SkunkTwerks Presents STAR WARS: High-Fidelity Craft Designs

[SkunkTwerks]

I've been lurking silently around this forum for years, but I'm finally feeling bold enough to share some of my creations. It took a long time for my design skills to catch up to my ambitions, but I'm finally getting there.

For the past year or so, I've been re-creating pure stock Star Wars Starfighters in as much painstaking working detail as I can, with emphasis on high visual accuracy and realistic(-ish) flight performance. I'll admit that sometimes I had to make use of egregious part clipping, sorta-sneaky wing panels, and shameless engine stacking... but I'm pretty sure people were allowed to do that a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

I'm on the run from The Empire (read: my responsibilities), so I'll be posting my Star Wars crafts in this thread just a couple at a time over the next week or two. Building them was a colossal time sink, but uploading and annotating them has proven to be another wormhole entirely.

In the meantime, feel free to chime in with your own reproductions, tweaks, comments, and suggestions. Follow links within posts to KerbalX for craft downloads and details.

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EDIT: LIST OF SKUNKTWERKS CRAFT APPEARING IN THIS THREAD

• T-65 X-Wing (ATMO, SSTO)
• A/SF-01 B-Wing (Folded, Unfolded)
• TIE/LN Fighter (Solar, Simple)
• TIE/IN Interceptor (Solar, Simple, Royal Guard Solar, Royal Guard Simple)
• Podracers (Sebulba's, Teemto's, Anakin's)
• BTL Y-Wing ATMO
• Naboo N-1
• RZ-1 A-Wing (ATMO, SSTO)
• Eta-2 Actis-class Interceptor
• Delta 7 Aethersprite-class Light Interceptor (ATMO, SSTO)
• Delta 7 Aethersprite SSTO+RCS with Syliure-31 Long-Range Hyperdrive Module
• Naboo Cruiser, aka J-type Diplomatic Barge (ATMO, SSTO)
• BTL Y-Wing SSTO
• Anakin's Podracer SSTO
• Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing (ATMO+VTOL, SSTO)
• Nantex-class Defense Fighter (ATMO+VTOL, SSTO)
• Defender-class Light Corvette VTOL
• T-65 X-Wing ATMO+VTOL
• Aurek-class Tactical Strikefighter (ATMO+VTOL, SSTO)
• GoatTwerks Variable-Geometry Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing
• Kylo Kerm-Ren's Upsilon-Class Command Shuttle (ATMO+VTOL)
• ... and more to come!

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Now let's get this nerd party started: SkunkTwerks proudly presents the classic T-65 X-Wing in two specialized versions!

The T-65 X-Wing ATMO for atmospheric flight:

I stacked Panthers on top of RAPIERS for these sci-fi engines, so if MORE POWER is what you crave, you can always hit the afterburners. Just remember, velocity can lead to Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, which leads to anger, which leads to hate, which leads to shooting force lightning from your fingertips. In other words, it's totally worth it.

Yes, those KX9 laser cannons work! They're about as accurate as Storm Troopers, but they do fire. You get four shots, so make 'em count.

.
The T-65 X-Wing SSTO for space and atmospheric flight.

The SSTO stacks Whiplashes on top of RAPIERS, and the result is easily capable of LKO with several hundred dV's to spare.

Hidden docking ports in the nose and the droid's head make orbital refueling possible, if you want to land it on the Death Star Mun. RCS not included, but feel free to add your own.

More high-fidelity Star Wars Starfighters coming soon. Until then, may the forces of physics be with you.

-SkunkTwerks

Edited February 20, 2018 by SkunkTwerks
TOTM!

[SkunkTwerks]

Last year I tried to build a B-wing and valiantly gave up after deciding some sci-fi shapes just weren't meant to fly. But I just came back to KSP after a whole summer-long hiatus, and with a fresh eye and some new terrible ideas I've revisited that monster. The results were too amusing not to share...

 

Behold the SkunkTwerks A/SF-01 B-Wing: unlike my first five attempts, this one actually flies! In a surprisingly controllable manner, no less. High fidelity, 100% stock, no mods, free range, fair trade, certified mostly inorganic.

