dnbattley

I can't believe I never spotted this thread: :)

The format works well. I can't wait to see the next episodes, though am concerned how my zompi-Kraken plane will fare in the context of "not reading instructions"...

Agreed: I just couldn't resist after noticing how similar in weight my first attempt was to yours

Well... sadly my design efforts there came to nothing, as the result was barely controllable. However, I had more success with... this 8.5T oddity (4.5 min unedited video follows): Designed primarily with rapid take off, extreme manoeuvrability and good survivability in mind, it mocks some more traditional aircraft design practices... EDITED TO ADD: Noticing the record stood at 9.6T, I strapped a few more fuel tanks and wings on and tried again, with success, now at 9.8T: https://imgur.com/a/qoItfcn

@Klapaucius I hope this does not come across as looking for a loophole, but is there any rule against allowing engines to dynamically be moved vertically on the airframe (while strictly maintaining their direction to be directly rearwards at all times)? The ability to raise or lower the thrust relative to the CoL/M may permit some more interesting STOL flexibility.

Cross-posted from the Reddit Forums, and posted below for your entertainment: Made in stock 1.10 (including DLC) using a custom decal I created for the glass effect.

If you want the plane to look its best for video purposes, you'll ideally need the custom decals I use on top of the lights at the back to help me identify engine states (Z = zompi drive ["conventional" kraken power], K = kraken drive [extreme thrust at altitude], P = k-drive protection system [only needed outside Kerbin SOI], V = VTOL system [secondary k-drive which can either be pointed forwards or upwards]) when flying in 3rd person view. I'll upload these tonight as a zip drive and edit the link here, together with instructions for installing them in case you haven't done so before. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_D1DDwEY-j9xcCt65GwcoC7c7VCZirLS/view?usp=sharing Simply copy this to the KSP folder (the zip file should already contain the correct folder structure: GamaData/CustomDecals/Flags/[files])

There is, surely, no safer plane to fly than one which doesn't use fuel... https://kerbalx.com/dnbattley/zK-Light-Plane-Mk3-Luxury-Edition

From a similar situation, I engineered a Duna "handbrake turn" to get back to Kerbin, because you can hit that atmosphere at ridiculous speeds in (relative) safety...

I'm not aware of any formal limit, but my computer complains greatly after a few hundred parts... Also worth noting you can adjust symmetry down by removing X part(s) from n symmetry (and then removing those parts entirely). Any offset or rotation of the remaining parts will "reset" their rotational symmetry in the new n - X configuration.

OP hasn't swung by these forums in a while, it seems, in order to get confirmation, but judging by their other KerbalX craft, I would tend to think that it is just a coincidence and that they did not create a working version of the drive... But it would interesting to know!

Good lord that's efficient. Bravo. The best I could do after 3 attempts was 3119...

Fantastic! And 9kN is the rounded value, so this is about as good as you can get. Indeed, on that topic I saw a comment on SWDennis' recent video by someone called "Just Thomas" who had done some even more precise work (by editing craft file values) in order to determine that:

This is fantastic work, and a great addition. However, at about a quarter of the per port power of a single pair, it's fascinating to see how much power is "lost" as a result of multiplication. We definitely need to investigate this further.

Is there a landing leg drive in there, or only docking port drives? Personally I differentiate between the former as a "k-" and the latter a "z-" drive, but accept that nomenclature in this area is not without controversy...

It has, of course, never happened before * cough Edison * but it now is what it is, and fighting against the "zompi" nomenclature is unlikely to provide any satisfaction... Each drive can provide up to 9kN, which is like a spark on 50% thrust. Also the amount of thrust does depend on the distance apart, so optimise that, and build accordingly. Also, add a k-drive (landing leg powered) to add raw power. My video above does have an explanation of that...

Haha: thanks! With all this very kind recognition, I was reminded to upload some unshared footage* I had lying around of the final version of the cube being used: * I think I'd used some of it for an animated gif on the reddit forum, but never got around to properly arranging it.

Thank you very much: I'm honoured!

You can't create a k-drive without a little bit of clipping, after all

I'm with you on this: it feels awkward to have to check which mode I'm in before passing a key. For me, the solution is to disable RCS rotation in the VAB (i.e. set actuation toggles to translation only) and then just use two hands on the keyboard, where left hand controls the (reaction wheel only) rotation, and right hand controls RCS movement.

The topic of zompi- (it's perhaps a shame they couldn't have been "fish"-) drives is going more mainstream, with SWDennis' recent video on the topic. I should probably also highlight my own YT efforts to explain the drives, from a few weeks back:

Good spot. And this was even earlier https://kerbalx.com/Fishanator/Test-Phantom-Drive. I suppose it goes to show that PR really does count for something... Nice! It certainly does make for very satisfying aircraft for flying. I probably had the most fun flying my Enterprise craft (https://kerbalx.com/dnbattley/USS-Enterprise-NCC-1701-A) as I have had flying anything in KSP ever...

It turns out Blender offers really good green screening where you can match the colour you are keying out very precisely, and then tweak to e.g. feather in the edges, so it was quite simple to avoid cutting off the face.

Yes, it's just a simple custom flag I created

Behind the scenes: