Cowboy Bebop replica craft!

[Red Dwarf]

That's right, folks. I've been getting my nerd on in a serious way, and marathoned through Cowboy Bebop again with my friends. It's one of the best anime of all time, but I haven't seen many attempts to replicate some of its iconic spacecraft. So, here I am to fill in that gap.

Spike Spiegel's Swordfish

I think I've seen one other Swordfish replica on the forums before, but that was back in the souposphere, and even then it wasn't able to fly without hack gravity. This one can fly for real.

Thanks to Logan.Darklighter's fantastic advice, I was able to tweak and refine the Swordfish, and now it performs better than ever. I've added additional control surfaces and Vernor engines, tweaked the balance, and made a couple other small changes. The old version of the Swordfish could really only fly with the Vernors on, severely limiting speed and flight time. Now the Swordfish can take off, fly, and maneuver using only its aerodynamic control surfaces. The Vernor engines boost the Swordfish's maneuverability to an insane degree, allowing it to stop and reverse directing in midair. It also allows it to take off and hover vertically. However, the Vernor engines really chew through fuel, so flying in this mode means much shorter flights.

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Stock Swordfish download!

Swordfish donwload with Kerbpaint!

Faye Valentine's Red Tail

I didn't think this one would be possible, but after only a day of general tinkering, I got the Red Tail flying!*

*For about 2 minutes.

This craft has the same problem the original Swordfish did: it chews through fuel like a big chewy thing. Primary lift is provided by two basic jet engines, but it needs pulses from the Vernor engines to get up in the air, and even more pulses to keep it there. It flies on translation controls, so get ready to have both hands on the keyboard. Again, flight time is limited to a couple of minutes, so in this case only I recommend emptying some of the fuel out of it and flying with Infinite Fuel on. It's more fun that way.

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Also, important note: The Red Tail has a probe core on it, which is designed to be its primary control. However, somehow it gets switched to the pod, which makes the ship unflyable. So, at the start of your flight don't forget to switch command from the pod to the probe core (which is hidden underneath the air intakes).

Stock Red Tail download!

Red Tail with Kerbpaint!

MONO Racer Swordfish

In addition to that, I've also made the original MONO racer design of the Swordfish. We really only see it once, in a photo during the episode Wild Horses. Fittingly for a racing plane, it's twitchy as hell. This version can be pretty unstable, but since it doesn't have the gun strapped to the bottom causing drag, it can actually push through the sound barrier. Otherwise, it can do everything the normal Swordfish can do.

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Stock MONO Racer version!

MONO Racer version with Kerbpaint!

Wild Horses suborbital flight

That's not all I did after my latest session with the show. For those of you who have seen it, you might remember the episode Wild Horses, where they drag this dusty old antique out to save Spike, who is plummeting into Earth's atmosphere.

They don't have the normal launch stack, so they send it up into a suborbital trajectory like this:

It's one of my favorite sequences in the whole show, so I thought I'd give it a shot, just to see how well it would work. Miracle of miracles, it actually works kinda well.

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Apo was in the low 70's, but that's enough for me. The Wild Horses ascent works, useless though it may be. It was a fun little experiment!

Edited August 13, 2015 by Red Dwarf

[Motokid600]

I've tried many times to get into the anime, but I just can't get hooked. The design of the vehicles is off putting to me. What's the deal with the large booms that stick out in front of the craft? Now I've only watched random episodes on toonami so I'm not too familiar. But another thing ii really didn't like is how everything is perfectly terraformed. ( not an anime, but that's the sole reason I hated Firefly as well )

Interesting use of a shuttle. I assume you fueled those engines with the tank in the payload bay? Is that how they did it in the show as well?

As far as space themed animes go I really liked Space Brothers ( quite possibly my favorite anime of all time ) and Planetes. So I might give this another go from the beginning. Nice work on the replicas.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Motokid600

[Red Dwarf]

The large boom on the front is a gigantic plasma cannon. On the replica it's used to pull the center of mass way forward. There's no way I would be able to mount the wings so far up the fuselage otherwise.

Also, Spike isn't the dog, he's the bounty hunter XP

[Kagame]

Sir, you deserve all the rep. Just saying.

[Motokid600]

Lol I realized that after reading up on the anime and edited that sentence out >.<. Interesting plot. Think I will give it a go. My only problem is a good place to watch some if these shows. Crunchyrol has me spoiled.

