Goddess Bhavani

I expected nuFAR to totally break my favorite 1930 Soviet aircraft, which had the aerodynamics of an NYC subway car. But lo and behold the voxel aero actually granted it a spectacular drag reduction vs. stock and I just needed a bit of additional wing area since it's 10 tons overweight from historical specs! But fly and fly well it did and it's both hilarious and amazing to try and closely replicate the historical top speed of 300kph for this 1936 variant of the TB-3. For anyone adventurous enough to try it, and have TweakScale, KAX and Infernal Robotics installed, you may get the craft file from here: http://kerbalx.com/crafts/2287 It doesn't have any handling vices and is ridiculously easy to fly but do not exceed 300+ kph / 83m/s or else there will be insufficient pitch authority to control the aircraft (game balancing mechanism by yours truly )

I decided to continue with this thread, as the 'new' craft I built for nuFAR is basically the same aircraft albeit with better streamlining and proper prop engines. Introducing the 'all new' 1936 TB-3 AM-34FRN replica! Just in time for a dawn patrol, the TB-3 of 1936 modernization "AM-34FRN" with more powerful engines, better streamlining and a whopping top speed of 300kph is ready for test flight. Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/crafts/2287 Includes fictional weapon loadout of 8x 250kg bombs and 8x unguided rockets as simulated payload. You can feel free to remove the ordnance and carry something else... more constructive. Maybe a pickup truck or something The mods used are KAX (cos trying to make horizontal helicopter rotors just plain did not work! Not enough RPM!) Infernal Robotics (animated gunner stations) nuFAR (Ferram Aerospace 0.15+) I upgraded my earlier TB-3 design to see what the new voxel aero model thought about it and to my surprise nuFAR gave me a tremendous drag reduction that I could easily exceed the top speed of the historical "FRN" variant. To add a bit of game balance I allowed acceleration beyond the historical 300kph but there would be insufficient pitch authority to prevent the plane from doing its own thing! This was one of the most advanced TB-3 models used for anything from bombing, paratroop transport to fighter mothership in the SPB/Zveno project, first seeing combat in 1938 in the Russo-Japanese conflict.

@B15HOP_xmen I boosted the elevator controls to shorten the takeoff roll, by way of 'negative flaps'. IIRC some modern fly by wire aircraft also flip their tail feathers to induce pitch up, then revert to normal control ranges once airborne. F-35 is one of them. Once you rotate, immediately revert elevators to normal position by hitting the '2' key twice or visually inspecting the ailerons. Accelerate to transonic at medium altitude, and you can then turn off SAS and fly with trim controls or gentle stick input. Also see notes on DPCR in the craft description. It will indeed rip itself to pieces without DPCR since I needed to make the plane responsive all across its flight envelope. Well if I could video it... it could be made to work

Few things are as dramatic as re-learning aerodynamics in nuFAR 0.15, strapping on Valentina to a jet fighter and letting her do the Mach Loop then try to break the SR-71's speed record. All in a day's work for a Gerry Anderson inspired craft, though

Good news everyone! Flight testing progressed at a rapid pace today, with the prototypes reaching Mach 3.1 @ 60k ft and proved extremely agile in the transonic range. With nuFAR 0.15 installed, it is capable of stable flight without SAS and boasts Jeremy Clarkson-approved levels of face tearing acceleration. The Angel Interceptor craft file is available at KerbalX: http://kerbalx.com/pandoraskitten/XF-1-NF-Angel-Interceptor Mods required: TweakScale nuFAR

It's called Area Rule and knowledge of this allows you to decrease supersonic wave drag in nuFAR too. Before the concept of Area Rule, jet fighters had trouble breaking the sound barrier. Once those curvy coke bottle fuselages started appearing, they progressed quickly over a number of years to Mach 2 and beyond In other news, I just finished my first designed-for-nuFAR aircraft based off a famous Gerry Anderson craft from Captain Scarlet. This replica has Jeremy Clarkson approved levels of face-tearing acceleration and has a top speed of Mach 3.1. Thanks to nuFAR it is also stable enough to fly without SAS, although leaving it on is recommended for beginners. Fly with DPCR at 9.0, fudge the number at pilot's discretion. Tweakscale required, as original design had many tiny but functional parts that would be omitted otherwise. Angel Interceptor craft file on KerbalX: http://kerbalx.com/crafts/2234

