Kronus_Aerospace

@Munbro Kerman Absolutely fantastic work on that Saturn V and Soyuz. After all those DLC Saturn V builds flooded KerbalX it's really refreshing to see a stock build that blows them all out of the water. I'm also really interested in seeing how you did those F-1 engines.

@kapteenipirk I actually really like the engines! They look very sleek and sophisticated. It is true that Wheesleys need a LOT of intake air, however there are some solutions. One thing you can do is use the offset tool to clip the intakes into the fuselage of the plane itself, thus improving asthetics. This also means you can use much bigger intakes to reduce part count. What I like to do is take the part called "Engine Nacelle" and place an intake in front of it, such an assembly gives a total of 7 intake area, this means you only need 8 of such assemblies to supply all the intake air requirements of the Wheesleys, giving a total of 16 parts. Which is actually less than the total number of intakes that you had before you swithed to those new engines Nice plane by the way!

@scottadges Unfortunately I think it's just an issue with your mods, My game is up to date and modded as well and I haven't noticed any issues with the Sr. Docking ports. I'd just double check your mods and make sure they are up to date, and possibly try to troubleshoot and figure out which mod in particular is causing your issue. As annoying as it is being forced to check through all your mods is a common occurrence whenever an update breaks something. Lots of peeps having mod troubles following the new update I'm noticing.

Well an update was just released today, so it probably just broke one of your mods. That's the only explanation that makes sense as that kind of lag only occurs with vessels with about 1000 parts.

Been doing quite a bit of work here and there on my PTV. At this point I'm just working to make this thing as pretty and maneuverable as possible. I decided to add more detail to the cockpit by adding some structural bracing using a whole bunch of barometers. Considering the sheer size of the cockpit it seemed to make sense, but really I just thought that it would look nice. I've also completely redone the back section. I replaced the Goliaths with custom engines that are meant to resemble giant Panthers, each engine is rather fittingly stuffed with 8 Panthers. These new engines ended up being a colossal boon for the craft's maneuverability thanks to the gimballing of the Panthers. The craft is now so maneuverable that it can stall itself in hard maneuvers, and once again thanks to the gimballing it can maintain control. The craft has finally reached @Servo levels of maneuverability. Although the part count is now over 700 so... lag is obviously an issue. The redesigned rear section is also substantially smaller than the mess of spikes that the original was, which has the bonus of allowing the craft to rotate earlier. The craft now only requires about 75 meters of runway to take off. Not bad considering that the craft itself is 31 meters long. Replacing the Goliaths with Panthers had other benefits to the craft's performance as well. Even with afterburners on the craft's TWR is less than before, and yet it now easily breaks mach 1 at sea level. It's performance only increases with altitude, and incredibly the craft is able to achieve mach 2.4 at 11000 meters. This surprised me as I had thought that the craft had rather poor aerodynamics. This is probably the last I will work on this craft, as I have done pretty much all I've could with it. That said, I love this craft to bits and it has been a massive learning experience.

@EvenFlow As someone who works a lot with fairings I feel your pain. One way I dealt with this issue while building my 747-8 is that I saved the wings as a sub-assembly and removed them while I worked on other parts of the craft. That does however introduce the problem of the fairings not rebuilding reliably upon reattaching the wings to the craft. However, this does cut down on a lot of lag, so I think it's worth it. I build my craft in a modular fashion so this technique is very easy to do, but if you don't build that way then it might be more difficult. At worst you can just remove the engines and add them back later.

Today I decided to dabble in some personal modding for the first time! I've not done anything too significant, I just altered a Rhino and turned it into a nuclear engine, it's a bit silly but it was a lot of fun.

By golly Jim it worked! I'm totally gonna mess around with this some more. Like give the spark the exhaust of the rhino or something.

@qzgy That's actually super helpful thanks! I've been thinking about this since I built my 1000 ton SSTO so it's super cool to finally do it.

