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XB-70A

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  1. Today, I still haven't ended the last flight with the XC-73A Pallas still docked in orbit, that I start another small-medium SSTO inspirated by the Myasishchev M-50 and called XC-74A Varuna : Standing proudly on its particular tandem landing gears, Varuna got Valentina as a pilot-in-command for its inaugural flight. Ouch, it got just 800 kg more than its predecessor but I can feel it by the length of runway it needs. Still, we have enough fuel to accelerate enough near the sea level. Here we go! Climbing at 20 degrees. About 24 km and still running under air. I shut down engines 2 and 3 to avoid the flip. Number 1 and 4 made the job perfectly. At this point the Ap was placed at 140 km with around 1010 m/s still in reserve. Ground Control to Major Val, you've really made the grade. After maneuvers costing just 90 m/s, Varuna is approaching Outer Heaven with its older sister still docked. The whole vehicle is actually just equipped of the cockpit internal reaction wheel for its monoprop free maneuvers... yes, we can say it's heavy and terrible to control. But we are docked. This is Major Val' to Ground Control. I'm floating in the most peculiar way. After this first part completed I don't really which one of them I prefer to fly... Pallas get a better look to me and is more maneuverable, Varuna for its part is the total opposite... being less attractive but with its wings configuration much more stable and easy to control.
  2. 62.5 MHz bad graphics Otherwise I'm working on a tiny Myasishchev M-50 inspirated S.S.T.O. named Varuna.
  3. As my grandfather once told me : - "A trowel a week makes the son gentle and bring". - "Even if everything went well?" - "Yep, just give him one." More seriously, sorry for you... have you think about a game copy on a hardrive you could plug at school?
  4. When your pant/short/whatever-you-wear back pockets are full of small "prototypes" and trajectories diagrams you made while waiting until your next game's dose.
  5. I got my own solution for it with the stock parts. I actually use one of the game problem (its pretty bad aerodynamic) to compensate the thrust one : by placing some wings and their control surface inside the main core. Here are some screenshot taken while testing my X-37 shuttles family after having installed the "wings" (sorry it's during the night) : As you can see there is no visible lifting surface, but the visible aerodynamics marks clearly show that the one inside are compensating the strong lifting surface of the top vehicle. It's too bad I dont have any screenshot of it now as my actual model got 4 Thumper for the light shuttle version and 5 for the heavy one, anyway the lifting surfaces are still perfectly capable of compensate the imbalanced CoT. And as the boosters are lighted at the same time and got a pretty short time of burning the launcher is still in the atmosphere when we have to jettison them. --- EDIT --- I got some time this morning, so just launch the game to make a quick flight with the actual version : I use the ascent guidance to get my screenshot's hand free while the other is controlling the X-axis. Here the core control surface actions are clearly visible. Once freed of the SRB nearly nothing remains. And you enjoy the flight.
  6. I was supposed to get a meeting of 40 min in my usual 11H working day, but it got cancelled... enough free time to get a small KSP shot ! So the time to start up everything and I tried the XC-73A Pallas in another flight. Today's flight was supposed to prove her capabilities to reach a target a 200 km, dock and... well, we will see if she can dock before or even meet the station. Engines 1 and 4 got a better angle to be aligned with the center of mass. Same about the front and rear RCS. The flight also was an occasion to try a new climb profile by keeping on accelerating until 600 m/s was reached, then choose an angle of 25 degree which was progressively reduced to 18. This last experiment was unsatisfactory, the SSTO reaching just 1300 m/s at 23 km before the switch where my old XC-144 Nike-Beta and her "block" of four RAPIER was making more than 1610 m/s at 21 km. Anyway, now it was to late to step back. Circularization at 140 km. Hopefully the outer engines now are well angled. Approaching the Outer Heaven station on her 201x200 km orbit. With just one small monoprop RCS pod at each of her extremities, Pallas is like a Panzer III/IV wading in the rasputitsa. Aaaaaaand... Docked! Finally! Let's allow the crew for a small tour after so much efforts. I will try to make the crew return tomorrow if the time is with... and the craft too.
  7. Just a bit I remember as a kid in 95' when hurricane Luis struck us, a lot of help was deployed at Juliana airport, some US C-130H and French C-160D, one Ukrainian Il-78 was chattered by our telecommunications services to carry repair vehicles. And as surprising, one of the C-17s prototypes also made a rotation here. At this time everybody was impressed by such a modern design.
