Servo

The icon herself flies again! https://kerbalx.com/servo/C-47-Skytrain This was a very fun build, coming together far faster than most of my "main-line" builds typically do. Part of that was the squeaky-low part count, coming in at 400 parts on the nose. Because you can't enjoy a craft if you can't fly it. Somehow, I find that my lower part count builds are my more detailed ones. I focus much harder on getting each thing right as efficiently as possible, and here is no exception. I've got pitot tubes, aerials, engine exhausts and cowl flaps, oil coolers, detailed landing gear, and a full airfoil built out.

That's because Nimitz class carriers are well over 300m long. I do know of at least one person working on a stock one though, but it's a heavy Work In Progress with only the flight deck filled out. Even then, it's pushing 3000 parts. If you want a 1:1 Nimitz, I recommend looking at boat-building parts mods. Here are a pair of Nimitz builds I found on KerbalX: https://kerbalx.com/iplayksp/USS-NIMITZ-CVN-68 https://kerbalx.com/ImpossibleAviation/Aircraft-Carrier If you look under the Mods tab on the KerbalX pages, it will tell you which mods you need, and a CKAN link to get them.You can also find a lot of other stock ships on KerbalX here. (Sort by part count for the biggest and best ones). As a final note, I have built a 1:1 warship before, the destroyer USS Johnston, which clocks in at 117m and 1700 parts. A stock Nimitz would be three times bigger in every dimension, so ~27x more parts if you built it to the same detail. Download link for it, because I'm shameless: https://kerbalx.com/servo/USS-Johnston Hope this helps

The Original Joint Strike Fighter Forty years before the JSF Program most of us are familiar with took off, there was another program with a similar goal. How did it turn out? And what can we learn from it? Enjoy my second Flights of Fancy! The Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX) program was a very intersting program, in that it perfectly encapsulates what makes the Aerospace Defense industry so unique. It's a story of difficult engineering challenges, impossible tasks, political maneuvering, and a rivalry within the Department of Defense. Oh, and there's an awesome craft for you to download and fly at the end of it too! @HB Stratos and I have worked hard for the past few months to create this masterpiece of stock mechanics. It's filled to the gills with functionality, so I gurantee you'll enjoy it. It has: Swing wings All-moving Stabilators Stock Landing Gear Full Slats/Flaps (armed variant - coming soon) - An internal Missile Bay (armed variant - coming soon) - moving pylons Most of this is powered by the Award Winning Bendy TechTM. Find out more here: Craft Download: https://kerbalx.com/servo/F-111A-Aardvark Happy Flying!

Thanks all! This craft was an absolute pain to put together, so I'm glad you guys appreciate it An honor as always, even if the safety standards leave something to be desired on takeoff. I suppose I should also post here the second (well, first) video I made for the Catalina. This was still somewhat in the testing stages, but it's another good view of the craft.

Revving up the engines, listen to her howl and roar... This was fun to make - I hope you enjoy it! Craft featured in the video: https://kerbalx.com/servo/F-14-Tomcat_2 https://kerbalx.com/servo/Vought-F8U-Crusader_2

The Queen of the Pacific Theater Ask any Allied sailor or pilot in the Pacific which plane they'd most like to see overhead and they'll speak the glories of a most un-glamorous twin-engined flying boat called Cat, Canso, or Dumbo. The Consolidated PBY went by these names and more as it did everything except the shooting in the Pacific. It ran search and rescue, flew aerial reconnaissance, raided convoys, harassed enemy troop encampments, hunted submarines, and carried personnel long distances overwater. It was a workhorse which could handle any job you threw at it, and every downed pilot, sunken ship survivor, or military planner would tell you, it did more than any number of fighter planes could ever do. I've loved the Catalina for a long time, so I took GameplayReviewUK's 30's challenge as a sign to finally give the PBY a replica worthy of its legendary service. I pulled no punches here, so I hope the craft speaks for itself. Craft Download: https://kerbalx.com/servo/PBY-Catalina Flight Manual: Happy flying, and sail on! - Servo

