Colonial Viper II

[Logan.Darklighter]

This is a replica of a Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica. Though I call it a Viper II, I really did not attempt to make any specific version. It’s not fully a Mk 1 from the 1978 version or the Mk II from NuBSG. (Though I did get more of my inspiration from the latter)

Mods

Adjustable Landing Gear (So incredibly useful they should be stock!)

B9 Aerospace Pack (just the Landing Light on the bottom of the ship)

Bahamuto Dynamics (Parts pack) (The Pop-Out RCS thrusters - less drag in atmo)

BahamutoD’s Armory (Weapons and countermeasures of course)

Firespitter (buried deep inside the ship is a small fuel tank that I used as a common point for fuel lines)

Kerbal Aircraft Expansion (KAX) (I'm not actually sure what part of this mod I used, though Kerbal X says I did *shrug*)

Mark IV Spaceplane System (SCIMITAR Engines instead of Stock Rapiers - they're a bit more powerful. Though Standard Rapiers would likely work okay)

OPT Space Plane Parts (The wings)

TweakScale - Rescale Everything! (Lots of little tweaks here and there)

In terms of performance, it’s not the greatest turner in atmosphere. Any atmospheric fighter will likely wax it’s tail. These are the compromises you’ll always see when trying to make a space fighter like this with no cheats (like infinite fuel). Either performance in atmosphere or space is going to suffer by comparison. And the form dictated which was going to come in second.

Anyway, as said above, it's not the best atmospheric fighter, but in space, it’s VERY snappy and maneuverable! And I believe I’ve actually made a craft that’s both a good replica of an icon AND a decent - and operational - aerospace fighter as well! So I’m fairly pleased with it!

WEAPONS:

(All BD Armory)

x2 Vulcan Cannons

4 Space Maneuvering Missiles

2 Flare Dispensers

2 Chaff Dispensers

Craft was created to be compatible with the latest release from BD Armory. It has a Weapons Manager, and... I was GOING to put an AI Flight box on it too, but then I had a moment of Lore Clarity. Heh.

If you want to put an AI controller on your craft to test a fight, go right ahead.

But NO self-respecting Colonial would have ANY "Toaster" running a ship!

PRE-FLIGHT CHECKS:

Though not absolutely required for download or operation, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TAC Fuel Balancer - hey - if you've downloaded the mods so that this craft is compatible and will load in your game, what's one more that's not even a parts mod, eh?

If you're using TAC Fuel Balancer, then before take off, pull up the Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer sections. Note that one of the tanks in the oxidizer section has no fuel in it. That's the center tank of the drop tank (the drop tank consists of 6 parts - a center small FL-T200 tank, two conical NCS Adapter tanks, two nose-cones and a docking port). You want to set that to "Transfer Out". I also recommend dumping Oxidizer from one of the small FL-T100 Tanks, and then setting the Oxidizer section to "Balance All".

On the Liquid Fuel section in TAC, Set the FL-T200 and the two NCS Adapter Tanks to "Transfer Out" and then "Balance All".

If you're not using TAC Balancer, then you'll have to do your best to just manually transfer the fuel from the drop tank section to one of the other fuel tanks. I recommend transferring from the Drop Tank(s) to the Liquid Fuel Tank that the top engine is connected to.

In any case, now you're set for take-off.

Recommended ascent Profile:

The Viper II is capable of getting to low orbit from the runway - though it needs the help of a little extra fuel tankage in the form of the drop tank to do so. In regards to that drop tank, there's enough clearance for it to pitch without collision with the runway, but you have to be CAREFUL with it. Wait until you're going at least 110-120 Meters per second, then start the pitch gently, just enough to get the front gear up and then the rear gear. As soon as you're clear of the runway, pull the gear up and start the first major pitch up.

I recommend 45 degree ascent until just after 10,000 meters, when you’ll have drained the drop tank and released it. Note that this is not done with a decoupler, but with a small docking port arrangement. Hit "9" on the action groups to release it. (Why not use a decoupler? Because I wanted the option to attach a new drop tank to this craft in orbit!)

