Poor Pilot, Better Plane - Submissions

[seyMonsters]

Thanks to those who submitted planes for the first episode.

Moving forward we would like to invite you to submit your planes of different types for themes episodes. Each episode will contain a poor pilot trying to fly your creations, consider it a spotlight for your craft on film... (please check out Episode 1 if you would like to see more)

Spoiler

 

 

The themes are:

1) Kerbal Transport

Planes which allow transport of a large number of Kerbals, simple really....

 

2) Flying Wing

Why have a full plane when a giant wing will do? craft should look like like a wing or the shape of "Flying Wings" from days past

 

3) SSTO

Wanting to head out of the Atmosphere? do you have an SSTO that you think a beginner could fly? share it and lets see.

 

4) Classic Recreation

Do you like making classic styles craft? recreating Biplanes? or even something from the Wright Brothers...

 

5) Asymetric

Why do planes need to look so symetrical? get wacky and show us what you can throw together

 

6) Thats not a Plane!

It fly's, it lands, it does all the things but it look nothing like any plane you have ever seen before... think outside of the box, or even inside a giant box...

 

 

In all cases please post below with craft files links and which categories(s) you wish to put the craft into, All entrants included in episodes will be credited fully.

If you have any suggestions for other catagories please shout about it and we will add them

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by seyMonsters
Adding Details

[lucho]

I think my entry has already been incorporated, but if not (oe even if yes) I've just posted KerbalX an important update.I finally fixed the problem of veering of the runway on takeoff. It turns out that it was a misconfiguration on my part. So now that everything is correctly configured please DL my Boomerang and have fun!

 

Boomerang

 

By the way, loved the first episode, great stuff!

Edited October 24, 2020 by lucho

[seyMonsters]

12 minutes ago, lucho said:

I think my entry has already been incorporated, but if not (oe even if yes) I've just posted KerbalX an important update.

Boomerang

Thanks for the update, I have you pencilled in for the flying wing section I think.

[lucho]

3 minutes ago, seyMonsters said:

Thanks for the update, I have you pencilled in for the flying wing section I think.

Cool

[JollyGreenGI]

I've got a more... unconventional interpretation of the Flying Wing design:

Upon staging a second time, it becomes a literal flying wing:

Here it's is, the U-102 'Bandwagon'

Despite the odd design, it is quite well balanced and fun to fly.

Edited October 24, 2020 by JollyGreenGI

[seyMonsters]

19 minutes ago, JollyGreenGI said:

Here it's is, the U-102 'Bandwagon'

Despite the odd design, it is quite well balanced and fun to fly.

Superb, nice to see new ideas... added to the list...

[seyMonsters]

Still looking for submissions for kerbal transport and asymmetric craft if anyone would like to submit some...

[lucho]

3 hours ago, seyMonsters said:

Still looking for submissions for kerbal transport and asymmetric craft if anyone would like to submit some...

depending on your definition of "large number of kerbals" I've got something that could be ready today Are helicopters allowed?

[seyMonsters]

9 hours ago, lucho said:

depending on your definition of "large number of kerbals" I've got something that could be ready today Are helicopters allowed?

Helicopters are another episode entirely, just submit whatever you feel like and I will slit them into upcoming episodes 

[vyznev]

I haven't had much time to play KSP lately, but I thought I'd submit an old craft I made last year.  This one's obviously for category 6. In particular, whereas my last entry had way too many landing gears, this one has none.

https://kerbalx.com/vyznev/Clonespeeder

What it does have, instead of landing gears, is Vernor RCS thrusters. This makes takeoff and landing a bit challenging, but hopefully by episode 6 you'll have had enough practice to pull it off. The recommended procedures are:

Spoiler

 

Takeoff:

1. Turn on SAS and RCS.
2. Stage to activate engines.
3. Throttle up.
4. When the plane starts moving forwards, press and hold the Translate Up key (K by default) to lift it off the ground.
5. Pitch up about 10° and wait for the plane to pick up airspeed. Keep pressing K if it starts falling back down again.
6. When sufficient airspeed has been reached, turn RCS off to conserve oxidizer. (This is important, or you'll crash on landing!)

