Official FAR Craft Repository

[Voculus]

Made this a while ago, thought I'd share it. Proving that FAR is no barrier to making crazy stuff fly!

Maximum speed around Mach 0.8, it has Wheeslies as well as turboprops but this is obviously not a supersonic design.

Well how do you know if you don't even try?! Seriously, awesome invention, though. It's giving me some ideas.

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I made a new jet in my flightless bird series, the F-5B Rhea. I made it mostly with procedural fuel tanks. Apparently they're lighter than procedural structural elements, so I just took a load of them and removed a lot of fuel, and hey presto, a lightweight plane! The procedural parts allowed me to make a much sleeker plane than my previous designs.

Very clever idea to use procedural tanks to sculpt the plane, and it turned out beautifully, too!

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It's been too long since I've posted anything. I've been flying a lot of DCS: Fw-190, Bf-109, and P-51 Mustang, so I wanted to make a plane that behaved similarly to those old WW2 fighters.

There's no engine torque, or prop wash striking the left side of the tail, but in a fortunate quirk of KSP wheel-collider shenanigans, the plane required a lot of footwork on the rudder pedals when taking off and landing, which so closely mirrored their real-world counterparts, I was ecstatic!

It's not much to look at, and I've tweaked the KAX radial prop as best I could, such that it'll deliver 400 knots in level flight. It's still a bit OP, but also fun, flying low and slow through mountain passes. It'll land at a very smooth 100 knots on almost any terrain, too.

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Edited August 2, 2015 by Voculus

[FourGreenFields]

ok... so I tried building a Blohm & Voss BV 138 flying boat... (With Better Buoyancy ofcourse)

Flew great, landed just fine - but didn't even get close to take off speed (stall speed is about 35m/s, maybe a few m/s more, highest speed I got in the water was about 20m/s).

Any tips?

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I already added AoI to try and lift the thing out of the water to reduce drag, and changed the nose section. Also tried with unhistorical hydrofoils to lift it a bit. And I rotated the engines to not make it nose down just as much. Still not close to takeoff speed.

[Whovian]

Weird wing geometry SSTO (curved down instead of up):

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Made with OPT, Nertea's Mk4 (in beta), Behemoth Aerospace Engineering, and B9 (with B9 PParts). These B.R.O.A.D.S.W.O.R.D.s are amazing. I'll see if I can get it to carry a payload.

RCS is probably going to be enough to maintain control during reentry.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Whovian

[Hodo]

ok... so I tried building a Blohm & Voss BV 138 flying boat... (With Better Buoyancy ofcourse)

Flew great, landed just fine - but didn't even get close to take off speed (stall speed is about 35m/s, maybe a few m/s more, highest speed I got in the water was about 20m/s).

Any tips?

http://imgur.com/a/n7xvx

I already added AoI to try and lift the thing out of the water to reduce drag, and changed the nose section. Also tried with unhistorical hydrofoils to lift it a bit. And I rotated the engines to not make it nose down just as much. Still not close to takeoff speed.

What is the take-off weight of that craft?

I know with my boat-planes I have an issue with reaching take off speeds, and landing in water is hard as hell.

[Wanderfound]

ok... so I tried building a Blohm & Voss BV 138 flying boat... (With Better Buoyancy ofcourse)

Flew great, landed just fine - but didn't even get close to take off speed (stall speed is about 35m/s, maybe a few m/s more, highest speed I got in the water was about 20m/s).

Any tips?

http://imgur.com/a/n7xvx

I already added AoI to try and lift the thing out of the water to reduce drag, and changed the nose section. Also tried with unhistorical hydrofoils to lift it a bit. And I rotated the engines to not make it nose down just as much. Still not close to takeoff speed.

It's a smidge cheaty, but a few Sepratrons or equivalent (Vernor ports, Twitch engines, etc) work well to break the surface tension and get you up to speed:

[FourGreenFields]

It's a smidge cheaty, but a few Sepratrons or equivalent (Vernor ports, Twitch engines, etc) work well to break the surface tension and get you up to speed:

http://i.imgur.com/ZtAbqIV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7QfDxNU.jpg

Meh. Maybe I'll add some monoprop/oxidizer to the wings and see what can be done. But I don't realy like it. Was hoping for something that doesn't use fuel.

What is the take-off weight of that craft?