 

Until stock KSP introduces a functional hinge joint, this craft has two versions, one "unfolded" VTOL (parachute-assisted landing) and one "folded" version that takes off the good old fashioned way.

 

EDIT: Both KerbalX craft have been updated to include functional laser cannons (not pictured).

 

SkunkTwerks A/SF-01 B-wing (unfolded)

Flight notes:

Gaining ~50-100m of altitude before gently pitching forward (gently!) for horizontal flight is strongly recommended. This one does not take kindly to heavy yaw input. The ridiculous vertical asymmetry of the ship leads to interesting and unpredictable outputs if you're mashing keys. As long as you keep SAS on and fly it like a normal plane (gently rolling and pitching up to bank), you'll be alright. And if you do a few barrel rolls along the way, hey, at least this thing is capable of level flight in any orientation.

This version lands vertically. Start from at least 500m altitude, kill the engines, and pitch all the way up to a vertical stall. Pop the chutes at apogee and try to keep the craft mostly upward-facing as if floats down. Use the jets like retro-thrusters if landing in higher elevations / thinner atmospheres. Or just crash it into an Imperial Star Destroyer, whatever. It's your rebellion, do what you want. Ladders provide access to repack parachutes,  in case landing once wasn't enough fun for you.

 

 

SkunkTwerks A/SF-01 B-Wing Folded

Flight notes:

Responds badly to heavy yaw controls. Use pitch and roll for like a good rebel pilot.

 

Be alert during takeoff and landing, the craft often pulls to one side or the other in (as far as I can tell) a somewhat unpredictable manner.

 

For both:

If you're hoping to dump some fuel for a livelier ride or tank up to add some range, fuel balancing is critically important for both of these craft: CoG and CoL need to be almost identical, and CoT needs to be nearly perfectly aligned for this ship to do anything other than nosedives, flips, and corkscrews. The panther turbofan stashed in the lower gun compartment is crucial for those CoT tweaks.

 

More high-fidelity Star Wars Starfighters coming soon. Until then, may the forces of physics be with you.

-SkunkTwerks

Edited October 13, 2017 by SkunkTwerks

[SkunkTwerks]

What's this? Rebel ships being shared without the Empire's permission? Send out the TIE fighters!

This is the craft that originally sucked the SkunkTwerk workshop (Twerkshop) into the StarWars black hole, namely because this is a ship that really should not be capable of atmospheric flight. But I did it anyway. And yes, I had to hide about half the galaxy's wing panels in the wing braces to get this baby off the ground, but the resulting craft is so nimble and maneuverable and fun to fly that I really couldn't complain.

I created two versions, one that maximized visual accuracy with the characteristic solar paneling (TIE/LN Fighter Solar) and one with about a third as many parts and a much higher TWR for maximum flight & framerate performance (TIE/LN Fighter Simple).

TIE/LN Fighter Solar

Flight notes: Super stable and just a breeze to fly, no wonder the Empire trusted these to all of their pilots. Don't be shy about punching the afterburners for extra maneuvering power, it's much better than being force-choked later for letting the rebels escape.

Looks almost as cool crashed on the ground as it does in flight!

TIE/LN Fighter Simple

Flight notes: This one is identical except that it ditches the heavy solar panels and joists. Not surprisingly, when you shave about a third of the weight off a starfighter it gets a LOT faster and more maneuverable. Mash the controls all you want, this thing is so stable and powerful that it's practically immune to stalls. Plus, with 1/3 the part count of the TIE/LN Solar,  this one will keep slower computers from catching fire during your flight.

Stay tuned,TIE/IN Interceptor and TIE/IN Interceptor Royal Guard coming soon. Until then, may the forces of physics be with you!

-SkunkTwerks

P.S. Raptor831 has created a mod called KSPCustomSounds that can allow you to replace KSP's normal boring engine sounds with sounds like this. There's a whole library of StarWars sound effects here. In my humble opinion, this is the most brilliant thing since sliced Tauntauns.

Edited October 14, 2017 by SkunkTwerks
After a few flight tests comparing the newly-modified Solar versions, it was clear they needed more thrust to be fun in a dogfight. So I added a fourth engine to both versions. Vroom!

[selfish_meme]

You and @Jett_Quasar are going to be going head to head!

[Joseph Kerman]

Nice.

