What did you do in KSP1 today?

[ColdJ]

3 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

 

Indeed.  In KSP, one must design not to fly!  And often fail. 

My first sub flew -- and better than it submerged. 

By the way,  I didn't intend to sound like I was bragging about speed.   We're all aeronautical engineers here,  so vital data like "How fast will she go?" is stock for trade,  especially such a big ship.   I am continually surprised such a heavy beat will go so fast given the colossal drag in water. 

I've also made a series of hydrofoil amphibians,  so have some experience.   I took the original foils off because one mistake and it rolled over.   That having been said,  a trio of small foils might do wonders.   I'll look into it before publication. Tho current speed is more than satisfactory.   At some speed,  one must go to more rarified air to go faster,  higher and further -- and then you are no longer a cruise ship! 

Ah yes, I still remember trying to make my submarines sink before learning how to make adjustable ballast tanks. Fitting more and more ore tanks on till I finally got close to neutral buoyancy. Never thought you were bragging, Just thought you were setting yourself a fun challenge.  I know water drag well. I have decent size sub that will do 90 m/s on the surface but only 30 m/s underwater. And my speed boat never was close to as fast before the Hydrofoils. I have a River Racer that sits high on hydrofoils once up to speed. Each hyrofoil is 2 elevons on the end of pylons, thin edge forward, all control input turned off (no pitch, roll, yaw. Amazing how fast SAS can destroy your craft.) and angled up to form a V shape. I find that makes them more stable to lean. At speed you let the Gyros roll lean the craft to steer rather than turn it. When you use a rudder it is best to ballance a top one with a bottom 1 so that when you turn it doesn't try to roll over. You experiment with hydrofoil elevons till you get the right deploy angle. Also you adjust the deploy angle as you gain speed to get the smoothest run as they react differently at different speeds. Hope this helps and wasn't just telling you stuff you already knew.

[swjr-swis]

I made a Nanoo.

 

And I finished a Strato.

 

And I have no idea what I ate to come up with those names.

[Caerfinon]

Jeb takes the new helicopter on a test flight...

Take off successful! Let's see what this bird can do!

Out over the islands cruising at 220 m/s.... IN A HELICOPTER!

Touchdown at the Kola Island Naval Air Station.  This is definitely one of my new favourites!

Craft: Compound Speed by @RuBisCO on Kerbalx.com and I've added it to the KSRGAP Hanger as well.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Caerfinon

[BadOaks]

During a hardware test in preparation for the first manned orbit mission, the crew access arm failed to retract and interacted with the ascending rocket in what incident investigator Halibut Kerman has described as "some kind of Judo throw." She further characterized the ensuing explosion and vehicle breakup as "wicked awesome." 

 

[ColdJ]

I free dived down to the lowest point I could find in the ocean.

[Caerfinon]

4 hours ago, ColdJ said:

I free dived down to the lowest point I could find in the ocean

Beware, Kerthulhu lurks there... DUH DUH DUH!

[kspbandit]

So I had a attempt at reusable rockets, completed a couple of contracts, and may or may not have issued in the death of 2 of my crew mates.

 

[ColdJ]

38 minutes ago, Caerfinon said:

Beware, Kerthulhu lurks there... DUH DUH DUH!

If only it did. Would give him something to see.

Here fishy fishy fishy.

[The Destroyer]

Finished up my latest launch vehicle chart!

[Cavscout74]

Between yesterday & today, did some more tinkering with Atlas-Moho in JNSQ - both a basic pod with retropack and a stretched "Moho" with small upper stage and science payload - then built an MPO-based probe to go to Moho.

Basic Mk1 just after orbital insertion - a pair of sepratrons are enough to deorbit the spent Atlas after staging

Atlas-Moho B - replaces the retropack with a short 1.25m upper stage.

The "Stretched Moho" pod can now carry some science gear safely to orbit.  I probably need to rearrange it to have the science bay directly under the pod rather than being jettisoned with the upper stage

MPO on its way to Moho - after leaving Kerbin's SoI, a second maneuver put it on track to Moho.  Eve is barely visible below the ion engine plume.  At Kerbin's altitude, the Dawn can only run about 80% throttle, producing an exciting 0.05g's acceleration

Near Moho, jettisoning the transfer stage.  It's last maneuver, it was pulling about 0.08g's

Edited April 15, 2021 by Cavscout74

[Hotel26]

Starling, to be published this week, can only be flown at high altitude with the aid of Atmosphere Autopilot, so I thought I'd record a "short" flight from KSC to BKB (Baikerbanur), 750 kms.

