Firespitter propeller plane and helicopter parts v7.1 (May 5th) for KSP 1.0

[Tommygun]

Better period instruments underway. This is for the WWII era and beyond. And simpler separate pitch and roll setup for the WWI biplanes.

Or you could do like some of the old timers did and go with the half full whiskey bottle for an artificial horizon.

[Snjo]

Or you could do like some of the old timers did and go with the half full whiskey bottle for an artificial horizon.

That only works until you do a sharp turn and the liquid is affected by centripital-fugal-whatever force, or until you get thirsty.

And what's worse than a Kerbal in an airplane?

A drunk Kerbal in an airplane!

[Mekan1k]

That only works until you do a sharp turn and the liquid is affected by centripital-fugal-whatever force, or until you get thirsty.

And what's worse than a Kerbal in an airplane?

A drunk Kerbal in an airplane!

That seems perfectly kerbal though...

"Hey Jeb, are you going to fly the biplane today?"

"S'not what IIII WANTED to do, 'cause I was a great polit once- but now? I histrc fly planes!.... I miss my rockets."

"... You were blown up so many times..."

"Yeah- good times. Good times..."

[Snjo]

"... You were blown up so many times..."

"Yeah- good times. Good times..."

Oh my god, why didn't I see it before?

[wasmic]

Comically over sized for educational porpoises.

What is an educational porpoise? One of these?

[Snjo]

What is an educational porpoise? One of these?

Photoshop Day!

[Camacha]

That only works until you do a sharp turn and the liquid is affected by centripital-fugal-whatever force, or until you get thirsty.

And what's worse than a Kerbal in an airplane?

A drunk Kerbal in an airplane!

You do not even need a sharp turn! It is one of the key differences between cornering a car and cornering an aircraft. The latter is always going to have a force directed at the cockpit floor, including when turning (unless in some exceptional situations).

This is exactly why an artificial horizon is needed. The pilot can not feel the orienation the aircraft is in, so gets easily confused when there is no visible horizon. Unless you have experienced it yourself, it is really hard to believe that you could get that confused so quickly.

[Madrias]

Out of curiosity, would it be possible to get an open-type cockpit with IVA? Preferably both in round and oblong because I'd really love to build some good and proper biplanes, triplanes, and some that shouldn't really fly, but I'm feeling a little wild and wanting a nice open-seater. That, and maybe some 2 and 4 bladed props would be nice. I love the Firespitter pack, it just offers so much more to KSP in the plane realm, allowing for greater fun.

Ack! I really should thoroughly scour pages before I post. I can see you're already working on something similar! Sorry for being a goof!

Edited December 12, 2013 by Madrias
Whoops. Should read more!

[Snjo]

Ack! I really should thoroughly scour pages before I post. I can see you're already working on something similar! Sorry for being a goof!

Haha! It's coming along well. Working on various dials. Making them round helped immensely with the old timeyness. Still gotta fix the dashboard texture and make a new flight stick etc.

This weekend will be crunch mode for me, as I plan to release v6 with the 0.23 compatibility upgrade.

[Madrias]

Trust me, soon as your update hits with WWI era plane parts, I'm gonna build something epic. I've been cruising around Kerbin in something I designed that (ashamedly) only uses a few Firespitter parts, but it's proven to me that the idea is sound. I have no problem with redesigning to use better fitting parts, and an IVA cockpit view will do nicely.

If it won't be too difficult to do, any chance of something that can read the amount of liquid fuel in a plane, and give the little bubble part-filled with fuel for a gas gauge? It's about the only thing I can see missing from that view up there.

[Snjo]

I think it's very easy to make a tall glass tube with a yellowish "liquid" inside that rises and falls based on the fuel level in the tank. Dunno if I should make it look at the fuel level in just the tank in the cockpit, or all the tanks...

Now that I've made round gauges for the gauges that are mssing in KSP stock (pitch and roll), I kinda have to make matching ones for the things that already are in stock, like altitude and speed (the digital readout is terrible for biplanes of course).

[Madrias]

If my input helps at all, I think it should look at all the tanks, or be switchable in the Action Groups menu as to whether it's reading all tanks, main tank, or all active tanks (just the ones the engines are able to consume).

As for gauges, I agree, the round gauges look real nice.

[InfiniteDice]

Just posting a note to all the lovers of Snjo's Firespitter Parts mod. My alternative engine module (release 1) is out for your flying pleasure!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/61717-InfiniteDice-ICE-An-alternative-Engine-Module-for-Atmospheric-Vehicles

I designed this to fit in with Snjo's WW1 stuff so it should look awesome!

Have fun guys and let the good times roll... (down the runway and hopefully up up and away!)

[koshelenkovv]

Great mod!

A million Thank You! :3

Small planes are easy now.

Lowered gear, throttled up to 2 kN (about one notch)

Fully automatic liftoff

Killed the throttle, reversed the thrust in advance

Applied reversed thrust to momentarily kill all speed. Dropped on helipad and used reverse throttle as braking device.

Now manned flight

Not as stable, but manageable nonetheless

Cruising speed and altitude. I like how thrust gets decreased as air becomes thinner. And how power consumption of electric motor depends on useful work and decreases too.

Plane is quite flimsy and prone to flipping. Rough terrain or braking by wheels instead of propeller almost certainly will flip it.

It easily can be flipped back, though: set trim on plane, then run into it by Kerbal. But some panels could shatter.

craft

(There was changed attach rules for folding electric propeller and small tail winglet ('allow surface attach' rule was set))

[Snjo]

Whoa! That is actually the coolest little plane I have ever seen!

I've always been thinking of RC scale planes, just never realized it could be built from small parts

[SnappingTurtle]

Rofl. Seen Wallace and Gromit lately? http://youtu.be/dy9QeosTh7w?t=49s

[Snjo]

I think it's done!

[InfiniteDice]

Man that is awesome looking!

[Madrias]

Oh my! And as if I wasn't refreshing the page enough looking for updates, now I'm gonna have a hard time keeping fingers off of F5.

[Rivvik]

I'm getting the hang of VTOL craft.

Previous tests ended as soon as the engines switched from VTOL to normal due to me not knowing how to compensate for the sudden change.

This vid was made using a cheap yet effective flightstick.

[Snjo]

The biplane Update!

Download

v6.0

New:

-Biplanes! Make you own WWI planes with these new parts. Be an Ace or a Twenty-Minuter!

This is a whole matching part set with alternate switchable textures on each part.

-New custom lift and wing code that is more realistic and more customizable.

-Custom lift is used in the biplane parts and the F-86 wings. (The legacy F-86 wings are included as a zip in the Parts/Aero folder)

-Auto deploying leading edge slats, and flaps on the F-86 wings.

-KSP 0.23 Compatability with tweakables. Fewer silly popups, more nice tweaks.

Fixes:

-Action Group to increase/decrease hover height in heli/VTOL rotors.

-Wheels have less sideways friction for safer take offs and landings.

-Wheel motor reversing bug fix.

-FSwheel friction override bug fixed.

Note that FAR compatibility for the new wings is not done yet

Edited December 19, 2013 by Snjo

[Madrias]

Thank you! Now I'm gonna go install this, build myself something awesome, and proceed to go drop a couple fuel tank bombs on the VAB. None of my Kerbals ever use the VAB. Ever.

[InfiniteDice]

[Ganymede]

On the plus side I eventually made it under the bridge.

[Madrias]

Biplanes? Hah. I don't do something so mundane.