EpicSpaceTroll139

Here's the Titan Mk1(-2) Also, welcome to the forums @Koro

By to much forward pitch, are you referring to leaning the helicopter far forward in an attempt to go fast? Because if so I've found that helicopters don't seem to like going too fast. Even the much larger Titan Mk1 cargo heli (which I showed earlier) isn't reliable over 25m/s. I'm not sure why it happens on the small heli, but the Titan has the excuse that its rotor blade tips start (according to my calculations) to go supersonic. (Then again, that's only really applicable in heavy lift mode, so I really don't know). Lol

Hmmm... I have made some turboprops with blade tips that are very close to the speed of sound. If I make one with blade tips that go supersonic, and I use this mod, will I be able to create an extremely loud noise like the XF-84H Thunderscreech (most kerbal name ever haha)?

Ok, it turns out these rotors can get a maximum of 560kN of thrust with 224% thrust efficiency, rotating at 2090 degrees/sec = about 35 rad/s = about 333rpm, assuming runway's altitude. (I determined all this through the Aero Data GUI found in the debug menu.). I might be able to get slightly more if I tweak them for less drag. I'll share them as soon as I get Koro's permission (they're mostly his work).

This is why I suggested going into the craft file and removing symmetry on all the parts of the prop assembly. It is using symmetry on parts that already have symmetry that provokes the kraken. Remove the symmetry on the parts before mirroring them, and the kraken should stay away.

I have no idea... I didn't see that button before lol. Maybe because I haven't needed it before. Usually what I'm doing when changing symmetry modes is fixing instances of the editor deciding "Hey! You just replaced your plane's fuselage after fixing something near the cockpit! I bet you want me to change the symmetry on your wings to radial even though you never used it while building!" >:( Had to do that on several planes, worst of all the A-380... took friggin 20 minutes.

I haven't tried this yet, but from other projects, this should work. You could make an engine subassembly and then go into the subassembly craft file and change all the symmetry type lines on the parts to "none." Then when you put it on a plane, mirror symmetry should make a perfect counterpart.

Ah yes, I never really optimized that thing. I was just like "hey it flies!" And shared it @Azimech How dare you make a plane with my engine! Just kidding, that's awesome that you were able to make a plane with that!

The rotors already have these actually in order to prevent the DMP server I test these on from autodeleting them. What I'm getting at is that you wouldn't be able to throttle while controlling the main craft. In other words, whenever the throttle needed to be changed, one would have to switch to the rotor, change the throttle, then switch back to the main craft. This would not only be annoying, but also make hovering and maneuvering much harder. Also it would probably be a death sentence in DMP because whenever you switch ships there, it's liable to switch you to someone's plane 20km away and not let you go back.

Ah you mean rotors with tip jets! If there were a way to throttle such jets while controlling the main craft I would totally do this.

Oh wait now it... idk... Anyways, I'll probably work on more efficient small helps. By rocket power are you just meaning a heli that can work without oxygen, or is there another specific reason for rockets?

The bearings cope with the high rpm amazingly well. However, I had to modify the rotors from Koro's original design in order to cope with the expansion. When I first started trying to really test their abilities, they would eventually expand enough that the front rotor would clip its blades on the engine for the rear rotor. Interestingly enough, this did not usually result in a crash. When the front rotor lost its outer segments, it got less drag, and thus sped up until it had expanded enough to almost fill the space of the original blade, and got almost as much lift as before. While this was kind of cool, it didn't look great, and didn't seem very safe, so one of the modifications I did was overlap the blade segments a bit, so as they expand, they become what the old original length was.

I'm not going to specify the exact numbers yet, but Koro (an awesome dude who plays on the NoNameShips server) and I have discovered through much mucking around that the new aero can offer fantastic rotor efficiencies, at least for slow moving helicopters. I don't know about planes. Ok I don't know what's up with Imgur (it won't finish uploading my pics, even after several attempts), but -Resetting my internet fixed it- I've put together a tandem rotor helicopter which can carry a payload of about 50 tons, and its rotors get whopping 170% efficiency. Yes, that's right, it actually uses less fuel with the rotors than if I just pointed the same type of jet engines down. Each rotor uses 2 panthers blowing on a 3.75m fairing base as a turbine and has rotor blades made of the small rectangular wing parts set at 5 degrees pitch, all on Thermohinge bearing. I'll post a download link soon, but currently I'm trying to work out some bugs, such as kraken attacks after performing the pinnacle maneuver on the VAB (don't ask me why this happens, but it seems reliably reproducible).

By rotor efficiency I mean: For every kN of thrust the blowers are exerting, how many kN of lift is the rotor providing? On a different note, it turns out that the Thermohinge bearing is quite a bit stronger than anyone's given it credit for! I'll demonstrate when I get home

Just curious, what's the greatest payload anyone's gotten a with a practical helicopter? And rotor efficiency?