[HappilyStreet]

Can...can we have the craft files?

[Red Dwarf]

Sure thing! I don't really see a point in uploading the Wild Horse, since I just added booster rockets to a regular shuttle. You guys can do that for yourself. I'll update the OP with the link for the Swordfish though.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Red Dwarf

[tg626]

Sure thing! I don't really see a point in uploading the Wild Horse, since I just added booster rockets to a regular shuttle. You guys can do that for yourself. I'll update the OP with the link for the Swordfish though.

I'd be interested in seeing the details on how you built it. Always looking for new ideas/techniques

...See you around, space kerbal

[Signo]

I am a big fan of the anime. Lovely replica + rep.

KaubÃ…Âi Bibappu FTW.

[Red Dwarf]

I'd be interested in seeing the details on how you built it. Always looking for new ideas/techniques

I really think this craft shows how even though the aero-model is a lot better, it still isn't quite there yet. My Swordfish cheats a bit, and the tail ring, combined with the cannon on the nose, is the key to its success.

See, the Swordfish's wings are crazy far forward compared to where its center of mass would be. In order to make the craft flyable, I used the cannon to bring the center of mass forward. All that I had to do then was bring back the center of lift.

To do that, I angled the tail ring very slightly. I'm pretty sure the wings in this game run on magic. Putting them at an angle to the wind causes seriously crazy amounts of lift and drag. Look how far the center of lift travels with only 4 degrees of rotation:

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Really, I could have pushed the wings even further forward, and still be able to compensate with the tail ring. I bet it'd be possible to make even more improbable designs by doing that... hmmm... I'm gonna go build a passenger jet with the wings on the nose and see if I can trick the system again...

[tg626]

Hmmm, tried columbia and I'm lucky to get 10k appo to say nothing of COM shift causing flips if I don't move fuel around....

[Red Dwarf]

What's your shuttle look like? You have to remember that I put my shuttle together in 3 minutes. I didn't even put any monoprop in it. Also, the booster rockets aren't fully fueled. Make of that what you will.

Edit: Also, I don't know if I made it clear that this configuration is only good for suborbital hops. I get a 70 km apoapsis, but after that it drops into the ocean. If you can get anything even remotely like this to orbit, I will give you a medal.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Red Dwarf

[Dr Farnsworth]

I have not watched Cowboy Bebop in years but I can still recognize your craft that ya got there. Mighty nice lookin!

[HappilyStreet]

Thank you for Delivering

[obi_juan]

Thanks for sharing... I will fly it tonight.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Gotta say - this beast is a bit tricky to fly. Mainly on take-offs and landings,. The tail-dragger config wouldn't be as much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that the main gear is so angled! This craft really needs Bahamuto's Adjustable Landing Gear! (which should be STOCK, DANGIT!!!)

Other than that, the balance, as you say, is legit, no matter how wonky it was to get there!

If anything, I'd suggest trying to place the center of lift even closer to the center of mass if possible - this is a fighter craft, after all. And right now, though it flies pretty damn good (once you get it off the ground), I'd say at least as much control authority comes from the vernier thrusters as from the wings and control surfaces. You really HAVE to have those operating to get the maneuverability. And they are REQUIRED to get off the runway without crashing!

I did manage to land the thing mostly in one piece, but I lost the tip of the gun and the lower bits on the wings. Then again - it was a first landing, so I'll call it a win and if a guy like me - not the best pilot in the world - can get this thing down successfully, then I know it's more than possible to do it without any bits flying off on subsequent flights.

Nevertheless it's fun to fly around. Not much range on it, sadly, and it's certainly not going to space in it's current state. But as a flyable replica, it's first rate!

EDIT: I have discovered some easily fixable problems that don't require even adding/removing parts from the craft.

This Swordfish was having problems even keeping it's nose up without resorting to the vernier jets, must less any actual maneuverability. And there was almost NO Roll control without them and very little pitch control. Yaw was also a problem.

So I messed around in flight and discovered some things.

First off - the leading edge control surfaces on the front part of the wings were FIGHTING the ones on the back end. In other words, any pitch or roll you tried to input pretty much was negated by having the front leading edges almost entirely cancelling out whatever the trailing edges were doing. Once I turned off Pitch and Roll control on the leading edges, the Swordfish responded MUCH better than before. It could maneuver reliably without needing the vernier jets to be on all the time. They still come in VERY handy in short on/off bursts. But the craft no longer NEEDED them constantly on to fly true!

