Halsfury

Hey guys, if you're interested I created a challenge for FAR aerodynamics It's called the 5th Generation Fighter Challenge and it asks you to create a state of the art fighter aircraft with similar specifications to modern fighter aircraft. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/126342-The-5th-Generation-Fighter-challenge-FAR

Update: I've been challenging myself as well with this challenge and have discovered that sometimes the Turbojet helps streamline an aircraft With this in mind thrust limited turbos can be installed so long as they are limited at 1/2 the thrust, also the super cruise must be performed such that no after burning is used. This way the aircraft shouldn't be able to just push through mach 1 with disregard, even though it will still have to be on a separate leaderboard still - - - Updated - - - I'll update the rules accordingly as soon as I can

Well there are no restrictions except on space grade parts, so you can use reaction wheels on pods or if you need a part which is just that size. A weight limit has been imposed, in that you have to use 2 basic jets while achieving a TWR of 1 at least - - - Updated - - - Weapons count by weight just like the drop tanks

So long as it's voxel driven FAR, so all post 1.0 versions should work well, the physics model isn't radically different but you will enjoy the experience of using the most recent version since it fixes some bugs with FAR not working if it takes up too much memory and such. Drop tanks should be detachable, any coupler will do, ultimately it's the physics model which will determine how you choose to go about this. - - - Updated - - - Well C7 parts are pretty comprehensive, but you can use limited non physics breaking mod parts I guess Engineer Redux is fine, it's just data. Turbojets, I will have to make a separate leaderboard for, but I can completely understand why you want the flame spitting ones If you decide on turbojets a thrust limit will have to be imposed so that you can't brute force your way into supersonic flight, so I'll have to think up new rules, so if you want to participate in the turbojet leaderboard just stick to the basic jet for now. No weapons are necessary, mainly because some people won't want to install mods. But you can make your own missiles if you like with stock parts too.

5th Generation Fighter Challenge The challenge is simple, build a fighter jet which can compete on a modern battlefield. This means that you have to reach certain targets in order to be successful and that there are points for any design which exceeds those targets. All entries must be with nuFAR and no physics breaking parts are allowed. Also it's worth noting that this challenge was not set for any other reason than to see if the KSP community has the skills to build something which is on the cutting edge of aerodynamic knowledge. The newest version of FAR makes this task equal in conceptual difficulty to it's real life counterpart, yet as always as simple as LEGO to build. Rules 1) No space grade parts are permitted, that means no RCS and no bell nozzle rockets and no SAS (other than the cockpit) 2) All designs will have either 1 engine or 2 engines of the same type, mixed power plants or ones with more engines than 2 are considered space grade and are therefore disallowed. 3) clipping engines into one another is absolutely forbidden 4) All engines used if modded must first have approval from myself (AJE will be tested soon) 5) The "Panther" jet engine is the only acceptable stock jet engine, settings may be tweaked for it as needed. 6) The aircraft must be able to pull 9g's of pitch acceleration at subsonic speed below 5000m, and it must be able to pull 6 g's of pitch acceleration at supersonic speed above 10,000m 7) The aircraft must reach a maximum speed of at least mach 1.2 below 5000m and have a top speed above 10,000m of mach 2.0 at least. 8) With external stores the speeds specified by 7 must be minimally impacted, so including weapons the speed below 5000m should not be less than mach 1 and above 10,000m no less than mach 1.8 with external stores. 9) The aircraft must not weigh less than 10 tons at takeoff with a full combat load. 10) The aircraft must make use of BD armoury and 6 munitions must be stored at minimum either under the wings or beneath the fuselage, a radar dome must be included. 11) Addendum to 8: No weapons may face rearwards, No external store (weapon or fuel) may be mounted above the wing or at any angle such that if two missiles were launched in quick succession that they might impact each other on deployment. 12) All missiles will have a delay time and jettisoning speed so that they don't cause damage to the craft. 13) A forward firing gun 20mm or greater in bore must be included 14) Countermeasures, flare and chaff must be included. 15) An air brake should be included, along with flaps and possibly leading edge flaps. 16) The aircraft must demonstrate that it can takeoff and land in a suitably nominal way, below a speed of 150m/s and do both within the span of the runway. 17) A BD armoury weapons manager module must be included. Optional: 18) Should an AA/AAQ-28 Targeting pod be mounted, an ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) pod must also be mounted, along with Air to Ground missiles or laser guided bombs. The targeting pod indicates anti ground capability and as a result suitable weapons and defences must be able to be carried along with it. For that flight only, this need not be included on every flight of your anti ground capable aircraft. 19) Rule 14 does not mean that this equipment is necessary for any other part of the challenge. Only the Targeting and the ECM pod are somewhat heavy, and have a drag penalty and need some space set aside. A craft with anti-ground ability needs to carry all this as a package when sent on an anti-ground mission. 20) Should HARM missiles be mounted an ECM pod must be mounted, this is only mission specific like rule 18 Allowed Mods -Ferram Aerospace Research (latest edition required) -BD armoury (required) -B9 procedural wings -Adjustable Landing Gear -AJE (awaiting testing) -Infernal Robotics -3rd Party Cockpits Legacy Scoreboard Basic Jet (hardcore mode) Leaderboard: -FourGreenFields 43.27 points with the P-12 Flying Pencil -FourGreenFields 13.8 points with the Heluan HA-300 Turbo Jet Leaderboard: -FourGreenFields 138.25 points with the P-13 Shrike -tetryds 118.26 points with the SE-37 -Gamer025 118 points -Hodo 48 points with the XF-149B Jinete -Gnullbegg 44 points with the GAD M-21A (reporting name goatsucker) -Skyentist 21 points with the Rogue Light fighter BD Armoury Leaderboards: Turbo Jet: -FourGreenFields (third entry) 140.8 points with the P-17 Harrier -Darren9 (Second entry) 104 points with the FAR 4 -Halsfury 88.75 points with the F-32 Hurricane II http://www./download/sp4dvat4yhf7c9g/F-32_Hurricane_II_Multirole.craft -Darren9 75 points with the (K)raptor -TheHengeProphet 74.82 points with the MRF-1B3S Adder -Hodo 68 points with the XF-150A -Darth Lazarus and Halsfury Co. 62.28 points for the F/A-18J Super Hornet Basic Jet: -FourGreenFields 46.1 points with the P-18 Firecrown