  8. This is honestly a nice creation, I personally like these shots picturing the Jumbo-64 deployment. It remembers me the BLU-82 drops. On another hand with the lack of winglets plus its fine and long fuselage it makes me more think about a C-5M Galaxy than a Globemaster III.
  9. I wish it could be the perfect craft to Convey the crew. More seriously, when I drew it on a paper my main desire was to make one SSTO with RAPIER under pods. I started by the fuselage, drew a large but pure delta wing then... s**t, now it's a pure B-58 look alike! Once in the SPH I even was about to put the small CH-J3 Fly-By-Wire part at the bottom to imitate the Hustler's M61 Vulcan turret. The unique problem still is this horrible KSP dynamism which is making your craft flipping once in space if the engines thrust is not aligned with the center of mass. I think I will make another small quadri-RAPIER SSTO based on the Myasishchev M-50. Like this the outer engines will already be axed with the CoM.
  10. Ouh thanks, really nice to read Strangely soon after the post I made a small single engine aircraft called Vector to reach the island and be back cheaply. I was so annoyed by this nth landing out of the KSC that I decided for the first time in two years of playing to plant a flag on the island airfield. Any night landing will be easier now that I can find the island immediately, even when in the clouds. Sergei and Valentina were restricted of the daily nap selectioned for this glory mission. That's how I like to make a rotation. With just a single Panther turbofan the Vector proves to be a bit underpowered. But economic at least. About three minutes later we were on the doomed place to accomplish this important duty to the rest of the whole space program and in the name of all these missed approach and re-entries. Valentina is running to the target. (Drums are rolling) After just a minute to enjoy the sight, it already was the time to go back to the Center. No way to miss out the afternoon snack. Throttle full forward and Kerbal's traditional roll during the climb. Marking the success by waking up the resting comrads with a low-pass. The Vector proved to be underpowered but forgiving during this first flight. With its 74 minutes of flight I will probably use it again to realize my first exploration of Kerbin's desert and others biomes not too far.
  11. I kept on experimenting the XC-73A, with more fuel now. Like any flying brick she needs a lot of runway to accelerate to her rotating speed. But then, once the 500 m/s barrier broke she becames much more reactive and resilient. The angled outer engines really help even when still in the athmosphere. Ap placed at 100 km again. 450 m/s needed this time. Mmmh... Kerbin I love your sight. Already time to go home after less than an orbit. Pallas behavior during re-entry was annoying. Even with all the propellant transfered to the back tanks the craft keep on lowering its nose. Problem is that her drag coefficient is absolutely low! Whitout inputs to keep a sufficient surface to air brake the batteries inside the rear Mk2 section tend to explose. Another huge overshot. Hopefully enough fuel, the good gliding performance and the R.A.P.I.E.R. help to reach the island without any stress. Gear down and locked. Runway overshot! But no go-around, a braking chute is here for the occasion... well, I hoped so at this time. The Mk16 parachute was not really the one I wanted. The Mk2-R would have been the perfect one... but it and the small nose cone to cover the back fuel tank would have mean 100 kg more. Still something on such a craft. There is still a lot of work to make on before making it a reliable machine.
  12. Working since yesterday on the XC-73A Pallas. It's a simple 5 seats vehicle only made for crew rotation and low incomes tourists contracts. Alas I still find it non-performant enough to be a good transfert vehicle. Once on a 100x100 km orbit it got only 950 m/s of dV remaining.
  13. I past some time of the day playing Dangerous Waters with the new Reinforced Alert 1.41 mod (awesome), then got 20 minutes free remaining for KSP. The result is a small 5 seats SSTO called Pallas. It's a 5 seats craft, the last Mk1 cabin being covered by the fuel tank. With 4 RAPIER it used to be way too much owerpowered, but this is all the fun. After having reached 550 m/s below 2000 m I applied a positive climb at 20 degrees. Ap placed at 100 km. The craft got an excellent response to any input at this time. Starting circularization. For controls reasons the engine 1 and 4 are a bit angled with the CoM, preventing the craft to flip once out of the atmosphere. And for better controls the number 2 and 3 are down. There we are! In orbit! Well, the craft itself is only a funny creation and doesn't have any real function. But I will try during the next day to optimize it a bit make of it a performant SSTO transfert vehicle. ("Any similarity with the Convair B-58 Hustler was purely coincidental")
  14. Any kind of Human polytheist divinities, the legendary characters coming with and sometimes some ridiculus names when my craft is based on a real one but with such a bad looking or with poor performances that it becames an insult to the original one. In the last case I made a terrible Dragon 2/Falcon 1.2 inspirated craft, it's so wrong and monstrous that it got the birth name of Sphinx 2/Struthio 1.2, or my Antares 100 became Alpha Scorpii 100. Other exceptions are the Soviet launchers and rover family, my old stock Soyuz (Union) was named Alliance, and the last Duna rover Singularity.
