Military Procurement: Strategic Bomber Concept

[Aanker]

In fact I like the idea of people making multiple entries.. it allows you to learn and be inspired by others and also compete in several categories.

[wossname]

Seeing as no-one has made a VTOL bomber

Sorry to pre-emptively steal your thunder...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/112550-Military-Procurement-Strategic-Bomber-Concept?p=1801620&viewfull=1#post1801620

Edited April 3, 2015 by wossname

[sammyuri]

Sorry, wossname, the scoreboard was not updated when I made this plane :/

Mine has 18 bombs though - yours only had 6.

[sisyphean]

i threw some designs together for this but got really frustrated with stock aero (soup flying, bombs blowing up in the bay) and a bug where some of the wing parts not contributing to the lift on the ball thingies but still contributing during flight so it was purely guesswork if the CoL was in the correct place, so i gave up.

hats off to anyone who has the patience to work with stock aero and the extremely limited stock parts for this, that is a serious achievement in itself.

[gigaboom2]

i threw some designs together for this but got really frustrated with stock aero (soup flying, bombs blowing up in the bay) and a bug where some of the wing parts not contributing to the lift on the ball thingies but still contributing during flight so it was purely guesswork if the CoL was in the correct place, so i gave up.

hats off to anyone who has the patience to work with stock aero and the extremely limited stock parts for this, that is a serious achievement in itself.

Maybe you should take another shot after 1.0, there will be better areo and bigger wings.

[TrainEngie]

i threw some designs together for this but got really frustrated with stock aero (soup flying, bombs blowing up in the bay) and a bug where some of the wing parts not contributing to the lift on the ball thingies but still contributing during flight so it was purely guesswork if the CoL was in the correct place, so i gave up.

hats off to anyone who has the patience to work with stock aero and the extremely limited stock parts for this, that is a serious achievement in itself.

Well, I guess your attempts to complete this challenge are kinda sisyphean??? Pun intended.

Oh, and here's what I'm doing: Put Seperatrons on your bombs so they fly out of your bomb bay before they hit the back of your bomb bay.

Also, has anyone landed their bomber on the water for real?

EDIT: Also, what do you mean "level flight?" As in the prograde is level or the plane is level?

Edited April 4, 2015 by TrainEngie

[sisyphean]

well i am giving it another try, ive dusted off an old ssto i built before i started ram toasting, with a few tweaks i think i can convert it to a bomber with no orbital capability

we shall see though.

out of curiosity though have any of you guys had your plane just spontaneously dissasemble itself as soon as you get onto the runway? im not talking about explosions or anything the plane literally just turns into a pile of components the moment the scene loads as if none of them were ever part of the same vehicle. was one of the many reasons i gave up with my first attempts, it was repeatedly happening to me. and its not like i dont know how to use struts either.

[Jakalth]

@sisyphean. Yeah, all hail the MK3 parts for they are the best at summoning the Kraken... Also, It's happened to me with other craft before using mk1 parts(rocket tanks). It's frustrating when it happens... My Khermite bomber did not suffer from this problem, but it's predecessor did...

@TrainEngie Level Flight is when you aircraft is flying at altitude, but is not gaining or loosing altitude while doing so. Or at least as close to this as you can get in game.

[sisyphean]

well at this point i think im going to throw in the towell. i may submit a basic form of my bomber but frankly im just getting annoyed with the kraken, simply put i have a scalable multi hull design with space to trade cargo space for fuel to make it an SSTO and capable of moon bombing

the design is scalable with each additional set of hulls increasing carry capacity, TWR and range. however the kraken has now decided to occupy the SPH as well as outdoors so constructing it has become impossible (missing textures,placing multiple components in the same spot, the staging tree bugging out and not being able to select components, 64bit is even worse with a game crash the moment i try to load it so honestly i think this is a nogo. at this point it is simply unfeasable to continue i may try and use a cut down version with a 20 bomb payload and orbital capabilities but im not sure i would be happy submitting it as the design was based on something so much more.

