Elmetian

So I've been mucking around with 0.17 for the first time today (stupid RL job taking up my spare time :@) and I've found that my 0.16 spaceplanes are now unstable. As you can see, I've got the CoM and the CoL more or less aligned (which I achieved painstakingly through trial and error in 0.16 I might add), and the CoT aligned along the plane's long axis, yet when the atmosphere thins above 30km the nose tips over to the left or right. I know that the avionics package is really for atmospheric flight and not reaching orbit, but my 0.16 SSTOs didn't have these issues before the update. It almost seems as though the avionics been nerfed (or made more realistic I suppose). Can anyone else see where I'm going wrong?

This will probably be my last creation for a while as I'm starting a new job soon. I've also decided to install some mods, so this will likely be the last entirely stock craft that I share. After several hours of work trying to balance this thing, I've managed to produce something that I feel is superior to My Albatross SSTO. I wasn't happy with the ugly command module on the Albatross, and needing 8 tanks of RCS fuel just to keep the aircraft trimmed wasn't exactly a practical solution to the problem of the nose rising. The Buzzard might look very similar superficially, but it has been built from the ground up. <b>EDIT: Have tested with fuel consumption fix, and it still doesn't have enough to reach a 100km orbit. I'm working on the Nk2 version to solve this, but the extra weight of the fuel is causing some stability issues.</b> Leave the avionics on throughout, except for the brief moment you pull up during take off. Climb steeply to 13km, then bring the nose down to approx 35°. She sometimes stalls at high altitude, so make sure to start the rocket before pitching up to abut 60° for the climb to orbit. RCS usage during ascent is minimal, but you still need to turn them on when you pass an altitude of 20km. Make sure to deactivate the jets when you pass 20km as well. Otherwise, she's very forgiving, and glides nicely too. P.s. it took me ages to find an imagehost for the gifs that allows files up to 10MB in size. Pleasantly surprised by Imgnook.com. Not sure if anyone else has heard of them, but they seem to have a nice user interface as well.

Upload them to an imagehost like imageshack or imgur, and then use the <b></b> tags when you're writing your post. Good image hosts usually provide correctly tagged URLs for you to just paste in to forums as well. If you reply to this using the 'with quote' option, it will show you how the tags are being used below for this image:

Thanks. The Gosling was a bad compromise made pretty tbh. I built it specifically for the microplanes thread so I had to use the Mark1 cockpit to keep it small, which in turn meant I had to use the advanced SAS rather than the avionics package. The ASAS is very good at keeping a rocket pointed in one direction, but not so good in level flight. I've been working on a new version of the Albatross using the Mk1 cockpit instead, but there are a lot of balance issues. I'm also not sure if it could reach orbit without the fuel bug, so I'm considering installing the unofficial patch before I release another SSTO spaceplane.

Introducing IBN's new long range heavy transport, <b>the Condor</b>. She has a take off speed of about 125m/s, a ceiling of about 18km, and a top speed of about 640m/s. She's a bit nose-heavy until the first fuel tank is depleted, and because of her size, the SAS struggles a little so the pitch needs manually adjusting for the first few minutes. Otherwise, she's easy to fly. She turns quite slowly, but will pull up and go supersonic in a climb due to the immense thrust from her 12 jet engines. She's easy to land on relatively flat terrain, and will even ditch safely in water as long as you put her down gently.

Decided to make a tutorial video for the Albatross Nk3 since she requires some piloting, but mostly cause I was bored www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGLrNJU6GI4

An African swallow, maybe, but not a European swallow Also I guess I should rename the rocket plane it carries, 'Coconut'. Yeah, I thought so. Starting to regret calling it that now though. It limits the number of verbs I can use to describe wanting to change it. No 'tweaking' or 'fiddling', at least not in polite company

After flying the Albatross Nk2 a few times, I couldn't help fiddling a bit more. <b><u>Change log:</u> • Rebuilt upper wing using new blended body design • Rebalanced rockets for better performance • Moved fuel lines inside the wing for aesthetic reasons • Added parachutes to the rear for braking when landing • Removed some linear RCS thrusters and added some more elsewhere • Added struts to reinforce the new wing

