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Wahoo! Success! 15-segment flying "centipede"

Klapaucius
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Klapaucius

Klapaucius

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I just had a KSP adrenaline rush.  I landed quite possibly the most difficult plane to fly I have ever built. I had the same feeling upon my unexpected touchdown as I did when I finally beat the last mission in Homeworld--or the feeling I get kayaking and nailing a hard move.  If you can keep it from going all sine wave on you, it actually works!

 

It started with this craft, in which I challenged myself to build a plane that worked without the use of regular control surfaces: ailerons, elevators, rudders etc.  The whole thing had to work by bending and rotating a segmented fuselage. Once that worked, I put it down, went back to the book that KSP had torn me away from and then got to thinking:  MOAR segments!  I could not concentrate on the book (The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa---an excellent book by the way) , so it was back to the computer.  So far, this is about as long as will work. I had 19 at one point, but the tail just swished around like an irritated cat.  As it was, it took a lot of tweaking and a lot of practicing to get it into the air and then stay airborne.  Lots of explosions took place.

 

I crashed this so many times on takeoff, I was not even thinking about landing it; I assumed it was near impossible. Then after a recovery (about the 2:00 mark in the video) I found myself over land.  So, I put down the gear on a lark. And it worked!!!!!

So, a new genre of aircraft: centipede planes. Or perhaps caterpillar planes?  

 

Thanks to @Kergarin, whose Walker Speed Challenge got me thinking along these lines (that is, thinking about long things with lots of hinges).  And also to this builder on KerbalX, whose centipede was a huge inspiration  https://kerbalx.com/SWDennis/Centipede-1

This DLC has changed everything.

 

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adsii1970

adsii1970

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7 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

I just had a KSP adrenaline rush.  I landed quite possibly the most difficult plane to fly I have ever built. I had the same feeling upon my unexpected touchdown as I did when I finally beat the last mission in Homeworld--or the feeling I get kayaking and nailing a hard move.  If you can keep it from going all sine wave on you, it actually works!

 

It started with this craft, in which I challenged myself to build a plane that worked without the use of regular control surfaces: ailerons, elevators, rudders etc.  The whole thing had to work by bending and rotating a segmented fuselage. Once that worked, I put it down, went back to the book that KSP had torn me away from and then got to thinking:  MOAR segments!  I could not concentrate on the book (The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa---an excellent book by the way) , so it was back to the computer.  So far, this is about as long as will work. I had 19 at one point, but the tail just swished around like an irritated cat.  As it was, it took a lot of tweaking and a lot of practicing to get it into the air and then stay airborne.  Lots of explosions took place.

 

I crashed this so many times on takeoff, I was not even thinking about landing it; I assumed it was near impossible. Then after a recovery (about the 2:00 mark in the video) I found myself over land.  So, I put down the gear on a lark. And it worked!!!!!

So, a new genre of aircraft: centipede planes. Or perhaps caterpillar planes?  

 

Thanks to @Kergarin, whose Walker Speed Challenge got me thinking along these lines (that is, thinking about long things with lots of hinges).  And also to this builder on KerbalX, whose centipede was a huge inspiration  https://kerbalx.com/SWDennis/Centipede-1

This DLC has changed everything.

[snip]

 

 

4

 

7 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Brilliant!!!!  :D

I see a build in your future, @Just Jim!

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Klapaucius

Klapaucius

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4 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Naaa.... this is all @Klapaucius!  

I am really, really impressed how you're using the sequencer to maneuver it, and how well it responds. That is genius!

Thank you for the kind words.

I think it comes from video editing. You wouldn't know it because most of my KSP edits are hastily thrown together, but I actually have made a film and have spent a lot of time in Adobe Premiere. I don't know if you are familiar with video editing, but all programs use some variation of a keyframe editor (as also do digital audio workstations such as Logic Pro X or 3D motion like Blender or Unity), which is exactly what the controller is, so this is really familiar territory.  It's just like scrubbing a playhead to test an edit.  This biggest frustration is that the controller is quite limited compared to what I am used to.  I started a thread on this if you are interested:

 

EDIT: Duh , of course you are familiar with all this. You are Squad staff.... I need to pay more attention to things :o

 

 

 

Edited by Klapaucius
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Klapaucius

Klapaucius

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5 hours ago, SecondChance said:

Ah if I was on PC and not PS4 i would give it a go! This DLC is gonna force me to get a decent rig i think.

I bet rentry would be scary! 

The issue is past a certain speed you get a resonance frequency going. If you look at the video at 2:15, it started sine waving badly. The solution was to cut the power and turn the X-Axis controller--putting a bend in it side-to-side seems to counteract the up and down flexing.  I don't know if in KSP physics it increases with speed or whether there is a threshold past which you are okay, but at the moment, it will shake itself apart if I don't take immediate measures.

Edited by Klapaucius
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Just Jim

Just Jim

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5 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

EDIT: Duh , of course you are familiar with all this. You are Squad staff.... I need to pay more attention to things

Ahhahahaha... :D

I've got some experience with Lightwave 3D, if you're familiar with it

I just never really considered using the sequencer quite the way you do, as a flight controller... I suppose that's a good way of putting it. 

And it just looks really cool flying around!!! :cool:

Edited by Just Jim
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