drewscriver

I'm seeing lot of radial intakes; if there were many more of them hidden, that could explain the /351 figure, as each radial intake adds .5/1

Ah, cool. I think I mentioned it, earlier, but that 'docking port as root node' trick was definitely one I stole. By the way, what's your video capturing/edit setup? I've been jealous of your videos for a while...

Very nice ship, and now you've got me all curious as to this 'new construction technique'...

Thanks - it means a lot to hear that from an accomplished designer such as yourself Fortunately, when it comes to podiums, landing on the VAB is good practice...

Thanks for making this plugin! I actually used it in the reverse mode - placing the RCS ports symmetrically and then balancing the craft around it - to create my VTOL, the Dragonshy. It worked like a charm! Oh, and uh, the thing about folks obsessively tweaking until the arrows go away? Guilty... So again, huge thanks for creating this! This build would have been a nightmare without it.

boolybooly, thanks for adding my latest flight, and glad you appreciate the Dragonshy's engineering. Radiokopf, I'm flattered to hear that you'll be including 'shy into your roster - I hope it serves you well! I have a post in "The Spacecraft Exchange", with additional information, in case you find it useful.

Thanks for the useful and informative posts - I'll definitely be looking at it closely, in particular the 17 tons/TurboJet and intakes/engine question were things I'd been wondering. One minor quibble - you wrote 2.5 intakes per engine, when I think you meant 12.5 intakes (from looking at your craft). Other than that, I follow your logic of gaining speed at 32,000 perfectly, and will be giving your ascent profile a try. Thanks!

Rune The jury is still out on clipping; it's a line, but not necessarily uncross-able. I've never experimented with the full no-clip mod, but if it works the way I'm imagining, between it and edit tools, I could revamp the Dragonshy to eliminate 30+ struts, so it might be worthwhile to make a second version - I'll have to do some testing. Edit tools seems like it would be worth it for the increased symmetry options alone - everything else would be a bonus Exothermos - Good luck, and I hope it's useful. This was definitely my most challenging build to date, but I'm not going to speculate on whether or not that resulted in clever build techniques. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions, though.

Poryy, you can download the Dragonshy here: download link (dropbox, right click to save) - I hope it helps in your aircraft quest. Thanks for the interest, Sirine, I'd be interested in hearing how the testing goes. Cupcake, the Scythe mk2 earned its spot - it was the first VTOL I actually had any success in flying. I still need to pick up a joystick. Unfortunately, I haven't seen that logitech one sold yet here. Anyhow, I'm glad you like the Dragonshy. I've always enjoyed your craft and the videos you make - eventually, I'd like to put together something similar. For the moment, I'm spending most of my effort on trying to make a larger, longer-range craft, hopefully with some carrying capacity, but it's proving extremely problematic. Being unable to use thrust vectoring if the engine is above the COM is a real annoyance.

Bobhendly, A few well-placed struts seem to do the trick. In practice, it's actually been sturdy enough, but when it does crash (such as my ill-fated Mun attempts), the explosions go on for a while... The download link is in the post, so feel free to grab a copy and try it out inigma, I'm pleased to hear that SSI likes the Dragonshy. So long as it's not too wingy, I guess this would be a type I. I'll have to give it another spin and actually take a few notes on the flight profile.

Thanks Rune, I'm glad you like it. You may have a point on the part clipping - magic struts are basically the same thing, I'll have to see if it enables enough other possibilities (or saves enough time) to want to cross that particular mental line. I'd never heard of "Editor tools", but after a brief glance, it does indeed look pretty useful. As it was, there were a couple of parts I put together in the VAB and hauled over via subassembly, so that could be a time-saver at the least, even without the additional options. I'm still fairly new to building, so I haven't settled on the 'right' ratio yet - this is definitely a huge leap on intake ratios, compared to any craft I've had before. You're right that 52 intakes is well into diminishing-returns-land, so I could probably peel a few off without harming the looks. They're so light and cheap, though, adding intakes is like eating popcorn and up at 39,000 the air is so thin that it's easy to start hitting orbital velocities without burning a lot of fuel. Glad the looks work for you!

