Deadweasel

Those look pretty sleek! Make sure to turn off rear wheel steering for max stability! What are those dumpster-looking things on the sides of them? Is that where they store new parts they find laying by the side of the road?

It's not insanely difficult; just a matter of scaling. For example, Spectre can currently hover well as long as ASAS is enabled. It's able to overcome the slight rotation induced by the engines without a fight. Ram that throttle up to gain altitude though, and it's quickly apparent that all that thrust -coupled with the very slight off-center placement of the engines- is enough to overwhelm the ASAS and start a crazy nosedive. This is a bit problematic, since I want to be able to use the vertical engines to kill forward velocity, and I don't want to spend 30 minutes just setting up for a landing. Picking up and re-placing the engines is a pain, because they always jump away from their original position as soon as they're picked up. That's why there's a mounting cylinder thingy in the top of the wing. It provides a reference for where the engines are, so if I pick them up to re-balance, I know exactly where they were. Once placed, I then pick up the top plates and shuffle them to match the engines' new position. Once they're as close as I can realistically get them to the balance point, I then start using the batteries to fine tune the weight, which is a lot easier to do since they snap to an angle on the body instead of just sliding anywhere along the flat plane of the wing like the engines do.

Note the wing mounts. She's designed to hover, which means balance is a real pain in the a$% to get worked out just so. That's where the external batteries come in. They're being used like the slide weights on the scale in a doctor's office.

[TABLE=width: 800] <tbody>[TR] [TD]So the other day, these guys... ...were stranded on the island runway after HSOC-101 Spectre... ...ran out of fuel mid-flight. Ironically, out of the entire fleet of long-distance vessels, there were none capable of rescuing three pilots stranded practically next door, although one had been tried (which is how the third guy got stranded along with the test pilots). The decision was made to finalize yet another airframe design in the works, this one intended to operate strictly within the atmosphere, which also just happened to be a potentially viable crew shuttle. One week later, the AACT program saw its first design -101 "Javelin"- take to the sky. The un-manned aircraft performed beautifully, diverting to the island to retrieve the wayward pilots. Following their rescue, the pilots were invited to attend the plane's official unveiling that night. Bob spent most of the evening in Javelin's spacious passenger cabin, making airplane noises Sonke later advised the program designers that Javelin's agility was incredible, but nevertheless, was detrimental to the lunch of anybody aboard during a flight. The plane was far too quick in its maneuvers for passengers. When this feedback was brought before Jebedian, one of the AACT program designers, his first reaction was to summarily ignore the most common suggestion to tune back the autopilot's control inputs. Instead, he forged ahead with a re-design of the plane, to the exasperated groans of the mechanical engineers on the build floor. What resulted from his work surprised quite a few, in any case. AACT-102 "Javelin II" began its own test flight series, even as its predecessor was proceeding to high altitude trials. Javelin II was almost as nimble as the first design, though with a smaller airfoil profile, its maneuvering rate was dampened somewhat, to all potential passengers' great relief. The last remaining concern arose solely from Jeb himself: the plane was still a bit too heavy for his liking, and its forward design -pulled directly from AACT-101- was still excluding the plane from the High Speed Courier program, which Jeb had been hoping to merge this project with at some point. Another week passed, with Jeb becoming a frequent sight on the build floor, issuing instructions and generally making a pest of himself in an effort to see his latest re-design take shape. Word spread of his apparent obsession, and many whispers could be heard though the halls of the KSC that he was very likely headed down the path to insanity eventually. When Jeb caught wind of the rumors, he once again decided to let his final refinements speak for themselves. On the day of the unveiling, he directed it to be displayed alongside the previous two designs, so critics could judge the results for themselves firsthand. Stunned silence fell over the tarmac as the crowd ogled. Jeb had been right to insist on a third design. "Javelin III" (naturally) looked every bit the fast and agile plane that everyone had been envisioning of the AACT program from the start. Jeb and his team had done it. The final revision was capable of far greater speeds than its predecessors, and even managed to out-maneuver everything else in the fleet. As if that weren't achievement enough, gasps could be heard from the crowd as they looked in the passenger cabin and discovered an additional pair of seats slotted comfortably within. Javelin III could now carry six passengers to any destination around the world. High altitude trials are slated to begin tomorrow.[/TD] [/TR] </tbody>[/TABLE]

I had three kerbals stuck on the island runway. Spent an entire day developing a transport plane just to go get them. Hey, it was a challenge, okay?

Today I launched a new plane, designed for atmospheric crew shuttle duty. AACT-101 "Javelin" It flies so well that I felt I had to record it. So I did.

Since I usually go way overkill on the control wheels, my ASAS doesn't actually talk. Instead, it makes a sound when I engage it. Something like:

My latest attempt at a V/STOL SSTO, based on the Banshee II frame. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a SNAFU with the fuel feed, so it only got as far as the island runway before choking out and gliding in for an emergency landing. The test pilots, along with a shuttle pilot who attempted -and failed- to rescue them, are now waiting for the new AACT-101 Javelin to head out their way on its first test flight. Spectre will be serviced and recovered at a later date. For now, it's biding its time, making the archaic parts lingering in the hangar with it insanely jealous of its coolness. XD HSOC-01 Spectre

Why not just quicksave (f5) and try it?

