Servo

I've been building a B-2, and needed a good way to make a simple bomb bay with a flat bottom. Of note, @HB Stratos used a variant of this technique on his TSR-2, but I didn't realize it at the time I built this craft. The trick is remarkably simple, and relies on clipping two cargo bays into each other, and combining the two flat sections on the Mk2 body. A cross section is below

Well, that just means that one of us is psychic... Got any progress you're willing to share on yours? Update on my end, I made the cockpit entirely too small, and too far forwards, so I fixed my mistake. This one is much closer to the source's shape too. Helps to be building at a much larger scale. I've kept the small cockpit in case I wind up wanting to make a subscale B-2 (because this one will easily be 500 parts). The same overlays that revealed that I underdid the cockpit helped me fix the shaping on the wing. I've continued the trailing edge around more, and will probably finish the wing before I start on the fuselage. It's kinda odd building a plane backwards, but considering that the B-2 is a flying wing, it stands to reason that that should come first.

2017 was the year for solar panel cockpits, 2018 was the year for fuel tank cockpits. I bring you 2019: the year of the communotron. \ I mean, who doesn't love flat black cockpits? I noticed that the B-2 was sorely lacking a modern replica, so I set out to fix that. This may get dialed back a smidge in scale - I didn't realize just how big the B-2 was. This is as far as I got tonight, more progress to come.

Today and Yesterday I built a pair of airplanes for no reason at all... I modified my oldish F-84 into a F-84F Thunderstreak. Unfortunately, I had to increase the part count from 40 to 45. Unbearable, I know. I blame the wings for being so strange. I mean, wide wings, significant anhedral, and slightly too large to be a single swept wing. Unacceptable. No reason whatsoever, I can confirm. Stop being curious.

I was looking for craft ideas and @HolidayTheLeek randomly guessed that XB-51 might be an aircraft designation. He was just as surprised as I was when this absolute beauty of a craft showed up. I mean, what? Trijet bomber with a variable incidence wing, bicycle landing gear, and the oddest engine configuration this side of that Swedish asymmetrical fighter everyone was building on reddit a few weeks ago. It also flies great, 10/10 would recommend: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Martin-XB-51

I spent yesterday building and testing an Il-76 from scratch. Took me hours, but I'm really happy with the result. If you want to try it out, I've uploaded it to KerbalX: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Il-76

Per a request from KerbalX, here's the iconic Soviet Bloc strategic airlifter - the Ilyushin Il-76! Don't let the 800 parts scare you, it flies wonderfully Download is here: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Il-76

You got lucky this time... @Castille7

I spent a lazy Saturday building an Il-76 per a request on KerbalX. It was actually an extremely smooth build process, without any major revisions costing time, and it took off on the first try. Two test flights later, it was ready to ship. Here's the build process, if you're curious: https://imgur.com/a/hFibdM0 This is the highest part count craft that I've planned on releasing, coming in at 800 parts on the nose. You get a lot of bang for your buck, though. I mean, just look at this thing.

Yesterday, I finalized and released by B-58 Hustler And I edited up some nice screenshots. In case you ever wanted to explore the thermosphere in a jet-powered aircraft... https://kerbalx.com/servo/Convair-B-58-Hustler

Say hello to Convair's Mach 2 penetration bomber - the B-58 Hustler I've been coming back to this one because I just wasn't happy with engine designs, but I finally hit something that I'm happy with, coupled with extreme performance and a modest part count. Just be careful setting it down (target 3m/s vertical speed) on landing. Download link: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Convair-B-58-Hustler

The Hustler is finished (for now). I've decided to settle for engines that are slightly too big in exchange for through-the-roof performance numbers. 600m/s at 150m above sea level, cruise at 1/4 throttle and 800m/s at 18km. The limit is set by the heating tolerance of the intakes and wings at altitude, and on altitude runs I've topped this thing out at 51.3km. Plus, it looks the part. 212 parts makes this an extremely part-economical build too. And who can say no to a blacked-out cockpit?

I took about a week and a half off of KSP over the holidays, so I'm just getting back to it now. I started this project on a whim, but I think it has a lot of promise. I'm targeting a 250 part, Mach 2 Hustler Replica, and I think that I'm on path to make it happen. Of course, it wouldn't be one of my builds if I didn't do it in style. I also made sure that my latest Tomcat still works in 1.6 (which I just now updated to), which with some modifications, works just fine.

The B-1B was actually my first swing wing, released late January two years ago. It looked good for its time, and worked well (the top speed was abysmal, though), but its one of several that I've been wanting to come back to for a while. I've been talking with @HB Stratos for a while about finally getting organized and collaborating on one, so this might be the spur we needed to actually get going.

I've got a bit of a triple feature coming up here (well, more of a two-and-a-half-le feature) There's some black magic afoot... The Voodoo is here! F-101C (fighter/interceptor): https://kerbalx.com/servo/F-101C-Voodoo RF-101C (reconnaissance variant): https://kerbalx.com/servo/RF-101C-Voodoo And an earlier craft that didn't merit a thread bump: the Grumman F11F Tiger Download for the Tiger: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Grumman-F11F-Tiger My to do list is pretty empty at the moment, so I'm open to suggestions for my next challenge. I've been meaning to go after another swing wing, especially after the Tornado turned out as well as it did.

Very nice replica! It looks better than most larger Blackbirds. Those engines are awesome, and the same goes for the tail fins. Truly a master of all scales.

