Scarecow's Emporium of Aircraft suitable for the Novice Aviator

[Scarecrow]

For anyone who finds that building an aircraft in KSP is, surprisingly, more difficult than building a rocket, I hope to be of assistance.

The aircraft presented here, whilst serving no actual purpose within the game other than flying around for the fun of it, are all easy to fly and have no hidden vices.  In every case take off can by achieved by simply turning on SAS, staging the engine, and throttling up to max.  If that's all you do, every one of these craft will take off with no further input from the user.

Action group keys are kept to a minimum.  Two of them don't use action keys at all, two have a key to toggle the engine mode, and one has an action key to toggle airbrakes.  That's it.

Each of the craft can be downloaded from KerbalX, and a link is provided within the description, or you can click on the KerbalX logo in my signature to see all of these and other craft I have made available.

 

Voodoo

Taking it's design cue from the Vampire and Venom from the 1950's,  Voodoo may be the easiest craft of those presented here to fly.  Flaps are auto-coupled to the landing gear, so as long as you remember to lower the gear for landing, you'll be good to go.

Voodoo uses Action Group Key 1 to toggle the engine mode.

https://kerbalx.com/Scarecrow88/Voodoo

 

 

Beech Twin Executive

Ferry your Important Visitors around Kerbin in style in this Executive Jet.  Conversion to the Beech Twin is a simple process, as there are no Action Group Keys to remember.

https://kerbalx.com/Scarecrow88/Beech-Twin-Executive

 

 

Harpoon

If you want to take a friend along on your flights around Kerbin, and would like to explore the delights of high speed and high altitude flight, Harpoon may be the craft you are looking for.

To assist in slowing down for landings, Action Group Key 3 can be used to toggle the airbrakes.

https://kerbalx.com/Scarecrow88/Harpoon

 

 

Javelin Interceptor

The Javelin Interceptor is a small, fast and sleek craft built just for the fun of flying.  Flaps are auto-coupled and there are no action keys to remember.  Just line it up, turn on SAS, put the pedal to the metal and you're off.

https://kerbalx.com/Scarecrow88/Javelin-Interceptor

 

 

T-Bird

A slightly larger craft than others presented here, T-Bird has, as you would expect, slightly more sedate flying characteristics.  Absolutely ideal for taking in the scenery on those long distance flights.

Use Action Group Key 1 to toggle engine mode if you need to get to your destination a little bit quicker.

https://kerbalx.com/Scarecrow88/T-Bird

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Scarecrow

[NSEP]

Interesting crafts! I will check them out when im home.

[AeroGav]

How about making a thread for/turning this into a thread of

"simple to fly aircraft" that people can post,  and handling problems with such be fed back so that changes can be made.         Of course, people will need to make updates to their offereings as successive updates to KSP mess with the aircraft, but you get the idea.    Can be peer-reviewed, if you like, to ensure it's a place all starting aviators can go and get something airworthy.

[Scarecrow]

8 minutes ago, AeroGav said:

How about making a thread for/turning this into a thread of

"simple to fly aircraft" that people can post,  and handling problems with such be fed back so that changes can be made.         Of course, people will need to make updates to their offereings as successive updates to KSP mess with the aircraft, but you get the idea.    Can be peer-reviewed, if you like, to ensure it's a place all starting aviators can go and get something airworthy.

 

That's an interesting idea, though I imagine people's conception of what makes a 'simple to fly aircraft' could vary wildly.  For it to be effective I think admin would need to make it a sticky so it would be easy to find, and the KSP version would need to be added to each craft to maintain an indication of compatibility.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

2 hours ago, AeroGav said:

How about making a thread for/turning this into a thread of

"simple to fly aircraft" that people can post,  and handling problems with such be fed back so that changes can be made.         Of course, people will need to make updates to their offereings as successive updates to KSP mess with the aircraft, but you get the idea.    Can be peer-reviewed, if you like, to ensure it's a place all starting aviators can go and get something airworthy.

I like this idea as well, although as @Scarecrow points out "easy" is a rather subjective term.

Peer-review sounds like a good solution.

On the topic here's my "trainer" plane. I'll put it under a spoiler as I'm not sure what Scarecrow is gonna decide as far as having a separate thread for other planes, and I don't want to step on his toes.

Spoiler

"The Camel1" is a puller tri-wing, with "tail dragger" style landing gear. It's stall speed is exceptionally low and it's very maneuverable. No action groups, but the flaps are bound to the wheel brakes. (Shown deployed.)

 

[Scarecrow]

How about a thread inviting people to submit craft for review and, if they meet the laid down criteria and pass judgement from a review panel, the submitted craft is added to the thread for others to download. 

If I was setting up a ‘simple to fly aircraft’ thread, criteria might include requirements  such as: needs to be completely stock, no more than 2 action group keys and must be able to take off with no user input. 

Maybe a couple of people could volunteer to form a review panel to provide feedback on submitted craft so that the thread wasn’t filled with designs that were biased towards one persons view of the criteria.