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Hotel26

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Everything posted by Hotel26

  1. Long March Craftyard Description 0:gimbal A stock rocket called Long March. Built with 83 of the finest parts, its root part is dockingPort3. Long March lifts off atop a Zephyr booster, launching an MPL-LG-2 science processing lab, plus RA-100 relay and an M-700 survey scanner. The Zephyr should get all or part of your transfer insertion done, and then you have 6.4 km dV to get you where you are going. Once in orbit at your destination, the mission splits off the ion drive with the M-700 survey scanner with potentially up to 11.3 km of dV to change inclination into a polar orbit for survey. It is strongly recommended to send a pair of Kerbals, since it does get lonely out there… Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.6.1.
  2. I have named a landing strip at 6,600 km on Mt Keverest "Podmin Escarpment" after Podmin Kerman who died close to that spot a few days earlier. I left him at altitude with his helmet off overnight while I martialed a rescue mission. When that mission landed and approached Podmin, once in physics range, his head went pouf! in a cloud of greasy black smoke and all we found of him was his axe. KSP said it was too cold for him without his helmet. Yet it's possible to walk around at that altitude for a while without helmets. It seemed like KSP was factoring in the length of the exposure. (Perhaps I'm giving it too much credit.)
  3. Super excited by this whole topic and progress so far! What a lot of fun... Brikoleur has shown the way. So imagine this, but without the wings... It's an all-symmetrical build. 3 Vectors on the tail and one under the cupola. Tons of TWR and arrives in orbit with enough dV remaining to make it to the Mun. It's the lunar equivalent of our Kerbin model. The drag and mass of the wings do not stop it making orbit and so it can be re-entered (have not yet tried). I'm still doing low-altitude flight tests. The tanks are set up for rocket flight , which means the tail tanks drain first and, thus, the CoM is constantly shifting forward. As a result, so far, it has that "lawn dart" behavior, but if the fuel priorities are reset for level flight -- and with a bit of play with the final position of the wings -- I think @Brikoleur's scheme of bringing it down in the target zone and then making a final, powered push toward the marker can work. We'll see.
  4. I have just deployed my first FlyBing airport terminal building in my Orbit (production) world; big thanks to @Brikoleur, who designed and executed this work. Here you can see a Manta++, carrying 15,000 kallons, pumping fuel into the terminal reservoir. FlyBing has 3 claw docks available for visiting aircraft, which simply park over the claw and then 'kneel' to dock by retracting the nosegear. Aircraft with reversers may use any available dock; others must carefully choose a dock with an uphill approach to allow departure by simply extending nosegear with brakes released. (Here you can see a meTro departing in the background.) Kerbals and fuel can be transferred directly to/from the terminal which has accommodation for 48 Kerbals in the terminal and a control tower harboring 3 more Kerbals. Executive-class passengers now enjoy the convenience of transferring directly from one aircraft to another when connecting... FlyBing has an estimated range of 1,200 km -- which is not enough for the opposite side of Kerbin. However, if the final destination is more than 1,200 km distant, FlyBing may be flown from the KSC to, and landed at, either pole to be refueled. From there, it is capable of reaching any destination within the same hemisphere. ("Why the poles to refuel", you ask? The Pilot Operating Handbook states that "landings should never be attempted in FlyBing unless performed at full throttle" -- which is 180 m/s at sea level! Touch-down sink rate may be no more than 1 m/s. Thus, you'll need a giant flat, omnidirectional runway of near infinite length to perform this without voiding your bladder. Your fuel trucks need to supply 5,200 kallons and they ought to be Very High Speed trucks since there's no telling how far away FlyBing will actually land and roll to a stop... At the destination, wings and engines are jettisoned and chutes are deployed [old photo]. [Editor's Note: pretty sure that should have read, "voiding your warranty"...?]
  5. FlyBing Craftyard Description [The aircraft featured is a work designed and executed by the great Brikoleur upon commission.] A flying airport control tower, deliverable by divebombing. Rough. Based on a prompt by Hotel26. A stock aircraft called Flying Building. Built with 85 of the finest parts, its root part is cupola. Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.7.0.