I am using the current version of EVE high res, which works like a charm in 1.02. Here is the EVE thread http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55905-0-24-7-4-Sep-9-2014-EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements Craft update - I'm testing it in nuFAR right meow, hopefully it will go up to speed without the "become pancake at a certain exact speed" issue with stock aero.

Republic Commando is extremely good! My girlfriend's *entire* family was addicted to it for more than a month. Works fine in Win 7 and 8.1 too.

After getting sick of 1.02 errordynamics flipping all my perfectly logically designed craft end over end, I shall try nuFAR right meow! I wonder what nuFAR would think of the world leading product of the USSR circa 1930

I have finally seen enough pictures of the Angel Interceptor from Captain Scarlet on my Facebook "planes that never flew" news feed that I started to build a replica of it in KSP to 'test the aerodynamics'. Engineering report here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/120364-Valentine-Angel-protects-KSC-from-devious-Mysterons-in-the-Angel-Interceptor-Replica%21 Oh and pics, glorious pics!

The Angel Interceptor Inspired by Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons In my favorite Facebook hangout there appeared many, many reposts of planes that never flew, and the most beautiful of fantasy aircraft such as the Angel Interceptor from Captain Scarlet is a frequent sight among such real-world cult favorites like Avro Arrow and TSR.2. It was only a matter of time before I tried to assemble one in KSP to 'test the aerodynamics'. I was also curious about the design of this aircraft - Gerry Anderson aircraft models are usually, way ahead of their time and it was unsurprising some elements of the Angel Interceptor's design seemed to make sense from an aeronautical perspective. The pointy nose was later trialed by NASA as a sonic boom reduction device (the Quiet Spike), while drooping wingtips to enhance compression lift at supersonic speeds appeared on the XF-108 Rapier and XB-70 Valkyrie projects. The Angel Interceptor would not be easily replicated as a stock craft, due to its unusual proportions. To closely mimic the shape of the original craft I used Tweakscale to resize airfoils and structural sections to obtain the required geometry. I also deleted many subsystems not necessary for flight test in KSP, and simplified the powerplant; what appears to be two turbofans feeding their exhaust into a central ramjet would be an impossible propulsion system with our construction methods. Once the craft was carefully shaped with utmost care, using a slight bit of unconventional assembly technique to line up some odd geometry, Valentina took the prototype to the skies where she reported subsonic handling was superb and not unlike a contemporary lightweight jet fighter such as the F-5 Tiger. Due to some oddities with the KSP 1.02 flight model, supersonic flight cannot yet be safely attained and further flight testing up to the target top speed of Mach 3+ will continue once I setup the current version of FAR. For some interesting reading, here is the canon specs of the Angel Interceptor from "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons". http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/angel_interceptor.html

Yes, I want to sepia tone all my vintage aircraft videos... and film grains... and damaged film!

Yes, Zveno / SPB is something to do in future, now that KAX is available for 1.02. Is there a nice non-cheaty way to control more than one aircraft at once though?

Oh my, the K-7 looks ridiculously tempting. It also has a cockpit section that's really easy to make from the 1x1 structural panels. I'll see what I can do - the main challenge is making the landing gear structures. Maybe I could put useful modules in them. The rest of the ship should be quite okay; just follow the 'original instructions' and I can save a hundred parts since KAX and Firespitter.dll has been updated for 1.02.

For weight savings, the cockpit section is a shopping cart from Tim Yam's Spaceliner mod. Here's the showcase thread for the mod http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/116405-Tim-Yam-s-Spaceliner-Habitats-Birds-of-Prey-Walmart-Galactic-and-Cats-in-Space!

Looks like a fun simple challenge! I might build a fast light low altitude strike bomber just for lulz. I am a fan of some classic British jet aircraft that were designed for low level missions. Surely won't win points for raw speed or payload, but can you say, TSR.2?

Redneck engineered the NASA GL-10 Greased Lightning demonstrator aircraft.

NASA's GL-10 electric VTOL demonstrator has been making headlines recently! The bacon space program, with all its appreciation for bacon grease, built its own derivative of the NASA Greased Lightning aircraft from blueprints that can only come from some old crop-dusting aircraft. Despite being mainly comprised of space station sized 1000EC batteries, she has a flight time of a whopping 2 minutes! I'm not sure if its a balancing issue with KAX or sheer number of propellers involved. My earlier TB-3 just about sips battery charge compared to this little rascal! Anyways here's the craft in motion and a few pics. Nothing much to see, it's not a viable propulsion system due to the low thrust and extreme power consumption - if I want a practical VTOL I'd go for heavy lift choppers or tilt rotor craft which are easy to make with Infernal Robotics.

Random huge helicopter awesomeness. Craft details: http://kerbalx.com/pandoraskitten/KE-2S-Mosquito-Synchropter

OMG first person view? I wish I saw the update earlier, would have put FPV in my new KSP videos :3

Ahh, you have detected the flaw in my Koviet act since I am not familiar enough to think in Krussian. Only Klint Eastwood could do that on the run from the entire KVS!

It is ridiculously fun to make propeller planes with IR Rework parts. The high joint strength is most welcome and adequate for most cases, and eliminates the 'wet noodle' problem I used to have with standard IR parts. Here is a 1933 TB-3 AM-34RD replica in flight, powered by IR props alone, no hidden jets. Flight speed... 20 meters per second. Can't produce any more thrust with this diameter props or else the blades start flying all over the place from centrifugal force. Rotatron speed is about 68-70.

Having been a fan of ridiculously huge and slow aircraft like the ANT-20 Maksim Gorky, I set out to test if the will of the Koviet people could really hold a 20 ton, underpowered and completely un-aerodynamic aircraft in the air. Indeed there is no other reason, Comrade Reader, that such planes could actually fly! After a night of fudging around with a shape roughly based on the simpler and smaller Tupolev TB-3, and going through piles and piles of different propellers, I finally managed to put together a 3 blade, variable pitch unit good enough to send 25 tons of Ural steel up to the required flying speed of 20 meters per second! Thusly, I named it the AM-34RD variant, as it was the more streamlined long range modification and conveniently also had 3 bladed propellers. There, our brave Kosmonauts, now doing the Motherland proud by piloting this rare jewel of the Koviet nation's historical glory, reported remarkably little could ever go wrong due to the glacially slow flying speed and mammoth reserve lift capacity. Even if it would somehow drop out of the sky (impossible!), absolutely nothing would happen to the crew and passengers. Thusly, it was decided nothing in the way of crew amenities or safety features were to be provided. Truly, even in the 1930s, Koviet engineering has no equal! And now, Comrade Reader, you too can see the TB-3 AM-34RD Replica for yourself, as the craft file is hosted on KerbalX! http://kerbalx.com/crafts/2116

I set out to investigate if the mutual will of the proletariat could keep massive, completely un-aerodynamic aircraft in the air. Specifcally, the 1930s Soviet kind of massive, completely un-aerodynamic aircraft. After a night of fudging around with a shape partially resembling the historical TB-3 heavy bomber and designing no less than 8 different propeller systems before finding one that could propel a small office building into the air, I ended up with this: Surprisingly little mishap happened as the flying speed is a whopping 20 meters per second. And like its historical counterpart, the TB-3 Replica has much room for payload, or could be used as a glacially slow survey or transport aircraft. It was indeed, held aloft by the mutual will of the Soviet!

Good news everyone! Walmart is now open for business around Kerbin, on the Munar surface and even on the sands of Duna! See the first post for details, it's part of the main Spaceliner pack!