Triple feature today, since I haven't been making announcements for craft that got their own forum post. I've got a craft coming that's not earned its own post, so I'm dumping all of them here First off, for GameplayReviewUK's community challenge, I built the iconic Spirit of St. Louis https://kerbalx.com/servo/Spirit-of-St-Louis Next up, we have a long-form video on the Martin P6M Seaaster seaplane bomber which almost saw production. https://kerbalx.com/servo/P6M-Seamaster And lastly, we have Vought's odd duck carrier fighter - the F7U Cutlass https://kerbalx.com/servo/Vought-F7U-Cutlass I'm thinking of taking a break once my next two projects (the F-111 and the PBY) and going in a direction that I haven't really gone before: low-ish (350 parts) replicas of non-American aircraft. The MiG-21, the Eurofighter, and maybe a British jet are on the table, but I'm open for suggestions

Nice build - looks fun to fly!

The problem is probably with the damping, I think. That and enabling rigid attachment. I've done a lot more testing today and it's very hit or miss as to how the gear behaves. Here's my 80t suspension testbed, and as you can see - it works just fine. Getting everything to lock right is a little more difficult, but wasn't impossible. Further testing with the PBY itself showed that it works well enough... about half the time. I've also narrowed down the liftoff issue to a lack of pitch control. The engines are in an awkward spot and there's not enough places to hide horizontal stabilizers to cheat it up. I'll probably wind up replacing the custom Hstab with Big-S elevons (and a lot of them) to get the thing into the air. That would solve several other unrelated problems I'd been having in the process. It's still really jittery on the ground, which is frustrating, but the end is in sight (I hope). I added an engine startup animation, since those are always fun. Enjoy (and ignore the cursor)

Thanks! There are bigger problems to solve before I get to that one, I fear. My day started off with a bunch of successes, but ended mired in annoying lack-of-progress, unfortunately. The PB-52Y Stratolina program was a success. I was able to use the power from the rebuilt P&W R-1830s to take off and control flight with an 80t aircraft with relative ease From there, I was able to integrate the engines successfully without problems from the fairings being dumb. Here's how the full build will appear on release. Unfortunately, this is where the trouble started Turns out, it's a pig to get airborne. I probably could have guessed, but whatever. I had to add wheels underneath to support the main gear, since the hinges were far too weak. I might resign myself to rebuilding the gear using bigger hinges, or I could cheat in a different way and CFE the craft to be about half the weight. I fear that the second option will be necessary, given just how dense the craft is in parts. Also - I tried programming the floats to retract as practice for the gear, but they're not quite strong enough either. Will definitely need to beef up the retraction somehow, but I'm not quite sure how yet.

I've been quiet lately, but productive! Got this ugly ducking into the air. Due to the way I built it, it was very front-heavy, but some clipped wings helped that. Seriously underpowered with just two panthers, hopefully two more will solve the problem. I also re-winged my Catalina - I'm 10x happier with how this one compared to the old version. Airfoil is smoother, wingtip floats look better and actually work, and I think it's actually fewer parts I also remade the Pratt and Whitney R-1830s that power the beast. Shaved 20 parts on the build and make it look better doing so. I love how well the engine cylinders turned out, and it's also got a twitch hidden in the back so I can have exhaust on startup. Not sure exactly how to use the KALs to program non-motor parts, but we're going to find out!

Today, I built a replica of what is probably the weirdest plane to ever grace the flight decks of U.S. Navy operational carriers - the Vought F7U Cutlass. Look at that landing gear configuration, then realize that I wasn't able to get the front leg as long as I would have liked it. That cockpit placement and shape, too. And if the side profile wasn't weird enough, look at this angle. I want to have some of whatever the engineers who built this thing were smoking...

Work continues on the PBY-5A - I got the landing gear retraction functioning. Being Breaking Ground-based, they are very weak and somewhat prone to glitching, so I've resigned myself to cheating a second pair of proper landing gear under the hull to make up for it. This is not a light craft, so I'd expect it to be a little buggy if I tried for purely BG gear. The aft fuselage turned out all right. I've quite happy with how the waist blisters turned out, but the the rounding on the tail leaves a little to be desired. I'll see what I can do tomorrow A clearer view of the forwards fuselage + landing gear. I'm extremely happy with this part of the build - the probodyne probe cores are a fantastic part for making arcs of this size, so I've been using them basically everywhere.