It's so good to have the forums back, I've wanted to share this since last week. Anyhow, I was inspired by Cupcake into wanting to build some VTOLs, but I'm a bit of a sucker for wings, and Dragonshy was the result. She's a nimble, flexible and forgiving craft - a petite little monster (clocking in at almost 300 parts) of a SSTO. In a nutshell: two pictures from one flight And for more detail, the imgur album A better pilot than me could probably save more fuel, but even with that, I'm not sure if it can stick a Mun landing without adding drop tanks. As-is, stock Dragonshy has *barely* enough thrust for a VTOL takeoff - you'll want to use a brief burst of the rockets as soon as the jet spools up and it starts feeling light on the ground. The fuel tanks burn evenly, for COG stability - in fact, the COG does not move at all, due to symmetrical fuel tanks and obsessive balancing. If anything, handling improves, as there is less mass further from the COG, so it can turn more quickly. Thanks to m4v for creating RCS Build Aid - it was invaluable. As part of that balancing, the Dragonshy sports three reaction wheels - so it's quite nimble. As a relatively new builder, I had to get creative to get it all to work; in particular, getting the fuel logic to behave while using a ton of decorative intakes gave me fits. Still, I'm very happy with the end result, and I hope you all enjoy it as well. So, if you'd like an all-stock VTOL-capable SSTO with a LVN that can take it to minimus, here's the Download Link (dropbox, right click to save) Action groups as follows: 1: toggle horizontal turbojet engine 2: toggle horizontal (Nuke) engine 3: toggle vertical jet engine 4: toggle vertical rockets 6: lock gimbol on vertical jet/rocket engines (necessary if you want to VTOL stably - engines do not account for being above the COG in their vectoring, so they will actually work against you. You will have to hit the key twice the first time - not sure why) 7: toggle first 2 intakes 8: toggle next 8 intakes 9: toggle final 42 intakes (yes, over 1/6 of the craft parts are intakes) Abort sequence - detach cockpit & toggle parachute. If you continue to stage, it will also detach the cockpit and deploy the emergency chute, but not in one step. Standard SSTO flight profile. Pre-flight: Before throttling up, activate all engines by staging once on the runway, then shut down unnecessary engines (2-4) Double tap 6 to lock gimbals on vertical thrusters (necessary for stability) Hit 8 and 9 to close all but 2 intakes (this will save a lot of fuel on the ascent) Note: if you're going to turn on RCS, 25,000 is a good altitude to do so, but I've actually never needed it for anything but docking - the Dragonshy is a very steady craft, and the reaction wheels provide more than enough control authority, even without atmosphere. Flight: You should be able take off once you get up to 50 m/s, work to gain altitude as quickly as possible, the usual SSTO 45 degree ascent profile is fine. At around 16000 feet or so, your intake air should be down to about .04 or less, hit 8 to open up the second group of intakes, you should be climbing rapidly. At around 23000 feet, you should drop the nose a bit to 30-35 degrees. At 25,000 feet or above, your intake air should again be at .04 or lower - hit 9 to open the last group of intakes. When you reach 30,000 feet or above, begin dropping the nose to 20 degrees, or less - until your altitude is stable. The air is quite thin now, so you need to build speed for orbit, and to keep engines from starving of oxygen. Once you have 2,000 m/s or more, pull the nose up to begin climbing again. At about 38,000 feet or above, your engine will start to cut out; you can throttle back a bit, hit 2 to engage the nuke, or both. Soon, your TurboJet will cut out altogether - hit 7, 8, and 9 to close all intakes to reduce drag. Hit 2 for the nuke, if you haven't already, and boost into orbit. Circularize, etc, as normal - the Dragonshy is quite friendly for docking, as the weight distribution means that the RCS is perfectly balanced, and does not introduce any unwanted torque or lateral movement. Re-entry - it's pretty forgiving, I've never had a problem. You might be able to get it to spin if you go at too steep an angle, but it should be recoverable. Have fun! -Drewscriver

I would like to share with you all my newest creation - nimble, flexible and forgiving, a petite little monster (clocking in at almost 300 parts) of a SSTO that I call Dragonshy. In a nutshell: two pictures from one flight And for more detail, the imgur album Thanks to Cupcake for the initial inspiration - his Scythe Mk2 is superb, but I'm a sucker for wings, and can't resist a challenge. VTOL is definitely one such challenge, and despite stealing a few, choice ideas, there was still plenty of issues to tackle. For Dragonshy, perhaps the biggest problem was having to balance thrust on both the horizontal and vertical axis. I owe a huge thanks to m4v for creating RCS Build Aid - the task would probably have been hopeless without it. So, in addition to being an all-stock VTOL-capable SSTO with a LVN that can take it to minimus, Dragonshy has a dead center COG that doesn't budge as fuel burns, leading to stable and consistent flight characteristics throughout the flight regime. Also, in order to shift weight to the front, it sports three reaction wheels, and is quite nimble and fun to fly as a result. As a relatively new builder, I had to get creative to get it all to work; in particular, getting the fuel logic to behave while using a ton of decorative intakes gave me fits. Still, I'm very happy with the end result, and I hope you all enjoy it as well. Download Link (dropbox, right click to save)