I just went for simplicity on the LES, it's just a habit I've retained from back when there were no LES systems and you had to build them yourself Thanks though

The idea behind this craft is to follow the Wayfare AE&KA design philosophy to create a new heavy serial staged booster, the result is a simple serial staged rocket with great stability and a roughly similar part count to the Munraker 60 tons to LKO, capable of reaching the Mun or Minmus, and simplified from it's original Apollo AAP challenge guidelines (contains solar panels, ALSEP not included) Here's the craft, it is 411.9 tons on takeoff and 60 tons at LKO, also off the pad it's a quick accelerator. Since the AAP challenge was done in FAR it needed a bit more fuel in stock so it has slightly more on the second stage than these in flight pictures. Neil and Buzz after landing near the Neil Armstrong memorial in the Apollo 11 reenactment mission. the craft file. http://www./download/vdirg533n6ln7f6/Munsail_V.craft And the Munsail IB a Saturn IB replica, kinda, it now lacks the LES shroud http://www./download/qisxibs51rq2uun/Munsail_IB.craft

Good luck Coulson. Also just so you guys know I'm going to be releasing my craft from this project, but what to call them? To me they remind me of the Munshine launchers made by wayfare in terms of just how easy and fun they are to fly.

My fully documented Apollo 11 launch to complete the main Apollo program challenge. The creative part of sending Kermans named after the crew of Apollo 11 to the tranquility base memorial and back is applied to the Super Manley Kerbanaut Mode challenge for +25 points as agreed upon. The craft uses no solar panels, only 3 power generators running off of Fuel and LOX (+10 pts). It's 100% stock for +20 and includes ALSEP with an RTG for +5. and has full apollo staging from beginning to end (+20). No Kerbals were killed in the process. Liftoff of Apollo 11 T+34s and they're screaming already Nominal Passing max Q Stage Sep Nominal Less atmosphere means better fairing Sep Preparing for the Burn, this booster gets better milage in FAR than in stock I've noticed. Reorientation Falling towards Pe Too many images already so here's the descent On the other side of this crater is the Neil Armstrong memorial Here's Neil Kerman with the flag and the memorial in the background Eagle and Columbia dock after the landing Return Safe Tally Staging and engines +20 Free Return +10 Stock +20 Fuel Cell Power generation only + 10 LES + 5 Leave descent stage on Mun +5 ALSEP +5 for small probe on Mun Creativity +25 =100 points total EDIT: I forgot that having a lander behind a fairing was worth 10 points Now total is 110 points

T-10:00 minutes, with Neil, Buzz and Michael

So how might one add kerbals to a save file if, say, I wanted to complete the main Apollo program challenge/land on the mun for the first time with a Neil Kerman, Buzz Kerman and Michael Kerman? And then complete the landing within 100m of the Tranquility base monument?