Second - I re-angled the rear "circle tail" so that the center of mass and center of lift were DEAD ON each other. This REALLY helped!

Third, I turned on the Yaw on the vertical stabilizers at the tips of the wings.

Now - when the vernier jets are off, you have a pretty stable, yet maneuverable flying machine.

With the verniers ON, you get SUPER-MANEUVERABILITY on the order of an SU-27 Flanker! This thing can reverse itself in mid-air, STOP with its thrust and go the other way!

EDIT EDIT: Oh - and those vernier thrusters really help out in take-offs and landings. This Swordfish isn't a VTOL. But it's most definitely an STOL extraordinaire! With upward thrust from the verniers, i can practically stand this thing on it's tailwheel 50 meters into take-off and lift off!! And in landing, you can get down to some ridiculously slow speeds for a nice soft touchdown.

Therefore I retract my comment about the landing gear above. It's rather a moot point! Heh.

Hope these test-flight observations help out!

Edited August 12, 2015 by Logan.Darklighter

[Red Dwarf]

Yeah, range was never really a concern for me. When I make replicas, looks take the priority to functionality. I never expected it to be an SSTO like the real Swordfish, since that thing has a fusion reactor/aerospike engine that's almost as big as the rest of the ship. Just being able to do a few loops around the KSC is enough for me

[Fearless Son]

I've tried many times to get into the anime, but I just can't get hooked. The design of the vehicles is off putting to me. What's the deal with the large booms that stick out in front of the craft? Now I've only watched random episodes on toonami so I'm not too familiar. But another thing ii really didn't like is how everything is perfectly terraformed. ( not an anime, but that's the sole reason I hated Firefly as well )

One of the things I liked about it was that it was actually not perfectly terraformed. For example, most martian cities are built inside large craters, which in turn have tall airwalls built around their rims. They have atmospheric processing going on inside those craters that keeps the area breathable, and you can see the higher density air spilling over the tops of the walls, forming fog banks as it chills into the colder surrounding atmosphere. The cities in turn are connected by highways which are covered and pressurized. Image here.

One of the recurring minor elements in the series are old pensioners who were some of the "first in" colonists and who tend to bemoan how the younger generations do not realize how easy they have it these days, considering themselves something of a "greatest generation" for how much terraforming they were able to accomplish.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Fearless Son

[Red Dwarf]

Hope these test-flight observations help out!

Holy cats! I tried out the changes you suggested, and now she flies fantastic. I made some more tweaks after I fixed those issues, and now she can take off without RCS, and performs well on control surfaces alone. Thanks to the COL tweaks the flight time has been extended from 3 minutes to 15, now that the RCS isn't required for level flight. I moved the vernor ports around, too, so that she can take off and even hover on RCS alone. Like you said, flying with RCS on makes this thing a beast. I've been able to stop and reverse directions in midair, and have stable flight!

Finally, I had noticed a bug where the landing gear would sometimes cause rapid unplanned disassembly, which is now fixed. I'm working on releasing an updated version, as well as a version without the cannon, with all those new features. I'm experimenting with Kerbpaint as well, so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks so much for the advice, dude!

[Red Dwarf]

Updated the OP with tweaked and new craft!

[Logan.Darklighter]

Holy cats! I tried out the changes you suggested, and now she flies fantastic.

(snip)

Thanks so much for the advice, dude!

Glad to help out!

And...

"Tell you what. Throw a little hotrod red in there."

"Yes, that should help you keep a low profile..."

[Red Dwarf]

Today I took a shot at perhaps the most unlikely craft from the show: Faye's Red Tail.

Faye's Red Tail is kind of mystifying. It can take off and land vertically, hover, and also somehow fly like a normal jet, all without any clearly visible down-facing engines. It also looks really really weird.

