What did you do in KSP1 today?

[ColdJ]

I towed @Hotel26 's Nimbus Glider up to glide height using my Harrier Jumpjet. If anyone else in the world has ever done that I will be flabbergasted.

I balanced my Jet Doo to not dive or flip up into the air unless I wanted to, and got a working method to bring me down 9 times out of ten without breaking into lots of pieces. Or having to use the parachutes.

When I got it wrong Kerbal physics played a joke on me.

And finally I rebuilt the Ultralight with stock wings so I can put it on Kerbal X for those who don't use mods.

Goodnight or Goodmorning to you all.

[Cavscout74]

Spent some more time working on prop planes today - worked on some trucks as well, but no pics of those.

First came some more work to my Hawk single engine plane.  I tested it top speed - it will hit 186 m/s at 1000m.   Also removed the aft fuel tank to increase stability, making it smoother to fly.  

Usually.

Then I rebuilt my Tiger twin-engine to handle the reduced reaction wheel strength.  It didn't really require much work to my surprise and Jeb got in a little exploring.  It will top out at 195.8m/s at 1000m

Spoiler

 

 

 

Finally came the CFP-03 Merlin single engine, the fastest of the lot - able to reach 203.1 m/s at 1000m

An added forward fuel tank increases range but it is slightly nose heavy on the ground when full of fuel, requiring some care on the part of the pilot

[Spaceman.Spiff]

1 hour ago, ColdJ said:

Jet Doo

Jeb Ski

[N_Danger]

I launched a rescue ship for a stranded kerbal.

 

 

[An Amongus Sussy Player]

 @N_Danger@ColdJ i think you could do this challenge 
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/201899-weak-players-micro-sized-distance-challenge-a-0625m-challenge/

Edited April 23, 2021 by Weak Player

[Dientus]

 

Been hectic on Kerbin and in the space around it this week. Testing on Boost Gliders continued until Val returned from Mun... she hitched a ride back with Jeb aboard the last flight of the Atlas II HMML (Heavy Multi-Module Lifter) after he delivered the last four modules that allowed Val to complete the KSS Shooting Star in Muner orbit.

 

Spoiler

/\ - Atlas II entering Kerbin orbit...

 

/\ - Atlas II entering the atmosphere...

 

 

With Bill having put the finishing touches on the SSTO Lamassu, he is turning his full attention to the Peryton. Meanwhile, Val had to test out her new toy to be sure it was to her standards...

 

Spoiler

/\ - Banking over the Canyons of Kerbin..

 

/\ - On her way back to KSC...

 

Things will be happening fast now with the addition of 6 new kerbanauts and talk of creating a nautical branch... exciting times ahead...

 

[ColdJ]

I Wonder if any of the seriously talented spaceship builders has ever built the Liberator from Blake7?

Edited April 23, 2021 by ColdJ

[swjr-swis]

2 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Wonder if any of the seriously talented spaceship builders has ever built the Liberator from Blake7?

<affecting 'Siri' voice>

"I have found 3 Liberators on KerbalX, 3 of them scoring multiple upvotes."

[jimmymcgoochie]

Launched a cluster of tiny relay seats using the old ‘shotgun them out while trying to change planes’ technique, but the decoupling force was but a tiny fraction of orbital velocity around Earth so they didn’t spread nearly far enough. I scrapped those, then launched a new set of four relays into a low equatorial orbit, but they were too low to actually communicate with each other; cue another launch of four more relays in a high polar orbit to bridge the gaps and ensure complete coverage from almost any point on Earth’s surface or low/medium orbit. I even went to the effort of matching their orbits to within 0.1 seconds per orbit so they’ll stay in place for a while.

[Guest]

I've been running a Simple Plane Race challenge. Much to my delight there are enough participants that we will eventually be able to declare a winner. There are some really cool and really creative designs there, and the one currently in the top spot is going to be a tough act to beat. I'm convinced it's not unbeatable, however – I can think of two possible, quite different routes that would put you at the top of the leaderboard at this time. One of them requires a hotshot pilot, the other, patience...

So if you're into planes and minimalistic design and have some extra time on your hands, give it a shot.

 

[OrdinaryKerman]

Haven't flown anything today, just made this:

Requires KSP 1.11.2, Breaking Ground, Restock (and plus), CNAR, and Planetside Exploration Technologies. Yeah, I'm very uncreative with stock parts.

Edited April 23, 2021 by OrdinaryKerman

[Spaceman.Spiff]

2 minutes ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

just made this:

But what is that?

[swjr-swis]

35 minutes ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

just made this:

33 minutes ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

But what is that?

Portal 2. Space core.

(Probably Wheatley... blue iris and all. But the Space Core seemed more fitting. )

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by swjr-swis
Wheatley

[OrdinaryKerman]

38 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

Probably Wheatley... blue iris and all. But the Space Core seemed more fitting

I originally made the eye yellow (like the Space and Curiosity cores) but the lack of a pupil looked strange (only Wheatley and the Morality Core had miniscule/nonexistent pupils), so Wheatley it is. He did go to space in the end.

Edited April 23, 2021 by OrdinaryKerman

[Daedalus3000]

1 hour ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

He did go to space in the end.

SPACE! SPACE! SPACE! I’m in space! SPACE!

[Caerfinon]

3 hours ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

Yeah, I'm very uncreative with stock parts

You're the best at being in space.