This isn't at the heart of the issue. Nobody's throwing a fit at squad, though sarcasm about flying tiger and their past exploits abounds. Consider this example, J.R.R. Tolkien writes a book, to make money, and some random translates that book into French (so that both the translator and Tolkien can make money). Now, in order to be written in good french some things will not appear in translation. This is 100% fine, I read books in my other languages and I read books in translation, and they are overall just as good as the original. But if Tolkien has to re-word and re-write his book so that the English and French match perfectly then the artistic vision of the book has been fairly seriously compromised. This I think is everyone's concern, and it should be the concern of future PS4 players too. Squad has assured us that this will not happen, and I think they have the sense not to sanitize the PC version to make a PS4 and PC game. In short, I'm all for making money and I want squad to have plenty because they deserve it, just like Tolkien deserved/deserves it. My giving said money however, is conditional on receipt of Tolkien's books, and Harvester's KSP. I don't want Jean Pierre's Tolkien translated back to English from French, and I don't want Flying Tiger's KSP. C'est le droit de l'économie que j'achète le produit mieux

"The RoveMax Model 3 was developed in total secrecy by Kerbal Motion's R&D team over the course of a year and a half. When it was finally revealed to the company's chairman, he stared in shock, screamed 'WHY' and subsequently dropped dead on the spot." Try not to repeat the mistake that killed the chairman of Kerbal Motion, also would you please give us some kind of assurance that you will not hack our favourite game to bits? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but how can you avoid hamstringing PC, Mac and Linux players as you formulate a watered down KSP for Playstation? In short, information, (i.e. a real dev note) is in order. EDIT: Ok I can clam down a little bit because people are saying that another team will do the PS4 stuff If so then all is well but crîsse can you use devote Tuesdays as a platform for information and not just to freak us all out! We're all on the side of your game squad, hence the backlash, I'm not angry nor do I intend to offend but this dev note I think made everyone have a visceral response, because one immediately thinks that everything would be ruined to pander to console gamers who prefer virtual kashlinikov's to thinking.

Turns out that Sometimes you're better off without LES shrouds if they can't be compact enough Here's with an LES, Note the lump in curvature The without LES version, with a more consistent curve, thus better efficiency and lower weight.

Ok I took just one look at this and the thought that struck me is, I need to do this in stock with Ferram Aerospace Research Here's Little Joe, testing the transonic abilities of payload shrouds. Little Jeb ;-) went to a maximum speed of mach 1.1 and 12km EDIT: In a short time made plenty of progress, FAR isn't that tough on simple serial staged rockets like the Apollo Program used, so I've already launched a CV into orbit to test it, and I launched a 2 stage lander also Here's the 2 missions, which are critical milestones in the Apollo lunar architecture. (I didn't screen capture the CV's flight) EDIT 2, DAY 2: Apollo 8 in orbit: Used free return trajectory until Mun SOI , thus disposing of the S-IVB stage into a fiery reentry Design of Saturn V is finalized, it stands 54.2 meters tall, and is 9 meters across at maximum Here's a shot with the fairings open so you can see the engine arrangement, 5 F-1 Mainsails on Stage 1, 5 skipper J-1 engines on stage 2 and 1 J-1 (skipper) on stage 3 EDIT 3, Day 2: Proof that I used the free return for Apollo 8 (just so it's confirmed) is that the 3rd stage of the saturn V underwent reentry. The spacecraft would have followed the same path if course corrections were not made

In fact I tried the same thing with a new 2 engine build, I took the whole thing to top speed at 1000m and got to around mach 1.2, then I retracted the spike and sure enough my excess power reading increased and I began accelerating even more

1) Why the torque wheels? You don't need them; the capsule torque is more than enough. A: They are really just cause I wanted drag bodies smaller than the oscar tanks, they don't change a thing 2) How do you have your control surfaces set up? Does it stall or flip out of control at full stick? What sort of sustained G-load can it manage in a turn? A: Goes around 6g's at supersonic speeds above 3000m, around 9 g subsonic. below 3000m yanking the stick is not advisable 3) Did you remember to drain the monoprop from the cockpit and the oxidiser from the Oskar B's? A: got rid of oxidizer, forgot about the cockpit mono prop 4) What wing mass tweakable settings are you using? A: Never changed them so all are at 1 5) Did you remember to raise the brake torque on the rear landing gear? A: After I overshot the runway on landing I corrected it 6) What sort of speeds is it taking off and landing at? 90m/s takeoff, and rather quick landings at 120m/s #pilotlazyness 7) How does it go on the track? http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/123650-Kerbinside-Air-Race A: Hmmm.... I will find out. EDIT: FourGreenFields, I chose the antenna because I've seen spikes used to push wave drag off the main body in real life Also is that an Irish Air Force Roundel? EDIT: I tried removing the spike made from that antenna and the wave drag jumped from 0.69m^2 to 0.9m^2, so my hypothesis was correct :-)

