1:1 Antonov AN-225 (finished)

[kapteenipirk]

Lets start from a blank table shall we, hmm. As you can see the project is now complete.

(Again i'm going for a more story like description cause it's more fun that way).

Presenting my most ambitious and challengin build yet, A 1:1 AN-225 replica called, you guessed it, the Kerbonov KN-225.

 

Purpose of the program:

The whole idea of a huge 90x90m aircraft was more an in-house thing and was not meant for sales, but we got a contarct we couldn't back away from.

So, due to this we have built 1+6 air-frames so far.

We have our own prototype, witch is now practically owned by our own test pilot Miles kerman. And we have built six air-frames for the STAG initiative, two as AWACS aircrafts and four as cargo aircrafts.

The whole purpose of the aircraft was to demonstrate that aircrafts of that size are possible to make, plus we kinda wanted to make a plane for transporting MK-3 parts from one facility to another.

So here are some technical specs for the aircrafts, our engineers and our test pilot can give you a more detailed report.

Part count: 1500 (M Tornado and prototype), 1645 for the stag version. My craft file got corrupted twice and the game crashed about 20-30 times during the building, painting and testing phase. So that should give you an idea of the scope of this build/project. Plus, the 4 minute (ingame time) flight lasted about 30-40 minutes in realtime.

Length: 88,8M.

Wingspan: 90,1M.

Height: 16,2M.

Weight: 280tons (with fuel).

Maximum speed: about 120-130m/s in low altitude.

Minimum takeoff speed: around 50-60m/s (If you go faster than 80m/s on land, the landing gears will bend and you will meet you fiery doom).

Minimum speed (at witch you can still pull the nose up and gain some altitude): about 50-40m/s.

Vertical speed: about 80 or so m/s max.

Fuel capacity: Has 14300 units in it but can be loaded with more if needed.

Fuel consumption: about 11-12 units per second.

Crew: 4, pilot, co-pilot, in-flight engineer and navigator. (Its actually unmanned but has 4 seats in the flight deck).

(Don't trust me too much on these technical specs cause my memory is very bad).

That's about it for the technical specs, now we will let the test pilot and the engineering team give their own reports.

 

Engineers report:

Considering the size of the aircraft, it holds together real nicely and can handle some stress too (don't know about landing since i haven't done that yet), apparently Miles kerman pulled of a loop de loop with the aircraft and it still held together.

But there are some draw backs on the design:

1. the nose is too heavy for the rotatrons to support/lift it, so it had to be welded strutted shut to prevent nose drooping and explosions during takeoff.

2. the cargo ramp was flapping around in the breeze due to its weight, so we had to close that too, but hey, the crew doors still work.

3. custom built stock wing had to be scrapped due to issues with part count witch would have been over 2000 if the wings where made. Plus they would have propably fallen apart on their on weight.

4. Landing gear cannot be extended cause they brake the underbelly and the floor of the cargo-bay when they do that. (Sorry for giving you the scare Miles).

But all and all, it's a very sound design considering it's size and mass (and extremely laggy too).

We where able to make the design quite "clean" (i'll let you guys deside that), witch is always a good thing now isn't it. There is minimal strutting visible, and the colour and shapes blend in very nicely (could propably be a little more clean and realistic on the wing root area).

Our dear engineers and designers desided to take some closeup shots of the aircraft so you can see how it was put together. (sorry, no descriptions on this album since the picks are kinda self explandatory).

Biggest issue with the build was to make sure that everything holds together, not so much the overall shape of the aircraft.

Big panel built fuselages like this one like to pretend that they are some sort of a hybrid between a snake and a banana, aka the fuselage likes to be very bendy witch in turn makes takeoff/landing and flying a lot harder.

That was an issue at first, but we where able to fix those issues pretty well. Kind of a shame that we had to weld both of the ramps shut to fix that.

 

The overall shape of the aircraft was a pretty easy task overall, mostly due to the scale of the build itself, so there was a lot less improvisation with small/tiny parts involved (excluding the cockpit of course).

