Wanderfound

Here's the one shown above: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r4jdh62ipy9czdk/Kerboracer.craft?dl=0 And here's the dual-engine monster from earlier: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5rhkmipz6oh24bm/Kerboracer%20II.craft?dl=0 The first one has Retro-Future camera pods on it for RPM IVA flying. If you don't have Retro-Future installed, this is the pod as a single-part download: http://www./download/420f9d441u7byzp/cameraPods.zip Both built for FAR, both capable of pulling sustained 15+ G at supersonic speeds, both capable of explosive disassembly if pushed too far. Enjoy.

The wonderful people who make the Kerbinside mod have released a fantastic new download: So, to do the obvious: who can get the fastest time on that track? * Must be subsonic (approximately 350m/s) as you cross the start line. * Must take a screenshot of each gate as you pass. * Must pass the gates below the pylon's top (they're 200m tall) * Separate leaderboards for stock aero vs FAR, and stock parts vs mod parts in each case. Separate leaderboards for pure jets vs rocket-boosted. * Keep all aero/heating/etc settings on default. * List the mods you use. No obvious hacks or cheats; if in doubt, ask. Wheaton's Law applies. Demo Runs, done with FAR, KJR, Dynamic Deflection, Kerbal Pilot Assistant (PID tuner) and assorted informational mods: Standard Circuit Reverse Circuit Black Krags Circuit (note: I missed a gate on that run. See below for a clean time) Leaderboards Pure Jets KSC Stock Aero Stock Parts Mod Parts FAR Stock Parts Wanderfound, 1 minute, 53 seconds. Mod Parts Basic Jet Wanderfound, 2 minutes 53 seconds. KSC Reverse Stock Aero Stock Parts Mod Parts FAR Stock Parts Wanderfound, 2 minutes, 6 seconds. Mod Parts Black Krag Stock Aero Stock Parts Mod Parts FAR Stock Parts Wanderfound, 1 minute, 25 seconds. Mod Parts Black Krag Reverse Stock Aero Stock Parts Mod Parts FAR Stock Parts Mod Parts

I've got a bit of strangeness. I recently had an airplane lose control at Mach 3, turn sideways and crack up. Valentina and Bill managed to bail out of the cockpit at around 500m, then soften the impact with their jetpacks. Both of them survived. They'd been separated a bit during the crash, but they were close enough together to shift control between them with the bracket keys. So, I switched to Bill, planted a flag to commemorate the crash, and recovered him. Then I went back to the tracking station: no Valentina. I switch to the flag: again, no Valentina anywhere nearby. Going to the Astronaut Complex, Valentina is listed under the lost Kerbals tab. But whereas the previously memorialized Kerbals are all described as "killed in action", Valentina is "missing in action". Anyone run into this before? Gameplay mechanic or bug?

I'm not up to the ISRU bit in my career game yet; I tend to restart every release, so I'm constantly redoing the first 2/3 of the tech tree. Easiest ground fuel transfer: rover with a moderately big fuel tank, a Klaw on the nose, and strategically placed aircraft landing gear so that the Klaw can be raised or lowered if necessary (e.g. have it running on normal rover wheels to start, but have a retracted aircraft gear or two under the nose somewhere). Stick some drills and ore tanks on and it can be a roving miner, as well.

Cool. And, yeah, change those nacelles to Mk1 LF tanks. Intercoolers are for heat problems, nacelles are for radial/wing engine mounting. Don't use 'em otherwise. They're good in certain circumstances, but they're heavy for what they do relative to pure tank or intake parts. BTW, to embed an Imgur album, put in [noparse] [/noparse]Like this: They aren't excessive if you want easy takeoffs and landings with heavy loads, but that is a bit generously supplied with wing surface by my standards. What mass do you have them set at? There's a fair bit of weight to be saved by getting that right. A bit of dihedral on the tailplane might sort out your roll issue. Plus getting your PID tuning set up: Slightly modified version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v70je24mrs35q8w/Kerbodyne%20Astrotaxi%20III.craft?dl=0 The original placement of the SAS and battery was leading the LV-T45 to overheat a bit, so I shifted them to behind the jets. The mass is balanced. You could also experiment with slightly increasing the control authority on the rear elevators, for a bit more pitch control at high altitude. At the moment it's deliberately built with maximum deflection wound down so as to be very hard to over-control, but the cost of that is reducing your ability to throw it around when you want to.

The Kerbin biomes are there as an escape hatch for players who get stuck in the early game. They serve a purpose, and nothing in the game forces or even encourages the player to grind them.

When you're measuring the drag, you need to do it with the landing gear up...

Pilot Assistant is the mod you're after. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/100073-1-0-x-Pilot-Assistant-Atmospheric-piloting-aids-1-9-3-%28May-18%29

Incidentally, both brigandine and serious articulated plate are fairly high-tech; they didn't appear until around the spread of firearms in the Renaissance (and even then they were largely the armour of a tiny ultra-wealthy minority). Your Middle Ages types are in mail; their men at arms are in leather or buff coats.

Actually, I'm finding yaw-enabled airbrakes really useful. They're good for keeping big Mk3 jobbies on line in the thin air. They're not for countering or creating rapid motion, they're for fighting those sorts of slow nose wanders that sometimes gradually overcome your yaw authority in the upper atmosphere. The slow response mean that they don't do anything unless the yaw control is held on for some time (as it is when the SAS is trying to fight a slow yawing motion).

