Experimental VTOL Sea Hopper MK.1 and it's land only cousin, Sky Hopper.

[Jakalth]

For today's playing, I present the Sea Hopper MK.1 (download includes both variants)

This simple(ish) VTOL craft is a fully amphibious craft with pure VTOL only lift/thrust engines. It's flight is simple:

1: turn on SAS

2: set engines to full

3: activate the engines

4: once liftoff is achieved, tip forward to start forward flight.

Landing is preformed simply by lowering the output of the engines a bit, and letting it slowly lower too the ground. Adjusting the thrust is how you control "lift".

The Sea Hoppers top stable flight speed is around 64m/s.

Turning is done by tipping the craft in the direction you want it to move. forwards, backwards, sideways, up, and down are all possible directions this craft can go. The left/right controls rotate the whole craft around it's center of mass. Up/Down, change it's direction forwards or backwards, and change the speed it travels in these directions. Roll is used to angle the craft so it can slide left and right without changing the direction it is facing.

The Sea Hopper can land and take off from water as easily as it does from land. It is highly recommended to reduce it's speed down to at most, 10 m/s while landing on water. ground landings can be survivable at speeds in excess of 20m/s if the craft is orintated horizontally. It can still be moving during landing but should be moving either forwards or backwards. Sideways motion during landing can be a bit dangerous with it's narrow landing gear and low ground clearance.

The tail on the craft is only for added roll stability so it has all other controls turned off. Also, the rear engine has it's thrust turned down so that the combined thrust of the three engines is perfectly aligned under the center of mass. note: the water picture was taken of the craft before I added the tail. In fact, that landing was why I added the tail, it helps measurably with keeping the craft stable during flight.

The Sky Hopper MK.1 is the non-amphibious varient of the Sea Hopper. Without the "floats", the craft is a bit lighter and a lot more maneuverable. This varient is a lot easier to land in those unusual spots where you normally wouldn't dare land an aircraft. The Sky Hopper has a more respectable stable top speed of around 93m/s. Both these craft have unusual aerodynamics that tend to pull the craft back to the vertical if too much aerodynamic force is applied too their frames aka: high speed dives. Their stability is pretty good for what they are, experimental craft.

Both these two craft are experimental craft and are made for nothing more then to play around with vertical flight. I hope you also enjoy playing around with them. Be sure to try different engines, like the RamJet, on them to see how the craft responds to different amounts of thrust. And be sure to adjust the thrust limiter on the rear engine, when you change it out, so that the center of thrust is once again, directly under the center of mass.

If your really wanting to try something interesting. Try adding RSC to this craft, and some mono propellant tanks. It will increase the maneuverability of the craft greatly, possibly making it uncontrollable, but in the fun way.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Jakalth

[Redshift OTF]

Hey very nice. Perhaps replacing the metal beams for something else might make it a bit lighter? Wouldn't look as good though.

[Jakalth]

making it lighter might not be a bad idea actually. It was a bit sketchy landing it on top of mission control as it is. Had too touch down nice and gentle to prevent the building's roof from buckling.

As for the beams, well, they are easy to use. that is the only reason I went with that for the pylons. That, and adding aerodynamic surfaces actually hiders it's flight performance, other then the single tail surface. You don't want anything wing like on a purely VTOL only craft like this. Wings produce lift, lift wants to go forwards, so tipping the nose down to get forward thrust means the wings push the craft towards the ground...

[Jakalth]

So, I took your suggestion to heart and made a lighter version of the Sky Hopper. Sky Hopper Mk.2 LT, is considerably lighter in weight and has a much higher stable top speed too boot. 150+m/s. This little craft can get into even smaller locations then it's predecessor. Being it's also an experimental VTOL only craft, it's flight controls are a bit unusual to get used too. There are no aerodynamic forces to control the craft other then roll control.

It's much safer to land this craft on the buildings around KSP now that it weighs less then the break threshold of the buildings. Jeb, That's not what I meant by "landing" on that building...

Sky Hopper Mk.2 LT(download)

I could probably add some inverted landing gear to right the craft if it ends up on its roof like this. That way it can be righter and continue flying. As it stands, the lower SAS control isn't strong enough to turn it over if it goes turtle.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Jakalth