One interesting thing that the engineers noted to me was, that the aircraft can literarily carry every stock part inside it. Doesn't matter if it's NASA tanks or MK-3 fuselages or shuttle wings, everything fits.

All i have to say is that our engineers put my designs to good use.

NOTE:I did of course get some good advises from the people here at the forums, thanks guys.

 

The cockpit was fun to make and turned out looking pretty darn good if you ask me, considering i haven't made a custom flight deck for a cockpit in ages.

NOTE: the main reason i did a custom cockpit, was due to a request from Azimech.

 

Our engineers spent quite a lot of time making the interior as detailed as possible, and i think they did a pretty good job.

 

Miles kerman's report: (sorry for my fandom, but i can't help it)

They called me today about a very special kind of test flight.

They wanted me to test fly their new KN-225, witch was amazing, and neat looking too.

Looking at the design when they first started making it, i wasn't really sure about it actually working (the strutting alone is a nightmare) but i always knew that the design had some real potential.

Looking back at the first test gives me the creeps, i watched as the wings, nose and a lot of other things just fell off from the thing.

The fuselage was also bent like a banana.

After all the unmanned tests it was time for me to go behind the controls of this beast of an aircraft, it wasn't going to be easy, i mean flying the X-Tornado is one thing but flying an aircraft that is ten times bigger is going to be dangerous.

I may be an expert pilot but i'm no miracle worker.

I have to say that the test flight went suprisingly well. Heh, i really caught the KSC staff by a suprise.

I found the aircraft to be an amazing thing to fly, so much so that i actually took the fixed prototype for myself and put a new paint-job on it. i'll be using it to fly the Tornado-5 wherever i go.

 

After the prototype testing was done and the aircraft was certified for commercial use, we got a call from the STAG initiative who wanted six aircrafts for their fleet.

Two of these aircrafts where turned into AWACS radar aircrafts and the remaining four where kept as cargo aircrafts for carrying all the neccesery equipment for setting up field bases.

They Named the aircraft type the "Walkyrie".

 

Unfortunetly the KSSR desided to cancel their order in the last second so there wont be a USSR/Buran era livery coming, unless they deside to renew their contract.

 

There it is for you, on hell of an aircraft. As big and beautiful as it may be, it's also pretty much unusable due to LAG and the fact that both ramps had to be sealed shut because they where too heavy.

All and all, it flies just as well as my Koeing-747 (the biggest suprise to me) and would be a ton of fun to fly if it weren't so laggy. Also a lot of the problems could be fixed, but i can't be arsed to do that since i can't use this aircraft anyway.

 

But i hope you still enjoyed looking at this crazy build of mine.

Mods used: Infernal Robotics and prosedural wings for all versions and Nebula decals and Flag Decals for the M-Tornado version.

Download link: i don't think there is any point on me putting this up for download, unless you really want to try it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2016 by kapteenipirk
design documentations added. And interior picks added.

[Spacetraindriver]

My An-225 is very skinny and hasn't eaten in like years.  

Your front is amazing! Keep it up!

[kapteenipirk]

On 6.3.2016 at 0:22 AM, Spacetraindriver said:

My An-225 is very skinny and hasn't eaten in like years.  

Your front is amazing! Keep it up!

Thanks . you bet, but I hope Wheel parts stay on this time.

[Azimech]

Can I convince you to build a real cockpit instead of putting a MK1 inside?

[kapteenipirk]

7 hours ago, Azimech said:

Can I convince you to build a real cockpit instead of putting a MK1 inside?

All right. I like to use MK-1 cockpits on my builds (Aircrafts and trucks) to get an IVA view cause command seats don't have that, but for the sake of realism I think I can make a proper cockpit for this one since there are good picks of the AN-225 cockpit available.

