:

The Swing-Wing F-9A Firestorm Carrier Aircraft https://kerbalx.com/dundun92/F-9A

Great plane! The swing wing is very cool.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, MiffedStarfish said:

Great plane! The swing wing is very cool.

Thanks

[NotAnAimbot]

My entry, the FV-13 Ascender V/HTOL (Vertical or Horizontal Take-Off and Landing

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt8a8kh7e318lh4/FV-13 Ascender.craft?dl=0

[valens]

50 meters is a lot less than I thought... After a number of trials with a Goldberesque construction which simulate the carrier deck, I think I can take off in clean configuration, but just not with bombs and missiles... Quite frustrating...

However, I've learned a great deal of things, which will certainly be immensely useful for the following crafts also...

@NotAnAimbot How precise can you be when landing ? I decided against building a VTOL because the landing manoeuvers were taking wayyyy too much time and resources, but might go back to it.

Edited June 10, 2017 by valens

[NotAnAimbot]

1 hour ago, valens said:

How precise can you be when landing ?

Depends a lot on experience. I've been working a lot with my AV-1 Tiger, so I'm a little familiar with VTOL operating. Skip to 1:47 for landing procedures.

 

The plane can also land conventionally anyways since it has "normal" landing gear stuck on the bottom, so landing shouldn't be hard. 

For the carrier, I did need to use a parachute to assist landing, but otherwise it wasn't hard. If the plane ends up a bit sideways, just push the throttle and readjust.

Edited June 11, 2017 by NotAnAimbot

[MiffedStarfish]

Sorry about the length, but it was either 100m and twice the part count, or 50m with reasonable part count and decent looks. 50 is doable, but challenging. 

A drogue chute is fine, I used one myself for my HTOL, the AS-1 Wasp (which I might enter for the fun of it) But I think I might put a rule against full blown parachutes.

[goduranus]

how about stopping with fighter with a claw for the landing?

[MiffedStarfish]

I don't see how that would be a problem, but losing 50m/s instantly would be a bit dangerous for the plane though.

 

[goduranus]

The carrier is so laggy maybe there could be a proxy. Like landing on top of VAB or something.

[MiffedStarfish]

Sorry, but I can't really do much about that. You can remove the tower, its purely for aestetics, and should cut eh part count by about 100.

[Skylon]

Quote

Chakri Naruebet is the smallest aircraft carrier in operation in the world. She displaces 11,486 tons at full load. The carrier is 164.1 metres (538 ft) long between perpendiculars, and 182.65 metres (599.2 ft) overall.

Aircraft carriers are huge