Landing (method 1):

1. Approach the runway (or any flat terrain) in level flight at moderate altitude, at least a few dozen meters off the ground.
2. Turn on RCS.
3. Press and hold the Brakes key (B by default) to activate the thrust reverser.
4. When your altitude starts dropping, use the Translate Up key to slow your descent.
5. When your ground speed gets down to less than a couple of meters per second, throttle down the engines and pitch down to 0°. (Otherwise you'll end up going backwards.)
6. Use the Translate Up key to gently descend vertically to ground. Mind the oxidizer gauge!

Landing (method 2):

1. Approach the runway (or any flat terrain) in level flight at low to moderate altitude (say, 5 to 20 meters above ground).
2. Throttle down the engines.
3. As the plane slows down, pitch up to maintain level flight.
4. When you can't maintain level flight any more, turn RCS on and press and hold the Translate Up key. This will both lift the craft and (since you should be pitched up quite a bit by now) slow it down.
5. When your ground speed gets down to less than a couple of meters per second, pitch down to 0°. (Otherwise you'll end up going backwards.)
6. Use the Translate Up key to gently descend vertically to ground. Mind the oxidizer gauge!

 

With both landing methods, the main difficulty is that this craft has only a limited amount of oxidizer and the Vernors guzzle it up like crazy. Thus, the maximum hover time is very limited. If you prefer easy mode, turn on infinite propellant in the Alt+F12 cheats menu and you can hover for as long as you like.

Other than the tricky takeoff (and trickier landing), this craft is quite fun and easy to fly. It's not very aerodynamically stable on the pitch axis, so I do recommend keeping SAS on. Also, as usual with my planes, direct yaw authority is rather limited. Rolling and pitching to steer works much better.

[lucho]

Ok, I've got three choices for submission. I like all three, so I'll let you decide which one to include.

The first one is tribute to the past; it's all about power under the hood. This is a muscle car in the sky

Screamer

 

The second option is a Harley Davidson in the sky. Sometimes you want to feel the wind over your helmet as you cruise

The Lowrider

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by lucho

[lucho]

ok, I promise: last one.

The thrid option is for long range travel.  It's kind of a followup to the Bommerang. What is it about flying wings? So Cool... The Waverider isn't fast, but it's got the gas to go anywhere. Perfect for long range cruises.

Waverider

[Klapaucius]

On 10/25/2020 at 6:20 AM, JollyGreenGI said:

I've got a more... unconventional interpretation of the Flying Wing design:

 

Upon staging a second time, it becomes a literal flying wing:

 

Here it's is, the U-102 'Bandwagon'

Despite the odd design, it is quite well balanced and fun to fly.

This is brilliant!  I only saw this post now, I saw it first on the episode.  What a surprise!

I'll submit this one to the "that's not a plane" category:

 Petrov:

https://kerbalx.com/Klapaucius/Petrov

[Dreadful Engineering]

What about this biplane:

https://kerbalx.com/DE_Aviation/DE-Model-F

[Eleutherophile]

I've got one made, trying to get the craft files uploaded  Great idea!

[sturmhauke]

I got a couple of SSTOs for you:

Spoiler

https://kerbalx.com/sturmhauke/Dragonfly

 

https://kerbalx.com/sturmhauke/Kestrel

 

[RoninFrog]

Here's a normal, easy-to-fly plane.

Spoiler

http://kerbalx.com/crafts/65651

It takes off without manual control input.

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by RoninFrog

[KestrelAerospace]

I think I can throw my hat into the  "Kerbal Transport" ring with one of my airliners.  This one's a bit unusual as it's a flying boat, which could also place it into the "Classic Recreation" category a bit. It takes a lot of cues from the flying boat craze of the '30s and '40s. 

 

Spoiler

The engine control scheme is quite unusual and complex, with the main throttle controlling RPM and engine torque and the I/K keys controlling prop pitch (and thus actual airspeed.) There's more detail and some pilot's notes on the KerbalX page: https://kerbalx.com/Kestrel/Exmouth-Class-Flying-Boat

As for why I submit this, I think it'd be fun to see you attempt some sea takeoffs and landings, they require a bit of care with wonky KSP water physics!  Happy flying. 

