CrisK

I've created a lot of flying wings in KSP. Here's a link to my B-21 replica on KerbalX. Here's a smaller X-47.

A simple Bell Venom. Here's a link to the Bell Venom KerbalX page. Edit: I uploaded my Osprey to KerbalX.

Cool plane. BDArmory's AI struggles to fly any supermaneuverable plane. The supermaneuverable planes in this thread should lose to your F-22. You can mitigate this by using the latest version of BDArmory. Use the AI interface to limit each plane's AoA to 25, and G to 12g or 15g. Set minimum combat speed to the maximum. Set minimum idle speed to the maximum. If you do that, all the supermaneuverable planes in the thread become incredibly deadly.

I got around to downloading @selfish_meme's update to kerbpaint. Thanks to @selfish_meme's changes, the parts look dark blue instead of black now. I also rebuilt the body to dramatically lower the area and wave drag. I've gotten better at tuning flying wings. It's now just-about-supermaneuverable with FAR. It has better flight characteristics than an F-15. It's actually a competitive dogfighter. That's not at all what I set out to design. Strange, but fun.

This version of FAR has been the most stable yet. I've yet to come across a bug.

I updated the B-21. It's now more maneuverable (pulls 6g turns / 20% aoa), and also far more stable. It can go up to Mach 1.4 without needing the rudder brakes / flaps. It's a very easy plane to fly now. I'll upload the craft file to KerbalX later. I'm still unsuccessful at designing a high-sweep flying wing fighter that's highly maneuverable.

Another flying wing. The Northrop Grumman X-47M (manned). Replace the cockpit with a drone core and an intake to make it into the X-47B. Highly maneuverable. Perfect for high altitude bombing with hellfires or small bombs. Here's the craft on KerbalX.

Here's a work in progress V-22 Osprey using infernal robotics rework, KAX, SXT. It flies (and hovers) without reaction wheels. I have an armed gunship variant too that I'll post on KerbalX once I'm done tweaking.

Cool! I've been updating it on my own install myself since I believed it to be abandoned. I'll download your additions and fixes. Thanks!

Thanks, and no problem! I'll upload them all to KerbalX. Northrop Grumman B-21 on Kerbal X Northrop Grumman F/A-XX Y Tail on KerbalX Northrop Grumman F/A-XX Flying Wing on Kerbal X Boeing F/A-XX Stealth Fighter on KerbalX I also added my MiG-35 replica. I use this as a BDArmory drone for when I feel like shooting at MiGs. It actually doesn't fly as well as my other Russian plane replicas, but it looks cool.

Here's a flying wing version of Northrop Grumman's F/A-XX Air Superiority Fighter. This is the one that they featured in their recent ad: It uses the same body as the Y wing, with no vertical stabilizers. Again, stable without reaction wheels at speeds up to Mach 2.2. It loses yaw control beyond that. I could solve that if I made the wings wider and farther back but it wouldn't look cool. This version is not supermaneuverable. I don't think it's possible to make a pure flying wing supermaneuverable. Because it uses the same body as the Y tail, I won't go over its internals. This is the variant that Northrop Grumman is promoting towards the Navy, but I prefer the Y tail for the increased maneuverability.

Jack, there are many ways of making a flying wing stable. I've found that the easiest is to use the method that Northrop Grumman uses on the B-2 spirit, X-47, etc. NG uses pairs of flaps that raise in opposite directions to provide stability. I removed the V tail from my fighter and built a quick flying wing to give you some pointers. Here's an IMGUR album with screenshots so that you can replicate it. In general, you'll need to use a swept wing or a delta wing to pull off a flying wing. The flaps must be behind the engine. The flaps should deflect more on the bottom than on the top. 10-40% on the bottom is a good range, 10% on the top is also good. If you want to be stable above Mach 2, you'll probably want an additional pair of flaps. I've taken screenshots to show you the extra flaps on the top of the wing. Increase the deflection at higher speeds. This creates drag, so your top speed will probably be capped at Mach 2.2ish. I made it up to 2.16 before I chickened out - there's a high risk that the flaps will snap off due to the pressure. As a last resort, I'd be happy to share my B-21 craft file, and you could then copy the wing configuration.