I think I need to learn how to do that, my newest SSTO has 412 R.A.P.I.E.R.s, and at that point the lag that the exhaust and smoke produces is atrocious, removing it altogether would speed up the testing phase a lot.

@Kebab Kerman If you can't fix the issue you could try starting with a clean install, you can copy all your save files so you don't lose anything and redownload all your mods. It would be a time consuming process, but if you haven't been able to figure out the issue yet it might be your best choice. Or you could temporarily get rid of all your mods of you haven't done that yet and see if that fixes it, maybe then reinstall the mods one at a time until you figure out which one is causing the issue. Presuming that it is one of your mods that is the problem of course, that may not be the case.

Glad you like the engine! I did think of that solution, while it is theoretically possible, the problem lies with the part count. Wheesley's are absolute intake air guzzlers, the number of those small intakes that would be required would easily be in the dozens. It's honestly way more efficient just to hide a few Engine Precoolers or Engine Nacelles in the fuselage of whatever craft this engine is attached to.

Today I decided to make a replica of the GP7000 turbofan. It was a lot of work but turned out super well! Did I mention that the turbine spins? Well it does, it essentially functions as a turboshaft since it is powered by a few juno's. Happy now @Kebab Kerman? Here's a download link for those who are interested: https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/GP7000

This is a stock replica of the GP7000 Turbofan developed by Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. This replica’s central feature is definitely its spinning turbine, which is functionally a turboshaft as it is powered by two Juno’s set to very low power. This method of spinning the turbine means that the turbine actually throttles with the actual engines, which is obviously super cool. This engine uses 3 Wheesley’s which in total provide similar thrust to the real thing. The one downside of this engine is that you will need to place intakes in a seperate location on your craft, as there is no way of incorporating intakes into the engine itself. Download Link: https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/GP7000 Part Count: 113 Engine Mass: 9.97 tonnes Engine Thrust: 330 kN

@EvenFlow Thanks for the compliment about the cowling! I actually figured out that engine smoke isn't really a problem. Juno's don't produce any smoke until they reach about 25% power. I finished the engine and the turbine is currently powered by 2 Juno's set to only 15% thrust, it spins nicely with absolutely no smoke. Obviously you need a really low friction bearing for this to work, but it shouldn't be too difficult.

Okay so super spontanteous thing inspired by @EvenFlow. His GE90 was so awesome that It inspired me to make a similarly styled turbofan. I ended up making a GP7000 that turned out shockingly well! The turbine mechanism hasn't been added and the engine is currently unpowered. The assembly only weighs 1.8 tonnes and is only 13 parts so far. Considering the aircraft that this engine is designed for, I expected it to be a bit bigger.

@EvenFlowUsing a fairing for the wing edges is an awesome idea! Absolute genius! I'm definitely using that on my next airliner, too bad I already have 2 big projects in the works. EDIT: The spinning turbines on those engines is amazing as well! Too much awesome on that craft!! EDIT (Again): What If you made the turbines a turboshaft! That way they would spin up whenever you throttled the engines! I think I know what I'm gonna be doing for the next few hours.

Agreed, if I had to go through each one individually... Just no. Probably gonna be a while before it's finished, but I'm definitely putting it up for download once it's done. If I survive having to fly this thing that is.

Today................ I really did it this time. I did some work on my newest SSTO, which is designed to carry a 3000 ton payload into LKO. This SSTO is far beyond anything I've ever built or ever thought possible. Weighing in at about 9 kilotons and having over 1500 parts, 416 of which are engines. I can proudly say that I have finally built an SSTO that could actually carry the Saturn V into orbit. I think my favorite part of this craft is the engine array, or the "Great Wall of R.A.P.I.E.R.s" as I like to call it.