  6. I flew it onto the deck at 180 m/s full throttle, after establishing a very gentle descent way out, and only chopped the throttle and threw the chutes when the wheels were rolling on firm ice. The fuel trucks will need onboard GPS to find where that machine parked up and will have a trek to get there. But the landing strips are pretty big at the caps! I haven't fully loaded it with fuel to see what it's max range is. I fully loaded the aft tanks and the wings, everything jettisonable. I am completely satisfied with this aircraft: it's fit for purpose!! Thank you. Edit: "building"
  7. Yes, thinking about it today, I had come around to the idea of ballistic. Anywhere to the other side of the planet is directly sub-orbital and maneuverable. Rocket flight in the upper upper atmosphere has the advantages of less energy for re-entry. I'm flying this now and have been able to touch-down horizontally at a very low vertical rate (for the purpose of refueling) but have almost given up on it not breaking up on touch-down, even after some auto-strutting. Stall seems somewhere around 140m/s. Possibly switching to drag chutes would stop it settling to the ground so hard. Maybe landing on fumes would help this situation, too...? Ceiling is somewhere around 2.5km but I'm still exploring that. More shortly. The goal looks feasible! I took the oxidizer out and loaded as much fuel as I dared... Will see how far it can go. Has range with 1/3 fuel for 1,200km and need 1,800, and has plenty of oomph still on the runway, so should be able to carry more... Incidentally, one of my earlier attempts had 3 winged surfaces symmetrically (because I am crap in the VAB). It's extra drag but it launches better. And it flies (in a glide) better, even if less efficient. And if it's not landing (with wings), it really doesn't matter either if they are not well-placed with respect to the ground... to glide better, more wing may help and require less power if potential energy is being traded. Less fuel. So, I think you're on the right track. (Three wings on lift-off with the dorsal wing being jettisoned before apogee... Wings purely for glide; not extended flight.) All of your above could be great fun. No wings at all? For this exercise, making several attempts to nail a landing site within several hundred meters would just make it all that more satisfying. One would recover the losing attempts. [Well, I made it across the Atlantic to Buenos Aires! It looks very futuristic, in the middle of nowhere, like something out of Woody Allen's Sleeper...!] Flies with 5,200 kals in it. One only needs 1/4 turn around Kerbin, if one can land it one time on a polar cap to refuel. 2 flights to anywhere, for just 900km range. "Ice Station Zebra, this is FlyBing 17 orbiting HOTEL, burning off fuel prior to landing; expect us inbound in 3 hours 20; FlyBing 17...".
  8. Thinking about your comment about launching versus gliding, a long-range idea (should it ever become necessary), is to launch the building to space vertically; then launch a winged "glide-bed" to fly up and rendez-vous, adding wings, controls, etc. Then de-orbit, survive re-entry, and glide/fly (some power) to the exact destination and deploy under chutes. This is probably the most scalable route? More after I've flown your building!
  9. Amazing job! I'm very keen to fly this. The end result looks very decent, too. I am truthfully quite staggered you made this fly. It's the surface equivalent of a space station! I am already imagining the planes parked around it. (Downhill side reserved for airplanes with no reversers! ) Thank you, @Brikoleur!! I'll post some feedback...
  10. So now, you don't have a leg to sit on. Too late, you wish for a chair with wheels now that you need one! I wish for a clue what this topic is about and how it relates to space travel and also please don't call me a Noob. (I wish I knew what that was!)
  11. Finally, some further progress can be reported with our ongoing Kerbin Supertrek... the following is a rather complicated crime scene (involving at least one stolen vehicle): As far as Forensics have been able to piece together from satellite photography [pretty good resolution, hey?!], this is some of kind of illicit gang activity between (left-ro-right): a Juice Goose a Gryphon III Pandora ferry the Supertrekker Pacemaker This fuel transaction all took some while as the Juice Goose was found to have its claw either angled variously too high or too low to hook up with the Pandora (or the Pacemaker, which was already mounted atop the Pandora), and so the director had to launch a Harp Gryphon, hurriedly upgraded to the Gryphon III mobile version, from the nearest despatch airfield (Dessert). [Not even going to mention the Harp pilot, parked up out of sight on the nearby hilltop, lying belly-wise in the grass with a pair of Zeiss high-powered field binoculars, monitoring the whole scene...that's, uhm, redacted] Shortly after our surveillance satellite orbited over the horizon and out of view, this mess was split apart (without injury) and the Pandora, with Pacemaker still mounted atop, lurched back into its natural watery habitat for the second of about seven projected water crossings [according to plans stolen from @Triop headquarters] in this marathon epic Kerbin circumnavigation. [And yes, that is a word we crime scene investigators do not get to use often enough!]