Thought I'd test out my current lander design by doing a manual transfer and landing on Minmus, and I was pleasantly surprised. I put the vehicle into 120km orbit around Kerbin with the first stage. I then used the second stage disposable fuel tank to increase my apoapsis to about 46 million kilometres, and to change the inclination of my orbit by burning antinormal. Maybe I should have done those burns the other way round, but it's easier to gauge when your orbit intersects that of Minmus if you do the transfer burn first. As you can see from the screenies, she had a full 1600 FL-T16 tank upon landing, not to mention another 3600 of fuel in the other 12 tanks. After Fredbart did a little EVA and checked the lander's RCS thrusters were working, I decided to relocate farther north. After travelling about half way to the pole, I stopped off at a large plateau. I was also going to make a nice .gif, but unfortunately I'd forgotten to check the hotkeys after installing Fraps, and apparently holding down F9 also loads a quicksave :@ As you can see, the big disposable 3200 tank still has about 640 units of fuel left. I didn't even use the last of the fuel from that tank, and I was starting to get worried that I wouldn't have time to jettison it. I eventually dropped it at an altitude of 6000m, but Minmus is so rugged that I was probably only 3000m above the surface. You can just see it below the lander in this picture. It made a nice explosion when it smashed into Minmus Softest landing ever! Was barely doing 1m/s when the legs made contact. Fredbart checks the thrusters for damage. Then the crew relocated farther north towards that interesting looking plateau. Descending again while making small course corrections... ...and then decided to start filming and pressed F9 for too long :@

Thanks, I'm pretty chuffed with the Tit myself. It looks nowt special, but it took a while to balance it properly. Hope no one minds the silly names btw, but I find names like <i>Super-Maxirocket VIII</i> or <i>Orbliternator 7000 XL</i> a little boring. <b>EDIT: A new version of the Albatross has been released.</b> Anyway, I hope your new favourite will be today's creation: <i><b>The Albatross</b></i>. I've spent a few hours working with different designs and finally managed to create a single stage to orbit (SSTO) aircraft worth sharing. Due to aesthetic constraints she requires some 'hands on' piloting, but only during the rocket-powered ascent phase. Otherwise, she floats like a feather made from aerogel. I've updated some pictures as well as the .craft file. Enjoy! <b>Warning: it may take several attempts to master the rocket ascent phase, but once you know how to, she'll reach orbit every time</b> 1. The Albatross is heavy, so engage the SAS and max the throttle. She might need a wiggle (press E and Q) to get moving. When she reaches 100m/s, turn off the SAS and pull up (press S). This will happen when the aircraft reaches the drop off at the end of the runway. re-engage the SAS as soon as she's pitched up. 2. Once airborne, with the SAS still engaged, pull up until she's in a 70° climb (keep your finger on S) 3. Begin levelling off at about 12,000m, and continue climbing until the plane reaches about 15,000m and over 300m/s. 4. Make sure she's pitched up to 30°, even if she's losing airspeed or descending. Throttle back to 70% (just above the letter 'H' in throttle) and fire the rocket stage. 5. Continue as if you were doing a normal gravity burn. Pull up gradually to no more than 50°. If the nose starts to rise fast, keep your finger on W and throttle down a few notches. 6. At 20,000m, engage the RCS thrusters by pressing R. 7. At 25,000m, <b>NOT BEFORE</b>, deactivate the jet engines by right clicking first on one of the upper engines, then one of the lower ones. They're in pairs, so you only need to turn one off from the top and bottom. <b>Do not let the nose pull up too fast.</b> I've balanced her well, but she is still liable to do a backflip during this ascent phase. Keep your finger down on W. There's plenty of RCS fuel, so no worries. You may need to throttle down one notch. 9. Burn until you see the apoapsis increase to over 100,000m. You may need to increase the angle to 60-70°, but do so carefully. Cut the engines and go prograde when out of the atmosphere. Burn again 30 seconds before apoapsis, keeping the throttle below 50%, until periapsis rises above 100,000m. 10. To deorbit, go retrograde and burn until periapsis is below 70,000m. She'll aerobrake and then glide to a very gentle landing, but be sparing with the brakes.

Looks interesting, but the download link doesn't appear to work, at least not for those of us without dropbox. Could you upload the .craft file using the forum's attachment manager?

A few more aircraft to add to the catalogue: <b>IBN Gosling</b> As featured in the microplanes thread. Take off speed is about 80m/s, and I've clocked her at 740m/s. Landing the Gosling is fraught with danger though. She's liable to spin out of control without the SAS on, and with it engaged, she turns like a pig. A pretty pig, mind you <b>Unladen Swallow</b> Since I posted the Laden Swallow, I thought I'd share the unladen version. After removing the weighty underslung rocket, my Kerbal minions rebalanced the aircraft so that it's more stable. Like her laden sister, she'll pull up at about 130m/s with plenty of runway to spare. Top speed is about 520m/s cruising at about 15000m.

I think it might depend how it's flipping over. Is the nose going up, putting it into a backflip? Is the nose dropping? You may need to re-balance the spaceplane so that when you dump the jet engines, the center of mass doesn't move too far forward or backwards. If the nose is pitching up uncontrollably, move some mass forward by adding extra fuel tanks near the front, or by moving the wings forward. If the nose is dropping, move some mass backwards. Generally, you want it to be slightly heavy in the rear so that it naturally pitches up. I assume you're using the advanced SAS as well? If so, either pull up with the SAS still engaged (this might take a while as you force it upwards), or disengage and re-engage the SAS quickly while tapping S.

IBN is proud to announce the Gosling. It began life as a much smaller aircraft, but I figured people might actually like to fly rather than skid off the runway in flaming ball of crunchy death. She'll pitch up at about 80m/s, and I've clocked her at 740m/s. Landing the Gosling is fraught with danger though. She's liable to spin out of control without the SAS on, and with it engaged, she turns like a pig. A pretty pig, mind you

Heh, I've got a GTX 560ti, so maybe I got lucky <del>Strapping some struts on as NetBlitzer said seems to help</del>, but the thing's inherently jiggly. EDIT: adding the struts on helps with the framerate issue, but unfortunately it makes the thing too rigid, and it tears itself apart during launch.

The drooling dopeheads that toil away in the 'dark' labs under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra">KASA directorate 184.B</a>, otherwise known as Inspired by Narcotics (IBN), have finally produced vehicles worthy of sharing. Many great KASA engineers have been subjected to permanent narcosis in order that all Kerbalkind might benefit from their work. <b>Vehicles Catalogue</b> (Some were posted together so you may need to scroll down after following the link): Dusky Tit (Fighter) Gosling (Stealthy fighter) Laden Swallow (Supersonic transport mothership with rocket plane) Unladen Swallow (Supersonic transport) Condor (Super heavy long range transport) Albatross Nk2 (3 man SSTO) Albatross Nk3 (modified 3 man SSTO) Buzzard (Single seat SSTO) Eye Floater (3 stage rocket and lander rated for interplanetary use) Narcolab Nk1 (Orbital laboratory) <b>IBN Dusky Tit</b> First, a ditty little number that (as with all great aircraft) is named after a bird. The Tit is a lovely plane to fly; leave the advanced SAS on and she'll still manuever smoothly, turn it off and she'll pull some very high gee turns. Nice and easy to land as well. She will go supersonic in an 80° climb, with a ceiling of approx 21000m. <b>[</b>click pictures to view them full size<b>]</b> <b>IBN Laden Swallow</b> Next is a continuation of the 'Mother and Baby' series of supersonic mothercraft and aerial-launched rocket. After being reworked in 0.16, IBN has re-christened her the Laden Swallow. Her take off speed is about 130m/s, so max the throttle and she'll pitch up with plenty of runway to spare. The aircraft should be taken to about 15000m altitude and approx 400m/s, and then prior to release, the Swallow should be pitched up to about 60-70°. The rocket should then have enough fuel to enter a circular orbit with maximum altitude approx 150km. <b>IBN Eye Floater</b> After toiling in KASA's subkerranean labyrinth of workshops, our 'mentally enlightened' Kerbals have produced a rather nice lander. The IBN Eye Floater makes effective use of radially mounted engines to do away with a heavy orbital insertion engine. Instead, the radial engines are fed initially from a disposable fuel tank. The first stage is sufficient to reach a circular orbit of approx 250km, while the disposable tank that comprises the second stage is enough for a Mun (and probably Minmus) insertion. The lander also carries more than enough fuel for the return trip, so the Eye Floater is (I think) quite a good vehicle for reaching other planetary bodies if you're not the most fuel-efficient pilot. EDIT: I've made a minor redesign of Eye Floater to improve RCS placement and landing strut separation. <b>IBN Narcolab Nk1</b> Lastly, IBN's latest 0.16 station. Due to increasing government scrutiny on Kerbin, IBN has decided to move their pharmaceutical R&D section into LKO. The Narcolab Nk1 has all the things a put-upon government Kerbal could want. It has a large EVA platform so that they don't drift off when ordered to undergo EVAs, it has plenty of mobility enhancers to simulate what Kerbin futurologists have dubbed 'Voltophotoic sails', and it has two docking collars with improvised landing gear locking mechanism. The Narcolab will reach a circular orbit of approx 1000km altitude with the current booster setup. The station can also be spun up to provide some artificial gravity.

I might slap a few twisty-ties on if I cba. Those boosters were swinging around quite a bit. On a related note, I couldn't get it working with the new big engines in 0.16. They flailed around and ripped Odin's poor ring to shreds.

No, not the name of a Norse saga recounting the aftermath of a godly curry binge. This is the largest thing I've ever put into orbit. It was originally meant to be a space station that I could spin up to provide some artificial gravity, but the game isn't flexible enough to build something like this around a central pod, so I had to build from the edge. It'd be nice if we could choose which point the capsule snaps to, because after I'd finished building the ring, it became impossible to move the pod to a different point on it. Anyway, here's some proof that I managed to put it into orbit: Be warned though, my PC is a new build, and I was getting about 1 FPS throughout the launch. You need to throttle up to about 65% before ignition, and leave it there, because it's unlikely you'll get chance to adjust it with the FPS issues. Make sure to engage the SAS before launch as well. On a few launches, the whole assembly decided to violently dismantle itself before ignition, so you might need to fiddle with the gantry height and move it away from the pad. I found that if the capsule is touching the VAB ceiling, it's probably not going to throw a tantrum on the pad. All parts are vanilla btw.

Thanks Tim I\'d love some feedback on my spacecraft if anyone has the time to check them out btw. I found the spaceplane especially hard to balance, and it\'s still not as stable as I\'d like.

I\'ve been playing on this thoroughly addictive game for a few days now, so I thought I\'d introduce myself with a few spacecraft The first is my heavy lifter: Sun Probe (Thunderbirds reference ofc). She\'s capable of reaching the Sun. She has lots of small, multi-layered stages, so if you get the advancement correct she\'ll accelerate smoothly all the way up. Here\'s a pic, the .craft file and some staging info: [li]Engage SAS and thrust to max before ignition.[/li] [li]Release fins (first stage) after clearing tower.[/li] [li]Advance stages just after the previous one runs out of fuel. Solid following solid, liquid following liquid, so make sure to check which one is which.[/li] [li]The last solid stage has to be ignited separately so that it doesn\'t cause the previous solid stage to crash into the liquid fuel tanks.[/li] [li]Ignore all overheating warnings until you\'re in space. None of the stages burn long enough for it to become a problem[/li] The second is my latest two stage mothership and rocket plane: Mother and Baby 2. Baby can reach orbit quite easily, and I\'ve put her into a circular orbit of about 230km without too much trouble. [li]I engage SAS first because Mother\'s a bit twitchy. After you reach 100m/s on the runway she\'ll pull up, so disengage the SAS and then re-engage once aloft.[/li] [li]I let the SAS do the work once airborne, turning it off to change pitch. You\'ll have to keep your finger on \'S\' at all times to stop Mother\'s nose from dropping.[/li] [li]The Mother\'s ceiling is about 14km, and I usually release at about 400m/s. Release any lower and baby will stall.[/li] [li]Go vertical after release, then pitch down after you\'re 30-40km up and track the prograde marker (or just above it) until you reach the desired projected apoapsis, then burn again at apoapsis.[/li] [li]I can\'t quite fit another SAS on her so you\'ll have to fly unaided once out of the atmosphere, though it\'s not too difficult.[/li] Bother are made with vanilla parts. I\'m sure they could be improved upon given more time, but I kinda went for aesthetics as well as functionality. My heavy lifter might take another three solid fuel boosters on the first stage for example, and the Mother could probably benefit from an extra fuselage-mounted engine. It took me a while to balance them both though, so adding extra components might make them less stable. EDIT: uploaded a new .craft for Sun Probe, as the last stage was too large. The new one has one less RCS and small liquid fuel tank.