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Breaking Ground DLC aircraft challenge


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1 hour ago, neistridlar said:

For the props I'm using two rotors, but in parallel, not in series. So, one rotor is fixed at the back, and the other is fixed at the front, by struts. That way they work together, but don't rotate each other, if that makes sense?

So like this?

fuselage | fixed [=] spinning | spinning [=] fixed | nose
       ^--------------------strut--------------------^

 

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An ornithopter.

 

This does not work yet, but I wanted to post it anyway. I did this on Duna to take advantage of the lighter gravity, despite the thinner atmosphere.  

I'm not convinced it is actually flying versus just reacting to force, but it was worth a go.  I'm not sure a functional one of these is possible or not. I might create a challenge so I can see what others come up with.  A severe limitation is the traverse rates on the servos and hinges and I have not figured out how to keep it stable, even with a big reaction wheel.

 

Edited by Klapaucius
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12 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

I might create a challenge so I can see what others come up with.

That'd be a cool challenge. As for your design, wings in KSP create the maximum lift when they are at 30 degree AOA, so you are probably better off "wiggling" the wings like a fish. Even birds do something similar with their wings. maybe look up some slow motion collibri footage?

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1 hour ago, neistridlar said:

That'd be a cool challenge. As for your design, wings in KSP create the maximum lift when they are at 30 degree AOA, so you are probably better off "wiggling" the wings like a fish. Even birds do something similar with their wings. maybe look up some slow motion collibri footage?

DONE.

 

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I wound up making a craft that uses the torque from a central wheel to control pitch instead of a horizontal stabilizer. Sort of reminds me of a reaction wheel. It is a reaction wheel.

Spoiler

 

TWhDHeR.jpg

Edited by Alienwall
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46 minutes ago, Alienwall said:

I wound up making a craft that uses the torque from a central wheel to control pitch instead of a horizontal stabilizer. Sort of reminds me of a reaction wheel.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

TWhDHeR.jpg

Well that's what a reaction wheel is - a motorized flywheel meant to stabilize on one or more axes.

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1 hour ago, Alienwall said:

I wound up making a craft that uses the torque from a central wheel to control pitch instead of a horizontal stabilizer. Sort of reminds me of a reaction wheel.

If you mount it on hinges, you can control yaw and roll as well.

Edited by FleshJeb
AND ROLL
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Made this tiny helicopter thing, not the greatest battery life but can probably be improved.

https://imgur.com/sSUfVta

Also works on duna, although i needed to fiddle abit with the blade angle to get it to lift off correctly(it had just barely enough power to fight gravity)

https://imgur.com/9xrSOlE

 

Also, imgur doesnt seem to work with the BBCode thing for some reason so i have to use boring regular links instead, Why is that?

Edited by Eriksonn
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I "quickly" (spent hours too long) whipped this Concorde up, trying to see if I could replicate the droop nose. I think I got kinda close. The window which pulls down ended up being the hardest part, and it's two robotics parts moving it actually. The smallest hydraulic press and one of the servos.

vwRrBCS.png

 

 

Edit:
Oops, let me add the craft file.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Am-Klu4h5TIdmq4zUjBj9xbo7y6YtQ

Action group 1 lowers/raises the nose for takeoff
Action group 2 is used after action group 1 to put the nose in/out of landing position
I also mapped the gear button to move the front nose gear too.

Edited by 1Revenger1
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1 hour ago, 1Revenger1 said:

I "quickly" (spent hours too long) whipped this Concorde up, trying to see if I could replicate the droop nose. I think I got kinda close. The window which pulls down ended up being the hardest part, and it's two robotics parts moving it actually. The smallest hydraulic press and one of the servos.

vwRrBCS.png

 

 

Edit:
Oops, let me add the craft file.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Am-Klu4h5TIdmq4zUjBj9xbo7y6YtQ

Action group 1 lowers/raises the nose for takeoff
Action group 2 is used after action group 1 to put the nose in/out of landing position
I also mapped the gear button to move the front nose gear too.

Very cool. I was wondering when someone was going to build a Concorde or Tu-144.  

 

It's also nice having the ability now to extend the landing gear and still have it retract. We can also now make large steerable gear.