  12. OK, OK, 2 questions: how fast? 87.1 m/s does it [accidentally] fly? bien sur c. what is it called? Well, I can answer this one myself: Hydrofoil Racer X Nice work.
  13. I gave the Vectors a try and they are great. I think it's reasonable to scale back to 3x Mk3 crew cabins, too, as that totals 48 Kerbals. I think one claw should be sufficient too, since they add drag. I guess it's a good idea to build the 3 sides separately -- in my original, I built them symmetrically which meant an unnecessary "dorsal wing". And build it as a runway-launched vehicle to flight test it. Then add the rocket paraphernalia at the end of the project...
  14. Sure. Take a look at the screenshots on Boom Vang, which show the three stages of flight: orbit, flight, landing. And then take a look at this precursor, which was the origin of Cruise[TM] technology. At one time, I was lobbing Aquila Cruise at Gilligans Island, 130km to the NE of KSC and grouping them with about 20m accuracy. It's quite fun and I learned eventually to do a bomb-dive at the target to kill horizontal speed and throw the chutes at the last possible moment. So the broader scope is that I am finding long flat (no kinks) stretches of grass to be used as commercial airports. After landing, fatigued pilots do not wish to taxi a long distance to the terminal. So I really want to be placing them with at least 100m accuracy. That's why the "flight phase" is so important. In addition, Cruise has a range of around 1,000km (painfully slow) but it really adds tolerance to a badly-placed re-entry. At the equator, this isn't such a problem, but when timing a re-entry for a higher latitude in which one must lead the target (as well as time the orbit to commence), having some latitude to navigate to the target becomes quite crucial. Really appreciate you taking the time, @Brikoleur to prototype this and offer advice! For those who want to go hands-on with this project, I recommend experimenting with Boom Vang and Aquila Cruise. I'll therefore soon post Silo to KerbalX as well. For anyone else, as silly as these vehicles may seem in concept, they are really good fun and they'll exercise some unusual piloting skills.
  15. Cross-linking this project of mine that is probably stalled, needing expert advice.
  16. [This is a Work-In-Progress and a Request-For-Consultation. I'll put a link in Work In Progress to this topic, but don't wish to otherwise clutter that thread. Moderators will let me know is this topic doesn't belong in Spacecraft Exchange, but I'm looking for an exchange of ideas.] The story starts with this crazy thang ["Boom Vang"] which is launched atop a booster: It's 2x Mk3 crew cabins with a cupola and I use it to mark a "regional airport" and it's also a compact "town" for 32 Kerbals. After re-entry, it uses my "Cruise" system to fly (slowly) to pin-point the target, at which point it jettisons the paraphernalia of flight and settles to Kerbin. (I have a lunar equivalent of this, too.) I also have this crazy thang ["Silo"], as yet unpublished: It's the same deal, except it can produce fuel. I use this to denote a "hub airport". It's a kind of terminal building. It only has a single Mk3 crew cabin. (And there's a lunar version, too.) Key in this is that you can see Gryphon III docked to the Silo and it provides a conduit for transfer of passengers and fuel between the terminal and visiting aircraft. The Gryphon is also able to execute a "push-back" for aircraft that need it. OK, so here is where I am going next (code name: Luxor): Don't ask me why this works like this on water (a swimmer in the water can even reboard this!). But, yeah, water port! Making this fly is beyond my current abilities, I think. I am willing to sacrifice the (sub-)orbital launch capability and just fly it however painfully slowly to its final destination. (There aren't going to be more than about a half dozen of these.) Incidentally, I wouldn't mind removing most of the central bulk and reduce it down to 2 cupolas, back-to-back, say. It's main purpose is simply to root the 3 columns, anyway. I also have this idea about placing the columns far enough apart to place ground girders between them in a triangle, each with an upwardly-vertical claw placed, so that a client aircraft has clearance to nose in and retract the nose gear to 'kneel' on the claw to dock. I've found that this is a super flexible method. Then using an "uphill approach" to one of those 3 docks would allow a client craft to simple release its brakes and roll backward to depart. No ancillary equipment required. Fundamentally, I don't really care how the objectives are achieved, nor what the result looks like. Those objectives are: large footprint so that it's not likely to topple over on an unlucky landing accommodate at least 50 Kerbals be able to fly from KSC to anywhere on Kerbin (i.e. 180 degrees) or else be able to land for refueling on the way be equipped to jettison as much of the wing/engine/control surface paraphernalia as possible to most resemble a stationary building once landed maneuverable to a pin-point landing (within 200 meters, say, with skilled pilotage) made finally, vertically, under chutes store some fuel that can be deposited by a tanker for refueling operations provide direct passenger and fuel transfer via 1 or more inbuilt claws, pointed upward and with sufficient clearance to accommodate most conventional aircraft of widely varying sizes Does anyone have any interest and/or ideas/suggestions for collaboration on this?