Made some progress today towards another holy grail of mine - full flaps/slats/spoilers on a pure bendy wing. This profile gives me the best chance of doing that, I think. I've integrated slats (the airbrake in the front is the main actuation) already, with plenty of room in the back for flaps, and at in the middle for spoilers. The slats are simple enough - airbrake driven pusher actuation, but with a linear guide instead of a hinge (I used a Mk0 LF tank inside a cage of 4 I-beams). Dead simple, worked on the first try. The flaps are going to be another monster entirely. This weird looking mechanism is a linear servo which I built today. It works on the same principle as my other servo (stepped motion, each step moving the RCS balls one step out or back), and works reasonably well (given that the actuation is limited to 1.5m or less). More importantly, it lets you "set flaps to position 3" and do other fun things of that sort.

The pendelum of being productive towards finishing builds has swung back towards "blind inspiration", and this build is progressing nicely. It's going to be an absolute monster in terms of part count, but for another of my favorite aircraft, it is undoubtedly worth it. I've dreamed of this build for a long time, so I'm not going to pull any punches. As might be expected given the fact that I just said that, the build is progressing nicely and has just reached 200 parts (not counting the 150 part frame that I'm "hanging" the plane on to get the proportions right)

Thanks! I was really torn between doing the pure history lesson and a combo building/talk. You're not the first person who's said they'd like to see more of the replica talk, so I'll make sure to include that in any future videos. Also - the 2707 is a perfect topic for one of these videos! Thanks for the suggestion

I finally released a video that was a long time coming - an in-depth look at one of the more unique Navy aircraft ever. The P6M Seamaster was an attempt to create a nuclear-armed, submarine-servicable, seaplane bomber (in case it wasn't obvious already, this was during the 50's). Enjoy the video! The Seamaster craft can be found here: https://kerbalx.com/servo/P6M-Seamaster

A Seaplane Bomber that Failed to Break any Ground In 1950, the Navy was left without an effective nuclear platform in an era where it needed one to stay relevant in the interservice politics of the day - and the Seamaster was their ticket to changing that. Fleets of seaplane bombers would form a mobile, resilient, and hard to detect striking force with the help and supply of submarines and dedicated support vessels. From there, they could carry nuclear payloads deep into the Soviet Union after launching from places where no Air Force bomber could hope to launch. Despite the many marvels of Engineering that went into making the Seamaster a reality, it was doomed to the history books as a failed project. For the details of the story, please enjoy this video - I put a lot of time and effort into making it. The Craft Download can be found here: https://kerbalx.com/servo/P6M-Seamaster I'm planning on making this a series showcasing the flops, failures, and fantasies of the Aviation world. The next video will likely showcase the F-111B Aardvark and tell the story of how a failed joint strike fighter of sorts led to the development of the greatest carrier-based interceptor ever - the F-14 Tomcat. As this is a new series, I'd love to hear your comments on it below, or just ideas for future stories to tell in this medium. Until then, cheers, and happy flying! -Servo

some recent things that I've done: Got stuck on Laythe Crossed the Atlantic (Craft: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Spirit-of-St-Louis) Released a monstrosity upon the world (Craft: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Biplane-F-104)

Hard to beat that - cool build! Seems like your problems are nothing that more thrust can't fix, though. By coincidence, I finished up my own replica of a different "Sea Monster" - the Martin P6M Seamaster. I don't know if anyone calls it this, but it could well be known as the Chesapeake Bay Monster. In the 50's, before the advent of carrier-based aircraft powerful enough to carry out the long-range nuclear strike option, the U.S. Navy explored the option of creating mobile seaborne air bases consisting of seaplanes in both the bomber (the P6M) and fighter (the Convair F7Y Sea Dart - the world's only supersonic seaplane) roles. This was before the era of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, so the Navy saw a future where they were eclipsed by the Air Force due to their inability to carry out nuclear strikes. To combat this, they developed a Concept of Operations for seaplane nuclear bombers, something well within the Navy's wheelhouse. They would be supplied and maintained from submarines, forming a strike capability that would be difficult to detect and disrupt. All of this ignores the obviously difficult engineering challenge of creating such a seaborne air force in the first place, but you gotta give them credit for trying. Both the F7Y and the P6M would be prototyped and evaluated for operational production (the F7Y in the San Francisco Bay, and the P6M at Patuxent River NAS in Maryland), and both programs suffered setbacks and delays resulting from combining jet engines with the notoriously corrosive and annoying substance known as saltwater. The P6M had its own unique problems though, with the original prototype having to be modified with its inward engines pointing outwards to prevent the exhaust from scorching the fuselage. Similarly, the plane had structural problems associated with operation in anything other than extremely calm seas. All of this was happening in mid-late 1955, and a competitor was on the horizon... The introduction of the A3D Skywarrior for the nuclear strike jet role (which was stopgapped by the propeller-driven AJ Savage until either it or the P6M entered service) in 1956 was the final role in the Seamaster's coffin. The Navy had a carrier-based nuclear strike aircraft, completely eclipsing the need for such a complex flying boat project.