Then slowly drop the nose to between 20-25 degrees until about 15,000 meters, then further to 10-15 degrees between 15,000 and 20,000 meters altitude. Then keep flying until around 25,000 meters altitude. Watch the speed carefully at that point. As soon as the speed levels off and begins dropping, angle the nose up to between 20-25 degrees pitch and switch the engines to rocket mode. (If you're using Kerbal Engineer, then your speed should be around Mach 3.7-3.8 when your speed starts to drop off.)

At between 65-67,000 Apoapsis, throttle the engines down to zero with the X key (you’ll go over the 70,000 meter level before they shut off completely), pitch the vehicle to pure pro-grade attitude, turn on the RCS thrusters and thrust forward with those to keep your apoapsis from dropping. Yes - you heard me right - you've got plenty of RCS that you haven't used by this point and you'll need almost all your remaining fuel to get a stable orbit and you may as well burn off some extra weight that’s NOT your main fuel supply...

Circularize at apoapsis and you should have a small amount of fuel remaining to rendezvous with a tanker or carrier in orbit to top off the tanks (you DID plan to rendezvous with a larger craft didn’t you? )

If not, you should have enough fuel/oxidizer left to de-orbit and land. Landing is rather like a space shuttle in terms of glide path if you're not using your engines, you're basically going to drop down (hopefully onto a runway - though the Viper is more than capable of wilderness landings) at about a 20-40 degree angle to maintain speed, then flare right before landing and use the airbrakes to help slow you down. (The airbrakes can also be used in re-entry to slow down faster, though this craft is actually very good at bleeding off heat for some reason! The only parts that tend to get hot are the RTGs on ascent, and if you're shallow in re-entry, you can keep the Viper from pinging any temp sensor bars at all!)

And lastly -

If all else fails and you find yourself stuck in a decaying orbit or out of fuel in deep space, there is a failsafe in the form of an Ion Engine tucked between the three main engines and solar panels on the bottom of the craft! If you’re truly confident in your abilities, then you may want to pull those to save a little weight. But hey - you never know when you might need it…

Anyway - you can download the craftfile from Kerbal X. Give me some upvotes while you're at it if you like this little ship!

Edited August 13, 2015 by Logan.Darklighter

[VR_Dev]

This is sweet. That last picture is no joke.

[Logan.Darklighter]

I should note that I was going to post some images of the newest version of the Viper - the one that has the latest BD Armory mods etc and the docking port connector for the drop tank. But IMGUR is being a complete cockblock this evening - AGAIN. And won't let me upload anything.

I'll see if I can get some uploads of the new pics later tonight when Imgur is actually WORKING... *grumble*

Oh well - there really isn't all that much different to the Viper. Just wanted to point out the Flare and separate Chaff dispensers as well as the docking port connector for the drop tank.

On that note - I'm thinking of creating a re-supply craft with a bunch of drop tanks in a "clip". Basically the reload version of the drop-tanks would have the port connectors on both top and bottom so that you could dock a bunch of them together - or just put them in a standard cargo hold. But you'd need to make sure they would be accessible. Perhaps fold them out of the cargo bay on an IR Robotics arm so that the Viper could dock to the one on the end, then decouple it?

Also - good news in terms of being able to resupply the armaments! It was always possible to reload the BD Armory ammo boxes from a docked craft that had the same ammo. But I've since discovered that the Kerbal Inventory System Mod can actually store BD Armory Missiles - if you have a large enough volume box for them! That means that a Kerbal can actually place a missile (or bomb) on an unoccupied armament rail (or anywhere else, really - but the rails are safer).

Of course - amusingly, I THINK that also means that a Kerbal - carrying a missile "strapped" to their back, could actually FIRE the missile themselves!

"Say hello to MY LITTLE FRIEND!!!"

Edited August 13, 2015 by Logan.Darklighter

[Rufledt]

Cool! funny, though, it looks like a replica of my replica from a few weeks ago:

Might you have some unnamed 'inspiration' for this? The similarities are striking (except mine didn't use mods)

I didn't find the drop tank necessary to get into orbit, there's a vid on my thread here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130661-We-Can-Game-s-Functional-Sci-Fi-ships-SSTO-s-and-more%21 where i got it to LKO, deorbited, and flew back for a runway landing with the same tank set up as you minus the drop tanks. in fact, the reason i made the top fuel tank liquid and not LFO was because i didn't want to add drop tanks, and it works. If you want to use drop tanks, you should probably make all the tanks LFO, and the drop tank liquid fuel, that would probably result in a lot more deltaV for once you get into orbit.