Thanks guys! @selfish_meme, the planes are actually a dark blue with 45% saturation, but outside of the SPH they look black. Grumble grumble. I actually spent a bit of time trying to match the shade of Northrop Grumman's B-2 Spirit. Just for you, here's the B-21 painted hot pink. Here's a third plane. I shared this in one of the challenge threads already. Boeing's F/A-XX entry. It's not a flying wing, but rather a tailless delta wing. Their designs do not use ailorons and flaps to maintain stability like Northrop Grumman's. Instead, there are vertical stabilisers underneath the wing behind the engines. There are also "feathers" on the engines to provide thrust vectoring without actually moving the engine. This is the same design that NASA and the Mitsubishi X-2 use to achieve supermaneuverability. Here's a link to a cool image of the X-2's feathers. Boeing's first design incorporated large canards. They were supsequently mocked by most people in the defense industry for placing canards on a stealth fighter, and on a tailless plane. They removed the tail to lower the plane's radar cross signature, then put canards on the front, movable control surfaces that are impossible to make stealthy. I built a replica of their second mockup, a design without canards. Ultimately, I don't think that Boeing has a shot at the F/A-XX or the F-X contracts. Their design is basically a tailless 4th generation fighter. However, it flies incredibly well in KSP (using FAR). It's supermaneuverable, very stable, and has an internal weapons bay. The BDArmory AI can actually fly this tailless plane fairly well, so it has a good fun factor.

CrisK Northrop Grumman F/A-XX Air Superiority Fighter Northrop Grumman has revealed multiple potential designs for their submission to the Navy's F/A-XX program. I've previously built a replica of their flying wing design. Here's a replica of their F/A-XX V tail. It looks like a combination of the YF-23 and the B-2 spirit to me. The intakes and engines are on the top, and the engines are shielded. This is to reduce radar signature from the ground. The V-tail is flush with the body with minimal movement, again to maintain a minimal radar signature. Supermaneuverable. Supercruises. Very stable. Reaction wheels disabled. Internal weapons bay holds 6 missiles. I use this guy for BDArmory tournaments. It's fun to fly in formation with the B-21 in tow.

Northrop Grumman and the USAF released their design for a new long range strike bomber yesterday. I set aside some time today to recreate it in KSP. I used minimal mods: BDArmory, BD cockpit, B9 procedural wings, adjustable landing gear, and kerbpaint. This is a true flying wing with no horizontal stabilisers. Yaw stability is generated with finely-tuned flaps. It's completely stable at speeds of up to Mach 1.8 at high altitudes, or Mach 1 at low altitudes (sub 5000km). It carries 6 JDAM bombs in a MK2 cargo bay. It can turn very quickly for a bomber, and is extremely stable. The craft uses no reaction wheels (reaction wheels for the cockpit are disabled). It can supercruise without afterburners. Full IMGUR album:

