Aerodynamics Lesson Of The Day.

[Camaron]

So, I decided to fire up my aging King, Titan XV.

Note: This ship later successfully made orbit without issue.

The Titan Xv is a fuel container ship that weighs 3,300 tons in orbit with a full fuel load.

All was going well until it was time to drop the first stage. My fatal error soon became very clear:

My ship was not pointed straight into its current direction of travel.

The resulting lesson being, make sure a ship that uses very heavy drop-boosters is aligned, direction with heading. Or else the boosters in the shallow side of the ship will be thrown into your craft by aero drag, creating a slight mishap like this one:

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Edited May 24, 2015 by Camaron

[Chaia]

That looks like a firework. An awesome firework

[EdgySpork]

How many boosters are there?!

[Voidryder]

Somebody call Whackjob. That was sweet.

[Kerbart]

How I wish that Werner von Braun would have said “Now zat ve know zat ze Zaturn Vife launches reliable, vy not ztrap zwelf of zose together wiz lots of struts and zee vhat happens, ja?â€Â

[Camaron]

How I wish that Werner von Braun would have said “Now zat ve know zat ze Zaturn Vife launches reliable, vy not ztrap zwelf of zose together wiz lots of struts and zee vhat happens, ja?â€Â

Actually, there are 24 booster columns in each of the first two layers.

[LordCurlyton]

That....is a lot of parts raining down. I can only imagine the collateral.

[-ELF-]

That. Was. Spectacular!

*Staying staring into the sky, amused*

[Hobbes Novakoff]

This is how Jeb celebrates 4th of July.

[EdgySpork]

did your KSC survive the explosions? :|

[Camaron]

did your KSC survive the explosions? :|

Probably. I was at 6km with a ship that was flying at around a 10 degree angle, so its very likely that I only managed to create a lot of new artificial reefs.

[kelmv]

My ship was not pointed straight into its current direction of travel.

The resulting lesson being, make sure a ship that uses very heavy drop-boosters is aligned, direction with heading. Or else the boosters in the shallow side of the ship will be thrown into your craft by aero drag, creating a slight mishap like this one:

http://imgur.com/a/Vrbhw

Dropping boosters always makes me a little panicy. Even the slightest problem and suddenly your main engine is gone, there is a booster flying past the command capsule (and is likely to collide with said capsule later in the flight), the staging button is stuck, and Bill is happy as can be (for about .25 seconds)

[Gargamel]

Did you break your finger spamming the screenshot?

[Camaron]

Did you break your finger spamming the screenshot?

That's a 1500 part ship. It wasn't exactly running at full speed.

[TrooperCooper]

It doesnt take off from the launchpad. Upon engine ignition, it pushes the planet away.

Great stuff!

[Windspren]

Get 10 of those, strap them together, and then strap 10 of those to a IRL Saturn V.

[viktor19]

That....is a lot of parts raining down. I can only imagine the collateral.

I don't think that the sea minds all that boosters falling on it