  15. Oh yes... I can't really describe why, but the first time I saw the video of him fighting his online critics I was mixed between despair and admiration. Still the fact is that he realized a lot of bombs, on the artistic as economic points. For the last maybe it could be the result of the traditional impossibility of some prods to run their budget and it just rise like it should never. As an example it's still imcomprehensible to me that the terrible Far Cry movie got about 30 millions of funds (!). But it turns to be so bad that it starts to be enjoyable, So for B and Z-movies lovers like some of us are, Uwe Boll is a kind of master.
  16. Dank, Sand' Even if they are terrible for the docking maneuver, I just like the rear port configuration. Every time there is an occasion to place one instead of a linear, I will. From my first shared craft Arethuse : To Hecate : And the SSTO Nike-Beta : Should be a form of video-game masochism.
  17. Today is was time for the team to fulfill its contract with someone in the name of Rolong : Well, Rolong just ask for a more than simple orbital flight. But, a new small 3-seats shuttle was ready in the VAB for its inaugural flight. Samus also volunteered for her first Munar trip : The X-23A is a low-cost, medium-tech shuttle system made to carry three souls or a small payload instead of the cabin with a dV of about 3 km/s. The orbiter is powered by two Spark midget-engines. The complete system being made of 80 parts. Powered by a Mainsail and a pair of Thud acting as powerful vernier, the first stage got enough punch to kick the whole system to approximately 1500 m/s at an altitude of 30 km. A single Swivel ensure the propulsion of the second stage. It got only 1.8 km/s of dV. But its more than enough for the Kerbin circularization and nearly all the trans-munar injection. Ugggh... 802 m/s. But my probe Eve Express will arrive at its destination in just 21 days. No way to miss it. In Munar orbit, Steven Kerman is enjoying an umpteenth EVA close to the satellite. But it already was the time to jump back to Kerbin. Nun nu nuuu ... And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too... I'll see you on the dark side of the Mun... The X-23A Adonis got more than enough fuel remaining to even realize a circularization at 140 km, then wait for the perfect time to de-orbit. Its good CoL and CoM ensure a really stable re-entry. I feared a possible overheat of the nose cone at one time but no way. Everything went smooth without even touching the controls. At this moment the little craft becomes a bit unstable so nicely maneuverable, answering to any inputs immediately. Speed was still good as Adonis isn't a good glider. WHOOOOO... Definitely a good boy! I keep this one. Next shuttle system concept, the X-22A : Still not ready.
  18. I got 30 minutes free yesterday. It was the occasion to conceive fro the first time a "good-looking" shuttle, able to reach Mun/Minmus and not too costful. This first flight revealed some imperfections of course, mostly about stabillity. It is too stable ans so unmaneuverable. Also I was a bit mixed about the small Juno turbojet. It gives the occasion to complete the flight completely, without it I would have finished about 10-25 km west of the Center. But once without it makes the dV jumping from 2.5 km/s to 2.8. Not small.
  19. Finally home at 10 p.m and I get an idea of an SSTO during the whole day! It is way different than what I drawn but it keep the global idea. Codename Seth : I made three flights with just one reaching a 100 x 100 km orbit due to some instability problems in the astmosphere upper layers. There is still a lot of work on, but before leaving the game I find a way to give it approx' 1600 dV once in closed cycle. But with its mass of 51 tons and glutton RAPIER I don't know how it will be...
