Galane

A rather interesting thing about internal combustion engines is much of their power comes from compressing, heating, and expanding inert gas. On Earth that's the ~70% nitrogen in the air. The nitrogen serves as a working fluid, the work being done on it by the mixing and combustion of the fuel and oxygen. If an engine was run on just the oxygen in the air, it would either have very little power, or wouldn't run at all. There are different stoichiometric ratios for each fuel with air and with pure oxygen. Any oxygen that's bound up in the fuel's molecules may have to be considered, depending on if the combustion process for that fuel breaks it free. Ideally you have precisely the amount of fuel to combine with 100% of the oxygen atoms. In practice you don't get that, or don't want that. Too lean and you have excess oxygen which binds with nitrogen to produce nitrogen oxides and sulfur to produce sulfur oxides. Combine those with water vapor and a little help from sunlight = (quite dilute) acid rain of nitric and sulfuric acids. (That's why onions can make your eyes water, the sulfur compounds mix with your tears to make an irritating sulfuric acid.) Lean burning also runs hotter because all or very nearly all of the oxidizable parts of the fuel are getting oxidized. Most ICE's run slightly rich, ideally just a little over ideal stoichiometric ratio. Some Engine Control Units will cycle the air:fuel ratio between stoichiometric and slightly rich to balance temperature VS emissions. The unburned fuel keeps temperatures down, but contributes to pollution with unburned hydrocarbons, particulates and higher carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide output. For terrestrial ICE's the solution to that for the past 42 years has been an afterburner catalytic converter. Before computer controlled fuel injection, the typical way to deal with unburned fuel in exhaust was to inject additional air, either at the exhaust ports or directly into the catalytic converter. Various catalysts coated onto a ceramic matrix (or lots of beads in early ones) cause reactions with the gasses to break up nitrogen and sulfur oxides and other funky chemistry until the output at the end of the exhaust pipe is whatever the California Air Resources Board wants it to be that year. (If only they'd known their CARB acronym would eventually come to be meaningless for most car owners by the late 1990's.)

I'd like to see some type of radome in the Tiny diameter. Then I could mount missiles on my Angry Gnat drone. https://kerbalx.com/Galane/Angry-Gnat

KerbalX ate my description... Alan Aerospace Recycling and Packaging is somewhat pleased to present its first drone aircraft. The Angry Gnat! It's slow. It doesn't climb very fast. It has minimal missile defenses. However it does turn smartly and it's packing twin Vulcan cannons. A development version with full fuel tanks, only two engines and less aggressive AI and control settings managed to shoot down a Falken at long range. Granted, the Falken was busy chasing a Cranky Delta... The revision on KerbalX stripped a Cranky Delta nearly to a bare fuselage in a head-on attack. Be wary of going face to face with the Angry Gnat, for it is a small target and your poor Kerbal is sitting in a much larger target. The best treatment for this drone is a few missiles fired from *way over there*. If there was a BDArmory radome for Mark 0 size I'd be tempted to mount an AIM-20 on it somehow. screenshot13 by g_alan_e, on Flickr https://kerbalx.com/Galane/Angry-Gnat

On this plane, when spacebar is hit to activate the engines at zero throttle, the nozzles pinch down to minimum size. https://kerbalx.com/goduranus/ADF-01-Falken-Crewed On this plane, the nozzles stay at their default setting until the throttle gets moved from zero. https://kerbalx.com/Galane/O-Twisted-IL-BDA Doesn't effect gameplay, but I'd expect an effect like this to always work. This is in KSP 1.3.0, only mods are the latest BDArmory Continued, latest MechJeb and a module manager patch to integrate MechJeb into command parts, so the second plane will load without needing MechJeb installed.

BDArmory support would be very nice for this. It would allow a greater chance of survival for near hit explosions from missiles. It'd be interesting to see what the AI can do with a plane that's all there but chewed on a bit. I've seen it fly some planes that are half shot away, even sometimes a jet missing one wing and an engine emerge from battle the last plane flying.

Airdrop, like an M2-F1? https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/history/pastprojects/Lifting/index.html

Something else to watch for. If a part's internal name has underscores, in the body of the craft file and in saves the underscores get replaced with periods. Why? Probably something weird with Unity.

