Torquimedes

Prototyped a little something I started a long time ago, after my stock X-Wing squadron, when you had to build your own hinges. Couldn't figure out how to fit the docking ports inside it to lock the wings in place after rotation. Now it takes longer to paint it green than to make the wings work! (It's a Klingon Bird of Prey, for those too young to have seen one in person.)

Solar panels are physicsless now? That's a shame. I used them in my butterfly hinge when I needed 90 degree rotation inside a Mk1 fuselage. They worked reliably enough for a light load, but due to the aforementioned sketchiness of landing legs as pistons, I never used that hinge again. That would make an awesome video!

That is a gorgeous craft. I wish I'd thought of using airbrakes as external actuators that can visually blend into the wings. I had "repulsorlift" VTOL engines and LOTS of torque (powered by RTG) in my X-wings for times like this. Also spammed the full-throttle button while falling more or less like a brick, waiting for the wings to dock, but not spinning. Didn't look nearly as good as this bird though. Are those drills on the wingtips? How on earth do you swing that much weight without breaking the hinges? I may have some engineering studies to catch up on.

As always, your dedication to aesthetics produces a work of art compared to my mechanical experiments. Best o' luck with your internal mechanism. I decided to make mine fit inside the largest single-piece container at my disposal (Mk3 bay) due to the required distance dockingports have to travel before they'll redock, and needing the strength of the regular-size dockingport. Big Six ended up 191 parts while I was trying to minimize part count.

I believe I have just witnessed another (r)evolution in Kerbal aeronautics. Outstanding! And the prototype is a beauty too.

Dock me for the chute to keep it fair for everyone else. I'm in it for the fun of it. I just didn't have time to develop a perfect flight profile to stretch the fuel that far. And it was funnier this way. Just look at the photo where they flame out. :-)

May the Fourth be with you! I didn't have time to build a proper airspeeder, so I converted my smallest X-wing by removing the probe cores and airfoils and installing a pair of seats. I also replaced the astromech with an emergency chute. Vertical takeoff from KSC: They landed on the island airfield... ...and returned! ...to the same continent. Same country? County? Well, they didn't make it to the runway, but they definitely made it "back" before running out of fuel and landing with the emergency chute. I included a photo with aero overlay on to demonstrate that the airbrakes do not contribute any lift. The only aero forces are body lift and drag. Scoring: "Eye of the Needle": Complete the challenge of flying to the island runway and back. 1000 points awarded. This depends on how you define "back"... "Hop on!": Carry a second Kerbal to ride in tandem with your driver. +100 point bonus. "Wet Nellie": Complete the challenge with a craft that is submersible. +500 point bonus. It is a submersible craft, as shown in the album, but I did not submerge for the island trip. "Physics Defiant": Use excessive part clipping. 250 point penalty. Up to you. There are 36 parts in a length of 3m. Pure stock, no tweakscaling.

Pure stock? That is a gorgeous little sub!

Folks have built trailer hitches out of almost-docked ports, allowing rotation but held in place by their magnetic attraction.

I built a pair of SSTOs for the "Mastery of One" challenge, which means none of the parts match. No symmetry, including engines wings and wheels, which were the really fun bits to balance.

May the Fourth be with you! [TEASER] Teaser for upcoming youtube with all three articulated stock X-wings in action.

May the Fourth be with you! [TEASER] Teaser for upcoming youtube of all three X-wing models in action. Had to inline the image because IMGUR borked the embedded version.

Thanks, but they don't appear to be free to use on youtube. Anyone else?

Does anyone know of royalty-free music that sounds vaguely like a John Williams soundtrack?

