Angelo Kerman

I was going to ask why there wasn't an explosive decompression, but realized that like the Rocinante, the Intrepid probably decompressed the crew spaces for combat...

Try taking a look at the PartDatabase.cfg in your game's root directory. There should be drag cubes there.

Lol! Close Air Moral Support (CLAM), love it

Yup, the Mk1 is big enough for a kerbal to fit through if they don't wear their helmets. Tested through experimentation (mostly standing a kerbal next to a 0.625m cylinder). The upper attachment point of the Brumby is size 0 (0.625m), which is half the size of size 1 (1.25m, the size of the mk1 port). You would need an adapter to make the size transition, and it will obstruct the view. I'd have to create a new 1.875m to 1.25m capsule to accommodate the larger port. Something like a Dragon 2 capsule would work. Then I'd need Falcon 9 landing legs, and a half-sized Fulcrum (or I could pilfer Porkjet's LV-T15 from the aborted stock part revamp), a conformal solar panel for the ISC... then you could use the 1.875m engine mount in 7-engine mode. Hm... Just an FYI, with the official DLC hinted at being 1.875m parts, MOLE will not be retired, just in case anybody's getting nervous. There's plenty of things that MOLE does that isn't just 1.875m parts...

Yeah, the Korona Light has always had drag issues. Try copying the drag cube from the stock science return capsule and see if that helps.

Got my VTOL plugin just about done. I can use the actuator controller (used to pivot the engine) as the basis for a robot arm too. Meanwhile, I started fleshing out the artwork for the tilt-rotor engine:

Now that I've got the VTOL plugin working, I can focus on the tilt-rotor engine's artwork. I made some good progress today:

Wow, this is really keeping me guessing!

Got the fine tune controls working, and code refactoring done. The VTOL plugin code is a lot more versatile now; I could use the rotator module to make a robot arm, for instance.

@JustJim As a matter of fact, I have some small rover chassis sitting on my hard drive. The basic idea at the time was to plug them into a chassis, then put the external command seats on them, and off you go. Loving the story developments and the attention to detail. Your take on the elements is spot on.

Yes. The KSPedia has an entry for MOLE.

Thanks! I had a lot of fun making it, though if the new expansion ha 1.875m parts, it might become obsolete, heh. I haven't seen droppable engines, but why not use a decoupler with fuel cross-feed enabled?

Cool base designs!

If we ended up getting 1.875m Gemini-like parts similar to M.O.L.E. in the historical pack, then I've done my job. If not, then I've still got MOLE. These expansions sound intriguing. Mission Builder sounds like something that would be really useful for the mission challenges crowd. Create a series of missions like @eloquentJane's SLS missions, and the post your scores. I could see a mod for that where you post your score to a server somewhere, and in-game you can see the high scores.

Right now the tilt-rotor is available at Advanced Aerodynamics, and I do have an electric propeller slated for the Heisenberg. It'll generate about 50kn of thrust- less than half of the tilt-rotor- but it'll have a wider tilt range, and it can be powered by those solar arrays I added in the latest version.

Maybe a blend of the two... @Violet_Wyvern That looks really great!

I look a bit different than he does, heh!

Yeah, I'm seriously considering it as an advanced helicopter rotor so you'll have a more compact VTOL form than just the tilt-rotors. I could make the gas turbine have two modes: Gas Turbine, to generate the large amounts of ElectricCharge needed to power these rotors, and Turbo Boost, where the generator produces thrust instead of EC. Then you could have that whispercraft rotor (I'm calling it the Dragonfly after the X-50) stop in mid air, become a wing, and off you go. Angelo: Hey, Karen! Karen: Oh SQUAD, he's on a roll... What? Angelo: Folding helicopter blades! Karen: Folding what now? Angelo: Take a traditional-ish helicopter rotor, slow it down mid-flight, and turn it into a swept wing! Karen: And how do you keep the chopper from falling out of the sky? Angelo: You have a set of canards in the front and stabilizer-wings in the back. Switch the gas turbines over to turbo boost to generate thrust, and you have Air Buffalo, like that old TV show with Jan Michael Kerman! Although, with multiple wings, it's kind of like a dragonfly, and a more aerodynamic cockpit would be nice... Karen: If your crazy ideas didn't make us so much money... Anyway, I've got the bugs worked out of the VTOL manager, and consolidated the GUI controls:

Also, I'm thinking of a rotor system along the lines of this: The Whispercraft is really cool. I could do the rotor system (minus the engines, they're sold separately), maybe an adaption of the cockpit for the Buffalo form factor..

Hey, good to hear from you. Yeah, CKAN still messes up the install and causes no end of headaches. But on the plus side, a lot has changed since I first released the mod. It's mostly in the streamlining phase now, with some updates remaining for the Buffalo, and Project Sandcastle..

Sounds like a great idea, I'll make that happen. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm honored, thanks!

The prop-rotors will indeed fold up, and if you use the titular Buffalo Wings that I'm working on, then you can park that aircraft inside the Heisenberg's hangar without folding the wings.

I made a test video of the VTOL system: It is very much a work in progress; I plan to add more controls to the VTOL screen to handle things like thrust reverse, pivoting the nacelles, allowing you to set a specific angle, and so on. But what I've got is definitely coming along. (In case you're wondering, yes, the engine sound comes straight from a V-22 Osprey.)

Yup, I originally wanted to make the V-22 nacelles but decided that the V-280 nacelle approach looked nicer. Plus, with the way I'm going to make the gas turbine generators, you can hang them on the wingtips if you like, or plug them into an upcoming engine mount for more of a Blackhawk look. Meanwhile, test video of the VTOL system: It is very much a work in progress; I plan to add more controls to the VTOL screen to handle things like thrust reverse, pivoting the nacelles, allowing you to set a specific angle, and so on. But what I've got is definitely coming along. (In case you're wondering, yes, the engine sound comes straight from a V-22 Osprey.)