AskSomeoneElse and I began our plans for producing a Voodo Video (say that five times fast), and I started making pretty screenshots. I also modified my RF-101C into a the boring-old F-10C (harder than expected, actually) And once again, I modified my F11F Tiger, decreasing the cockpit size and moving it farther back, plus increasing the root chord of the wings to better match the real deal.

You are correct. The distinction is that it never did so on a combat mission (defined as doing so while getting shot at). It is important to note that the people claiming this record are the RF-101C pilots themselves, and not any official record agency.

This is a really impressive project you've got going here. The detail would be extremely impressive, but the fact that you're assembling it bit by bit puts it over the top. AskSomeoneElse from KerbalX and I have been dabbling in some black magic. Each of us have built our own version of the oft-overlooked RF-101C Voodoo, a plane which arguably holds the title of the Second Fastest Combat Aircraft. The mach 1.85 reconnaissance missions during the Vietnam war flown by the Voodoo were second only to the legendary SR-71 Blackbird in speed, and more impressive that it was flying at lower levels against SAMs and other defenses. This means that out of all aircraft on combat missions, the RF-101C flew the second fastest. A questionable title, but the Voodoo will take whatever fame it can get. More importantly for me, the F-101 was the second replica aircraft that I released. Recently, I've been revisiting more and more of my first craft as a way of showing how much I've improved (as has the community as a whole). As a means of comparison, here's my first (and second - the F-100 on the right) replicas. I released the entire Century series (F-100 through F-106) on New Years' Eve of 2016, so I think it quite fitting that as the two-year anniversary of these craft return that I should return to them. Here's to another two years of improvements!

The Hot Rod of the European Theater Here's my first successful propeller plane ever, and its a doozy! Thanks to incessant... encouragement... from @HolidayTheLeek, I decided to take on the challenge of replicating one of history's most iconic fighter aircraft. This P-51D is a bit of a monster as far as first stock props go. It's 319 parts, and 14.3 tons at takeoff, and is powered by a grand total of 22 SAS wheels. Despite all this, is is rather agile in the air, and quick off the ground. It cruises easily at 40m/s, and can reach 50m/s without too much trouble. That's all to say that my favorite thing about this craft is the takeoff and landing procedure. There's just something else about lifting the tailwheel off the ground and accelerating just a bit more, to the point that the plane just lifts off the ground. Landing is the same in reverse: kill the prop thrust and let it pinwheel while you glide down to a balance on the main gear, before settling down onto the tail wheel and applying brakes. If you want to experience this for yourself, I can confirm that you don't need any experience with props to fly this thing. More detailed flying instructions are on the KerbalX page: https://kerbalx.com/servo/P-51D-Mustang

After taking a nice long look at the F-11F, it needed a lot of work to get to the point that I'd be happy releasing it. This is the first major step in that direction. Reshaped literally everything except the horizontal stabilizers, and moved to a cockpit that's the right color. And at @HolidayTheLeek's insistence, I started this. Here's the guts - triple hinge, 10 SAS wheel motor. Got a test rig up to 45m/s on the ground, so hopefully it'll have enough oopmh to lift what will probably be a 10 ton craft off the ground.

I took about an hour and a half putting this together. It's one of the few U.S. Military jets that I haven't made yet: The Grumman F11F Tiger. I've got a build video that I plan on releasing soon-ishtm, once I get another pair of hours to edit it together. Here it was about a half-hour into the build. I wound up rebuilding the aft fuselage pretty significantly, which undid a good bit of the work on the nose (somehow). Here's the immediate aftermath of the first test flight. I didn't expect it to survive the landing as well at all (there's almost no clearance for the tail), but somehow the tailhook (which was deployed) also made it. The biggest change after this flight was the reshaping of the cockpit, which was too arched.

I finalized and released my Panavia Tornado: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Panavia-Tornado For some reason, this is the first stock one on KerbalX... I don't know why. It's only an European swing-wing fighter...

This Panavia Tornado has been keeping me busy recently, but it's one of the best aircraft I've put out in a while (In my honest and totally unbiased opinion) The looks took a lot of inspiration from @EvenFlow's excellent work, but were combined with a set of variable geometry wings painstakingly built by yours truly. @HB Stratos helped last-minute to tune this craft and ensure that it's up to his high standards for Tornado replicas. The swing wings on this craft were an absolute pain to get right, but I'm so glad I put in the time. In addition to being extremely reliable, they're also near-indestructible. If I can swing the wings in an 8g sustained maneuver, they're going to work whenever you need them to. Pick it up here, it won't disappoint: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Panavia-Tornado

So that was a lie... I had been annoyed by the massive size of the wing glove, so in a bolt of midnight inspiration (literally), I decided to rebuild it with Tail Fins instead. That cut the height of the total assembly down to about a third of what it was before, and allowed me to tighten tolerances across the board. The two hours I got to spend working tonight went to testing this modification and ensuring that it moves smoothly (which is higher-consistency that before, but not quite up to my liking) I also spent a little bit of time reworking the wing layout, swapping it so that it uses Elevon 4s and looks a bit cleaner than before. Oh... and I landed it on the VAB As it stands now, it has enough lift, thrust, and control authority to maintain straight/level flight at about 18m/s. Granted, that's at about 20 degrees angle of attack, but it's still straight and level.