Mister Dilsby

Not taking a side between this definition and the OP's--but Foxster would your craft also work in a horizontal launch if you slapped some gear on it?

Though if he plays KSP, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Did he mention whether the lambda bacteriophage uses a separate engine group for VTOL, or is it just a bunch of Vernor thrusters?

Very cool! I've been toying around with a similar concept. The Mammoth is one heck of an engine, isn't it?

Oh, it gets better...

It could substantially shorten the comic... I don't think he's quite mastered landings yet.

To be clear before anyone gives a definitive answer, [ETA or after--ninja'd again by RIC] I had typed up to "polkadots", then gone to the Advanced editor and asked for a Preview. In the Preview, the 'dot's I had already typed got replaced. Then I thought of one more joke, added the 'dotage' bit, and posted. Kasper must have removed 'dot' from the forbidden list between when I asked for the Preview and when I posted--a space of about a minute.

Yes--you absolutely have to! For me the main advantage is the attitude control. If you distribute the thrusters reasonably well your ship will stay pointed where you want it to go. In most cases you only need the Vernors for short bursts. Axle, if you'd like to try mine out here it is. You can of course take the plane off the launcher if you just want to test it out on Kerbin.

Awww, thanks guys! He is indeed using OPT planes, and last night at his request I installed BD Armory. He has today off from school for Yom Kippur, and when I left for work he was building some kind of tank. Look out, Mort!

Wow! So are you using animation suite for Gene also? I haven't installed it yet, as I don't need it for the interlude.

Well, he does have a birthday coming up... we'll see. If nothing else I'll keep posting for him. Any rep you give for the comics themselves (and not my ever-so-witty comments) I'll set aside for him until he comes of age. Sort of like a fake internet points trust fund! Boo hoo! Just for that you're getting an extended dream sequence of Lord Admiral Kenlie's Grand Tour of Non-Existent Planets! Also starring Gregmore and Marker Guy, with MANY special appearances by Languages I Write Even Worse Than English!

Assuming everyone comes back from Eve all right, we'll have four aircraft/boat pilots available: (Jeb, Gregmore, Tedus, and Kenlie). We'll have to see how many billets are available, and how many characters I think I'll be able to handle effectively in the story. You can't always tell who the writers are until it's too late... just ask my boss. Or my wife. Heh. They could totally get Kenlie to charge into the Kutari Nebula after them by insulting his writing: "Kenlie... I'm laughing at the inferior fanfic."

Appreciate the shoutout Myself I would indeed probably try ©, but rather than the Hummlebee style V/STOL layout would make it a 3-wing tailsitter like my Pogo. (though with all the ISRU equipment it would be several times larger than any Pogo I've ever launched!) That gets rid of the VTOL system entirely, and you could use parachutes to assist landings on planets with atmosphere. Hummlebee's VTOL was really just an assist for horizontal landings on Kerbin and Duna, and never intended for landing in vacuum.

You're right, you already did that. Well, maybe it needs to be embiggened even further, I dunno!

This would be great! I think the key is the head: if you make it 1.5x to 2x normal Lego head size I think the proportions to standard minifig dimensions will come out much better.

It seems to be censoring the word d o t. See, I'll try to type it on its own: ... Yup, censored. You also can't talk about ...ing parents or describe a new texture mod as having polka...s. Wow. I don't think it's either profane or vulgar but then again I am nearing my dotage (heh, this is a fun game!) so it could be something I never heard of. Can't think of a code-based exploit it would prevent either. ETA: wow, Kaspervid fixed it in between my typing 'polkadots' (after which I did a preview) and 'dotage'. Filterninja!

Back before we had the rotate gizmos I used to always put the wings and tail sections in a 'straight' attachment to the fuselage first, regardless of how I eventually wanted them rotated. Then I put the elevons on--relatively easy to align them to the wings if the wings are already in an orthogonal XYZ orientation--and only THEN would I move the wings where I actually wanted them.

Good stuff, looking forward to them starting their training. Wonder if they'll meet other cadets, and if those are kids like them?

I'm liking this a lot--not just the space program, but a bit of alt history I never considered. If keeping Algeria a part of France under DeGaulle, you could have gone even farther back--to 1940, and had the French government continue to fight the war from a capital in Africa as DeGaulle wanted! But then the Allies might have won before Von Braun had time to develop the V2, and where would your space program be then? It does make you think; "geography is history", and our history has certainly favored the people living in certain geographies as opposed to others. But if it were all about going to space, anyone living on the equator would have a HUGE advantage! Those poor penguins, no wonder they've never even gotten to the stone age...

Dres mission? What Dres mission? And what's Dres, anyway, I never heard of it. Is it in a mod or something? I think it was the last Wrath of Khan reference the readers demanded, unless I need someone to demonstrate "two-dimensional thinking" later on. And the meta-meta-fiception part? At least half of us reading/writing this stuff are supposed to be working and/or studying right now...

We could start describing each other...which if nothing else would be a good start to the "Say Hello to the Yellow Card Group!" thread.

Just one more today; reason for the slower than usual pace is that there are a LOT of flights going on behind the scenes. In addition to Kenlie's Gliido I've had to land the Munshuttle at the Munbase, send some ore piggies around Minmus to transfer fuel and ore, and manage Alouette's multiple trips from Gilly to Evestation. It sounds like a lot of work but really other than writing comics this is what makes me happiest in KSP--having a fully developed "model railroad" to play with. I guess the consolation is that thanks to Kenlie, every update gives you two stories for the price of one...

Yes he is. Keep it clean you lot!

Does Kennedy give tours of the VAB when it's not in use? Because I want to wander around and randomly bang on the floor with a hammer, just to see if anyone gets it.

He's got a good eye, yes! I think his grammar isn't so bad, but the spelling...well, like a lot of kids he just rights watt he heres. Your continued amusement is all the reward I need.

Forum: "You must wait for Kuzzter's kid to grow up before you can give him reputation." Well for one thing, none of those goofball interludes!