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Is it possible to make wingless planes?


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I have been wondering if it is possible to make something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifting_body#/media/File:X24.jpg

I am aware of the Mk2 shape fuselages that provide lift, but how does the mass of those fuselages balance, with the lift? Would it be possible to make a plane with no other form of lift? (besides elevons of course)

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Yeah, totally possible.

Although they aren't particularly useful or good planes lol.

I doubt you'd even need the Mk2 body lift, or elevons for that matter.

With enough thrust, some reaction wheels, and a set of landing gear; you could prolly build a "plane" that takes off, flies, and lands horizontally. Although at some point I suppose it just becomes an "air breathing rocket?"

Edited by Rocket In My Pocket
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3 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Yeah, totally possible.

Although they aren't particularly useful or good planes lol.

 

1 minute ago, Geonovast said:

I've actually been trying to make a strictly MK2 SSTO with no wings or control surfaces.

Balancing the CoM and CoL has been nightmare.

Any of you known any completed projects of such plane? I would love to see what it would look like.

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Just now, Geonovast said:

I've actually been trying to make a strictly MK2 SSTO with no wings or control surfaces.

Balancing the CoM and CoL has been nightmare.

Nice, I have a shuttle that re-enters and lands with Mk2 body lift alone (It does have control surfaces though), but it's an absolute pig to fly, and your landing needs to be perfect.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd call it practical; would you?

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Just now, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Nice, I have a shuttle that re-enters and lands with Mk2 body lift alone (It does have control surfaces though), but it's an absolute pig to fly, and your landing needs to be perfect.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd call it practical; would you?

Hahhaha nooooo.  I was just seeing if I could do it.

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1 minute ago, RonnieThePotato said:

Any of you known any completed projects of such plane? I would love to see what it would look like.

Umm...I could make you one in about 5 minutes prolly? Lol.

I imagine it'll just look like a plane with no wings, heavily featuring the Mk2 parts.

Edited by Rocket In My Pocket
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1 minute ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Nice, I have a shuttle that re-enters and lands with Mk2 body lift alone (It does have control surfaces though), but it's an absolute pig to fly, and your landing needs to be perfect.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd call it practical; would you?

Do you have any screenshots of it? I would love to see it.

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8 minutes ago, RonnieThePotato said:

Do you have any screenshots of it? I would love to see it.

Sure lemme check.

BCBCD1DCBAAD20A740965FC0FBA4C296C4CFC572

It's heavy, with not a lot of lift and weak engines, especially in atmo. (Cockpit is the original Mk1 before they changed the model.) Launcher is obviously not shown, this is just the shuttle bit.

The preferred way to land it, is to come in high, dive for speed; then fly the runway a bit before touching down. You only get one shot at it though. No go arounds lol.

Anyways, it was so unpleasant to fly, it was eventually modified into it's very odd successor which carries it's wing in a lift neutral position on the way up, then flies back home like a regular plane after re-docking with it.

Spoiler

8FA2544D6BC311791C5ED8086834F6B3A0A9A0F2

 

Edited by Rocket In My Pocket
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22 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Sure lemme check.

BCBCD1DCBAAD20A740965FC0FBA4C296C4CFC572

It's heavy, with not a lot of lift and weak engines, especially in atmo. (Cockpit is the original Mk1 before they changed the model.) Launcher is obviously not shown, this is just the shuttle bit.

The preferred way to land it, is to come in high, dive for speed; then fly the runway a bit before touching down. You only get one shot at it though. No go arounds lol.

Anyways, it was so unpleasant to fly, it was eventually modified into it's very odd successor which carries it's wing in a lift neutral position on the way up, then flies back home like a regular plane after re-docking with it.

  Hide contents

8FA2544D6BC311791C5ED8086834F6B3A0A9A0F2

 

Looks cool, I can see why it's hard to fly :D thanks for posting!

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Well someone shared a swing wing plane here and I have a much smaller variation. I don’t have images atm but back before 1.0 I did have a plane that started with wings before ejecting them and it was actually capable of getting high apoapsis suborbit. Hey

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There's this craft I made which technically has a fuselage/wing that's pretty much the same thing based off of a NASA lifting body project. Others have made that exact craft shown. So it is possible to make something like it with a similar shape.

https://kerbalx.com/qzgy/Martin-Marietta-X-24B

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On 03/01/2018 at 6:02 AM, RocketSimplicity said:

I think they are called “rockets

No, I’m just kidding.

Nasa in the 60s made a wingless plane, it’s body generated lift, so if they can, you can.

There have been many. Rockets have body lift too, any angled cylinder does.

The problem you'll probably run into in KSP is stuff is a bit dense, and also there's no *proper* lifting body modelling as in treating the body as an aerofoil, just aero-planing. The ideal lifting body is a flying wing :)

Edited by Van Disaster
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