Azimech

Interesting you say this, just yesterday I was looking at mechanical calculators :-) But looking at the complexity and resulting humongous part count, I'd rather invest time in further developing my mod Electronics so people can build their logic gates themselves. I already have sensors and transistors.

I'm afraid a picture wouldn't do you much good. The best thing you could do is download any craft with RCS ball bearings, download Collide -o- Scope and analyze the construction from every angle.

Yes, the controls stiffen up at higher speed. You can read more about it over here:

Haven't experienced it yet, the wings are pretty stiff.

Building a turbine car now. While this is nothing special nowadays, the steering is probably new. There's no need to change focus. Top speed is a meager 5.0 m/s, regardless of power input or wheel/ground contact. The turbine runs fine (up to 50 rad/s) but something goes wrong in the power transmission (gears). Might be some kind of bug, max rotational speed is 7 rad/s. It happens both with antennae and RCS balls, while the car itself is powerful enough to drive up a 15 deg. slope, using a 1:1 transmission. I've seen the same problem when building my tiny piston engine, won't run faster than 7 rad/s for love or money. The steering in action:

I myself no longer care, I just build my own. But there are two things I would like as well: 1. The ability to have them attached to the original craft instead of being a separate entity and 2. The ability to decide if the colliders are respected or not, for every specific part.

Technically, yes. But how much will probably depend on the system and part count. If there's a 1% slowdown per part, the cumulative result when having 800 parts is probably a bad thing. In any case, whatever performance gain can be made, should be made. Especially since this setting is unnecessary .

Agreed. Using this program should be fun for everyone.

All stock.

I don't know what this all means but I just want to express my hope that someone makes the Game of Thrones planet one day.

My Space Charger isn't exactly small but does fit in a fairing. This is how I do it. No mods. And here I'm driving next to the Big Wall of the Mün.

Sure! Put it on KerbalX. Here's mine, all stock. It's able to withstand quite some punishment. I can't remember how it deals with 90 m/s hitting the side of a hill but as a rally car it does perform quite well. It's based on my '69 Dodge Charger.

Okay ... that's one of the coolest things I've ever seen!

I don't support CKAN with my mods either.

Good thinking! The way the control column is set up, twisting would affect both the elevators and ailerons. Maybe it can be done but I'd need a new design and probably more space.

It flies!

While the V8 isn't perfect, I've added it to the topic. I will improve both engines in the future. A propeller in between would make the engine look a bit weird. Certainly not something you'd see in real life. A propeller on both ends might work but I don't really feel it's worth the effort. I haven't tried opening the cargo bays.

Updated to v1.1. Changelog: The ailerons have a lot more authority now. Oops! Rudder control was inverted. Fixed. Moved the CoM a bit to the front.

Real Control Surfaces Almost all controls in KSP run on mana. You don't need hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical power to operate elevons, landing gear, steering, brakes, cargo bay doors etc. Not only that, all flight controls are immune to compressibility effects, something that has killed many pilots during WW2, before powered assist became available. So I've built this ugly duckling to address this issue. Yes you can laugh at its appearance but it flies well, although like all airplanes it has a few quirks. The only thing that might interest you is what's behind the skin. Short answer: lots of parts. Slightly longer answer: linkages, rods and lots of ball joints. Long answer: elevators and ailerons are combined in the control stick in front of the pilot seat, the rudder is operated through the pedals, just like real life. Since we don't have a giant to sit in that chair, both have their own power supply, reaction wheels and probe cores. The reaction wheel of the main structure is disabled; its probe core controls flaps, landing gear and throttle. This is pure flying. Is it practical? No. A bit of a hassle really. You need to change focus often, especially during take-off and landing. That's why I made the plane very easy to fly. Here are some pictures of what's inside. First the control column and rudder assembly seen from the front. And the control column seen from behind the pilot seat. Is it perfect? No. This was my first attempt. I'm actually surprised I was able to pull it off. Due to space constraints the geometry isn't perfect, this means there is some coupling between pitch and roll. But the plane is very forgiving so it doesn't matter. The elevators are the strongest but only with positive pitch, The rudder is next but in practice you won't be using it. The ailerons are quite weak, especially at higher speeds. Yanking the pitch control helps the ailerons a bit. Is it beautiful? Hell no. But it's stock and that's what counts :-) Instructions: It's best to steer the plane a bit off the runway, to prevent collisions with the tower. You don't really have the time to apply rudder. Stage, only once for now. Now look at the control column. Right click on the docking port and stick the window to the screen. Do the same with the docking port on the rudder column. And also pin the window of the MK2 probe core (the cockpit dashboard). Now change focus to the right until you see a change in one of the window. Choose "Control from here". Do the same with the other windows. You have to change focus 7 times to select the control column and you don't need to go further. Go back to the main craft (the MK2 probe core). Start the engines and throttle up. Don't use the flaps, they're for landing only. It will take off by itself at around 30 m/s. Retract gear and switch back to the control column. You're now in control. Do not fly with SAS! Only with trim. Do not use the wrong control input for the wrong column. Don't use yaw when you only have pitch and roll, it might break the linkages. Same with the rudder pedals, only use yaw. Due to the construction, the control column has a tendency to yaw a bit. Ignore it, it will correct itself. Flaps are operated with action group 1, afterburner with action group 2. No, this plane is not supersonic. Pilot fatigue: Both columns use reaction wheels stacked into each other. Both use RTG's for power. You might notice the aircraft suddenly becoming less responsive. This means you've drained the battery. Control will return to normal if you don't touch it for a few seconds. I call it pilot fatigue. If you don't like it, go to the cheats and enable Infinite Electricity. Have fun! Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/crafts/34781

Maybe someone could do a performance test? I'm quite busy with finalizing a new project at the moment otherwise I'd do it myself.

I changed it. No negative effects so far.

One thing is for sure, I tend to avoid using reaction wheels when building an engine. In fact the appearance of propeller planes using reaction wheels and/or tip jets/rockets was the reason for me to invent the turboprop engine years ago. Now this is a completely different concept, actually being incredibly inefficient and a lot harder to get right. A lot of fun as well. Recently I also started to build "real" electric motors, another challenge and a lot less powerful. But even my piston engines are not really realistic. I can only hope we'll have powerful enough computers one day to run fluid dynamics. If that ever arrives in KSP, my girlfriend would probably leave me because I'd be designing engines like a maniac. In the end it's all about the choices we make. I no longer play the game, I'm just designing stuff. So realism has a different meaning for me. I wouldn't want Squad to change the game so others would suffer. But let's hope for a future product in a different universe, one with all the physics and materials like we have on Earth.

@Geschosskopf I do like your dedication. I talked about this topic in the main "turboheads" topic because I didn't agree with it but didn't give myself the time to give an accurate response. EpicSpaceTroll139 did and not only that, used math in the discussion. The only thing I do is visualize physics due to experience and intuition. We're on a road together, some of us hope KSP will become more realistic as the years go by, or with a new product. These discussions help in achieving this. Therefore I want to thank both of you for the effort.

@EpicSpaceTroll139... There's no "love" button like on Facebook. I want to marry you.

Pitch and roll will be combined. Rudder separate, Throttle, gears and flaps combined. I guess a mod for fast switching would be very useful, yes. It's a shame you can't order the focus sequence. Yes, it's going to be tough. Especially because reaction wheels won't be working.