So I've been fiddling with the ideas of two forum goers (Majorjim and the OP), and they have produced this Frankenstein contraption! Presenting the Coax Mk1. As you can see in the pictures above, it is a quite small co-axial helicopter! It only has about 5 minutes of fuel, but I aim to improve that in future versions! It works with the standard drag multiplier, as I had forgotten it existed while creating this

After literally two days of redesign and tweaking, I present a revolution in stock tiny helicopter technology! It has enough fuel for about 5 minutes, but hey! It works! I found that I could get increased rotor torque and speed by widening the turbine, and that it was actually the speed that was making the rotors come off. So, I just added more rotor blades and got more lift at lower rpm! Doubling the rotors helped to eliminate the torque, while also allowing me to get rid of dead-weight anti-torque measures! Without the thermohinge this tiny contraption would not have been possible! Thank you Majorjim! Also Azimech are you seeing this? Propellers aren't dead yet! Heli Mini-Motor

Ok so these are those weird propeller physics I was talking about. It seems that the blades will get lift when traveling up, but not when traveling down. This one above has the blades backwards and is thus acting as a weirdly shaped pusher prop, but it does the same on a puller with less weirdly shaped blades. Anyone have any ideas why this happens? Because if I could get thrust on the other half of the propeller disc I'm confident I could make a plane fly with it. Also been trying to use decorative propellers on planes. They always seem to eventually spin at some absurd rate and then wrench themselves out of the hinge. Edit: I will share the mini prop motor soon I think Edit 2: Apparently, if the propeller is oriented so that its axis is vertical, all blades can get lift simultaneously. Maybe helicopters are more viable than planes? Edit 3: I got a tiny probe heli to fly using the thermohinge motor... for 20 seconds before the rotor broke loose and abandoned me as I fell to the ground and exploded Edit 4: I have something fun for tomorrow

Ok there is definitely some kind of rotation limit now. I can't even get to Kerbin escape anymore, let alone get launched at 1000c. I actually figure this out long before I ran out of electric charge, as I wasn't getting the ever-changing stroboscopic effect (figured out what the thing caused by frames was called) that should have resulted from continual rotational acceleration. But whatever the rotation limit is, it's still quite high, 100 rotations per second maybe? Anyways, this still doesn't explain why only one side is getting thrust. It's doesn't make sense. I may post pics tomorrow, but I'm pretty busy.

My understanding is that Squad got rid of this a while back. Unless it's been reeplimented in 1.1, I think the only limit on how fast ships spin is their tensile strength. I think my motor above was getting at least 50rpm (only a guestimate based on the illusions of backwards movement and stuff caused by frames, might have been 1/2 or 3/2 or 2x that or something). Ima perform a quick test with a mk1 lander can in space. If the limit exists now, it means I won't be able to go warp speed after spinning anymore

Ok here it is! A small turbo-motor! Inspired by Azimech's large scale turboprops, I decided I wanted to make something smaller. A modified thermohinge allowed me to do that. It works pointed in any direction. All I had to do was figure out a way to block the shaft from falling out; in this case I used a cubic strut placed inbetween 2 antennas (I used no-offset-limits to move one of the antennas, but I'm pretty sure I could find a way without that). In the screenshots of the inside you can see this more clearly. The 8xthermos&antenna circling outside of the hinge act as a turbine to capture the thrust from the single Juno blower. I probably would have an actual plane (or heli) by now if KSP physics didn't keep doing this weird thing that only one side of the prop will produce thrust! In this example, I didn't put a prop on, just antennas for reference. I'm not sure exactly how fast it rotates, but it was enough that propellers without enough pitch (and thus load due to drag) would expand outward and eventually either hit the ground and blow up (if they were tested closer to the ground), or just fly apart (if the ground wasn't there to stop them). I might share the craft file in a bit if anyone wants it

Ok so I ended up being forced to abandon the droop nose idea because my Concorde model already has way too much drag (it will barely stay above mach 1 with full reheat, let alone supercruise at mach 2 ). However, after messing with the thermohinge concept a bit, I have found an incredible new use for them. I want to perfect it before I share it though. Hint: I should be able to share the thing this evening. It's by no means perfect, but it's not violently exploding anymore, so that's good enough for me

I've also found that sufficiently large (as in 100m long maximum diameter mk3 fairings fairings) could (at least back in re 1.1, I haven't tested 1.1 with this yet) lag, if not outright crash the game due to "too many heap sections." I suspect it was due to the sheer number of fairing panels moving

Danny2462's house

Oh my bad, I was quoting Redshift OTF. I was on mobile so quoting function wasn't working right. Anyway, I will be trying this out in just few mins!