Flyable Chinooks

[Redshift OTF]

Not exact replicas of Chinooks but they are flyable. MechJeb not compulsory! They can carry cargo or passengers, are strong enough to do loop the loops and barrel rolls and have enough range to get to the Runway Island, (about a 15 minute journey, Kerbal time). Thanks to Jakalth for his turbojet engines which turned out better for the propellers than mine.

There are 3 variants. The first is the basic model.

Simply press space to fire up the engines. You will need SAS enabled to fly it. Pitch and yaw are a bit sluggish but roll is very sensitive. This is good as it makes landing easier. Do not retract the gear as it holds the rotors in place. Brakes have been disabled on the wheels used for the bearings so feel free to use brakes as and when for the undercarriage. Hotkey 1 toggles the jets which is useful for when you touch down.

Chinook RS Download

The second variant is a more powerful version able to carry heavier loads or hold more fuel. I tweaked the positioning of the jets to give it more power. I include it as a separate design because, unladen, the speeds this can go out will be faster than what the rotor blades can handle. If you go faster than 70 m/s you could be in trouble. If you are carrying heavy loads this is not a problem.

Chinook RS Plus Download

The third variant is the passenger Chinook. Able to carry 52 Kerbals! This also uses the uprated engines but as the passenger modules are heavier the helicopter should be able to handle it.

Chinook RS Passenger Download

Here's my journey to Runway Island. Mechjeb was used for information purposes only.

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Majorjim was kind enough to try one out and did a loop with it.

Enjoy!

Edited March 1, 2015 by Redshift OTF

[Majorjim!]

Woohoo! Great job on these matey.

I can confirm all of the above. They are really fun to fly and although sluggish to respond at times they are rock solid stable. Also I was not expecting to survive that loop so kudos to the engineer!

MJ

[Vashts]

i lol every time i see one of these. its certainly a great solution to a problem.

[Jon144]

Awesome job there! Two rotors is better than one.

I tried my own version of the Chinook to replace my Skywhale helicopter but the engines simply don't have enough power to get it very far off the ground.

Maybe I should give you the craft file and you can try adding Jaks and your engines?

Edited March 1, 2015 by Jon144

[Redshift OTF]

Maybe I should give you the craft file and you can try adding Jaks and your engines?

Go ahead. I can't promise I'll get to look at it tonight though.

[Azimech]

It's been weeks since I touched a helicopter, all the dev went into the airplanes. Tomorrow I'll test the improved performance. Love this!

Oh and by the way, the challenge is still active ... Maybe I should reset it to reflect the evolution.