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From the whimsy department, presenting Long Umpire, the flying boat. It won't go to orbit, but then why would you want to go to orbit with a boat? It's fun to fly, is fully amphibious, ditches and takes off water easily, and has a handy ladder in case the pilot wants to take a dip and get back on-board, and a cargo bay with a ramp in case she wants to pack a lunch, or a rover, or something else that can be rolled on, or off. Passenger variants with Mk 3 passenger modules are also feasible, I tried. To ditch, slow down to 100 m/s at 50 m altitude, then hold wings and nose level until you notice that you've stopped. Completely no-drama and very forgiving, it doesn't mind if you plop it down a bit nose-first, or fly it down a bit fast; I've made touchdowns at well over 100 m/s without any issues whatsoever. To take off, hit full power, waggle your wings to get the floats out of the water, hold attitude horizontal until you're going at 50 m/s or so, then pull up. If somebody flies a practical mission for this, I'd be curious to know what it is. Craft: https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/Long-Umpire (Named after the most iconic flying boat of all, the Short Empire, although the looks are more Caspian Sea Monster.)

Hello. I'm beginning at modding. I did a lot of research to find somethings interresting, cause there's not a lot ksp-modding tutorials on the web... I finally found some websites that contains a lot of information about it. I succeeded to create new engines, new fuel tanks, new resources, and even a semi-functional intake air for a resource that I created. And resources-config files, to choose their rarity on the differtents planets. I say "semi", cause the intake resource module seems to don't care at all about the resource's "abundance"... And so the intake was always "breathing" the same amount of resource, whatever the ship was. So I tried to use the "ResourceHarvester" module instead of the Intake module. But it doesn't work. The module shows up in the VAB, like that : But not in the "world" (when i "launch" the ship) : I don't know why... Here's the cfg file : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3Lfry-N0T97bmo3WktocmdSX28 Thank you.

So I remember atmospheric heating being a bit of a joke back when it was introduced in 1.0 - even with difficulty set to max and Deadly Reentry installed, it was child's play to survive reentry. However, I'm really struggling with the current version, and most of the threads I can find are either out-dated, unclear, or actually contradictory, so I have some questions. FWIW I currently have re-entry heat set to 100% and the latest version of Deadly Re-entry installed (although I'm not clear on how much difference that makes!) and am playing in the stock Kerbol system. How exactly does your trajectory relate to re-entry heating? The 'common sense' assumption seems to be that a shallower trajectory is safer, but I've also seen people argue that it exposes you to heating for longer, therefore total re-entry heating is greater. Is it basically the case that a steep trajectory minimises heating, while a shallow trajectory minimises speed and g-forces? How is re-entry heat determined? Presumably the higher the speed and the denser the atmosphere are the key variables. How exactly do angle of attack and your vessel's aerodynamics affect heating? What about mass/weight? Does having radiators affect re-entry heating at all? How exactly do heatshields work? Is there a certain temperature threshold at which they stop increasing in temperature and start burning ablator instead? What determines the rate of ablation? Why is it that once the ablator is used up, the part seems to explode instantaneously, rather than only when it reaches its temperature limit? What's the deal with spaceplanes? If I ever get above about Mach 3.5, I start exploding. Is this a simple function of velocity vs altitude/pressure? If so, is there a guide somewhere as to what speeds are safe at which altitudes? Does angle of attack make a difference, and if so how? What about the shape of your plane? Any tips for surviving EVE reentry? Do people generally consider reentry balanced at 100% reentry heat setting with Deadly Reentry installed? Should I just give up and turn it down? Or should I uninstall Deadly Reentry? Does anyone have any recommended thermal settings?. Really appreciate any help people can give, so thanks! Have a feeling there were some other questions I've forgotten as well... EDIT: Forgot to ask, are there other decent strategies for plausible re-entry vehicles besides heatshielded capsules and shuttle-style spaceplanes?