 

 

 

[chadgaskerman]

 

This is a Plane right??

Spoiler

 

https://kerbalx.com/chadgaskerman/K-110-1

 

[lucho]

Are you still looking for submissions? Here's a straightforward SSTO. It moves ten kerbals into orbit, and returns to land if necessary. Not a flying wing like most of my recent ideas, this is just something more conventional (until I figure out how make a flying wing SSTO )

Skeeter SSTO

 

[lucho]

Here's something I've been tinkering with: still another idea using the flying wing/lifting body concept. It can carry a total of 28 kerbals- four crew and twenty-four passengers- and runs on propellers and fuel cells.  Interesting yet uncomplicated to fly

the Kerbalwagon

 

[Delta dart]

My entry the KF-100 Kanuck. Inspired by a famous Canadian aircraft and being a fighter jet it makes a great acrobatics trainer. It handles amazingly and is stable even at the supersonic speeds achievable by detaching the EFT tanks. The fuel tanks are like training wheels and decrease the handling/speed and makes it slightly easier to fly. When you detach the tanks it can go supersonic and do loops all day and even fly under the large R&D bridge. Only downside is the long takeoff length. This is for the recreation category although if you made an acrobatics one this would fit.

Kerbalx link: https://kerbalx.com/Delta_Dart/KF-100-Kanuck

Edited December 15, 2020 by Delta dart

[Mathrilord]

If you really want an asymmetrical aircraft then I can provide one. While testing the Bicloud it broke apart but the remaining half was still flyable. Back to the hangar I reproduced the failure, adjusted the landing gear, rebalanced the fuel, added some control surface and voila.

But before flying it I would recommend you to try the symmetrical one before. It fly like a dream, can land on water and can perform the softest landing in the galaxy. It will also teach you how to use an electric propeller with too many blades while being forgiving as it is easy to recover.

asym: https://kerbalx.com/Mathrilord/BiCloud-asym
regular: https://kerbalx.com/Mathrilord/LoRE-SP-DF-2-4-BiCloud

All the instruction are in the craft description for the regular Bicloud. I would recommend right clicking on the blade of your engine and pinning the pop-up window to keep an eye on the blade angle (deployment angle). You change the angle with the up/down translation axis ("i" and "k" on your keyboard by default). Don't change the angle too fast, over angling provides no thrust and reducing the angle is enough to slow down the aircraft (thanks to too many blades reducing it alot can bring the plane to a full stop midair).

For the asymmetrical one... sas is of great help but still not enough to fly perfectly straight maybe learn to use trim (alt+ wasd to set trim and alt+x to reset, I recommend the mod trimindicator). The craft is well balanced apart from the engine, for everything I'll let you discover it yourself  .

D'ONT FORGET to turn on the fuel cells. action group 5 (Wait they might be already on, I don't remember... Not my problem! You can look at them, they are in the cargobay)

EDIT: Just saw your video and you saying you won't use instruction... Good luck

Edited December 17, 2020 by Mathrilord

[dnbattley]

I'm not sure if you're still planning any more releases in the "Poor Pilot, Better Plane" series, but I thought I'd update you on the greatly improved version of the zompi-Kraken plane I shared previously with you, here: https://kerbalx.com/dnbattley/Space-Arrow-CVK-Jet-Mk-1. Unlike most other (and my previous) kraken craft this uses the throttle in a natural way, with full, variable and responsive thrust, and making its flight characteristics significantly more like a normal (very fast) plane. It does have some additional features such as VTOL though action groups, but these are entirely optional and can be ignored without losing any of the enjoyment of (normal) flying.

If you want some video-friendly challenge ideas

• from a day 0 start point it is possible to get a moon fly-by simply by pressing "Z", "G" (at the end of the runway) and "X" (once you're on an escape velocity)...
• by extending the additional wing gear, it can perform (runway) hard-turns at >70m/s without breaking, and in general terms is very stable on the ground at speed, making landing and parking at the VAB a satisfyingly quick process.