Does BDAc read the display names, file names or internal names of the parts? The display names shouldn't matter at all. File names should only matter for mods or cfg files that need to specify a fully defined path. The filename for the Panther is jetEngineAfterburning.cfg, its display name is J-404 "Panther" Afterburning Turbofan but its internal name is PART { name = turboJet SQUAD had been changing the paths and file names (and they've changed many display names) on batches of parts with every release, but kept the internal names for most parts. If they changed an internal name that definitely would break things for mods that use them. Having three names for every part can get complicated, but it allows for display and file names to be changed without breaking mods and crafts, if the mods only reference the internal names. What would have been nice several releases ago is for SQUAD to have decided to 'rationalize' the internal names to be more like the file and display names. The J-X4 "Whiplash" Turbo Ramjet Engine's file name is jetEngineTurbo.cfg Its internal name is turboFanEngine but it's not at all a turbofan type of engine.

The Agri ship from the original Battlestar Galactica. IIRC the model was the one from Silent Running or a redress of it.

Another jet fighter from Alan Aerospace Recycling and Packaging - where you'll find the best recycled aerospace parts neatly packaged. It's big. It's heavy - yet agile. Keep the central fuel tank empty for combat configuration. Fill it for extended ferry range. It's set to empty first for a longer pre-battle loiter time. Keep in mind that takeoff weight will be over 15 tons with it filled, agility will decrease with the forward CG shift, and you may need to increase the AI takeoff speed. https://kerbalx.com/Galane/Cranky-Delta screenshot12 by g_alan_e, on Flickr

You need both the AI and Weapon manager modules on the plane, even if you're going to fly and fire manually. Right ammo box type for .50?

This plane has been superseded already. See the last post here. Note that it will need the one customized part linked in the post. It's not on KerbalX yet due to the experimental nature of lighter weight, structural only versions of the MK2 parts, which should be incorporated in the revived revival of ReStock. For this plane you might try editing the BDA AI settings, shifting the nose and wingtip canards back to push the COL back, then setting all control surfaces to 150% authority. Weight and maneuverability will still be impaired by the heavier bi-couplers. I still can't figure out how the Falken doesn't flip out crazy with pitch despite its COL being nearly co-incident with its COM. MODULE { name = BDModulePilotAI isEnabled = True pilotEnabled = False defaultAltitude = 3000 minAltitude = 500 steerMult = 10.1999998 pitchKiAdjust = 5 maxSteer = 0.800000012 steerDamping = 8 maxSpeed = 800 takeOffSpeed = 54 minSpeed = 83 idleSpeed = 200 maxAllowedGForce = 25 maxAllowedAoA = 15 standbyMode = False stagingEnabled = True

Could be even lower weight and cost if BDA had an inline RADAR with the capabilities of the pointy nosecone one. Or a radial mount RADAR pod. Something that would allow the fuselage to consist of the square front mount intake, RADAR, inline cockpit, fuel tank, engine. Everything else would just be differences in aero surfaces and armament.

Departing from the adventure in weirdness that is the O-Twisted development program. Alan Aerospace Recycling and Packaging chose a different tack for its second fighter jet. (Well, third, we don't talk about the failed Whipstick program to produce a lighter, cheaper plane.) If you don't have the funds for two engines per plane, Cheap As F(ighter) is a less expensive and much lighter plane with a conventional swept wing plus canted tails and canards. Packing six AIM-20 missiles and two Vulcan cannons it is decently offensive. (The tastefulness or otherwise of the nose art is up to the buyer.) Wingtip missile rails may be added. When given a 3 to 2 numerical advantage it has managed to take down a pair of ADF-01 Falken Crewed, once all three on Team A managed to survive! Usually one or two C.A.F. get shot down, but last plane in the air wins, right? Two V Two doesn't usually turn out so well. The low dry weight makes it quickly gain agility as ordnance is fired, so shoot early and often. https://kerbalx.com/Galane/Cheap-As-F screenshot9 by g_alan_e, on Flickr

What about with FAR?

Would it work better with a pusher prop?

That's nifty! I watched the original BSG and BSG 1980 when I was a kid way back then. Can you do the agri ship? IIRC the model was either the same ship or a redress of the ship used in the film "Silent Running".

This is probably as far as this design can go, without altering the wings, which would put it farther outside the O-Twisted lineage, but still associated with it. Sort of like the F-16 and the Mitsubish F-2 based on it. O-Twisted-IL (InLine cockpit) Changed to Advanced Canards on the nose and wingtips. Changed intakes number (to two) and position. Added subsonic intake on bottom to counter lower engine flameouts in hard turns. Changed to an inline cockpit with nose intake. Eliminated the dorsal Vulcan and all but two ammo boxes. Fights are too short for more. Also replaced the bi-couplers with an experimental, structural only version. Still requires the RTG in the starboard wing for balance. Fully armed takeoff weight down to just over 11 tons. Dry weight, no armament, chaff, flares or fuel, is just over 7.5 tons. BDAc AI, plane balance etc finally sorted out so it doesn't flip and flail about at the start of dogfights with 150% authority on all surfaces. It tends to stay high and shoot early, which improves its survival rate. https://pastebin.com/3tt5YQUG Experimental structural MK2 bi-coupler. Safe this as a .cfg file and toss it somewhere Under GameData. https://pastebin.com/Bju26bSw Cockpit or chase cam views make for a pretty sweet ride now. screenshot10 by g_alan_e, on Flickr Survived a head on collision with an ADF-01 Falken Crewed, which was not so lucky. Took off the nose intake and jammed the landing gear up through the wings. screenshot11 by g_alan_e, on Flickr