(General mission profile is 70-180 degrees.  Pole-to-pole (180 degrees), chocks to chocks in 19m 33s.)

Here's the ascent to an initial 29 km and then climb to final cruise at 31km and 2.1 km/s:

 

Followed almost immediately by a "hot" descent to land:

 

Starling sprang from a joint effort with the eminent @swjr-swis to explore flying in the 28-33 km stratosphere.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Hotel26

[swjr-swis]

53 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

Here's the ascent to an initial 29 km and then climb to final cruise at 31km and 2.1 km/s:

Pilot at work. As opposed to those of us playing at being one.

 

54 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

Followed almost immediately by a "hot" descent to land:

"Playing chicken with heat".

Just a reminder at this point: the odds of chicken vs heat are not in the chicken's favour. 

[Hotel26]

2 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

the odds of chicken vs heat are not in the chicken's favour

"a happy life with just one 'bad day'".

[Lisias]

1 hour ago, swjr-swis said:

"Playing chicken with heat".

Just a reminder at this point: the odds of chicken vs heat are not in the chicken's favour. 

Wise words!

Spoiler

 

[ColdJ]

I tinkered with the passenger hydrofoil that @Hotel26 put me on to.

With the original engines that it came with. 125m/s before it tries to fly and realises that that is a bad idea.

Or the fastest stable, not trying to fly with 4 extra engines.

Hope that the data and design is usefull for @Hotel26 in his further adventures. p.s the legs are slightly more angled up than the craft file I sent you and I removed the fuel from the front adapter.

[ColdJ]

5 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

Starling, to be published this week, can only be flown at high altitude with the aid of Atmosphere Autopilot, so I thought I'd record a "short" flight from KSC to BKB (Baikerbanur), 750 kms.

(General mission profile is 70-180 degrees.  Pole-to-pole (180 degrees), chocks to chocks in 19m 33s.)

Here's the ascent to an initial 29 km and then climb to final cruise at 31km and 2.1 km/s:

 

Followed almost immediately by a "hot" descent to land:

 

Starling sprang from a joint effort with the eminent @swjr-swis to explore flying in the 28-33 km stratosphere.

 

I once used the Pulse Jet Engines (I think they are Retro Future) on a plane and because of the way the modder configured them. I accidently ended up in orbit around the Sun. With no way back.

I have a config file I created, that uses the whiplash mesh to create a reasonably accurate Scramjet, If you are interested. I use it on my SR 71 blackbird. It is feeble at sea level and less than Mach 2 but once you get going and high enough it tops out at just over Mach 6. Make sure you have lots of radiators or heat shields though because things like to explode from over heating at that speed.

[swjr-swis]

Despite pandemics and quarantines and lockdowns, Life has a way of making some days really hectic. Today was one of those days here. I did have some KSP plans, and even started loading it up when I thought I had some time, but I got interrupted yet again and alt-tabbed away to handle things and promptly forgot I had KSP running.

I deal with things, and sigh and lean back and close my eyes a moment to enjoy whatever short bout of quiet I can get. And find myself unexpectedly... comfy, and at peace. Eyes still closed and unwilling to break the spell, I frown cause this sensation is so out of place that my mind immediately wants to figure out what's different. Then, I realize.

It's not actually quiet. At least, not entirely. It should be, I still have my noise-cancelling headphones on, with nothing playing. But it isn't. It sounds like I'm... outside. Out of the city somewhere. It's coming from my headphones.

Then I remember I had started KSP. I alt-tab. It's still open where I left it, on the KSC scene, at night.

 

Today, No screaming jets, no roaring rockets, no booming explosions. Sometimes, we just need to sit outside on a quiet clear starry night and listen to Nature's brand of relaxing not-entirely-silence.

(this forum won't play the sound or animation, so just click the link to view on imgur, enable sound, make it full screen, and sip your favourite beverage. It's set to loop indefinitely.)

https://i.imgur.com/zYbH1kF

 

[Hotel26]

14 hours ago, ColdJ said:

passenger hydrofoil

Outstanding work!  Very impressive. 

[ColdJ]

3 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Despite pandemics and quarantines and lockdowns, Life has a way of making some days really hectic. Today was one of those days here. I did have some KSP plans, and even started loading it up when I thought I had some time, but I got interrupted yet again and alt-tabbed away to handle things and promptly forgot I had KSP running.

