Kronus_Aerospace

Today I got a burst of inspiration and decided to build a small scale replica of the SR-71 Blackbird I'm very happy with how it turned out. The final scale ended up being about 2:7. As is a trend with me, the rear section ended being a massive part sink, with 300 of the craft's total of 380 parts being dedicated to the rear of the aircraft. The craft is powered by 4 Junos with 2 Sparks acting as the afterburner. Of course, this thing is very slow, with a topspeed of 192 m/s, or 241 m/s with "afterburner" at sea level. About 5 times slower than the real thing, but I have yet to test it at higher altitudes.

Today I decided to mess around some. First I decided to make a Sukhoi style fighter craft. It ended up having excellent low speed performance and good aesthetics, all in under 100 parts. I'm probably gonna post it at some point. Secondly, I started working on what is perhaps the weirdest craft concept I have yet concieved. I plan for it to be a surface payload delivery system for Laythe. It would launch like a shuttle, make it's way to the surface, deliver the payload, and then ascend back into orbit (To rendezvous with a tank or something that it brought along with it in order to get home). Rather than being an SSTO the shuttle has whiplash boosters which accelerate it to over 1200 m/s, then detach The craft is easily capable of reaching LKO, and would probably have decent payload capabilities if used in that fashion. I'm unsure how practical this whole system will be, but I love it nonetheless.

Today (Unsurprisingly) I worked more on my A380 and... I am feeling understandibly giddy about how this is shaping up.

This is the last update I will post on my A380 before it is completed. After the rough start, progress sped up massively. This is thanks to me using a new building technique, for this craft I've been building most major components completely seperately and then adding them onto the craft. This technique allows me to avoid the crippling lag normally present when building craft of this nature. As for the craft itself the tailplanes have been added as well as a WIP wing base. Largely thanks to utilizing various new building techniques this craft has rapidly become my most accurate replica, and simultaneously is set to have the shortest development time. I have also started work on the last major component of the craft, the wings. So far only the wing edges have been built, but from the experience of constructing the tailplane and tailfin I can safely say that completing the wings will not take long. Though compared to those two the wings do have a much more complex shape. From there all that's left is to add the passanger cabins and the cockpit.

So today in KSP I decided to work more on my A380 an- OH GOOD GOD This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we use struts. EDIT: Upon further inspection it would seem as if my A380 is attempting to fly like an insect I question its effectiveness. I'll give it an A380 for effort though.

Progress on my A380 has been coming along steadily, far from quickly, but steadily. A lot of work has been done on the fuselage. It took some trial and error, but I'm liking the results. I also decided to use the wonderful @EvenFlow's technique of using a fairing for wing edges on all of the lifting surfaces on the aircraft. So far I've only completed the tail, which turned out a little rough in all honesty. It also ended up having about 140 parts along, which somewhat concerns me for the wings. In spite of that I've fallen in love with this technique it gives this craft a sense of realism that I've never been able to accomplish before. And you can't argue with that front view! Even though the final part count will be more than I'd like, I'm still pretty excited to see what the finished product will be.

Today I started working on the tail fin of my A380. It's a heavy WIP, but I love how well it demonstrates the sheer scale of the A380. Makes me super excited to work on this beast! Real A380 tail fin for comparison

Today I started working on my A380 replica. As it turns out, the A380 is way more complex and refined than I had anticipated. Not much work has been done yet, but I really like how it's turning out so far! EDIT: Improved the fuselage. The silhouette is pretty much spot on now.

The fairing editing sounds nice for precision, but honestly that's not a problem for me. I have developed plenty of ways of consistently building fairings to a high degree of precision. While I appreciate your suggestion I build my craft using only the tools available in the stock SPH. I don't mind if people use modded tools or file editing, I just personally don't. Thanks for your suggestion!

I've begun work on my A380 replica (even though I still haven't finished 3 other large projects ). And might I say this thing is giving me WAY more trouble than I was expecting, the main fuselage of my 747-8 replica took me about an hour and a half, yet after 3 hours of work I've only completed half of my A380's main fuselage. Obviously I will be adding parts on the seams to smoothen it out, but for now I want to get the general shape using just the fairings. I haven't even started on the tail and the craft already has 5 fairings, so by the time it's complete it will be the most complex airliner that I've built so far. That's all the work I can do for today, after hours of tediously tweaking those fairings I'm quite frankly exhausted. If you have any SPECIFIC recommendations I'd love to hear them.

@EpicSpaceTroll139Looking nice! I once tried to make a Saturn V out of fairings in a similar fashion. I had never worked with fairings before then so I ended up rage quitting due to their finicky nature. Are you planning on doing the paint job? Would definitely add a lot of mass and or part count, but you can't overlook the style points. :-)

Today I remembered why I love the Spark engine. I decided to build a rocket that is capable of going to Minmus and back 3 times, on its own not that impressive of a feat. However, this rocket does so using only Sparks! The engine count is 909 Sparks, which is a new record. Delta-V wise the craft has lots of wiggle room, with 5600 m/s per Minmus mission. As a Minmus mission only requires 5250 m/s this rocket should be pretty easy to pilot. The final rocket has a mass of only 4.5 tons, making it the smallest Minmus capable rocket that I've made. The only step left is to fly it.