  17. This, recently. Landing at 6.6 km MSL. A short taxi from there to the summit of Mt Keverest.
  18. Trident Craftyard Description 1:engine 2:reverser 3:flap 4:ladder A stock aircraft called Trident. Built with 33 of the finest parts, its root part is Mark1Cockpit. Weird Kerbalese proportions but flies so nicely! Executive class jet service. 14 pax + 1 crew. 814 m/s @ 14 km for 0.60 kal. I use a Krew Bus for loading/unloading passengers but also working on direct transfer to/fro the terminal. Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.6.1.
  19. Crew transfer that really works and I do mean: every time (although I've just installed Krew Manifest (for the second time) and I love it, except it needs a "transfer everybody from this compartment" capability) a package-manager style downloader for parts mods such that, if you download a craft from KerbalX, it auto-fetches the pre-requisite parts mods from the internet to store in a cache (not appearing in your SPH/VAB part toolbox), in order to "level the playing field" for aircraft designers: no more Tower of Babel... now's the time to re-discover "friction" (esp. on runways), it marks the Fourth Epoch of any civilization... new background music, presettable from iTunes according to taste (e.g. Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Sibelius, Strauss, King Crimson) kill the Kraken
  20. Siggel Kerman test flies the new Arrow... [click the first and then use arrow keys for a slide show] Arrow clocked Mach 1.8 on the first flight. Landing is surprisingly easy given that fourth fin in the tail. (Personally, I detest fighter planes because they are such an inefficient method for transporting Kerbals and the energy losses on turns (that pilots insist upon repeating!) are so wasteful. But I was watching a YT clip on aviation mishaps (737 Max) and took the click-bait to watch one on the Dornier 335 Pfeil, which is a mighty beautiful aeroplane. Next thing, Siggel was climbing into one and strapping up...) [Arrow is scheduled to roll off the KerbalX production line next Friday.]
  21. Pole Star Craftyard Description A stock space station called Pole Star. Built with 112 of the finest parts, its root part is Size4.Tank.04. I’ve had Making History for over a year, but this is my first build using its parts, viz. the super-huge S4-512 fuel tank. 9 of them to be precise. This is my supercessor to Krux. It is one gigantic fuel dump. No smoking! It has 5x 2.5m docking ports. Rugged construction to keep the Kraken at bay. It comes with its own booster assembly and enough dV to propel itself into orbit around the Mun. Launch vertically to 8km and then commence a gravity turn. Keep all Mammoths firing until an apoapsis of 120km is achieved. Then jettison the first stage and the nose cones. Use the lone Rhino to do the rest, including the final inclination adjustment. Fuel capacity: LF: 183,222 OX: 223,938 Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.6.1.
  22. Noting a hive of activity in the area of Mt Keverest and suspecting the UKSR[*] is behind it, Kerbal High Kommand dispatch a Nemesis under the able command of J. and B. Kerman and a squad of marshalls to Mt Keverest to check on what is going on: The R28 flag has gone a "floater" here but its true elevation is 6,689m, just 75 below the summit. Additionally, it's quite easy to taxi the Nemesis to the top as well, which is exactly what Jeb & Bill did next, since neither like to walk when a perfectly serviceable aerospace vehicle is available and already warmed up. For reference, the R10 flag is located at: lat = 61.617920 lon = 46.088389 alt = 6579.5 * Union of Kovert Sinister Republics. (No panic, though: turns out it was just a KSP Forum Challenge being run...)
  23. Tadpole Craftyard Description 1:Panther 2:boost 3:flaps Vs:42 trim:+1 A stock aircraft called Tadpole. Built with 22 of the finest parts, its root part is Mark1Cockpit. Conceived as a 6t test bed for the Panther engine, this machine was never destined to be published. Jeb insisted. Vs 42 m/s, 740 m/s at sea level (dry) and 1022 m/s on boost. Dial in +1 on trim ahead of the landing to get a slight nose-up tendency (with SAS off) at landing speed. (To reboard, 1. don helmet, 2. jump, 3. spamming the ‘Grab’ key (F).) Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.6.1.
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