I updated my fighters today for the latest version of BDArmory. A lot has changed since this thread started! I no longer use infernal robotics since BahamutoD created a missile rack. I've also cut down on related mods, and changed the way that I shape wings to work with FAR's new calculations. Here's my Lockheed Martin F-X design. Internal weapons, supermaneuverable, supercruises, the works. It's also built to scale, so it's larger than most KSP planes. LM borrowed the V tail and shielded engine design from Northrop. Ideally I'd have V-shaped intakes on the side. Lockheed F-23. I rebuilt this one using MK2 parts and built it to scale. The original used procedural parts. Supermaneuverable, supercruises, slightly heavier due to the empty weight of the mk2 parts and the huge wings. I think this would have been an amazing air superiority fighter if the air force had just given it a chance. C'est la vie. Mikoyan MiG-35. This is Mikoyan's attempt to stay relevant in a 5th generation world that's about to move on to the 6th generation. It's a MiG-29 with the best electroincs that Mikoyan and Sukhoi have available. Its reedeeming value is that it's inexpensive at less than half the price of a western fighter, and it can operate from carriers. Its downside is that it has no stealth, no sensor fusion, comparatively limited maneuverability, and a poor reliability record. But it looks cool! Boeing's F/A-XX design has changed a couple of times. I'd say they have a snowball's chance in hell of actually winning the F/A-XX contract over Northrop or Lockheed, but at least they're trying! This semi-flying-wing design is supermaneuverable, highly stable, and sports 6 internal missiles. Here's the painted black version I posted a couple of pages ago. Here's one painted in the grey that Boeing uses: Finally, my favorite, the Northrop Grumman FA-XX design. I think that this has the best chance of being selected by the navy for the FA-XX program, but less of a chance of being selected for the air force's F-X program. My replica's not perfect: I added tail feathers underneath the engine, whereas the original design has a perfectly flat underside. I tried to use a flat design, but I wasn't able to without resizing the panther engines so I compromised. Highly maneuverable, but not supermaneuverable. 4 internal missiles. Arguably the stealthiest design, and the by far the most ambitious. It'd be awesome to see a flying wing fighter in service. This design is very difficult to build in KSP with FAR because of the high sweep, high wing loading, and general flying wing instability. The V-tailed fighters are the easiest to fly and most fun to dogfight in. The Boeing design is competitive with them. The MiG and Grumman are simply not as good in a dogfight with the AI piloting. The Grumman can be competitive if piloted by a human.

FourGreenFields, I think that's pretty good for a flying wing. It's better than the real X-47B. I can't get that wing shape to fly well at all. PTGFlyer, Pilot Assistant holds the crafts steady. Without Pilot Assistant, the two crafts spin around and violently break apart (I tested this to see what would happen).

The claw! I held the refuelling plane steady with Crzyrndm's Pilot Assistant mod, opened the claw, switched to the jet, and then gently flew into the claw.

I played around more with my flying wing designs and they're now both supermaneuverable. I also managed to successfully refuel a fighter in the air for the first time. My first aerial refueling in KSP! Hodo, any luck with the latest design?

FourGreenFields, if you swap the nosecone for the shock intake it will resemble a miniaturized Mikoyan MiG-21.

I can't build a successful X-47B replica in KSP either. Northrop Grumman has the benefit of having designed flying wings since the 1940s, plus the best fly by wire software in the world. At least, that's my excuse! My advice is to make your flying wings fat using wing parts to craft the body's shape. Flying wings are fat and wide. I uploaded my Northrop Grumman replica to KerbalX. Other people are welcome to use it as a base.

I played around with the Boeing design a bit and got it flying. To my surprise, it's supermaneuverable. The design is stable up to an AoA of around 45-50 degrees. In the screenshot it's stable at 52 degrees. Designing these flying wings has helped me learn how to design better wings. I'll probably update my old fighters at some point.

Veeltch, I wasn't able to create a model of Boeing's flying wing that could actually fly in KSP. I modelled mine after Northrop Grumman's design for a 6Gen fighter. Here's a link to NG's YouTube video showing off their concept fighter for the Navy's F/A-XX program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGzhmVmuSTA There's a good chance that they'll submit the same design to the Air Force's F-X program. I reshaped and painted my replica so that it better matches the NG design. It's still stable up to 30 degree AoA turns, and Mach 2.4+. It's actually incredibly stable all-around, but I can't get it to be as maneuverable as a fighter with more control surfaces. NG's design has fairly low wing loading, so I'm not sure if it's possible to increase performance without changing the wing design. Boeing's design looks like this: PS: Lockheed Martin's design looks like this:

It's hard to tell because of the angle of the screenshot, but the middle piece is a MK2 long cargo bay, and the tanks are radially attached.There's plenty of space in the MK2 bay for 6 missiles. Although sometimes they have a funny habbit of not ejecting, flying within the cargo bay itself, and then blowing up the craft.

It's not a looker, but I managed to get a flying wing stable at AoA turns of up to 30 degrees, with yaw stability at up to 25% sideslip. Stable at speeds up to Mach 2.8. Missiles are internal. 4 AMRAAMs and 2 sidewinders. The body will be more compact once BahamutoD releases his new rotating bomb/munitions rack.