I deal with things, and sigh and lean back and close my eyes a moment to enjoy whatever short bout of quiet I can get. And find myself unexpectedly... comfy, and at peace. Eyes still closed and unwilling to break the spell, I frown cause this sensation is so out of place that my mind immediately wants to figure out what's different. Then, I realize.

It's not actually quiet. At least, not entirely. It should be, I still have my noise-cancelling headphones on, with nothing playing. But it isn't. It sounds like I'm... outside. Out of the city somewhere. It's coming from my headphones.

Then I remember I had started KSP. I alt-tab. It's still open where I left it, on the KSC scene, at night.

 

Today, No screaming jets, no roaring rockets, no booming explosions. Sometimes, we just need to sit outside on a quiet clear starry night and listen to Nature's brand of relaxing not-entirely-silence.

(this forum won't play the sound or animation, so just click the link to view on imgur, enable sound, make it full screen, and sip your favourite beverage. It's set to loop indefinitely.)

https://i.imgur.com/zYbH1kF

For you. The view not the plane.

It really is the Mun, not a space station Obi Wan.

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by ColdJ

[ColdJ]

19 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

Outstanding work!  Very impressive. 

Thank you :)

[ColdJ]

@swjr-swis Checked out your album of the "Ksp 105 Kreblon Bird of Prey".

Very Cool

[swjr-swis]

3 hours ago, ColdJ said:

For you. The view not the plane.

Much appreciated. The plane too - I could (and have, more than once) spend long long moments staring at that gorgeous bird.

 

2 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Checked out your album of the "Ksp 105 Kreblon Bird of Prey".

Very Cool

Wow, throw back to good ole times. Thank you!

I never quite got her to perform the same after 1.1 hit, alas. It's gonna take some tinkering, probably a rebuild from scratch (many parts have changed properties, and different wheels/aero). Some day. But I still have the original craft file up for grabs on KerbalX.

Btw, if you enjoyed the stills, you might like some action shots. This is from when I used her to participate in a 'buzz the tower and land back on the runway as fast as possible' forum challenge.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/llpjnt4xwcyqmis/KreblonBirdofPrey-towerbuzz-bloopers.mp4?dl=0

 

Looks really controlled, right? This is a compilation of the many attempts before I finally managed a competitive time. And shows off a bit what she was capable of in 1.0.5.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sinxfovl160so1m/KreblonBirdofPrey-towerbuzz-entry.mp4?dl=0

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by swjr-swis
wrong links

[ColdJ]

1 hour ago, swjr-swis said:

Much appreciated. The plane too - I could (and have, more than once) spend long long moments staring at that gorgeous bird.

 

Wow, throw back to good ole times. Thank you!

I never quite got her to perform the same after 1.1 hit, alas. It's gonna take some tinkering, probably a rebuild from scratch (many parts have changed properties, and different wheels/aero). Some day. But I still have the original craft file up for grabs on KerbalX.

Btw, if you enjoyed the stills, you might like some action shots. This is from when I used her to participate in a 'buzz the tower and land back on the runway as fast as possible' forum challenge.

https://www.dropbox.com/preview/KSP/105/video/towerbuzz/KreblonBirdofPrey-towerbuzz-entry.mp4?role=personal

 

Looks really controlled, right? This is a compilation of the many attempts before I finally managed a competitive time. And shows off a bit what she was capable of in 1.0.5.

https://www.dropbox.com/preview/KSP/105/video/towerbuzz/KreblonBirdofPrey-towerbuzz-bloopers.mp4?role=personal

 

Afraid it requires having a Dropbox account and after reading the terms and conditions I am not in a hurry to join. If you have a youtube video of it I could watch that.

[swjr-swis]

45 minutes ago, ColdJ said:

Afraid it requires having a Dropbox account and after reading the terms and conditions I am not in a hurry to join. If you have a youtube video of it I could watch that.

My bad, I forgot I need to use the 'share' links. It doesn't require having an account.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/llpjnt4xwcyqmis/KreblonBirdofPrey-towerbuzz-bloopers.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sinxfovl160so1m/KreblonBirdofPrey-towerbuzz-entry.mp4?dl=0

[Janus92]

Today I flew to the Baikerbanur Lake House, at the foot of the Baikerbanur Mountains in my brand new amphibian!

The 2 and a half hour trip had multiple stops in between, and the delay had us racing against the sun to not run out of solar power at sunset. In the end we made it easily, as battery power was only just kicking in.

Time to enjoy the sunset from the balcony!