Kestrel - A VTOL Deathtrap

[FlipNascar]

Casts an awesome shadow. Check. Handles like a pig. Check.

Sadly I haven't yet discovered how to make this thing useful. However, through the magic of the Spider engine it sort of flaps its wings (because of this sometimes some of the canards clip through and look ungainly see pic #3). It has two Klaws for feet. It can land on them fairly well, best bet for survivability is to rock it onto the "tail feathers". You may need to retract the gear to unstick it from the ground.

With this you can go and Klaw stuff. I assume. I say that, because I've tried and I usually end up crashing. So theoretically possible. Practically speaking, I suppose it's more a barely functional bird sculpture that seats one Kerbal.

Probably make a good gatekeeper...

There are some serious caveats with this if you want to fly it... Namely 20m/s should be seen as Vne. Bad stuff happens when you fly faster, namely an uncontrollable attraction to rapid disassembly through the medium of solid ground. If you want to descend, nope can't dive. It can only handle gentle, slow, powered descents. It handles like crap. I had a different prototypical variant that didn't have feathers in the same way - that flew beautifully. So I'll blame the form over function argument here.

Takeoff - EVA from the pod if you don't use Take Command. Board the seat, stage once to fire up engines and retract the ladder. Let them spool up, then release the launch clamps and fly away. If you are successful in tagging something in the claws, you'll be able to lift a bit of payload. About 2/3rds throttle will give you liftoff (barely) at launch weights. So there is payload capability, if you can get it into the Klaws - I can't.

Happy crashing. But hey, at least that shadow looks freaking awesome until you crash, right?!

Download from KerbalX

[Foxster]

That's very nice, dear. Very well done.

As you say, worth it just for the shadow.

[CrashTestDanny]

wow - very nice, even if not fully functional...

Danny

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Worth it for the shadow. Great job!

[FlipNascar]

Thanks! Definitely a better statue than craft.

- - - Updated - - -

Apparently in the game of Butterfly vs Kestrel... Butterfly > Kestrel.

[Vanamonde]

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! No, it's a plane.

[Rune]

I assume all canards are disabled? Because if they are not, that woudl solve all your control problems quite easily. Or at least a lot of them.

Rune. It is still, again, worth it for the shadow.

[BagelRabbit]

Ladies and gentlemen, I am in a quandary.

I created a bird-plane a month ago. It was a legitimate rover, capable of driving about with wheels; it was a bird which had impressive feathers and a face only a mother could love; and it was a plane capable of sustained flight with help from control surfaces.

Here, have a picture:

Despite the thing's flaws, I was proud of it. I was about to post it on this here Spacecraft Exchange, and literally created a showcase video last night. You can watch it here. (I don't want to shamelessly self-promote too much, so only watch it if you don't believe that I could pull this sort of thing off.)

So, I come onto the Spacecraft Exchange today, and look what pops up! Someone else has had the exact same idea as me. Great minds think alike, don't they?

The problem, of course, is that posting my design now makes it seem a tad less original than I originally thought it was. And because this sort of design's only claim to fame is its originality... well, I'm not entirely sure what to do! Hence the quandary.

I'm certainly not blaming FlipNascar for having this idea. I think it's great, which is exactly why I had worked on a similar project myself. Rather, I am blaming Fate and Ill Fortune for frowning upon me today.

Sorry for the long-ish, rant-like post. It's just been an iffy day, and I was looking forward to posting my design. Now, I honestly have no idea what to do... suggestions appreciated as long as they don't clog this thread too much.

-Upsilon

[Final edit: Oh, and it might be nice if you could change the name of the thread so that "Deathtrap" has a T. I'm thinking of someone rapping about death, now, which is a somewhat unwanted mental vision.

Oh, and let me just say again: Great design!]

Edited October 21, 2015 by UpsilonAerospace

[Warbird]

[FlipNascar]

I assume all canards are disabled? Because if they are not, that woudl solve all your control problems quite easily. Or at least a lot of them.

Rune. It is still, again, worth it for the shadow.

They are indeed disabled, every single one just to make sure.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am in a quandary.

I created a bird-plane a month ago. It was a legitimate rover, capable of driving about with wheels; it was a bird which had impressive feathers and a face only a mother could love; and it was a plane capable of sustained flight with help from control surfaces.

snip snip

That's beautiful! And looks like its far more practical than mine. Yours also seems to be somewhat more reasonable in scale. +rep for ye.

Post a link, I'd love to fly it and then deconstruct it to see how you went about it.

[Yukon0009]

Very nice!

On the topic of animal themed crafts, on one of the KSP facebook groups pandoras kitten (Les Toreades) challenged me to send 20 pigs to Duna.

This is what I came up with.

[Azimech]

Nice animals y'all!

[Alphasus]

Ha, well I guess the pigs are flying and disaster will strike soon!

[FlipNascar]

Very nice!

On the topic of animal themed crafts, on one of the KSP facebook groups pandoras kitten (Les Toreades) challenged me to send 20 pigs to Duna.

This is what I came up with.

http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah315/Yukon0009/screenshot6566_zpsgaftenle.png

http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah315/Yukon0009/screenshot6584_zpsda3yvwgh.png

Is that to help them escape from David Cameron?

Awesome Pigs though. Now should they be called Peppa or Babe?