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Final verdict: Promising. It worked a lot better than I expected it too, but that being said, it did not work particularly well. TWR is very low, the RCS systems aren't doing what I want, and it's hard to steer. However, that may be because of pilot inexperience. To do this right, I'm probably going to need Cupcake levels of skill in terms of VTOL piloting and design. Time will tell how well this goes.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Today I took a shot at perhaps the most unlikely craft from the show: Faye's Red Tail.

http://orig08.deviantart.net/183a/f/2008/060/4/1/cowboy_bebop___red_tail____2_by_tmc_deluxe.jpg

Faye's Red Tail is kind of mystifying. It can take off and land vertically, hover, and also somehow fly like a normal jet, all without any clearly visible down-facing engines. It also looks really really weird.

http://imgur.com/a/yGlLF

Final verdict: Promising. It worked a lot better than I expected it too, but that being said, it did not work particularly well. TWR is very low, the RCS systems aren't doing what I want, and it's hard to steer. However, that may be because of pilot inexperience. To do this right, I'm probably going to need Cupcake levels of skill in terms of VTOL piloting and design. Time will tell how well this goes.

Actually, Faye's Red Tail is not that mystifying. You just have to watch in the show carefully and then take some notes from a source like the plan view above.

The main thing is that you are almost certainly NOT going to be able to do this properly in stock mode. You're going to need IR Robotics at bare minimum. I also recommend Bahamuto's parts pack - the ones with the pop-out engines and such. Lackluster Labs will also have some form shapes that'll help. Lastly - tweakscale, because you're going to have to adjust some things for closest result.

Take a look at the "arms". There are at least 3 large thrusters on the white "shoulder" sections. The big thruster right behind the "elbow" of the assembly is the main VTOL thruster. (EDIT: Right where you've got the big landing gear, in fact) But there are stabilizing thrusters pointing forward and to the sides relative to that. Plus what appear to be Linear RCS Thruster ports towards the rear facing outwards, and at the very tip of the rear part of the shoulder facing backwards.

If it were me, I'd build the arms first as an IR Robotics sub-assembly first if possible. You'll need a rototron at the main connecting point between the "shoulder" and the main body. And a powered hinge (possibly also a small sliding piston) at the "elbow".

In the show, when the Red Tail comes in to land, it bends the "Elbows" up and folds the guns near vertical, and rotates the "Shoulders" so that the main VTOL thruster is pointing down. The other thrusters probably gimble to provide stabilization. Plus the RCS is helping.

Bahamuto's parts pack would be invaluable, because it's got at least one rocket thruster that's a rectangular unit, that looks like a vent when not operating, but when active, pops out the bells of the rocket thrusters. It'd make a good match for that VTOL vent above. (Rockets also make better VTOL thrusters than Jets anyway - more responsive.)

As for the other thrusters - well I think for the power you need and the response time, you'll need to use Vernor thrusters like you used with the Swordfish. They may have to be spaced differently because they'll be static rather than gimble mounts. But that's the sort of compromise you have to make when doing a recreation that's also intended to fly.

I'm not sure HOW to really do the bubble cockpit justice. I can't recall a single "pod" like that in all the mods I've seen - except an Oblivion Mod from Wayland that is now sadly out of date and not compatible with 1.04. What you've done in the screens above is about the best compromise possible for both size and functionality I'd bet.

Lastly - if going the mod route, I think you should obviously use the GAU 30MM cannon from BD Armory, cause the lower arms are ALL GUN. Heh. (Actually in the show, she had missiles there too, but you can only do so much with the space restrictions! Maybe an unguided rocket pod would fit there as well?)

(Which, BTW - reminds me of a little tinkering I attempted with the Swordfish. Unfortunately the Howitzer, despite being huge, is actually NOT LONG ENOUGH to make a credible replacement for the girders on the front in terms of appearance!

I think it COULD be done, but you'd have to fit it to something like a tailboom or some other long structural element. Even stuck on the end of one section of the girders, it looks kinda strange. On the other hand, the smaller guns that the Swordfish uses are good matches for the BD Armory fixed 20mm Vulcans.)

Edited August 13, 2015 by Logan.Darklighter

[Red Dwarf]

My initial approach was to use the Vernor thrusters, just like I did in the swordfish, but for some reason it doesn't seem to work. Part of it is because the Red Tail is so much heavier than the Swordfish. It's almost all fuel tank, where-as the Swordfish was mostly wing. In addition to that, the RCS gets confused when placed on parts that have been rotated and twisted around weirdly like they have been here. Using the translation controls to thrust upward, only the ports on the front of the craft will work. the rest only fire during rotation.

It may be that there's issues with the root part (the pod), when it should really be one of the structural elements, like the main body of the craft. Time for some experimentation!

- - - Updated - - -

I figured it oooouuuut! The Red Tail will be ready for release soon!

[Red Dwarf]

OP updated with Faye Valentine's Red Tail!