[selfish_meme]

If you install Hullcam VDS then you can get a first person view from any Kerbal, no modded parts required, just right click on the Kerbal and choose activate camera

[kapteenipirk]

3 minutes ago, selfish_meme said:

If you install Hullcam VDS then you can get a first person view from any Kerbal, no modded parts required, just right click on the Kerbal and choose activate camera

Right. Thanks, will have to get that.

[Scientia1423]

Looks nice, better than mine since my one is quite simplistic . Can't wait for the finished result!

[kapteenipirk]

On 7.3.2016 at 5:34 PM, Scientia1423 said:

Looks nice, better than mine since my one is quite simplistic . Can't wait for the finished result!

Thanks . You should be able to see the end result later this week.

[kapteenipirk]

The mid fuselage (still needs some furbishing/tweaking) and the roots of the main wings are now done.

Plus there are now livery samples of all 3 liveries i plan on making for the aircraft once it's done.

So, the project is still going strong but the amount of crashes has increased and i am a little bit afraid that this thing will be so part hungry that there wont be a way for me to even finish this, let alone get it to fly.

I'll just have to stay strong and carry on and hope for the best. My new part estimate for this thing is about 1700-2000 parts once its finished (has about 1000-1100 parts already).

[Azimech]

7 minutes ago, kapteenipirk said:

The mid fuselage (still needs some furbishing/tweaking) and the roots of the main wings are now done.

Plus there are now livery samples of all 3 liveries i plan on making for the aircraft once it's done.

So, the project is still going strong but the amount of crashes has increased and i am a little bit afraid that this thing will be so part hungry that there wont be a way for me to even finish this, let alone get it to fly.

I'll just have to stay strong and carry on and hope for the best. My new part estimate for this thing is about 1700-2000 parts once its finished (has about 1000-1100 parts already).

Wow ... aren't there any tricks or optimizations you can use to reduce part count? I don't think 1700 parts will be in reach for most machines even after 1.1 has arrived.

[kapteenipirk]

On 7.3.2016 at 10:19 PM, Azimech said:

Wow ... aren't there any tricks or optimizations you can use to reduce part count? I don't think 1700 parts will be in reach for most machines even after 1.1 has arrived.

Well there are some. The next step for the build will be to finish the fuselage and then do the elevators and rudders. After this i will start working on the main wings, if all goes south and the wings just don't work or stay together of the part count is too high for my computer, i will remove the main wings and possibly the elevators too and replace then with prosedural wings. That should save me about 800 or so parts.

I will see if i can maby/possibly remove the roof of the "hump" and replace it with fuel tanks (yep, i can replace the radiator panels with mk-2 fuselages). Plus i think i can remove the floor of the upper deck from behind the access ladder cause its not really needed.

I did the changes mentioned above in about 10 mins. It doesn't look too bad and it blends in rather well.

Thanks for the idea Azimech you just helped me shave off about 200 parts from the build on the long run, plus it will take me less time to colour the top of the plane.

[Azimech]

Replacing the "roof of the hump" as you call it with MK2 fuel tanks is a good choice, it's the backbone of my Pallas.

For strutting: I've always had good results with strutting complex, hollow wings on the inside using a triangular pattern. Some people do not agree, saying it's useless due to how struts work but I was able to reduce the amount of struts with 75% when I started doing it. Actually I get good results on all types of complex airframe.

Landing gear: until 1.1 has arrived, the medium & large landing gear don't have suspension. With stress they just tear off. I circumvent this by using long bars made out of I-beams and put the gear on there, then strut at strategic points so the struts restrict some movement but generally bend with the gear assembly.
In your case I would attach the bars at the front of the gear housing, then let it run straight to the rear. The most stress will be at the rear while landing.

[kapteenipirk]

On 7.3.2016 at 11:57 PM, Azimech said:

Replacing the "roof of the hump" as you call it with MK2 fuel tanks is a good choice, it's the backbone of my Pallas.

For strutting: I've always had good results with strutting complex, hollow wings on the inside using a triangular pattern. Some people do not agree, saying it's useless due to how struts work but I was able to reduce the amount of struts with 75% when I started doing it. Actually I get good results on all types of complex airframe.