1 hour ago, selfish_meme said:

You and @Jett_Quasar are going to be going head to head!

Idea get!

[SkunkTwerks]

9 hours ago, selfish_meme said:

You and @Jett_Quasar are going to be going head to head!

@Jett_Quasar has been a huge source of inspiration for me lately. Oddly, I had my head in the sand and didn't find his work until well after I'd solidified my own designs for the X-Wing and the various TIE fighter variants. I find it really interesting to see the similarities and differences in our approaches: for example, our TIE Interceptors (SkunkTwerks versions will be posted within the hour) are strikingly similar, albeit with different ideas about takeoff. I promise it's not plagiarism, just convergent evolution of ideas! There really are only a few stock parts with the right shapes for TIE fighters. Meanwhile, our X-wings are very different beasts with divergent design philosophies. But don't worry Jett_Quasar, aside from X-wings and the TIE/LN & TIE/IN, I've covered entirely different ships. So I'd like to think I'm not really going "head to head," but rather that I'm "contributing to the body of published work."

[SkunkTwerks]

More TIE fighters from the Twerkshop!

As soon as I'd nailed down the design for the TIE/LN, a few more TIEs followed in quick succession because the cockpit, engines, and major wing paneling were 100% transferable. I did two models for each, one that maximized visual accuracy with the characteristic solar paneling (Solar) and one without all the solar paneling and wing joists for much higher TWR, flight, and framerate performance (Simple).

They all handle well, especially with the afterburners on. 

TIE/IN Interceptor

SkunkTwerks TIE/IN Interceptor Solar

SkunkTwerks TIE/IN Interceptor Simple

 

TIE/IN Interceptor Royal Guard

SkunkTwerks TIE/IN Interceptor Royal Guard Solar

 

SkunkTwerks TIE/IN Interceptor Royal Guard Simple

I'm all out of words to say about these. Shut up, buckle up, and fly!

Next update will be in honor of the Boonta Classic... Stay tuned, and may the forces of physics be with you!

-SkunkTwerks

[PaperAviator]

On 10/13/2017 at 4:07 AM, SkunkTwerks said:

Until stock KSP introduces a functional hinge joint, this craft has two versions, one "unfolded" VTOL (parachute-assisted landing) and one "folded" version that takes off the good old fashioned way.

Great replicas! You know about stock hinges, right? There are some pretty compact ones out there

[Jett_Quasar]

I think these designs are great!  I'd like to see more stuff that I don't already have in my collection then I could put it in one of my videos (with your permission of course) and we'd really be going head-to-head.

 - Jett

[SkunkTwerks]

3 hours ago, PaperAviator said:

Great replicas! You know about stock hinges, right? There are some pretty compact ones out there

Thanks PapaAviator! I did a fair bit experimentation with stock hinges and rotating spindle assemblies back in v.1.0 when I was fascinated with pivot points and propellers. But I found it pretty disheartening to watch all my crafts explode when v.1.1 came out. I fixed them, but they exploded again when v.1.2 came out and I kinda gave up after that.I did try the docking port / airbrake / hinge setup for the X-wing early on... maybe my execution was poor (entirely possible), but it never worked right and I hated losing control over the engines. If you're aware of particularly solid, non-finicky hinge setups capable of 90 degrees of motion while subject to significant aerodynamic forces, I'm all ears. It would be awesome if I could get the X-wing and the B-wing to fold and unfold mid-flight without losing control of engines and elevons.

 

3 hours ago, Jett_Quasar said:

I think these designs are great!  I'd like to see more stuff that I don't already have in my collection then I could put it in one of my videos (with your permission of course) and we'd really be going head-to-head.

 - Jett

Thanks Jett! It would be an honor to see some of my crafts cameo in your videos. I would make some videos myself, but the movie-editing force just isn't very strong with me, and my GPU could really use some more midi-chlorians for that kind of work.   And hey, maybe we could put our heads together on some sort of collaborative project, like something wickedly tricky looking. Based on your KerbalX hangar, I'm pretty sure everything else I've made so far will be new material for your collection. Spoiler alert: Darth Vader is just Anakin Skywalker dressed in a cool black suit, and podracers will be featured in the next update.