It was quite some time ago, Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience.

Well It wouldn't be my record.

What do you mean? That would only be over 5000 parts...... (0 _ 0)

Oooohh. what If I did but have the PTVs function as dropships for the Griffon. And THEN have the Griffons function as dropships for the Hawkmoth! That's 15 fighter craft in one! 1 gigantic craft, 2 large craft, 4 normal craft, and 8 teeny craft.

After quite a bit of work, my newest fightercraft is well on the way to completion. The fuselage has been completed, the cockpit is added, and the stabilators are finished. And best of all, the craft is already capable of flight! While I'm happy with the fuselage overall, I'm not sure about the intakes. I'll have to wait till I've down more work before I can safely say whether or not I'll change them. One thing I am extremely happy with is the rear section. the geometry ended up being way more complex than I had anticipated. It also ended up much more f-35 inspired than the original design plan, but you can't argue with the results! The Stabilators are also obviously not actual stabilators. More so a bunch of control surfaces and wing parts in the shape of a typical fighter craft stabilator. They do the job though, the craft can already pull 8g-10g maneuvers. I've concluded that the craft will have variable sweep wings in a similar style as the f-14. There is plenty of room to add a strong enough mechanism so it shouldn't be a terribly complex job. The craft is also capable of rotating in only 2 of it's own body lengths. That said, it is 60 meters long so that's not TOO impressive. This craft is turning out well! Work has also been quick surprisingly. The part count is currently 950 though, so the final part count is definitely going to be over 1000 by the time it's finished. EDIT: Bonus shot of the craft compared to my PTV!

Nope! My computer is only okay by any standard, I just don't care about lag.

It's my destiny to take any concept and scale it up to ridiculous proportions. I think I'm slightly insane.

@qzgyWay to make me feel like I've been living a lie. I've been calling stabilators canards for months. And NO ONE has pointed out that I was wrong until now. I don't know how I got those mixed up but I am shocked that no one noticed. I just feel stupid now. Also moving wings. Maybe, I feel like at that point it's a bit too F-14-ish, you are correct that it would be very easy though.

I was thinking about @Servo's massive F-14 replica that he was working on, and was inspired to start working on another large jet. Since I'm still learning the ropes of fighter craft I don't feel comfortable enough to start work on a replica craft, so this fighter will be another original. That said the craft's general look is so far very reminiscent of the f-16, currently my plan is for this aircraft to be kind of a hybrid of the F-16 and the F-14, although I will of course add some original elements of my own. Rather than describing what I plan to do, I decided to create a little sketch of my general plan. Do note that all of this may change as the craft goes through development. When I said F-14 and F-16 hybrid I meant it. The most questionable areas of the design so far are the stabilators and tail fins. I have a few bonkers Ideas for the stabilators that I will have to try out before I can say anything too conclusive, but I have no idea what I'm gonna do for the tail fins. Although, the tail fins are probably the least consequential part of a fighter so I'm not too worried. I have also already built the cockpit for this craft. And, I think you'll agree that nothing could describe the scale of this new jet better than comparing its cockpit to the cockpit of my PTV. The new cockpit also has a more complex shape than the PTV's cockpit. although the difference is difficult to notice, the shape is more realistic. I will post maybe one more update before the craft is finished, hopefully progress is smooth. :-P Please note: The name of this craft is simply a placeholder.

Okay as much as I love this I have to ask, How on Kerbin did that happen?

@RealKerbal3xit is indeed 1.4.4, maybe scatterer breaks it or something? I don't see why it would but that's the only mod I have that could possibly have an effect on something like that.

Apparently shockheating effects make fairings transparent. I don't why, but they do.

This is a stock 1:1 replica of the SABRE hypersonic precooled hybrid air-breathing rocket engine currently being developed by Reaction Engines Limited. This engine is slated for prospective use on a variety of hypersonic aircraft, although most famously for the Skylon launch vehicle. I would suggest throttling down slightly before switching over to rocket mode, this isn’t strictly neccessary but I found that the sudden burst of thrust from the Vectors occasionally caused the engine to explode. This engine is powered by 8 R.A.P.I.E.R.s and 4 KS-25 engines. SABRE Engine Information: Download Link: https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/SABRE-Engine Part Count: 110 Replica Thrust Rocket-Mode Vac: 2940 kN Replica Thrust Jet-Mode SL Mach-1: 1920 kN Replica Gimbal Rocket-Mode: 1.6° Replica Gimbal Jet-Mode: 3° Replica Mass: 38.9 tonnes Real SABRE Thrust Rocket-Mode Vac: 2940 kN Real SABRE Thrust Jet-Mode SL Mach-1: 1960 kN Real SABRE Gimbal Rocket-Mode: Unspecified Real SABRE Gimbal Jet-Mode: Unspecified Real SABRE Mass: Unspecified