Thanks a ton, that little plane now has no issue going to mach 2 at 10,000m, I tried out several different methods, but the tip about moving the elevators so they didn't hang out behind the aircraft was rely the most helpful Here are the new and improved stats : Max cross section: 2.35995m^2 with a wave drag area of just 0.62m^2 critical mach number is 0.77 which is tolerable. See any other design faults? I kept with the drag bodies for their area ruling properties

First nuFAR supersonic aircraft running on 1 basic jet engine mach 1.3 top speed, with a maximum tolerable speed of mach 4.5 (with the turbo ramjet) Wave drag cross sectional area is only 1.06m^2, it's actual cross section is 2.33m^2. Are there any ways you guys think it could be made better? Actually, I managed to make it better by adding 2 finlets on the belly at the rear, now wave drag area is 1.01m^2

The only mod I have installed is the cryogenic engines pack, and I wasn't even using them on this mission. I sent a probe to complete an exploration contract on Pol, I decided to start the descent immediately without pressing F5 :-( transfer stage was detached, began breaking burn at 5000m or around there, was still travelling at 120m/s at 4000m when everything explodes I looked in the mission log which informed me that my probe impacted the surface, even though I was nowhere near the surface. I have no idea how this could be related to cryogenic engines, and it seems to me that the collision model for Pol has been loaded incorrectly or something, 4000m is as high as some peaks on the surface and this would explain it. Also I landed on Bop earlier and no issues presented themselves and I've landed so far in my campaign, with no issues on Ike, Duna (well crashed more or less but I hit the actual ground when this happened), Moho, Eve, Bop and of course the Mun, Minmus and Kerbin. Thanks - - - Updated - - - So not all was lost, since I figured I had by all rights conquered Pol, fairly I decided to complete the contract with my nearby Bop probe and Infinite fuel hacks. I wouldn't normally do this but the game cheated me so I cheated back Also I threw out the whole Cryogenic engines pack which contained resources mods, so I figured maybe it had something to do with the mods after all. Anyway long story short, I put the mods in the trash and Pol was no longer bugged

The Blohm und Voss isn't a real flying wing, technically it's a normal plane with a bifurcated tail :-) Also have you tried landing it on the top of the VAB? it is possible if you stall down to 11m/s before you hit the end of the helipad

I built a couple of really interesting craft recently but this is the more complex of the two it's a WW2 1946 concept called the Focke Wulf Ta 283, it's ramjet powered with a rocket assisted takeoff IRL but in KSP it's turbo ramjet powered and the rocket in the rear is for flying at 30,000m http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/122805-WW2-1946-two-fun-aircraft

Thanks, they were fun to build. I might go ahead and build some other concept planes from the same period.

The Focke-Wulf Ta 283, or Super-Lorin: Since during the late war it became increasingly difficult to build and maintain jet engines, the Me 262 schwalbe jet fighter was deeply limited in terms of the number of sorties which could be performed. The Luftwaffe forestalled this problem by building turbines which were made of steel with tungsten alloy sprayed over the blades to cut expenses. As a result each Me 262 needed replacement engines after just a few hours in the air. The only way to end the problem could be changing over to ramjet propulsion, which is cheaper due to the lack of turbines or moving parts. Of course this means that the engines would have to be mounted far from any surface which could disturb airflow and flame outs would occur at IAS speeds under 290kph or 80m/s but not in KSP. The liquid rocket engine designed to give that initial acceleration is included though and the pilot is free to use it whenever he/she should choose. The Blohm und Voss P 209: Blohm & Voss taking a page from the Horten brothers wanted a cheap fighter which could be made with few materials, so few in fact, that they left out a tail. There's nothing fancy about this plane but it has a very low stall speed and low drag. It's maximum speed in a straight line at 500m is a mind-blowing 320m/s It is a fun flyer though The craft files https://www./folder/wql92qlj1jijy/1946

this is safe, I assure you... comes with a rocket kick to get you up to the 80m/s necessary for a ramjet to start EDIT: I fixed the problem where the controls lock up and the plane nose dives at 300m/s, now it is much better