Edited October 15, 2017 by SkunkTwerks
typos

[selfish_meme]

3 minutes ago, SkunkTwerks said:

Thanks PapaAviator! I did a fair bit experimentation with stock hinges and rotating spindle assemblies back in v.1.0 when I was fascinated with pivot points and propellers. But I found it pretty disheartening to watch all my crafts explode when v.1.1 came out. I fixed them, but they exploded again when v.1.2 came out and I kinda gave up after that.I did try the docking port / airbrake / hinge setup for the X-wing early on... maybe my execution was poor (entirely possible), but it never worked right and I hated losing control over the engines. If you're aware of particularly solid, non-finicky hinge setups capable of 90 degrees of motion while subject to significant aerodynamic forces, I'm all ears. It would be awesome if I could get the X-wing and the B-wing to fold and unfold mid-flight without losing control of engines and elevons.

3

RCS Balls and Thermometers make very good solid hinges, as you said airbrakes or elevons to move the parts and make them dock at start and extension so you keep control of engines, you would lose control while they are extending but would regain control once docked. Your mk2 fuselage in the x-wing is particularly a good size for this.

[Jett_Quasar]

On 10/14/2017 at 7:29 PM, SkunkTwerks said:

Thanks Jett! It would be an honor to see some of my crafts cameo in your videos. I would make some videos myself, but the movie-editing force just isn't very strong with me, and my GPU could really use some more midi-chlorians for that kind of work.   And hey, maybe we could put our heads together on some sort of collaborative project, like something wickedly tricky looking. Based on your KerbalX hangar, I'm pretty sure everything else I've made so far will be new material for your collection. Spoiler alert: Darth Vader is just Anakin Skywalker dressed in a cool black suit, and podracers will be featured in the next update.

I've already done a bunch of podracers and featured them briefly in my Millennium Falcon video.  I also have a plot thread in an upcoming storyline video that features them as well.  If your design fits in and is unique enough I will certainly consider including it.

 - Jett 

[SkunkTwerks]

On 10/14/2017 at 6:36 PM, selfish_meme said:

RCS Balls and Thermometers make very good solid hinges, as you said airbrakes or elevons to move the parts and make them dock at start and extension so you keep control of engines, you would lose control while they are extending but would regain control once docked. Your mk2 fuselage in the x-wing is particularly a good size for this.

Intriguing! I'll brush up on those hinges and see what I can do. I doubt the airbrake trick will be strong enough to move the wings up from their dangling position on the B-wing, but you make a great point... it might just work for the X-wing!

 

2 minutes ago, Jett_Quasar said:

I've already done a bunch of podracers and featured them briefly in my Millennium Falcon video.  I also have a plot thread in an upcoming storyline video that features them as well.  If your design fits in and is unique enough I will certainly consider including it.

 - Jett 

Well shoot, great minds think alike! Seems there's nothing you can't do... and I apparently still have my head in the sand. But I'll post what I've got for podracers tonight anyway, since I've already got 'em. Between the two of us, we'd have enough for a pretty thrilling podrace video!

[Jett_Quasar]

30 minutes ago, SkunkTwerks said:

Well shoot, great minds think alike! Seems there's nothing you can't do... and I apparently still have my head in the sand. But I'll post what I've got for podracers tonight anyway, since I've already got 'em. Between the two of us, we'd have enough for a pretty thrilling podrace video!

We must think alike, I even sort of used your name for the secret base in my Phantom Revenge video (except I called it Stinkworks... LOL!)  But I will definitely use your stuff if it fits in - I've done lots of that before.  

 - Jett

[SkunkTwerks]

Now THIS is podracing!

SkunkTwerks brings you three high-fidelity fully-functional open-cockpit*** podracers, each wickedly fast and powerful, each temperamental and finicky in its own special way. Just like the real deal.

***To board the pod, make sure to fill the attached lander can with a kerbal (preferably with lightning reflexes and nerves of steel) before launching. Then, BEFORE activating the staging, EVA out of the lander and board the command seat. The first stage jettisons the command pod, the second stage starts the engines. 

Time to put your galactic credits on the line, bet for a winner, and hope for at least a few good crashes!