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41 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

Very cool. I was wondering when someone was going to build a Concorde or Tu-144.  

 

It's also nice having the ability now to extend the landing gear and still have it retract. We can also now make large steerable gear.

Yeah, definitely. I also experimented around with putting the steerable landing gear on one of the hydraulic pistons as well and that worked pretty well. Allowed me to shorten the length of the gear when retracted. It'd be cool if in maybe a larger scale build, if someone actually built compartments for gears and  made robotic doors and stuff for them. I may try that next with the concorde

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Here is my entry. It is a work in progress and rather a handful, but the concept is valid. The plane has no control surfaces at all. The entire thing is controlled by bending and rotating the nose and tail of the craft with hinges and servos, and those are controlled by manually dragging the timline indicator in the various controller units. I found it much easier to make minor adjustments that way, rather than using axis groups.  The biggest fly in the ointment is that the hinges are rather bendy, and if you are not careful, the plane will fold over on itself, as it does at the end of the video.  I have not attempted to land it yet.

 

I was actually trying to sit down and finish this book I have been reading, but since the DLC release, I have had a zillion ideas warping through my head. I just had to try this.

IFagv1V.png

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks! I have been on a bit of a binge lately so pretty much all my free time has gone to building helicopters but yeah I think I've gotten pretty fast at it at this point. Iterating on that submarine was slow going though, it took me several days to get a design that more or less worked. It's funny how subs are harder than spaceships, SSTOs, or even helicopters...

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23 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

Thanks! I have been on a bit of a binge lately so pretty much all my free time has gone to building helicopters but yeah I think I've gotten pretty fast at it at this point. Iterating on that submarine was slow going though, it took me several days to get a design that more or less worked. It's funny how subs are harder than spaceships, SSTOs, or even helicopters...

I think like anything, you get good at something you spend a lot of time. I can build a functional plane in a minute, and I have built a few subs, but an efficient rocket...nope.  It is interesting you got the screws to work on the sub.  I tried creating propellers on a throw together test boat, and got all of 4 m/s out of it.  I was trying to mimic a true marine propeller, and I think that was the root of my problem.

Right now we are having a KSP Renaissance.  It is amazing to look around at all the experiments going on, both on the forum and on KerbalX.

 

PS. Your craft would be an excellent candidate for this older challenge of mine. I was not thinking copters when I created it, but why not?

 

Edited by Klapaucius
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Crikey, that takes some serious piloting. I think I'd have to commission @Hotel26 to fly it there. Kalypso would only need one trivial modification -- swapping a stack separator used in the initial deploy for a decoupler, so it won't be left behind. Assuming it even fits in that pit...!

As to the propellers, the trick is variable pitch. You need shallow (ca 20 degrees) to get moving, pretty steep (ca 50 degrees) to scoot around normally, and even steeper (ca 61-64 degrees) for maximum speed. The servos also cushion the blades so they hardly ever explode unless you broach with the props running.

And YES about the KSP renaissance. SQUAD hit it out of the park with this DLC!

Edited by Guest
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1 hour ago, Klapaucius said:

PS. Your craft would be an excellent candidate for this older challenge of mine. I was not thinking copters when I created it, but why not?

 

You should totally do that challenge and get the badge. That I made. Not that I'm biased or anything.

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1 hour ago, Brikoleur said:

Crikey, that takes some serious piloting. I think I'd have to commission @Hotel26 to fly it there. Kalypso would only need one trivial modification -- swapping a stack separator used in the initial deploy for a decoupler, so it won't be left behind. Assuming it even fits in that pit...!

The lake is small, but not that small. Any normal-sized craft that fits inside the SPH will fit in the crater with plenty of room. Maneuvering so as not to hit the cliffs can be challenging though.

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The plane is now much more functional.  It even lands!  I realized that symmetry gets a bit off in the SPH with bendy parts, so I had to go back and do a lot of tweaking. In the end, I just paired all the fins so as not to have to worry about centering them.

It is up on KerbalX. (Video below)

https://kerbalx.com/Klapaucius/Viktor-Bendable-Aircraft

 

 

 

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Okay I'll give it a shot later today. I, erm, haven't ever used HyperEdit or the mission builder, so I'll have to figure those out first though...

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