I got around to converting the Monoplane Mk1 to an SSTO. KerbalX link Mass 12.41t Cost 42,312.0 Crew Capacity 4 Part Count 19 Size 5.32 x 3.21 x 14.02 Then I built a Mk2-Mk3 spaceplane out of unique parts. Had trouble getting from the runway up to turboramjet speed, until I added the STO Panther. That is one finicky bird to fly. I was amazed it worked at all. KerbalX link Mass 32.55t Cost 42,490.0 Crew Capacity 4 Part Count 29 Size 10.18 x 6.87 x 19.12

Watch the series first, in production order (http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Firefly_episodes). They only made 14 episodes that were aired out of order, and some not at all. The movie (Serenity) takes place after the series.

Docking ports must separate by at least 1.3m before they'll dock again (thank to @Servo research). Maybe the thermometers on the upper port have pulled it slightly to the right so it wasn't aligned when they collided? If dockingports collide as in the picture above, they may decide that they are close enough to connect, but already past the point that docking is triggered, and weld together. The craft are now connected but not considered docked, and cannot be undocked.

"it simulates the fact that a jet engine is inside the fuselage, not just a nozzle strapped to the back."

Position an RCS ball on each side of the airbrake and they will hold their parent assembly in place against gravity (or any other force that doesn't break the hinge). I got the notion from @Servo's XB-70 wings. Static and dynamic diagrams here:

You've doomed us all by creating a sandkraken! THE SPICE MUST FLOW! I know, too many lips, but that's all I can see here.

Jets were still OP lifters in 0.90. This 2-stage booster massed 12 tons but could lift 5 tons of payload to orbit (per booster), so you could mount a small payload on top, or strap on as many as needed.

A Mk3-3.75m adapter holds as much fuel as the Mk3-2.5m at half the length. On the fore end, add a 3.75m fairing, put the shock cone on whichever fairing node you want, and shape the fairing to fit. This will be shorter but at least 0.5 tons heavier than your current nacelles. Depending on the shape of the fairing, you might sneak another fuel tank inside that space. You can fight oscillation by adding more torque to the main craft (assume you're always controlling that section), which can stabilize flight while the wing is moving, and make docking more reliable. 1. I haven't tried hinging something that heavy. I hit the limit of the thermo-RCS hinges I was using recently, trying to use large drills as wingtip lasers on my X-wing, because they look really cool there. They look less cool flapping about on broken wings. You might have better luck with dockingport Senior since larger ports have a sturdier dock. 2. Hard to tell without a craft file... are the docking positions setup so that the wing assembly can't rotate past where you intend it to dock? I had a similar problem until I strictly limited the rotation, then had to tweak the placement, rotation and range of the airbrakes down to the pixel for reliable operation. You'll have to learn the physics mesh of your hinge levers. The RCS ball is actually smaller than it looks, for instance, so the airbrakes visibly sink into it a bit. I also put RCS on either side of the airbrake to reduce oscillation, similar to @Servo's XB70 wing actuators. You can see the inner workings here: For more hinge options, check here:

If you're willing to break the Mk2 lines of your nose, using a landinggear as a shockwave shaper will allow even Mk1 parts to reach 1670 m/s. You can make the protrusion more subtle than this example by having it extend from below the Mk2 chines. Large/Extralarge anding gear have the same heat tolerance as Mk3 parts, 2700 (vs Mk2 2500).

And then you built something fun around it! That's what we all do here. Craft files are for sharing and tutorials are for copying to learn from.

I wondered how hard it would be to convert my hypersonic Monoplane from the "Mastery of One" challenge into an SSTO. Stripped off the nacelles and all but the RAPIER engine, added rocket fuel, and off we go. Here it is after deorbiting, overshooting KSC a bit. I suspect a Mk1 single-stack is the simplest SSTO thanks to the RAPIER, but it's limited how much mass it can carry to orbit. I hit that limit pretty fast trying to craft a Mk2-3 SSTO out of unique parts. Thus far it allllmost makes orbit. Biggest problem is getting it from the runway up to speed where the Whiplash and/or RAPIER can carry it to the stratosphere. The nose reminds me of STNG Romulan ships. I'm gonna need a lot of green paint...