In pole position, the notorious SkunkTwerks Sebulba's Podracer

Flight Notes: Go easy on the yaw controls, as prolonged yaw input can result in stalls. Staging and Hotkey #3 toggle the secret weapon. It's not an engine mishap, but that's what you'll tell the judges.

 

And somewhere in the middle, the sorta-famous SkunkTwerks Teemto's Podracer

Flight Notes: Loading this one is a bit of a trick. You'll need to go on EVA, then carefully clip your camera into the control pod to get your pointer past the reaction wheels. I've had the most success clipping in from the lower left side of the cockpit, like so:

 

 

And last but apparently not least, the one nobody's ever heard of, the SkunkTwerks Anakin's Podracer

Flight notes: Easy on the yaw controls young Skywalker, eeeeaaaasy. This pod is super responsive to yaw, but too much of a good thing will send you into a death spiral. Pilots insistent on maximum speed and performance can disable the airbrakes entirely, but then you won't look as cool when you pull the upset of the century and win the race with your super sexy reticulated air scoops.

Spoiler alert: the Twerkshop is currently ironing out minor kinks in an SSTO version of this craft. I can get my current work in progress into stable LKO, but the ascent profile isn't pretty. I'll post that later on down the line when it's worthy of the SkunkTwerks mission flag.

 

Next update will be the TIE craft the Twerkshop forgot to post with all the other TIEs. Until then, may the forces of physics be with you!

-SkunkTwerks

Edited October 16, 2017 by SkunkTwerks

[Majorjim!]

those pod racers are ace!

[Jett_Quasar]

These pod racers are a step up.  I really like Sebulba's racer I could use that one but I would need to do a bit of a part reduction for performance reasons - it wouldn't be any noticeable difference in the video.  Great work again!

 - Jett

Edited October 16, 2017 by Jett_Quasar

[SkunkTwerks]

You know how I said this next update would feature a forgotten TIE craft? Well, I lied. And unless you know how to force choke people over the internet, there's nothing you can do about it. A follower on KerbalX recently asked if I'd done a specific Rebel StarWars craft, and I decided I just couldn't wait to post it. Besides, it turns out Jett_Quasar already has a TIE bomber model that I wasn't previously aware of, so I'll hold off on uploading my TIE/sa bomber until I've posted a couple more craft that he hasn't already done. Gotta show off at least a few original ideas first!

Here's the SkunkTwerks BTL Y-Wing ATMO

Unlike many of the StarWars crafts in the KerbalX database, for which my versions represented minor improvements, I believe this one represents a quantum leap forward. Several folks said it couldn't be done (XLjedi of KerbalX said "Until our tech tree includes anti-gravity engines, I’d maybe stow the aerodynamic Y-wing idea."), but I felt a disturbance in the force and decided to pursue it anyway.

It was a challenge to figure out the aerodynamics on this one, specifically in finding a good relationship between CoM and CoL. But after many hours of frequently-destructive testing, I couldn't be happier with the results. And here's the crazy part: this one doesn't use any hidden wing panels or reaction wheels at all. I've disabled the torque on the cockpit and lander cans too, just to prove my point. Only pure aerodyamics and vectored thrust for this slick starfighter!

Flight notes: Remarkably stable and nimble! Flies like a dream (or a nightmare if you're an Empire frigate). Don't hesitate to punch the afterburners when you get to the battle, the extra power and vectored thrust make flight performance even sweeter.

It's true, all those greebles and nurnies may not actually make the ship go faster, but they sure look cool. And the the twin KX5 Laser Cannons aren't just for show.

There's also an SSTO prototype Y-Wing sitting around in my Twerkshop, but it needs fine-tuning. I'll post that one when it's good and ready.

Who knows what I'll post next! Until then, may the mysterious forces of the force be with you.

-SkunkTwerks

Edited November 6, 2017 by SkunkTwerks
Added ATMO to craft title once SSTO version was completed

[SkunkTwerks]

Running short on time today, so here's one quick starfighter from the Twerkshop:

The SkunkTwerks Naboo N-1

Flight notes: Virtually no yaw control whatsoever thanks to the fact that this craft has only one tiny vertical stabilizer, mostly just there for decoration. But when you Roll & Pitch, it's pretty stable and generally quite stall-resistant. Afterburners give a little extra maneuvering power.

