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Introducing the Wyvern Crew Capsule. Industry newcomer Arc Aerospace unveiled their new crew capsule today. With modern computer-aided design practices and its state-of-the-art computer system, it's capable of fully autonomous flight without any astronauts onboard. Furthermore, thanks to its lightweight composite design, it's able to hold five astronauts while weighing less than the competition's Mk1-3 while still compatible with existing 2.5m launch vehicle infrastructure. At the same time, Arc Aerospace announced a new form of capsule recovery: propulsive landing. When fitted with four Wyvern Engine Pods (sold separately), the Wyvern crew capsule is able to land propulsively. (Parachutes not necessary, but strongly recommended.) These engine pods also provide launch abort capability from the launchpad all the way into orbit. Each engine pod contains a full tank of monopropellant, so no external monopropellant is needed for vertical landing. (Make sure you set your fuel tank priorities correctly so that they're not drained while in orbit, leaving you to find no monopropellant in your tanks after reentry!) With all of the extra mass afforded by the ultra-lightweight design of the crew capsule, Arc Aerospace says that the Wyvern has leading-in-class electric storage, data transmission capabilities, and even limited-duration crewed deep-space operations. Kerlington Paper Planes and Model Rockets, Inc. contended that the Wyvern, as a clean-sheet design, was not fit to carry crew without an extensive safety record. Arc Aerospace responded with evidence of over a dozen uncrewed launches that demonstrated the reliability and safety of the Wyvern crew capsule, including a long-duration uncrewed deep-space mission. In unrelated news, Kerlington has slashed the price of their competing Mk1-3 crew capsule. Complete Imgur album Updated Imgur album Requirements (Not Included) B9 PartSwitch RasterPropMonitor (Adopted) is required only for the IVA. Suggested Mods (Not Required) Connected Living Spaces (Adopted) Indicator Lights Community Tech Tree RealPlume (NOTE: patch is WIP & has not been tested yet) Ven's Stock Revamp is strongly recommended but not required. These parts were designed to fit in with Ven's style. Works with Ferram Aerospace Research Continued Credits @zlsa for giving me their blessing to pick this mod up, and "continue" it. @Ven for Ven's Stock Revamp, for the models and textures for the top and bottom of the capsule (and an incredible art style to boot); @MOARdV, @Mihara & @JonnyOThan for RasterPropMonitor (Adopted) for the IVA props @EmbersArc & @damonvv for Kerbal Reusability Expansion (which inspired the idea of a modern crew capsule mod for KSP) @Tonka Crash for major suggestions (long/short & Mono/LFO engine versions), balancing, and especially reminding me of some long forgotten, unfinished work I had done on the mod. This "continuation" wouldnt have happened without them. And a HUGE shoutout to @JadeOfMaar for basically writing the B9 patch for me. Installation Just download the mod file (.zip) and unzip it into your GameData folder. Note that the mod's files are within the ArcAerospace folder. (However you manage it, just make sure the /ArcAerospace folder is directly a subfolder (like where the /Squad folder is), just inside your /GameData folder. Make sure you have B9 PartSwitch and RasterPropMonitor (Adopted) (for KSP 1.8.+) installed, available seperately. Tested in both KSP 1.9.1 and 1.8.1 (*Should* be backward compatable all the way back to 1.4.0, with appropriate KSP versions of B9 PS & RasterPropMonitor (KSP 1.7.3 and prior) Downloads SpaceDock Github Known Issues -Capsule nose does not fit 1.25m parts well, leaving overhang and gap -Capsule mesh/collider bleeds thru the engine pods if placement is not fine-tuned manually in editor - Currently the IVA lighting is subpar. I hope to add some actual light fixture meshes, with emissives and switchable lighting - Mono Engine Pod is shown in Editor Part Info, yet LFO is selected by default. - RCS atmo curve is optimized for vaccuum, needs to set for sea level - RealPlume support patch is untested. - Current engage/disengage plumes are, at the very least, over-sized - Mass/Cost differences between the scaled engine pod variants, may cause issues with TweakScale License CC-BY 4.0 International Don't forget to credit Ven if you reuse the textures or models! The top and bottom of the Wyvern capsule are taken directly from Ven's Mk1-2 remodel. Original Release Thread: [1.3] Wyvern, an advanced 5-kerbal crew capsule (Original version downloadable here: WyvernCrewCapsule-0.1-alpha.zip ) How you can help Right now, Tonka Crash & I are looking for feedback on the overall balance of these parts. I play 100% sandbox, so I dont know much about balancing for stock, stock tech tree, contracts or upgrades. Have a favorite mod you would like to see supported? Go ahead and request it, with as much info as you can, and I will consider looking into it. (No promises, unfortunately, but I will try)