Some reentry demonstration: the first bit shows how to do it easy, the second bit shows how to recover if you screw it up. BTW, that fuel-pumping trick works both ways; if you're having trouble keeping the nose up, shift some mass rearwards.

Airbrakes do make it a lot easier, and shouldn't present any overheating troubles. If you overshoot, it's generally best to get down into the low supersonic and below 20,000m before trying the turn (which you do by rolling then pitching up). To avoid overshooting in the first place, aim to get down to normal, slow controlled flight while still to the west of the KSC continent, and crank the jets back up for the final flight home. I'll take one up for a demo run and concentrate on getting clear screenshots showing the reentry process.

One point not yet raised: the problem with metal armour isn't that it's heavy and bulky (it isn't, really; you can do gymnastics in well-fitted armour), it's that it's hot​. There are historical accounts of knights collapsing from heat exhaustion while fighting in snow.

No, but I was about to edit the previous post to mention the "pump fuel forwards for enhanced stability" trick. As it is, the lateral tanks should drain first; I thought that they were rearset enough to counteract the weight shift when the front tank drains. With enough fuel line trickery you could make the tail tank the first to drain, but it probably isn't worth the trouble.

Yup; Dynamic Deflection and Kerbal Pilot Assistant's PID tuner. I don't use any of the autopilots or FAR stability aids; reentry is best piloted manually. If you start to lose control, reduce the AoA; if you start to cook, increase the AoA. Aim to level off somewhere a bit above 20,000m. You'll need to tweak pitch on the way down as the Surface Prograde marker moves (clarifying just in case: that 5-15° is relative to Surface Prograde, not relative to the horizon). Airbrakes make it easier; as well as enhancing deceleration, they'll also enhance stability if placed behind CoM (and keeping them activated as yaw controls is helpful, too).

Nope, that's a stock ship, built in response to the waves of people complaining about the "impossibility" of high-altitude survey contracts. Nothing above basic aircraft tech. Take the same design and change the basic jet for a turbo and it should SSTO.

Is the Distant Object Enhancement mod involved here at all?

Reentry: keep the nose 5 to 15° above Surface Prograde, and hold it there until you've levelled off. From then on, slowly descend further while keeping an eye on your heat; if it gets too hot, halt the descent (and maybe climb a little) until you've cooled off / slowed down a bit. You can get away with a higher AoA during the early stages of reentry, but pull it down as soon as you start to feel the wind. A 20km periapsis is a good conservative height, but once you get the hang of it you can come in steeper. I often set my periapsis to intersect the ground on the western edge of the KSC continent. Airbrakes, flaps, spoilers and S-turns will all help to ditch speed, but none of them are absolutely necessary. Demonstrations: BTW: Astrotaxi would also work well with the forward section replaced by a Mk2 cockpit, docking port and short LFO tank. Adds slightly nicer aesthetics and refuellability, plus your tourists would no longer need to spacewalk to the orbiting resort.

Right click on wings or control surfaces in flight; you'll get a "% stalled" number.

Stock aero has gone from horrid to tolerable, but it's still no competition for FAR. However, I'm fine with FAR staying as an optional mod, and keeping the easier/simpler option for stock.

You probably know this, but just in case: a voxel is a volumetric pixel. In other words, voxels are what you use to build a 3 dimensional model out of tiny little cubes. In the stock game, lift and drag are calculated for each piece individually, then summed for the whole craft. A stock aero ship is essentially a collection of separate parts flying in close formation. In FAR, the mod instead creates a 3-D model of the entire ship (this is the voxel bit), then works out the aerodynamic properties of the shape as a whole. Doing it this way allows FAR to account for part clipping and rotation: in stock, a wing sunk halfway into the fuselage works exactly the same as one that's fully exposed. In FAR, only the bit of wing exposed to the airstream will have an effect. This also allows FAR designers to construct their own cargo bays etc from structural parts and have them properly shield their contents. The "lots of Twitch radials" approach will be better in some circumstances, but not all, thanks to the area rule stuff. The way to get your wave drag down is to minimise sudden changes in cross-sectional area. However, a conventional mid-wing design nearly always has a sharp drop in cross section immediately behind the wings, which then goes up again as it hits the tail empennage. Sticking a few relatively bulky parts (Thuds, radial intakes, landing gear, mystery goo, monoprop tanks etc) in between the wings and tail is a good way of filling this gap. Most of my mid-wing turbothud ships actually generate more drag with the Thuds removed than with them in place. Drag needs to be considered holistically; the drag of a constructed FAR ship is not the sum of its parts.

If you've got RCS Build Aid or Kerbal Engineer, they provide engine torque figures. Angle/reposition your engines to zero out the torque (done individually for engines that might be run in isolation, so do the Terriers and Turbo separately) and you're all cool. It adds a lot of design flexibility: The lateral tanks on that are raised slightly to bring the RAPIERs in line with CoM. This also raises the CoM a bit, reducing the angle required on the turbojet.

Hi tech is not required to start with: Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/9vptzzhq8knsoaj/Kerbodyne%20Hiflyer.craft?dl=0 That's a suborbital hopper rather than a true SSTO, but it should give you some ideas of what is possible.