Beware of alterations to the fuel/weight balancing, small adjustments make big differences.

 

Which reminds me, I have a SERIOUS NERD QUESTION: In my SPH Twerkshop, this craft's CoL claims that it lies just a little bit in front of the CoM (see below). I'm neither an aerospace engineer nor a physicist, but in my KSP craft-building experience this CoL-forward-of-CoM arrangement *should* generate torque around the CoM that makes the craft want to do nothing but backflips all day long. That's exactly what it does when I pull the CoM too far back (blue CoL indicator sphere mostly outside of yellow  CoM indicator sphere). But... it works very nicely as seen in the screenshot below. Whenever I nudge the CoM to put CoL-behind-CoM like I'm used to doing, this craft lawn-darts and nosedives like nobody's business. Is this a KSP glitch in calculating CoL / flight physics for fairings, or does this unusual arrangement of CoL-forward-of-CoM work because I only have two control surfaces, both of which are very close to the CoL and CoM? In other words, why does putting my CoL even with, or at all behind the CoM result in unstable flight in this peculiar case, when that's usually a recipe for disaster? Is there yet another possibility that I haven't realistically considered? Until a better hypothesis emerges, all I can say is that the power of the Force is the only thing keeping this thing in the air.

May the forces of physics be with you (even when you're pretty sure they should be against you).

-SkunkTwerks

[selfish_meme]

59 minutes ago, SkunkTwerks said:

Which reminds me, I have a SERIOUS NERD QUESTION: In my SPH Twerkshop, this craft's CoL claims that it lies just a little bit in front of the CoM (see below). I'm neither an aerospace engineer nor a physicist, but in my KSP craft-building experience this CoL-forward-of-CoM arrangement *should* generate torque around the CoM that makes the craft want to do nothing but backflips all day long. That's exactly what it does when I pull the CoM too far back (blue CoL indicator sphere mostly outside of yellow  CoM indicator sphere). But... it works very nicely as seen in the screenshot below. Whenever I nudge the CoM to put CoL-behind-CoM like I'm used to doing, this craft lawn-darts and nosedives like nobody's business. Is this a KSP glitch in calculating CoL / flight physics for fairings, or does this unusual arrangement of CoL-forward-of-CoM work because I only have two control surfaces, both of which are very close to the CoL and CoM? In other words, why does putting my CoL even with, or at all behind the CoM result in unstable flight in this peculiar case, when that's usually a recipe for disaster? Is there yet another possibility that I haven't realistically considered? Until a better hypothesis emerges, all I can say is that the power of the Force is the only thing keeping this thing in the air.

There is a mod Correct CoL, also RCS Build aid will give you full vs emtpy CoM indicator

[Rune]

13 hours ago, SkunkTwerks said:

Which reminds me, I have a SERIOUS NERD QUESTION: In my SPH Twerkshop, this craft's CoL claims that it lies just a little bit in front of the CoM (see below). I'm neither an aerospace engineer nor a physicist, but in my KSP craft-building experience this CoL-forward-of-CoM arrangement *should* generate torque around the CoM that makes the craft want to do nothing but backflips all day long. That's exactly what it does when I pull the CoM too far back (blue CoL indicator sphere mostly outside of yellow  CoM indicator sphere). But... it works very nicely as seen in the screenshot below. Whenever I nudge the CoM to put CoL-behind-CoM like I'm used to doing, this craft lawn-darts and nosedives like nobody's business. Is this a KSP glitch in calculating CoL / flight physics for fairings, or does this unusual arrangement of CoL-forward-of-CoM work because I only have two control surfaces, both of which are very close to the CoL and CoM? In other words, why does putting my CoL even with, or at all behind the CoM result in unstable flight in this peculiar case, when that's usually a recipe for disaster? Is there yet another possibility that I haven't realistically considered? Until a better hypothesis emerges, all I can say is that the power of the Force is the only thing keeping this thing in the air.

The stock CoL indicator doesn't take into account body lift, or drag. And even the mod Correct CoL doesn't take into account the effects of drag, only lift (so it is not a true aerodynamic center). Having lots of wing and little drag, proportionally, hides this effect in most plane designs, so usually you don't notice it until you try flying rockets like planes, or mess with lifting bodies.