  20. Honestly one of the few, good video game based realization I had to see was Metal Gear Solid - Philanthropy. Non-perfect of course but still when the work was aligned with their means the artwork resulting was more than good. Now as someone who make four years of college studies in "Cinema-Audio" (as they love to call it), I think that now it will not be possible to realize an adaptation (I insist on the term adaptation) without ruining the KSP atmosphere and story we know... simply because KSP is one of these exceptions where we strictly have no proper story in a cinema as a literary world. The three main parts of the storyline, introduction, development and conclusion, these three boring stages (that we are forced to respect in this industry...) can't be aligned with KSP as, even in a career campaign, the scenario can change between each player, we are free to do what we want. Or... the idea of an adaptation could be flushed and give its place to an inspiration. But this is absolutely dangerous as most inspired realization just take a solid base on the original artwork then use to literary rub-out what the "Team" (with a major T...) don't want in their artwork. Do it, add some peripeteia and other stuff to make it more drinkable. Why not establishing a weak-relationship between Valentina and Bob, of course Jeb' is behind 'cause he always was jealous of Bob who got better result at the astronauts school while he was a boss at all the physic exercise test and he got the guts to be a test pilot?! But Val' never care for him, whyyyyy....? And during this time Linux, who was abandoned at birth is slowly discovering that... Wernher IS his genitor! The father he was looking since the beginning! Of course lets put more cake, yogourt and fluffy stuff in and we could even realize just a Part I of KSP the Movie like this, and maybe could we expected to see at least one or even two launches during this film. More seriously if it has to happen, then I would prefer to see it in a "medium" realization, between 30 and 60 minutes. Even if it's probably the most difficult sector to work in, between the short and the long, like a hybrid of the cinema, the medium can ensure enough time to a short but good introduction, a nice development and basically some time to not trash the conclusion. But as a personal choice I think about Maybe leaning to No.
  21. Splendid replica of the old Lady, without her payload and just with the bombing radar she looks like the superb and later IVP recon variant. There is a comic story about her original strategic mission (then later "pre-global strike" mission with the ASMP cruise missile) : as she was the first French aircraft able to stay 17-18 hours in the sky with multiple air-refueling, how to ensure about a whole day in the air for the crew but without any restrooms? They though about a vertical pipe but the reject will touch the sensitive bombing radar antenna, another afterward... but it will end on the altimetric radar... or still behind the bomb bay, where the liquid would have already frozen. They finally find the solution with a pressurized bottle and some time after only.
  22. Find me on KerbalX Hello everyone, here comes a terrible creation which had been sleeping for some time in the VAB and was about to be totally forgotten, the X-26A Eos. The project was born some times ago of the desire to make a small craft inspirited from the U.S. Space Shuttle system but having no more than the Mk1 size for its parts. Named after a Greek Titan and goddess of the Dawn, Eos was in my mind the symbol of a "new" way to build tiny shuttle... and I should have called her Hecate as she gives me so much troubles but the name was already taken. Originally she was conceived to be a super cheap Space Shuttle and easy to access in a new career. For it the boosters were made of Thumper, but they were absolutely incapable to kick her to a good altitude before running out of fuel. 6, 8 even 9 Thumper offset into each other on both sides still were unable to made it... and the low launch cost which was one of the reason supporting the project just explode (it did reminds a true story). So absolutely disappointed I opted for the Kickback and a total remodeling of the craft, changed the vertical stabilizer, placed more fuel inside the Orbiter. This made it more light and performant but still a test flight was needed... The climb is surprisingly smooth, the whole system being just a bit sensitive during the SRB last seconds of operation. Once jettisoned the orbiter and its External Tank recover their good control. The main problem appeared once close to the circularization altitude. The O.M.S imitation is consisting of just two Spark small rocket engines, those are totally underpowered for the mass of the orbiter even to start the maneuver about 2 minutes before the T time. The unique solution being to keep the E.T and start the maneuver with S.S.M.E Thud. For an Apogee of 140 km those are absolutely able to complete it with even some fuel still available in the tank, so I used to shut them down and eject the tank when just a 100 m/s are still needed and complete the maneuver with the O.M.S. At this point around 900/950 m/s of dV are still available. (Four Sepratron will ensure a quick clearance off the fuel tank) Once in orbit at 140 km the target was the traditional space station orbiting at 200 km : The whole docking maneuver is simple with four RCS pods being placed around the CoM. Then I don't know why but the X-26A remained abandoned for almost a year before finally returning to on the surface. Once again I overshot the KSC. The unique solution was to land on the old island airfield. Finally, what was supposed to be a simple system to ensure the transport of four souls for a very low price became a real luxury, costing more than 50 000. But it remains fun to control.
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