[TrainEngie]

Yo listen up: here's a light and cheap bomber!

EKRANOPLAN 1 (it can't float despite what its name suggests)

Light Bomber (6 bombs)

REQUIREMENTS!

Take off and land with and without payload on the KSC runway: Yes, sir!

Six full FLT-400 bombs: Yes, sir!

Bombs are in a cargo bay: Yes, sir!

Payload can be dropped safely: Yes, sir!

Bomber can take off, cruise, bomb the peninsula, and fly back to KSC: Yes, sir!

BONUS POINTS!

Swift Payback: 165 m/s at 3100 m, so 165 x 0.1 = 16.5 points!

Engine Maintenance: 4 Basic Jets, 4 x -2 = -8 points.

Part Maintenance: 218 parts, 218 x -0.02 = -4.36 points.

Gentle Giant: Looking at the Navball, it looks like 4 degrees because the pointer and the prograde are just pixels away from 5 degrees. 20 points!

Service ceiling: Yes, sir! 15 points!

TOTAL POINTS: 39.14 points! Mission time: 41 minutes 39 seconds

Cost to build this bomber: 112,268 funds. Tell me if someone's plane is cheaper.

Mission pictures:

Takeoff and Landing with bombs:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Takeoff and Landing without bombs

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The mission (for real)

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My laptop lags heavily when I try to build 400+ part planes that may be able compete with the 700+ part winners.

[juzeris]

Sir, you are on.

To round out the product range, I'm presenting a light, medium-range, pseudo-stealth VTOL bomber with an appropriately excessive powertrain - the Allii Ren Touare.

Carrying the standard complement of six FLT400 bombs, it is capable of short and medium range precision and strategic bombing and rapid air interdiction at ranges of up to 500km (maybe even more), it is yours for the low low price of 73 thousand funds. It also contains only 140 parts, making field maintenance a breeze.

Check out the blueprints for more details (download).

Swift payback - 168 m/s: +16.8

Engine maintenance - 2 jets and 3 turbojets: -16

Part maintenance - 140: -2.8

Airshow maneuverability: +10

Gentle giant - no, 6 degrees, unless it counts with VTOL engines on, which I do keep engaged until reasonable altitudes, 12 km or so.

EDIT: I'm claiming gentle giant with the VTOL engines on, same as wossname : +20

Flashy technology and where eagles dare: +30+30=+60

Service ceiling - oh yes: +15

Field refueling - no, totally forgot about it

Battle duck - yes, if very carefully: +20

Such stealth, very sneak - yes, if this ain't, I don't know what is: +2

Total: 125 exactly

Mission time - 14:38

Operating manual:

Action groups: 1 - middle turbojet, 2 - two side turbojets, 3 - VTOL jets, 4 - close 90% of air intakes (lower drag), 6 - ladder, 9 - bomb bay door

The VTOL jets provide just barely enough thrust to leave the ground, even at full thrust she'll be essentially hovering with full payload.

The bombs are a bit cramped in the bomb bay, and can get stuck when dropped. Or one may explode if dropped at higher speeds.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

TrainEngie, my laptop lags as well, those 18 minute flights can take two hours, I just cannot stop myself from building these monstrosities.

Edited April 5, 2015 by juzeris
Added operating manual

[wossname]

Also, has anyone landed their bomber on the water for real?

Yep , see the "Fools Rush In" entry in the leaderboard.

Or a shortcut to the imgur album http://imgur.com/a/CDb7n#0

[Rath]

I used rapiers because they look really awesome, and at the end of the day there's no sense having a military budget and not getting cool looking engines

And yet theme Saturn five looks better than 50% of military planes with a tiny budget

[vincespeedmk2]

Awesome challenge. Are video submissions ok?

[vincespeedmk2]

Also. I know mods aren't permitted ( with the exception of far). But is it permissible to use KAS for the field refuel/re arm.