INTRODUCTION Hi everyone. Ever since I've created my replica of the Soviet Tu-95K bomber with stock parts I have been thinking about taking the idea of stock propeller plane replicas further. And after a few months of hiatus, here is the fruit of this ambitious plan. This is one of the very few replicas of this magnificent superprop attack plane from the 50s in KSP, and, as far as I am aware, the only one created with solely vanilla parts. The propeller has some limited functionality in terms of actually propelling the plane, but is mostly here for the looks. The majority of power is provided by the exhaust pipes on the sides of the airplane which isn't that much of a stretch in terms of realism. The real Wyvern also gained some additional thrust from it's turbine exhaust, so it's just the matter of scale and proportion here. This replica doesn't only approximate the real deal's looks and proportions, but also comes very close in terms of performance even in stock aerodynamics model. PERFORMANCE Here are some stats gained from preliminary testing. Real life performance figures are marked in red. Top speed: 604km/h vs 616km/h Rate of climb: Varies with altitude, approx. 15-16m/s loaded with fuel vs 11m/s stated on Wikipedia (Couldn't access historical sheets but i am pretty sure it is higher than that especially at low altitude) Loaded weight: 10.975kg vs 11.113kg (This is MTOW for the real Wyvern so the loaded weight is probably even more accurate) Turn time was hard to judge correctly, partly due to unclear testing circumstances and partly due to the fact that KSP does not model compression correctly, thus making planes vastly overperform at high speed turns. At mid to low speeds in range of 280 to 360km/h the craft turns pretty much as you would expect from an 11 ton attack aircraft. In short - it will not pull 20Gs at 80m/s. FEATURES I've tried to model the most vital features of the real aircraft into this replica. The Wyvern S4 comes with: 1. Correctly distributed and modeled flaps, activated via Action Group 1 2. Openable engine cowling which allows the pilot to take a look into the engine, which apart from it's mechanism is semi-realistically detailed with some shenanigans. It is toggleable via Action Group 2 3. Retractable tailhook for carrier landings. It's not like you will be performing many of those in KSP though sadly. Activated through Action Group 3 4. Functional, spinning, fully stock propeller assembly. The instructions on how to get it to work properly are attached further below. 5. Plenty of little details such as correctly placed antennas, Hispano cannon props in the wings etc. HOW TO FLY: 1. Pre-flight procedures and startup Before taking this turboprop cow to the skies there are some things you need to do. Idle the throttle and engage brakes. SAS needs to be off. Stage the first stage. The ring securing the propeller in place will come off and your control will be redirected to the propeller. Start up the propeller. Hold down ALT and either Q or E. Hold the key until the roll indicator in the bottom left corner of the screen will reach it's limit. Remember to have SAS disengaged in this stage if you want the propeller to work. SAS, along with neutralising set roll trim with ALT can be used to stop the propeller post-flight. Switch back to the main vessel, engage the SAS (although the craft is perfectly flyable without it of course) and disengage the brakes. After the propeller has started rotating sufficiently quickly you can add throttle and begin the takeoff. The plane will take off by itself after reaching approx 60m/s. Tailwheel and rudder can be used to counter the torque generated by the engine which can be felt while the plane is low on speed (this also applies to real life propeller engines) 2. Flight Flying the Wyvern is very easy. The plane is stable at any speeds above it's stall speed (which sits at about 40m/s), will reach speeds of up to 170m/s (and over 230m/s in a dive), and the fuel will last for ages. The drop tanks are expended first, after they run dry you can jettison them with staging. Turning is safe at any speed in it's flight envelope, but due to compression not being modelled it will lose speed in high speed turns rather quickly. Mild turns are advised if you are planning to keep your speed up. Just like in real life, roll rate of this plane gets rather sluggish when your speed is too low. Keep an eye on your speed during tight turns to prevent stalling. Optimal climb can be achieved at approx 80m/s TAS at most altitudes. 3. Landing Landing the Wyvern is relatively easy due to it's low stall speed and flaps doubling as very effective airbrakes. To drop your speed quickly, feel free to pop the flaps. Get your speed down to about 70m/s, retract the gear and lower the throttle. Watch out not to come in nose-first, since this could damage your propeller. Engage brakes after touchdown, use the tailwheel to taxi into a desirable position. Engine can be turned off with methods described in "Pre-flight procedures and startup" section. Creating this plane was a great experience. I hope you will enjoy flying it as much as I've enjoyed building it. DOWNLOAD LINK https://kerbalx.com/EvenFlow/Wyvern-S4 Updated on 22-07-2017, V1.2 CHANGELOG: 1.0 - Inital release 1.1 - Minor tweak to the bottom part of the cowling which made the propeller assembly spontaneously detach when jumping to the craft from more than 250m, wing strake is now attached to the wing itself which prevents it from clipping awkwardly while pulling high-G maneuvers. 1.2 - Tweaks done to the page itself, part of a revamp of all of my noteworthy older creations Here's a little preview GIF too, as requested.