[AstroTicTac]

I built an Interplanetary Spacecraft using nothing but Shuttles! It took awhile but I think it will pay off. However, I don't know where to send it, so any suggestions would help. Cheers!

https://youtu.be/uqYnCJtXzlg

[ZinkBot]

28 minutes ago, AstroTicTac said:

I built an Interplanetary Spacecraft using nothing but Shuttles! It took awhile but I think it will pay off. However, I don't know where to send it, so any suggestions would help. Cheers!

https://youtu.be/uqYnCJtXzlg

Send it to Duna!

[Stormpilot]

Yesterday I did @Weak Player micro spaceship challenge. However, the micro ship only had enough fuel to make it to Minimus one way. My poor kerbal was stuck. Luckily, I had SSIII lying around orbiting Minimus from @adsii1970micro challenges. It had a fully operational lander which had just over 3000M/S, which is plenty enough to go to the Minar surface and back, probably enough to do it twice or trice. Here are some screen shots:

Undocking from the space station:

Landing:

Going back up:

Now planning on a mission to the station to bring Lubur Kerman all the way back. And maybe a crew swap.

[Cavscout74]

Worked on some more prop planes, made some more tech tree adjustments, and sent Jeb on the first suborbital hop in my experimental science save that came <1m from disaster

Put a retractable tailwheel on the "Merlin" fighter - looks better, but only gained 0.1 m/s top speed. 

It's still pretty nose-heavy on the ground.....

Then I built a completely new design - the CR-01 "Skylar" reconnaissance plane.  Features an aft facing rear cabin for an observer and ample fuel.  

Despite the somewhat ungainly appearance, it actually flew pretty well. 

I also tested an alternate version with a quite different observer pod.  I liked the look a little better, but even going backwards, it's extremely draggy - dropping my top speed by 40 m/s

To assist with satellite launches from DSC, Bob deployed a comm relay rover on the shores east of DSC

Then it was Jeb's turn to shine:

The Reliant engine produces significant acceleration as the fuel burns off, resulting in the near disaster when I jettisoned the LES - the tower barely cleared the pod, and ended up smashing the control fin on the bottom side of the first stage

The flight continued without further incident, and soon Jeb was drifting weightless.  Using the RCS system, he rotated to look back at the discarded booster that took him to space

Then it was time to fire the retropack and prepare for reentry.  Unlike orbital missions, for this hop the retropack was fired prograde, to increase velocity slightly to help test the heatshield before orbital missions

 

 

[Stormpilot]

@Cavscout74maybe rotate the front landing gear on the Merlin fighter so the landing gear is more foreword?

That might help with the nose heavy issue.

Also what mod do you use for starting at the desert airstrip?

Edited April 24, 2021 by Stormpilot

[N_Danger]

22 hours ago, Weak Player said:

 @N_Danger@ColdJ i think you could do this challenge 
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/201899-weak-players-micro-sized-distance-challenge-a-0625m-challenge/

 I don't do challenges at all. Still  just puttering around now in a career JNSQ . But if I do I'll keep yours in mind. 

[Hotel26]

4 hours ago, Stormpilot said:

Also what mod do you use for starting at the desert airstrip?

No one's answered this yet, so...

When deploying a ship from the SPH, VAB or Space Center, there is an icon/button depicting a launchpad and gantry and you may notice that, at its lower edge, it has a tab to hover over to pull down that will present a radio-button list to select launch site.  It was made available some time after 1.3 and since at least 1.7.  Enjoy.

                                                                           

Not a terrible suggestion about angling the gear.  But doing so will pay a small penalty in drag from the gear whilst retracted because they will not be well-aligned with prograde.  It may be worth paying, but it will make a noticeable difference to top speed.

If those maingear are at all in front of CoM (they must be), then a full-flare landing will do the trick.  That means determining the stall speed of the airplane and then ensuring you are flying just above that speed (just above the runway) before you attempt to touch-down.  (This is actually essential practice in a tail-dragger: for a "3-point landing".)  I would wind down the braking power then on the maingear  and use brakes very gingerly so as not to nose-over during the landing roll (most obviously)...  I didn't observe the tailgear, but if it has brakes, beef them up (200%).  Those won't help much but enough possibly to avert some annoying shunts on the ground.  @Cavscout74  (OK, I see it does have brakes.  Also ensure that the tail gear is in a position in which it vaguely protects the fuselage (from bad/hard take-off/landings) but still allows the aircraft to settle into its full-flare landing pose, which will be close to the maximum angle-of-attack, ~12-14 degrees.  (Otherwise, you'll get a "1-point landing", , and an awful bounce followed by what the accident report will term 'the usual consequences'...)

Edited April 24, 2021 by Hotel26

[ColdJ]

@Cavscout74 I love your posts. Both pretty and the feeling of a plot and adventure. If it doesnt upset the way you like to do things. you can create a part with an in hangar adjustable mass, that you then put inside your model and shift until you get the COM balanced to where you need it to be. I have a good looking F-14 Tomcat which would be unflyable if not for adjustable weight. One of the parts packs, Coldwar Aerospace introduced me to it and I just created a larger mass version so as to not have to put multiple weights in an aircraft.

Keep up the great adventure.

[Hotel26]

A skilful landing of my new sailplane, Nimbus, upon a strategic hilltop with a slightly downward incline:

allows a rolling start to catch the next thermal (after a short bio-break):

In consultation with 'Dr Config' (ColdJ), I have fitted the 'Blue Sky Thermal' component to Nimbus...  It provides a limited reservoir of a resource named 'Thermal', which is replenished by a trickle generator.  (The instruction leaflet reads: "use wisely".)
 

Spoiler

Spoiler: clues at 49s and 71s...

 

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by Hotel26