Also for in atmosphere maneuverability, since you claim you did not try to replicate any specific version, just put small canard control surfaces on the nose and it will drastically help. it turned an x-wing replica i made into a real atmostpheric fighter instead of it's standard "barely keep the nose up" level of control.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Cool! funny, though, it looks like a replica of my replica from a few weeks ago:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pKzAI0O-UBo/VcFeUj49S4I/AAAAAAAADao/iKTWZ8Adk6U/s640-Ic42/vm2.jpg

Might you have some unnamed 'inspiration' for this? The similarities are striking (except mine didn't use mods)

Heh. I think we both just started from a similar source. Have you seen how many Vipers there are over on Kerbal X? Do a search sometime, they all start to look very similar after awhile. Except for that one guy who made a Viper Mk 1 where he made the body shape out of two almost merged hulls in order to get the shape closer to the original. Very impressive. But holy jeezus the part count on that beast!

I will fully admit to stealing... er... borrowing... the top angled fin element from you, though. I thought that bit was inspired and really worked very well indeed! Worth copying!

I didn't find the drop tank necessary to get into orbit, there's a vid on my thread here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130661-We-Can-Game-s-Functional-Sci-Fi-ships-SSTO-s-and-more%21 where i got it to LKO, deorbited, and flew back for a runway landing with the same tank set up as you minus the drop tanks. in fact, the reason i made the top fuel tank liquid and not LFO was because i didn't want to add drop tanks, and it works. If you want to use drop tanks, you should probably make all the tanks LFO, and the drop tank liquid fuel, that would probably result in a lot more deltaV for once you get into orbit.

Also for in atmosphere maneuverability, since you claim you did not try to replicate any specific version, just put small canard control surfaces on the nose and it will drastically help. it turned an x-wing replica i made into a real atmostpheric fighter instead of it's standard "barely keep the nose up" level of control.

Hmm. I find that even with the tanks as I have them set up, and with the drop tank, that if I don't dump some oxidizer on the runway that I wind up with too much. The drop tank is in fact all liquid fuel, BTW. No oxidizer in it.

Also as I said above, the main reason for using the Drop Tank on the armed version is that it's just plain heavier. The un-armed prototype actually did get to orbit on its own. But I kept not quite making it and running out of fuel before circularizing when I was pulling those missiles, guns and ammo up with me.

TL;DR - Heavier ship needs more fuel.

In fact I do have fins on the nose! They're just inverted/clipped into the hull so they're not visible. It's a bit cheaty, but hey, whatever works.

I managed to upload some images to imgur this morning. I intended to get around to posting them here, but got busy with other things during the day. Now's a good time to post and explain how I do things.

I use TAC Fuel Balancer, (highly recommend it!) and here's what my fuel distribution looks like on runway spawn.

You'll notice that the FL-T200 tank is empty of oxidizer. That's actually the middle connecting tank in the drop tank set-up. It's meant to be that way. I don't need oxidizer in the drop tank.

Here's what I've been doing as my first step in pre-flight. Take one of the FL-T100s and dump it's oxidizer. Then...

Set TAC to "Balance All" and it evens out the Oxidizer Distribution on all the tanks. (Except for that Drop Tank section, which I've set to "Transfer Out" so that it doesn't receive any.)

Next, I move up to the Liquid Fuel section and set the two NCS Adapter Tanks and the FL-T200 to Transfer out and "Balance All" on the rest. That way the drop tank fuel is used up first.

I typically wind up with the LF and O levels fairly close once in orbit with this set-up. Between 12-18% fuel left for orbital maneuvers. Not much, but enough to get to a tanker to top off with!

Here's some other pics.

I mentioned that I use a docking port rather than a decoupler because I foresee that having the ability to attach another drop tank in orbit might just come in handy. Here's a good shot that shows the connection.

This one shows the most visible difference in the most recent update of BD Armory - these are the new chaff and flare dispenser ports.

And here's the emergency Ion Engine activated, with solar panels deployed. It's not much thrust, but if you're out of propellant for the main engines, this may help you limp back to a rendezvous with a ship that can fuel you.