Landing gear: until 1.1 has arrived, the medium & large landing gear don't have suspension. With stress they just tear off. I circumvent this by using long bars made out of I-beams and put the gear on there, then strut at strategic points so the struts restrict some movement but generally bend with the gear assembly.
In your case I would attach the bars at the front of the gear housing, then let it run straight to the rear. The most stress will be at the rear while landing.

Hmm, might be useful.

For strutting i like to use a thing i call a struthub, aka i put down a cubic octagonal strut down and strut everything to that. It works rather well but isn't the best looking thing when you have a single layer wing (you will be having spiderwebs running on top of you wing), but because this one i hollow they will be out of sight.

Yep, The medium and large landing gears are more like skis on bricks at this point, they should really make them more like the landing gears from the KAX pack.

I will try and see if i can make that landing gear rig work, would be nice to have them flex a little.

Edited March 7, 2016 by kapteenipirk

[kapteenipirk]

The aircraft is now done, it's WIP no more.

[Heckspress]

Wait, if you used Procedural Wings anyway, why don't you make each"Bend" in the fuselage into a really long procedural wing, so as to lower part count EVEN MORE?

[kapteenipirk]

On 9.3.2016 at 1:19 AM, Heckspress said:

Wait, if you used Procedural Wings anyway, why don't you make each"Bend" in the fuselage into a really long procedural wing, so as to lower part count EVEN MORE?

Cause the whole point of the project was to make a fully stock 1:1 AN-225 to see if it was possible.

So i wanted to keep it as stock as possible.

[Heckspress]

Just now, kapteenipirk said:

Cause the whole point of the project was to make a fully stock 1:1 AN-225 to see if it was possible.

So i wanted to keep it as stock as possible.

Ah.

[kapteenipirk]

On 9.3.2016 at 1:27 AM, Heckspress said:

Ah.

no worries.

[ValCab33]

Holy Shiii... this looks awesome 

[kapteenipirk]

On 10.3.2016 at 0:55 PM, ValCab33 said:

Holy Shiii... this looks awesome 

Thanks .

[selfish_meme]

You could replace the bulk of the midsection fuselage with a fairing, I also think all the hump could be empty mk2 tanks.

[kapteenipirk]

On 10.3.2016 at 9:48 PM, selfish_meme said:

You could replace the bulk of the midsection fuselage with a fairing, I also think all the hump could be empty mk2 tanks.

Don' exactly know what you mean with the bulk.

But i did try out the idea with the MK-2 tanks and here are the results of that.

And that is what it looks like. Doesn't look too good to be honest.

Plus i cant make the front of the hump out of those because of the cockpit.

It's a good idea but doesn't really work in this case.

 

[kapteenipirk]

The final update to the post is here.

The engineers report is finished now. An album with picks of the aircraft in the hangar and with cutouts of sort to show how the aircraft is made and what it looks like from the inside.

There are also picks of the flight deck (forgot to add them before, sorry about that).

Unfortunetly i don't think i will be continuing this project anymore, even altough i'm getting good tips from you guys.

In order for me to really make this close to a usable aircraft would require me to basically rebuild the whole aircraft. I would basically have to half the part count, witch requires more than just tweaking and shaving.

[Scientia1423]

17 hours ago, kapteenipirk said:

The final update to the post is here.

The engineers report is finished now. An album with picks of the aircraft in the hangar and with cutouts of sort to show how the aircraft is made and what it looks like from the inside.

There are also picks of the flight deck (forgot to add them before, sorry about that).

Unfortunetly i don't think i will be continuing this project anymore, even altough i'm getting good tips from you guys.

In order for me to really make this close to a usable aircraft would require me to basically rebuild the whole aircraft. I would basically have to half the part count, witch requires more than just tweaking and shaving.

I wonder how your computer is able to survive with that amount of parts...