I know with my boat-planes I have an issue with reaching take off speeds, and landing in water is hard as hell.

Roughly 10 tons iIrc. Definitly not above 12 tons.

Max takeoff weight for the BV 138 was about 17 tons according to wikipedia.

Landing in water is actually very easy with this thing. Just touch down at 60m/s or less (prob possible at slightly higher speeds too), which isn't exactly a problem with a stall speed of below 40m/s.

Even if you do start to yaw, the thing won't flip, so that's no issue either.

Edited August 4, 2015 by FourGreenFields

[sashan]

Here's my Rafale. Not exact replica, but very well reckognisable. Flies very well, even has some of supermaneurability - difficult to stall, can fly at high AoA.

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Mods: OPT cockpit, BDarmory, BahamutoD's landing gears and engines, tweakscale.

Still can not break the mach barrier, due to FAR being too lenient about area ruling. TWR is almost 2.0. Sidewinder missile from BDarmory, with correct size, mass, and thrust cannot do it as well.

Edited August 4, 2015 by sashan

[tetryds]

@cantab: Every design is a supersonic design, you just need to go fast enough.

Neat airplane, I have once made a challenge where I fixed up the crappiest possible oldStocksoup flyable designs, was fun.

http://i.imgur.com/SFRsaf5.jpg

Edited August 4, 2015 by tetryds

[Shazbot]

I have yet another fighter jet in the flightless bird series!

Meet the F-6A Cassowary, a 4th gen twin engine fighter, in the same sort of size class as the F-15 and Su-27. It's more fasty, more turny, and more angry than its predecessor.

I used mostly procedural parts again, which resulted in a pretty slippery plane for its size. It blasts through the sound barrier even at low altitude and shows no sign of stopping at mach 2.8. Well, it would if the dual Pratt & Whitney F100 engines wouldn't catastrophically overheat at anything higher than that.

Armament wise, it can carry 4 AMRAAMs and 4 Sidewinders. Both missile types are mounted in-line to keep the drag low.

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[ThorBeorn]

Shazbot: Nice plane! How did you set up the control surfaces? More specific, which surfaces did you set to help with large AoA? Do you only use the all moving horizontal tailfins for pitch?

[Shazbot]

Shazbot: Nice plane! How did you set up the control surfaces? More specific, which surfaces did you set to help with large AoA? Do you only use the all moving horizontal tailfins for pitch?

Thanks,

The pitch does indeed come exclusively from the tailplanes. The high-alpha assistance is done with the leading edge slat-thingies. The setting on them is maximum control deflection and -100 AoA. I since modified the plane to be both more aerodynamic and maneuverable, the result can be seen here:

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The new canards have the exact same setting as the slat things, with the addition of some roll control.

I also made a dedicated thread for my jets here so that if I make more of them I don't flood this thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130659-The-Flightless-Birds-a-series-of-FAR-fighter-jets

[Nothalogh]

So I finally managed to build an all stock SSTO.

Two RAPIERs and a NERV.

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Craft file is here

It needs the whole runway to get off the ground, but once she's in the air it's like the thing repels the ground, it goes supersonic on initial climb-out in a 20 deg climb.

Ascent plan is as follows:

1. with brakes on and throttles at zero, stage the engines
   
2. select AG3 to toggle off the NERV
   
3. set max throttle to run the RAPIERs up to full power
   
4. release brakes and select AG3 to toggle the NERV back on for the takeoff run
   
5. as you approach the end of the runway, lift the nosewheel off the ground
   
6. after clearing the end of the runway, pull up into a shallow climb and retract the landing gear, and toggle off the NERV with AG3
   
7. gain airspeed and pull into a 20 deg ascent
   
8. climb at 20 deg to ~7km and then pitch into a 15 deg climb
   
9. accelerate to about 800m/s and engage the NERV as well
   
10. pitch up to about 20 deg and gain all the airbreathing velocity you can, it will be somewhere around 1100m/s
    
11. as the RAPIERs start losing thrust, you should be doing about mach 4 and at about 22km
    
12. select AG2 to shut down the intakes and switch the RAPIERs to rocket mode
    
13. maintain 20 deg ascent, and push the apoapsis to about 40km
    
14. throttle down, lock SAS onto the prograde vector, and coast to 40km
    
15. throttle up, and accelerate until your periapsis becomes your apoapsis
    
16. push your apoapsis to about 110km so that atmospheric drag losses put you at about 100km
    
