JMBuilder Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I\'ve built an air-and-sea-capable hovering aircraft carrier, and I have some questions for it...1: Can a craft land on another craft without seriously messing up its flight?2: I\'m terrible at landing vertically into the water. Can somebody else download it and try to pilot it?3: If someone else does download it and land it successfully, can they put it on Youtube titled 'MLS Landing?'WARNING: This uses the Amphibious Pontoon mod and the Darned Robotics pack.Download attached.Links to mods:http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=4873.0 ----- Pontoonshttp://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=10662.0 ----- Darned Robotics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knyght Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 This looks, uh... Fun. I\'ll check it out. No promises. Any instructions? Also a link to the mods so I don\'t have to go hunting would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMBuilder Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Links are now posted.Also, before landing, shut off the forward thrust jet. When the pontoons make contact with the water, keep the jets active. Settling into the water too fast destroys the jets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knyght Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 I had a quick go. It flies a bit like a helicopter. You might want to think about hinging those downward facing engines so they can be used to help with getting rid of some lateral velocity if you really want to use it as a VTOL. I think it\'s possible as is though, working on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMBuilder Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 Think it could carry helicopters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knyght Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Hmm it really isn\'t landing. I have a feeling that the weight of the fuel is too much for the pontoons.If that\'s the case, landing anything on it won\'t be a good idea. I couldn\'t even manage to cheat it in by driving it from the runway off the beach, which works for most things.The other problem is that it\'s horrible unwieldy and generally does not fly very well. I know it\'s a VTOL, but it might still need some control surfaces.So try making it lighter and giving it more lift.The best attempt I tried took me around 10 minutes, I dropped from as little as 150m, teasing the throttle, managed to get rid of the backwards momentum by reactivating the engine at the back. Unfortunately there is also sideways momentum that I can\'t do anything about. If I turn RCS on, I can\'t control it because I need the avionics on for the thing to be at all flyable. Anyway I managed a landing, downwards velocity around 1m/s with some sideways velocity of around 5m/s. The only thing that survived was the cockpit. Hmm. Wait I have an idea.Aha, got it!So, as above. Go as slowly as possible, had no more than 5m/s total momentum, at last second (8 - 10 metres) deploy the parachutes. This will get rid of all that sideways momentum. Unfortunately, I can\'t youtube it since the game lags too much with your craft when I try to record, and since precise throttle control is needed, well... yeah.There is another problem though, as attached. There is indeed a weight problem. Those pontoons are rather underwater there. I\'ll try landing something on it, I don\'t have much hope though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMBuilder Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 I\'ve developed the Mk3 variant. It has far sturdier pontoons and winglets on the landing surface\'s edges for enhanced control. There\'s not enough room to make it a VTOL though.I\'ve managed to land this variant in the water. Once it very lightly rests in the water I shut off the SAS and ever so slowly reduce engine power.After landing, shut off the six main engines and reactivate the forward thrust jet. It\'s sluggish, but it should work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knyght Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Doesn\'t seem to much differnet to me Well, it actually does seem to veer off to the side much less, which is nice.I tried landing on it. Screw helicopters, those are boring. Tried to land a plane on it by getting near it, deploying two radial parachutes from NovaPunch, but... the game lags when I get anywhere near the craft, so aiming it is a bit impossible It doesn\'t help that the carrier is about 1.5 times the size of my smallest craft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMBuilder Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 Yeah... The best hope for landing a plane on the carrier is while it\'s in the air moving at top speed. That way you could match its speed as close as possible, giving you more time to stop. Of course, leaving the MLS unattended while it\'s flying could be pretty risky... I don\'t know. Just a thought.With the Darned Aerospace mod you could make helicopters and VTOLs to operate from the MLS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zack2014 Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Yeah... The best hope for landing a plane on the carrier is while it\'s in the air moving at top speed. That way you could match its speed as close as possible, giving you more time to stop. Of course, leaving the MLS unattended while it\'s flying could be pretty risky... I don\'t know. Just a thought.With the Darned Aerospace mod you could make helicopters and VTOLs to operate from the MLS.You can\'t leave a craft in the air in atmosphere to control another one, it has to be settled with no velocity. And the big issue is the lag. Once you get within a certain distance, it\'s almost impossible to land on another craft. Believe me, I\'ve tried... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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