It's always bugged me how all those crazy awesome sci-fi designs we see in movies and video games are terribly non-aerodynamic and generally would have to be built in space. Besides "cheating", it's pretty much impossible to get most designs into orbit, or beyond. But... I got to thinking... and I downloaded the airships mod... and it got a little crazy. The Hawk Mk. I. Four Nuclear Engines. Two Aerospikes. Tons of Fuel. Total disaster. I'm not sure what happened the second iteration... but... On to Mk. III! Moar Lift! Better weight distribution! Hideaway SSTO inflatables! ...that don't fit except in the VAB... ...and get stuck when I try to raise them... Oh well, lets try to crank up the buoyancy. oh, no... Nonononono... Is that part of the ship flying away? fuuuuuuu.... Successful landing! But we can do better! Enter: the Mk. IV... TEN AEROSPIKES. ENTIRELY TOO MUCH FUEL. THE GIANT BALLOONS FIT THIS TIME. It truly is a feat of Kerbal engineering. Time to get this bird off the ground. Infernal Robotics really is a game changer. I can't not mention how awesome the Lackluster parts are too. hm... Mesmerizing. Too much weight on the front end. It's hard to figure out how these airship envelopes mess with your center of lift vs. mass... Not that putting them inside of a cargo bay on a moveable hinge helps. YES! THIS IS GOING TERRIBLY! Maybe not so bad. But not what I had in mind. I think I only added the parachutes for laughs. And they deliver! I heard something break... Touchdown! Everybody's fine! ...except for about 20-some kerbals that gave their lives in the name of "science"! So here are the craft files if you're interested in checking out the madness. I do think these designs are space-worthy with some modification, the Lackluster fuel tanks have insane capacities and weights that I paid absolutely no attention to. Hawk Mk. I: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p813bgywhs3ab6z/Hawk%20Mk_%20I.craft Mk. III: https://www.dropbox.com/s/l1xhvunjy99st56/Hawk%20Mk_%20III.craft Mk. IV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ugpsbqbp9qbu2m4/Hawk%20Mk_%20IV.craft Mods required (hopefully I'm not missing any used on these designs): B-9 Infernal Robotics HL Airships Lackluster Labs Parts I'm curious if anyone else has tried such a thing. I saw a Scott Manley video where he used the airship envelopes to make some kind of ship from some... thing... anyway, it was still too heavy and he had to mod gravity to get it flyable. After I saw the Cirrus envelope and started roughly crunching some lift/weight numbers, I figured I had a chance at putting some kind of crazy non-aerodynamic sci-fi hard-on inducing flying brick from the runway to orbit, but I'll have to keep trying.
Welcome to 90's cartoons. When gadgets are involved, the plot determines the boundaries. I'm beginning to think the animators and writers were on the same drugs as the musicians at the time. Only in a world where heroin addicted musicians rule the airwaves could something like Ren and Stimpy or Rocko's Modern Life have a chance at popularity. Oh man, those were the good 'ol days. AAAaaanyway... You guys all have me itching to take my own shot. I did this with Lego's as a kid, I'll do it now with kerbal space program. Come to think of it, I can't be the only one around here who is just living out their adult desire to dig out the Lego's and build things that require whooshing sounds?