After a mini-hiatus, I decided to take on a speedbuild in the two hours that I had tonight. After polling for U.S. planes that I haven't built (remarkably few of those left), someone suggested this monster and I just had to go for it: The Martin P6M Seamaster - a massive, 50's era nuclear-armed, jet powered, flying boat intended to be capable of striking from mobile submarine-supported forward outposts which would be difficult to detect and neutralize. The program was canceled after aircraft carriers got large enough and nuclear weapons small enough that jet aircraft based on carriers could fill the nuclear strike option for the US Navy. I knew that I wouldn't finish it in time, but I'll pick it back up later this week hopefully. In all, this was a fun build, especially since the speedbuild format allows me to be looser with getting details right, which suits this plane because of its size and the relative lack of detailed blueprints. In part because of this, I could afford to be a bit more creative with part uses, and I lucked into a few useful techniques (particularly the Mk2 fuselages on the hull) that I wouldn't have found had I not been looser with my techniques.

Very interesting - thanks for sharing! Makes me curious then about why such a design isn't more common. Maybe something to do with mechanical complexity? On the contrary, this is the sort of thing I live for when building replicas. You notice a small detail, then you go down a rabbit hole figuring out why that bit made it onto such a highly engineered machine. Disregarding tail-rotor quibbles, this is a lovely replica! The solar panels really work well here, and the fuselage shaping works really well too.

Double post be darned, there's updates to be made! Visually, the plane is finished, but as I should have expected, it is far from flight-worthy. The engine is fairly anemic, so it is capable of taking off, but only for short hops at the moment. There are also control issues - as you may have noticed, the visual horizontal and vertical stabilizers, as well as the ailerons are all non-functional. That means that the true control surfaces have to be hidden in the fuselage (for pitch and yaw) or buried in the wing root (for roll) It certainly doesn't help that I'm trying to get a 20t plane into the air on a single medium BG motor either.

I've been quite busy these past few evenings, ever since I decided to make an unapologetically detailed replica of what is arguably the most famous plane in history - the Ryan NYP, better known as the Spirit of St. Louis One way I keep myself motivated to finish builds and ensure they're of consistent (ideally high and consistent) quality is to start working on the hardest part first. That sets the tone for the build, since it's the "weakest link" in making the craft look good. In this case, it was getting the wing right. With that done, I moved to the empennage, which caused me more trouble than I anticipated (ellipses are hard). After that came the relatively simple aft fuselage. Any time I get the chance to use the trick of inverted radial intakes, it's a good day. This section also includes probably my favorite detail I've ever put on a craft - the windmill generator for the magnetic compass which Lindbergh used to navigate across the Atlantic. Today's work consisted of the relatively minor task of adding the struts under the horizontal stabilizers, then the tricky forwards fuselage. It took a lot of trial and error and different ways of approaching the build to get to this point. I'm also really happy with how the cylinders on the Wright J-5 Whirlwind engine came through. I'm also quite pleased with how the spinner turned out - there's another classic trick there which I'm proud of. Now, the only bits that remain are the undercarriage and wing bracing, plus detailing around the door/periscope area.

A solar panel cockpit and you got the flow control over the fuselage! Great job - the Tomcat is one of my favorites and you're doing it justice here.