Working on my new SSTO, wanted to keep an older revision around to steal parts from, without having to continually save/load or lose temporary bits. The workaround I came up with, was, well... Useful? Somewhat. Hilarious? Oh, so very. Jeb was at the controls, so naturally, I had to try...

I tried downloading it twice - got the same error both times. I've also seen the error on one other download so far, the stabojet examples. I'd suspect it was a mod issue, if I didn't know stabojet was just a part arrangement.

I'm running Windows 7, and usually KSP is pretty well behaved. I've downloaded a number of other craft without issue - Cupcake's VTOLs, and G4Virus's SSTOs, to name a couple

Hmm, I suppose it would help if I was more specific... I have 0.21.1.276 - according to the loading screen (steam version, so it should keep me current). I dropped the three files in the SPH folder (stock). I go to the SPH, and when I click the load button, a dialog box pops up: "There are incompatible craft files in the folder. Would you like to delete them?" If I click 'Not Now', the ships are listed in the folder, but grayed out. I don't have any modded parts (only plugins are subassembly loader, alarm clock and RCS build aid) You mentioned the craft was stock, so I assumed it was a version issue.

What version are these? When I tried to test it, KSP complained they were a different version...

A brief update on the Chalice Mk4; I forgot to mention, it is stock and not particularly airhogged (I did use a lot of radials, and practically every forward-facing fuselage has an intake, but no truss or clipped intakes). The download link (in case anyone wants it) is here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3333645/Chalice%20Mk4r.craft Thanks for the discussion and suggestion, I replumbed the Mk4q (my previous version) to make Mk4r, which automatically burns fuel rear-to-front, preserving the center of gravity. I didn't have to do any fuel transfers on my latest flight. Speaking of which, in pursuit of the utilitarian commendation: a 20T payload to orbit - gallery updated appropriately. Also a few other fun pics of my various other SSTO escapades. I also recently learned the importance of wing orientation, and that some of my wings just add drag. I'm a bit worried about upside wings lurking somewhere and generating downforce - is there a way to tell by looking?

Crud. I hadn't thought of that. Oh well, this is KSP, so I'll finish the design and see what happens. There's always mk6, after all...

Thanks for the advice on COG matters, and I'm glad you like the Chalice. I'll admit I enjoy it as much for the aesthetics as the practicality. I could probably make better performing craft, but I stick to a few self-imposed rules, such as 1 intake per fuselage section. As it is, I actually think it could've pulled off a 10T load if I was a better pilot. The next version I'm looking to shift the engine mass forward so that fuel burn has less of an impact, though I'm afraid the mk5 still has some teething issues... Perhaps more struts?

I don't think it's going to win prizes in any given category, but I wanted to share my most successful SSTO so far, the Chalice Mk4 Here, it lofted approximately 7 tons into LKO, and returned safely to KSP. Stable flight the whole way, though I did transfer all the remaining fuel into the forward tanks before re-entry, which was a bit tedious. I'm reworking the design a bit in Mk5, to hopefully stop the COM shifting so much between full and empty. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

I searched for 'Structural pylon' and didn't see anything on this issue, so I wanted to toss in this minor problem that I've ran into. I was attempting to to make a safety evacuation pod, which involves a bit of self-dissasembly, which in turn rests on the use of structural pylons. This works fine when I stage it, but when I try to configure a custom abort sequence under action groups, I noticed that the structural pylon has no actions (unlike the decoupler). I'm guessing this was just a simple oversight - I don't know if this has been addressed before, but it seems like it should be an easy fix. Thanks again for making such a great game!

So, two welcome threads, so I'm not really sure where to post, but here goes. First saw KSP at the steam sale, missed the chance to buy it, but then curiosity got the better of me and checked out some youtube videos... Hours later, I realized that if I'm having this much fun just watching videos, the game has already earned it's price before I even bought it... Then it came up again for sale on the last day, I snapped it up, and have been playing ever since. I've had a blast so far... SSTO's are especially addictive - I can't resist the challenge!