Only if his orbit is toward 90 degrees. He could easily be orbiting on the 270, which would make his current orientation prograde. EDIT: Or that... >_>

Gotta say, that pretty much beats an Immelman... by a few tens of thousands of kilometers, at least! "Did somebody say 'Immelman'?"

Oh yeah, most certainly. That image was from a "what if" run I did (after quicksaving of course) to see how the Kurb Burner's attitude control would handle running full-out down the rim of the massive canyon on Duna. Turns out it does great, holding its own under the light gravity and atmosphere, though the tires are obviously toasted before it gets anywhere near the bottom. Otherwise, running under its own power, it tops out at about 25m/s.

Absolutely! Although, I disagree with the part about needing to switch to Chase view. It's really unnecessary to even have to watch the ship at all with that thing active, and especially so if you're using "control from here" from the port on the ship that is docking/berthing.

*facepalm* dang it.. simplest concept in the universe, and I totally didn't even think on it. Thanks for the reality check. OMG... Why the heck didn't that ever occur to me before?! *sigh* Thanks guys, I needed a little setting straight on that front.

This is the official lighting convention for aircraft: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/electronics/lights/md11-lighting.jpg Newer aircraft expand on this a bit with the top and bottom beacons as well. Current convention is (facing forward aboard the aircraft) Left: red Right: green Top: white beacon Bottom: red beacon

I have quite a few times, but it's even more dog-tricky because there's no elevation reference (you can't see it "snapping" higher on top of the decoupler). They're actually how I thought to start checking the alignment by looking down between them vertically before assuming all was good. You bet your beef that when I got one working, that sucker was an insta-save in the subassembly folder!

It's just a simple lack of experience. Attaching items to a radial decoupler is a real pain sometimes, but once you get the eye for what it looks like when properly mounted, you'll have less trouble with them eventually. The trick is to use snapping, and remember that the virtual "cylinder" that the part rotates around on the decoupler is very small. Use very careful and tiny mouse movements, and when you think you've got it and dropped it, rotate the camera so you're looking down or up along the join. If it's not dead-center of the decoupler and sitting on top of it, you'll need to do it again. Once you've got it, save it as a subassembly so you can just drag it in for another design later, without all the hassle of mounting to the decoupler first. EDIT: Also, to back SSSPutnik's info: When placing a part, watch the mouse pointer, not the part. The pointer is what is being referenced when positioning your parts.

Meh. I got tired of having to cam all over the place or rely on a specific angle to do it right, so I snagged DockingPortAlignment. Now I do it the NASA way, and it's nearly perfect every time. No bouncing, no wiggling, no unexpected shenanigans. Just line up, shuffle over, and make straight in. BAM! Locked in with first contact, every time, perfectly oriented (which is extremely handy when putting together ships in orbit). http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/dock-align-indicator/ THAT, dear fellows, is how one masters docking and never gives it a second thought again.

It's like any new construction kit. Best way to start making awesome stuff of your own is to see it being done by somebody else. YouTube is your best resource for this. Grab some popcorn and send up a YT search for "Scott Manley". You won't be disappointed.

Targeting is only active with the ship currently in control. Anyway, ASAS will only hold its own orientation, which is still influenced by the rotation induced by the vessel's orbit. It can't actually hold an orientation relative to another ship. When your target vessel's orbit is oriented along the prime axes (direct north/south or east/west) it's not that hard to orient the target properly, predict movement and compensate on approach. Where it gets difficult is when the target is on an oddly-inclined orbit, which induces screwy rotations that I can't predict (yet). EDIT: Oh, he was talking about MJ? LOL that makes sense now. I was thinking he was under the impression ASAS could hold a relative orientation on its own as stock! >_<

That's not a fail. That's what we in the business world like to call an "opportunity". There's also another term we use for such cases, and in this case it's probably more appropriate: "challenge". I use FuelTastic to generate fuel as I go, allowing all of my SSTOs (that actually work) to go even farther once they reach orbit. The power cost is pretty high, but patience pays off when you land that sucker at Laythe. It's not cheating; it's "introducing a new dynamic to create a positive deviation from the paradigm". (Okay, enough of that. It's making me dry-heave!)

Pff, 30. Try the Duna Toboggan run for the ultimate in gits and shiggles. (Also, have a driver handy to fix the wheels afterward, or you're pretty much boned.) Side note: wtf is going on with Picasa? I can't embed images from my own albums anymore?? :/

Lots of fun, isn't it? Banshee was my first successful design as well, and it's stability is almost unparalleled with anything else I've flown, which is why it always comes along whenever there's an update to the game (and why I'll bawl like a baby if an update ever breaks B9 Aerospace permanently)

Actually... "Phase 10", after Yuri's debris encounter There's no indication of how close to the terminator they're operating before the strike, so it's entirely possible Yuri was knocked into a sub-orbital trajectory by it. Planetes is probably the best example I've seen of a space-based series going out of its way to adhere to real world physics. His current altitude is called out as 120km, and given the trajectory plot shown, could easily reflect what would happen in reality, though I would expect a debris strike resulting in such a major change in trajectory to be a little more damaging and impactful than was shown. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

...for good reason. This game is about space and science, not... ponies. (ugh)