Northrop Switchblade Variable Geometry Forward Swept Winged STOVL SSTO w/ OMG! GhettoSpike engines!

[Goddess Bhavani]

Hi, yesterday I stumbled on a patent drawing online for the Northrop Switchblade fighter concept, which features a prolific forward swept variable geometry design used on the fictional F/A-37 Talon movie aircraft.

Since last night the members of a KSP Facebook group has been building small scale Switchblade type aircraft with functional wing sweep mechanisms, proving the Northrop concept sound and remarkably stable in flight.

Over the past 9 hours I assembled my heavy hitter, a vastly up-sized and upgraded Switchblade type craft meant to function as a go-anywhere spaceplane within Kerbal's SOI. She has two 'decks' giving very high internal fuel capacity, short takeoff and vertical landing ability from lift jets concealed in auxiliary payload bays in the mission pods, and space propulsion is provided by the comical GhettoSpike plug rockets at the back.

I didn't want to spend 3 million in kash to unlock the Level 3 research facility, so I searched Jeb's junkyard for a cone shaped thing and stuck many, many little rockets on it using the Editor Extensions mod to provide 13x radial symmetry.

While the craft is not yet test flown, all the important parameters check out in the SPH and I am using 'research data' provided by fellow KSP Facebookers to qualify the radical Switchblade wing system. This was done last night and no vices were reported. Infact the shift of CL forwards during supersonic flight could be a beneficial thing for beyond-Mach maneuverability in FAR.

Without further ado, here's a little 4K wallpaper and some development shots of the new leader in low cost, low performance space porkpulsion - the El Cheapo GhettoSpike engine

Trivia:

This ship has 42 engines total!

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[Gaalidas]

I like it... especially the name.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Flight tests around the pattern to qualify vertical takeoff and landing. Flight control for higher speeds still in development. Good reminders about aeroelastic stress on forward swept wings from various knowledgeable fans/commenters :3

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[Motokid600]

Oh.. my... Rep.

[Matzilla]

Probably the greatest thing I've ever seen in KSP, apart from that one manic who bolted wings to an asteroid and landed it....

I just love the flexibility of this design and the attention to detail!

Matzilla

[Yukon0009]

my, my my.

[Azimech]

Beautiful work!

[Tw1]

That name is almost as complicated as the plane itself.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Today I did high altitude supersonic flight tests, after successfully remedying the 'aero elastic bending forces' issue common to all forward swept wing designs. With only 3 minutes of oxidizer carried aloft, she didn't build enough speed yet to sweep the wings fully forward but the wings are now qualified for supersonic flight.

Also the GhettoSpike engines are really slow. It was hilarious, but they looked pretty firing on all 24 nozzles! Looks like I will have to fork out 3 million kash for the Level 3 research facility after all.

Once the fuel was gone I then did a flat spin recovery test (Which was really really hair raising considering this plane has a nearly tail-less design!!), recovered at low altitude over the ocean and skimmed the water at 10 meters altitude like a Caspian Sea Monster.

No issues with flight control, very stable, parts didn't fall off but TCA mod highly recommended otherwise future test pilots will be struggling to pan the camera all over the place individually adjusting thrust settings for all 12 lift jets!

I actually landed a development prototype in the water. She can float...

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Edited March 16, 2015 by pandoras kitten

[Voculus]

Love the ship, and love the KVV renders! Excellent work!

[TheXRuler]

Oh my God, Ghetto Spikes, you made my day sir

Also, this craft is awesome, definetly one of the best I have seen in my time here. Is there any chance you will put up a download link for this amazing piece of work?

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Wow!

What mods did you use?

I see stock revamp, B9, B9 Pwings and IR.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Wow!

What mods did you use?

I see stock revamp, B9, B9 Pwings and IR.

You are definitely correct! For the video production coming soon, I may add AviationLights to the mod list as part of the demo flight may take place partially at night.

Oh my God, Ghetto Spikes, you made my day sir

Also, this craft is awesome, definetly one of the best I have seen in my time here. Is there any chance you will put up a download link for this amazing piece of work?

Hi, thanks for your kind compliments!

I aim to finish flight testing programme over the next few days, life, school and job interviews allowing.

I just qualified supersonic flight and full wing sweep. The supersonic handling is impressively good but there is reduced stability on the roll axis form having such a tiny wingspan!

The ability to adjust wing geometry also serves as a sort of trim function over a range of speeds and altitudes, and the stability is significantly superior to my previous delta-winged spaceplane designs.

When I do post the craft file I will need to provide extensive flight instructions as well. Operating this thing needs monitoring and understanding how to use a variety of normal and unconventional control methods, including flap actuation and adjusting wing sweep.

What I noticed is that there are certain areas of the flight envelope where having the wrong (for instance) wing sweep setting can cause immediate loss of control, such as when decelerating from supersonic flight without swinging out the wings!

Northrop did their homework well for the patented Switchblade design. I'm impressed it works as advertised in KSP, albeit without the sort of advanced flight computers needed to control the thing in reality!

Here are a dozen or so screenshots taken at various phases of initial climbout and acceleration to supersonic speed up to an altitude of 75,000ft @ Mach 2.7+

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As a side development I realize the huge spaceplane with its full load of 71 tons (excluding cargo!) will require a bit more oomph to get into space so I designed a linear ghettospike system which can fit nicely in the ventral engineering deck section of the ship.

Here's screenshots from the qualification flight of a hypersonic vehicle powered by the GS-2 Linear Ghettospike, the new leader in low tech porkpulsion.

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Edited March 17, 2015 by pandoras kitten

[Goddess Bhavani]

The test programme for the Linear GhettoSpike Engine "GS-2" has been completed.

The craft file for the Hypersonic Test Vehicle can be downloaded from KerbalX!

Also, mandatory awesome pics:

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