The F-1 and J-2 were both developed by Rocketdyne in the late 1950's and 1960's. Both engines famously powered the Saturn V with 5 F-1 engines being utilized on block S-IC, as well as 5 and 1 J-2 engines being utilized on block S-II and S-IVB respectively. The J-2 also saw service on the Saturn IB, with a single J-2 powering the rocket's second stage. Both engines recently saw modernized versions, those being the J-2X and the F-1B, these engines saw great performance increases over the original versions and each were slated for use on the in-development SLS. Although this is no longer the case, and furthur development on the J-2X and F-1B have been cancelled. J-2 Engine Information: -Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7fp60mogogwt393/J-2.craft?dl=0 -Part Count: 41 This is a stock replica of the J-2 engine, the primary goal of this replica was to replicate the engine’s design as much as possible while maintaining a reasonable part count. the engine is the same size and produces a similar amount of thrust as the J-2, however certain statics were simply impossible to replicate using stock parts. The engine is powered by a single KS-25. Replica Thrust SL: 936.5 kN Replica Thrust Vac: 1000 kN Replica Mass: 4.88 tonnes Replica Gimbal: 4.5° Real J-2 Thrust SL: 486.2 kN Real J-2 Thrust Vac: 1033.1 kN Real J-2 Mass: 1.79 tonnes Real J-2 Gimbal: ??? -Does anyone know the J-2’s thrust vectoring range? An hour of searching turned up nothing so any help would be much appreciated. F-1 Engine Information: -Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aie6xjpg39b23fx/F-1.craft?dl=0 -Part Count: 94 This is actually a simplified version of another F-1 that I had posted, this version is only slightly less detailed yet has about 40 less parts. This fact also made the process of building this engine significantly simpler and easier than that of the J-2, along with the abundance of information available on the F-1 compared to the J-2 due to its far greater popularity. This engine is powered by 8 KS-25 engines. Yes, the Mainsail is just for show. Replica Thrust SL: 6930 kN Replica Thrust Vac: 7400 kN Replica Mass: 39.86 tonnes Replica Gimbal: 6° Real F-1 Thrust SL: 6770 kN Real F-1 Thrust Vac: 7770 kN Real F-1 Mass: 8.40 tonnes Real F-1 Gimbal: 6° My other F-1 replica is available here for those interested: https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/Kronus-F-1-Engine

Okay So just now I was finishing up work on my PTV, I was wondering if I should add anything else, then I checked the part count. I'm gonna call it done just because of that part count, it was destiny.

Since I just felt like messing around today, I decided to do some more work on my PTV, which at this point has become a vehicle for me to experiment (Metaphorically and literally). I decided to give it new engines which are stuffed full of whiplashes. I also took the opportunity to redo the back section to look a little bit less F-22-ish, which ended up giving me a bit more clearance for rotation. Since my PTV previously was unable to break the sound barrier, and these new engines give it a much lower TWR, I thought that it wouldn't really be able to achieve impressive speeds. Was I wrong! The craft ended up reaching mach 3.96, making it faster than the SR-71 Blackbird. Overall this makes sense as this craft is about the same size and weight as the blackbird but has larger engines, even then this forces me to conclude that the craft's aerodynamics are not as poor as I previously thought. Optimal cruising altitude ended up being 14 kilometers with the top speed being 1360 m/s

Interesting! Can you give more detail on exactly what's going on with this type of joint? I'm trying to make a turboprop with around 5500 kN of thrust, but have been unsuccessful. I figured out that my problem is the joint that I'm using. The standard stayputnik and girder joint has serviced me up to 4600 kN, but I've reached the limit of the joint's effectiveness. Despite increasing the number of blowers I'm getting massively disproportionate increases in thrust, and the joint has become quite ustable even with the addition of numerous struts. This joint might just be the solution!

@ARS If hitting those tanks along the side of the runway is an issue you can just move the plane to the side in the SPH, Though one would think so the game doesn't actually automatically center the craft upon launch. That's what I have to do with my Pelican! This thing still barely has enough room even then. But as long as your behemoth's wingspan isn't over 150 meters then this method should work just fine!

This has gotta be my favorite explosion inducing accident with my Pelican yet. One of the engines exploded and the prop flew off, in the process completely severing the wing.