Trebuchet: Fling a Stayputnik 200 meters or more!

[pTrevTrevs]

This game has seen many creations which the creators cannot have imagined would be possible, like stock piston engines, rotating hinges, and even submarines. However, as far as I know, this is the first real trebuchet to be created in Kerbal Space Program*. 

*Scott Manley did make a trebuchet several years ago, however it had no sling, no hinge, and used a mod for the bearing.

For those who do not know, a trebuchet is a form of siege weapon used in the Middle Ages in Europe. Before gunpowder artillery was invented, the trebuchet was the largest, most powerful weapon used against fortified castles, and many were so large that they had to be built on the site of the siege itself, as they were too massive to be transported easily. The biggest trebuchets were able to lob boulders weighing nearly half a ton hundreds of meters^{[citation needed]}. A trebuchet in general is actually quite simple, being essentially a first class lever. The energy needed to operate the arm is provided by gravity (or lots of really strong guys pulling on ropes, in the case of a traction trebuchet), and an extremely heavy counterweight is mounted on the end opposite the throwing arm. A sling is often used to transfer as much energy as possible to the projectile, and the counterweight is usually mounted on a hinge to relieve stress on the arm and help conserve energy. This design proved so effective that trebuchets continued to be used in warfare long after gunpowder weapons arrived on the battlefield, and their construction is so simple that many people still build recreations of them today. 

The projectile fired by my trebuchet is a stayputnik probe core. It may be too light to smash buildings, but because of its weight (or lack thereof), I can make the counterweight lighter and still get a cool looking projectile. The sling is a KAS winch, which can be extended to various lengths to allow for different release angles. The only problem with this (aside from the fact that I had to use a mod) is that the projectile must be released by an action group, making it nearly impossible to achieve a consistent, repeatable release.

 As you can see, I can launch the projectile a considerable distance using nothing but the power of gravity and instinct. By tuning the length of the sling and finding the best time to release the projectile, I daresay that this machine could actually launch even farther, but I haven't tested it yet.

Here's the trebuchet after firing. Technically it can be reloaded because it uses a KAS winch, but I'm not sure if the action group used to release the ball would remain. To give you an idea of just how big this is, try and find the Kerbal standing in front of the machine.

FIRING PROCEDURE

1. Stage once to release the hinge. This allows it to swing freely.
2. Extend the sling to the desired length. I typically use 10 meter long sling for my shots.
3. Stage again to release the arm. it should not fire because of the landing legs I have placed in the way.
4. Press G to retract the landing legs, allowing the arm to swing upwards. Once you do this, you have committed to the shot, and you must act fast in these next steps to get a good angle and range.
5. Switch to the arm (it's a good idea to test which key you need to press before you pull the legs back) and watch for the sling to reach your desired release point
6. Once the sling is in position, press 1, triggering AG1, which releases the projectile from the sling
7. ???
8. Profit!!

DOWNLOAD

Required Mod: KAS

If you can make a further shot than me, post a picture of it here, and I'll keep a leaderboard of record shots. Whoever can make the furthest shot will get... uh... an honorary Kerbal Siege Engineer certification? Yeah, that sounds good. If you make it on the leaderboard, you can make people refer to you as *insert name here*, KSE. Sounds cool, right? I can probably come up with a cool badge for your signature too, although I don't know how well MS Paint will work for that...

Anyway, Enjoy!

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by pTrevTrevs

[Majorjim!]

It looks extraordinarily awesome! You have to make a castle to go with it to loose projectiles at! Great work on this mate.

[Darth Lazarus]

well this thing is awesome

[pTrevTrevs]

4 hours ago, Majorjim said:

It looks extraordinarily awesome! You have to make a castle to go with it to loose projectiles at! Great work on this mate.

Hmm, now there's an idea. Build a target to shoot at... I'm afraid that the trebuchet would be too inaccurate to make it worth shooting at anything smaller than the VAB itself. However, I've been wondering whether it would be possible to use KAS winches to build a ballista, that sort of thing would be more accurate against a smaller target. I'm not really sure whether or not I can get KAS winches to "stretch" to create the tension neccessary to launch a Stayputnik that way though. 

Only one way to find out, I guess, After all, I wasn't sure whether a sling on a trebuchet could work, but here's the release thread with evidence that a sling is in fact possible.

[kennyc222]

age of empire IV vibe! I am playing AOE IV but also ksp too at the same time! i want just more AOE IV siege weapons to be built in KSP...bring back the mighty imperial age from space age!