17. select AG1 to shut off the RAPIERs, you'll use the NERV from here on out
    
18. coast to apoapsis and circularize, you should need about 50m/s
    
19. pump the LF out of the wings into the fuselage tanks, you should have over 1000m/s of dv left over
    

Edited August 7, 2015 by Nothalogh

[Van Disaster]

Stick some small canards on it near the cockpit, it'll probably rip itself off the runway then. It's pitched down on it's wheels which means it's attempting to push itself into the runway on the takeoff run, that's a lot of why it takes all the runway ( the rest is to do with balance ) - sorting the wheels out might be enough, otherwise a little positive lift at the nose should sort it.

[Nothalogh]

Stick some small canards on it near the cockpit, it'll probably rip itself off the runway then. It's pitched down on it's wheels which means it's attempting to push itself into the runway on the takeoff run, that's a lot of why it takes all the runway ( the rest is to do with balance ) - sorting the wheels out might be enough, otherwise a little positive lift at the nose should sort it.

I'd do that, but I despise canards with a burning passion.

The main gear are set close to the center of mass, so it easily raises off the nosegear.

[sashan]

Guys, anyone succeeded in making sweeping wings aircraft, like F-14, B-1B, F-111, Tu-22M or any other? Can you post it?

Obviously, IR is a must have for that.

[eddiew]

Guys, anyone succeeded in making sweeping wings aircraft...

There was one made back in 0.90 that stuck out: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/113134

Definitely possible, though whether it's actually helpful is probably still up for debate

[sashan]

I don't care about helpful, I want to make a Tomcat, B-1B and F-111.

Well, I am pretty good at designing crafts with FAR I must say. Well, I didn't attend lectureas at university for nothing. But would be nice to have some tips from someone who actually designed them.

[Van Disaster]

I made some all the way back in 0.18(? whenever the original robotics mod appeared anyway ) - most of the problem is there's no really suitable hinges, so wings just flex badly at the joint. Solve that & it's no different to a fixed wing aircraft.

[Wanderfound]

Thanks,

The pitch does indeed come exclusively from the tailplanes. The high-alpha assistance is done with the leading edge slat-thingies. The setting on them is maximum control deflection and -100 AoA. I since modified the plane to be both more aerodynamic and maneuverable, the result can be seen here:

http://imgur.com/a/1QnJS

Nice...

Give it a run on the track?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/123650-Kerbinside-Air-Race

[FourGreenFields]

Someone enlighten me...

Why isn't the CoL above the CoM?

I know CoL is not working as intendet, but I also tried a similar (except finished) plane, that only had wings above the CoM, and had some dihedral. Still kept rolling towards the side it banked (both at small, and big roll angles). Bug or some physics I've never heard of?

[Wjolcz]

Someone enlighten me...

http://i.imgur.com/7vTgSxY.jpg

Why isn't the CoL above the CoM?

I know CoL is not working as intendet, but I also tried a similar (except finished) plane, that only had wings above the CoM, and had some dihedral. Still kept rolling towards the side it banked (both at small, and big roll angles). Bug or some physics I've never heard of?

I think I encountered the same bug in pre-1.0 with NEAR installed. In my case the CoM suddenly shifted right for no reason. Not sure about FAR, but since they are both from ferram I would assume it's a mod-based bug.

[damerell]

I think you'll find the CoL moves fore and aft of the CoM, not up and down.

[FourGreenFields]

I think you'll find the CoL moves fore and aft of the CoM, not up and down.

I figured as much. The thing is that there is no keel effect or whateveritscalled, which makes that thing roll instable, while it shouldn't be.

[Azimech]

I made some all the way back in 0.18(? whenever the original robotics mod appeared anyway ) - most of the problem is there's no really suitable hinges, so wings just flex badly at the joint. Solve that & it's no different to a fixed wing aircraft.

I fixed that with having the following construction: Airframe lower part -motorized docking washer - wing - free docking washer - airframe upper part.

[damerell]

I figured as much. The thing is that there is no keel effect or whateveritscalled, which makes that thing roll instable, while it shouldn't be.

This seems distinct from the question of the VAB display. Since lift is upwards, the CoL moving up and down would not be meaningful.