 

Rune. So, you know, trust the flight test results over the indicators in the SPH.

[SkunkTwerks]

On 10/18/2017 at 3:58 PM, selfish_meme said:

There is a mod Correct CoL, also RCS Build aid will give you full vs emtpy CoM indicator

These are both very helpful... thank you!

18 hours ago, Rune said:

So, you know, trust the flight test results over the indicators in the SPH.

I find your lack of faith disturbing. But also valid, and supported by lots of experimental data. Very well, I concede that it is not the Force that keeps the craft in flight, but rather the physics.

[SkunkTwerks]

Here's a very fast update with a very fast replica. And I mean VERY FAST. SkunkTwerks presents the RZ-1 A-Wing. Perfect for buzzing Executor-class dreadnaughts, Praetor-class battlecruisers, and classless goons in Mission Control at ludicrous speed. Staging fires up to four shots from the twin Borstel RG9 laser cannons.

The SkunkTwerks RZ-1 A-Wing ATMO

With a blistering Sea Level top speed well in excess of Mach 2, this interceptor is the final word in chasing down Imperial scum. Just don't make any sudden hard moves at such high speeds, as Rapid Unplanned Disassembly can and might occur.

This thing is so frightfully fast, I added hotkeys to selectively disable engine pairs. I also added airbrakes so you don't have to kill the engines light-years before the runway for your deceleration glide.

 

 

And of course, the SkunkTwerks RZ-1 A-Wing SSTO

SkunkTwerks "SSTO Or Your Money Back" ascent profile: Engage SAS and full throttle before starting engines. After liftoff,  gently pitch up to ~18 degrees and hold between 18-20 degrees climb until you reach ~8,000m altitude. Pitch down to 0 degrees to begin level flight, then with SAS still on, allow pitch to drift up naturally as you accelerate ferociously. Velocity should be well over 1,000 m/s at 1,0000 m altitude. Activate Stage 4  / Hotkey 1 (NERVs) as soon as acceleration stops, before velocity decreases. With SAS still on, allow pitch to drift naturally up to 20 degrees, and hold at ~20 degrees until desired apoapsis is reach. More efficient ascent profiles may exist, but using them will void the warranty.

 

WARNING: Laser Cannons not guaranteed to function properly at airspeeds over ~200 m/s. You'd have to be a Jedi to be even remotely accurate at those speeds anyway.

May the Force of acceleration be with you, and the back of your seat.

-SkunkTwerks

Edited October 20, 2017 by SkunkTwerks
Typos, added picture

[SkunkTwerks]

Any Jedi in the house? This one's for you!

The SkunkTwerks Eta-2 Actis-class Interceptor, also known as the Jedi Starfighter

Flight notes: No yaw control, pitch and roll only. But thanks to the low-mounted, aggressively anhedral wings this craft is *very* nimble. So nimble, in fact, that I once managed to fly this ship through the R&D tunnel at the KSC without so much as a scratch in the paint. Use of SAS is strongly recommended even for Jedi masters. Hotkeys 1 and 2 disable the Juno and Wheesley engines (respectively) if you lack Jedi-level reflexes and want to slow things down a bit.

I really enjoyed (and sometimes despised) playing with the aerodynamics of so many odd-angled wings. After running dozens of craft revisions through countless lawn darts, death spirals, nosedives, and uncontrollable corkscrews, I'm absolutely thrilled with the performance.

Oh, and if you're wondering what those little Vernor engines are doing at the leading edge of the wing, that's because it's frightfully easy to tip this craft over its front wheels on landing, especially in bumpy terrain. So go easy on those brakes, young padawan. Those Vernors have the highest impact tolerance of any small part, so they act as rubber baby buggy bumpers for your wings when you make a landing whoopsie. Of course, there's no self-contained way to get the craft back to level once it's fallen on its face, but at least you'll still be able to fly home when a rescuer arrives to put you back on all wheels.

Only a few more completed crafts to post before I'll need to start building new ships from scratch again!

As always, may all the Forces (gravitational, electromagnetic, strong, and weak) be with you.

-SkunkTwerks

[fourfa]

Vernors can take 50m/s impact? I just got so many new ideas