Can KSP support animated textures? That would work for active camo. Put little camera modules on vehicles and the active camo paint displays what the cameras see on the side of the vehicle opposite the camera. One would need a very high end computer to process that. Another way would be to just paint an animated ground texture to the top side of an aircraft and a sky texture to the bottom. For some extra fun, patterns like the JAM in the Yukikaze anime.

I wonder if there's any way to get the true airspeed of a plane? How fast it's moving on its longitudinal axis? At times the surface speed and orbit speed can be very different, yet neither anywhere close to the plane's actual forward speed. Flying a super maneuverable jet, those numbers change rapidly but knowing the true airspeed is vital to keeping it in the air. Since Kerbin has no wind, wind speed doesn't have to be factored into true airspeed. Unless there's a mod that adds wind?

That fixed it, thanks.

Here's an edited CFG to make a no LFO structural version of a MK2 to MK1 adapter. I changed the CFG file name and the internal name and in-game name, and added to the description. The part shows up under structural, reflecting the category change from Propulsion. The cost, mass, and lack of LFO also work correctly. But the game still calls it "Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter Long" instead of "Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter Long Structural" and isn't displaying the changed description. Older KSP versions, it was enough to just change the three names and description of a copy of the CFG in another location under GameData. The part functions as changed with the lower mass etc. Is there a part name/description cache that needs refreshed or deleted to force a refresh? Or will I need to make copies of the model and texture under new names and further edit the copy of the CFG? That would remove the memory saving from making new parts by editing the properties of stock parts with new CFG files. PART { name = Smk2_1m_AdapterLong module = Part author = Porkjet rescaleFactor = 1 node_stack_top = 0.0, 1.875, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0 node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -1.875, 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0 node_attach = 0.0, 0.0, 0.7, 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 1 TechRequired = highAltitudeFlight entryCost = 17500 cost = 384 category = Structural subcategory = 0 title = #autoLOC_500556 //#autoLOC_500556 = Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter Long Structural manufacturer = #autoLOC_501624 //#autoLOC_501624 = C7 Aerospace Division description = #autoLOC_500557 //#autoLOC_500557 = A generic Mk1 to Mk2 adapter that was left to dry a bit too long and stretched out. Then the fuel and oxidizer tanks fell out. True story. Lighter, cheaper, just as strong. You can trust us. attachRules = 1,1,1,1,0 mass = 0.228 dragModelType = default maximum_drag = 0.2 minimum_drag = 0.3 angularDrag = 2 crashTolerance = 50 breakingForce = 50 breakingTorque = 50 maxTemp = 2500 // = 3000 emissiveConstant = 0.8 fuelCrossFeed = True bulkheadProfiles = size1, srf, mk2 tags = #autoLOC_500558 //#autoLOC_500558 = aircraft airplane jet mk1 mk2 plane MODEL { model = Squad/Parts/FuelTank/mk2Adapters/long } MODULE { name = ModuleLiftingSurface useInternalDragModel = False deflectionLiftCoeff = 0.6 dragAtMaxAoA = 0.3 dragAtMinAoA = 0.1 } }

The three MK2 to MK1 adapters, converted to just structural components with fuel crossfeed. Make ReStock folder under GameData and unzip there. (Should work placed anywhere under GameData.) Link good for 30 days. https://ufile.io/w14ew

Going by the MK1 fuel tank fuselage VS MK1 structural fuselage. For structural parts converted from LF/O tanks should be around 36.5% cost reduction. Dry mass for the fuel tank is .25 while the structural fuselage is only .1, an 85.7% difference. That's crazy talk! The idea is these are rocket tanks converted to empty shells, so they'd overall be much beefier parts. How about 40% weight reduction from removing the internal tanks? Making a notes file... For new cost, multiply original fuel tank price by 36.5% or .365 Round up to next whole number. For new weight, multiply original fuel tank mass by 40% or .4 Round to three digits after decimal.

Costs should also be less.