Aircraft Carrier - KSS Dominion - Stock + BD Armory

[Redshift OTF]

Finally, the Kerbals are able to field their great jets all over the planet with their newest Aircraft Carrier. The KSS Dominion!

555 parts. 1,858 tons. 147.5m long!

So big I can't even get decent shots of it in the SPH.

Dwarfs other ships in its path.

Looks good at night too.

The island is bristling with defences. I think I used 6 full ore tanks on the other side of the ship to balance it out.

Access to the deck for Kerbals.

"I'm on top of the world!"

Hotkeys:

1) Toggle the 7 Goliath engines

2) Toggle thrust reversal.

The ship is pretty rock steady and wont list whatever planes you place or land on it. Can travel up to 30m/s. 12 Shuttle tails are used for steering as SAS would have been useless. I'm not a good enough pilot to land on it without a VTOL plane but the length and the front ramp allow conventional take offs to be pretty easy.

There's a probe core on the front of the ship for easy control. I would recommend using the Vessel Mover mod to place it in the sea, unless you want to fit wheels and drive it into the water!

Download here -->  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9mK0rPybNaxMHZscnpja2RVNlU

Edited May 4, 2016 by Redshift OTF

[RixKillian]

That looks awesome! I'll have to try it with some of my naval fighters, and maybe take some ideas for the Essex class I'm working on  Great work!

[selfish_meme]

How about some docking port pylons and a tender cart for moving planes around?

[Zwolff]

This looks amazing. I have a few short take-off and landing fighter jets I would like to try some carrier landings with. Any chance you have a fully stock version stripped of BD-armory parts you could share?

[Redshift OTF]

Thanks for the comments and likes! I will post a non-Bd Armory version tonight as non of those parts are critical to the structure of the ship. 

[pTrevTrevs]

.............Damn!

I think I should try doing one of these myself! When I get the chance I'll download yours so I can plagiari- uh... borrow the design. This will be perfect for testing my upcoming Fairey Swordfish!

 

[Redshift OTF]

Copy away! Here's the Stock version of the ship. Let me know if you have any problems. There are full ore tanks in the left hand side of the ship which you may need to partially empty to compensate for the removed weight of the BD armoury components.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9mK0rPybNaxMlBsSjVyaGhOWEU

I have highlighted the one fuel tank I filled, all the others are empty, apart from the one mirrored on the other side.

A lot of the parts are struts I used to hold the ship together as the deck tended to bow at the sides which wheels on planes didn't like, (probably the weight of the island and ore tanks). Typically, after up-loading this I realised that this was probably due to the catamaran style of the ship so I will probably make a bigger version of this and structure it in a different way.

[Rath]

BIGGER!  What.

[Zwolff]

On 2016-05-05 at 8:14 PM, Redshift OTF said:

Copy away! Here's the Stock version of the ship. Let me know if you have any problems. There are full ore tanks in the left hand side of the ship which you may need to partially empty to compensate for the removed weight of the BD armoury components.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9mK0rPybNaxMlBsSjVyaGhOWEU

I have highlighted the one fuel tank I filled, all the others are empty, apart from the one mirrored on the other side.

A lot of the parts are struts I used to hold the ship together as the deck tended to bow at the sides which wheels on planes didn't like, (probably the weight of the island and ore tanks). Typically, after up-loading this I realised that this was probably due to the catamaran style of the ship so I will probably make a bigger version of this and structure it in a different way.

Thanks a lot!

Just tried it out as it is, and appears just fine without any ore tank balancing. I'm surprised my old mac mini actually could handle the carrier at all without turning KSP to a slide show.

After about 6 tries I managed to land my JAS 39-Gripen fighter replica on the carrier. It is very tricky given the bounce in the landing gears, which often made me bounce of the bow of the carrier without loosing much speed.

Only problem is now I have to get it to the back of the runway somehow to take of again. I suppose the deck crew have to get out and push it by hand.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Zwolff

[ValCab33]

Wow, it's awesome !

A bit hard to land on. Didn't manage a landing with something else than a STOVL. Yet. But it's still awesome.

And well defended, too. Only managed to fly through the defences once, with a very fast plane

[Redshift OTF]

Oh cool, I'm glad you like it! I'm planing on a 250m carrier next so it should be easier to land on.

To turn planes around I usually engage SAS and make sure the front wheels turn in the direction you want to turn and the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction. There's usually enough torque to move the plane with the default SAS.

[Zwolff]

9 hours ago, Redshift OTF said:

Oh cool, I'm glad you like it! I'm planing on a 250m carrier next so it should be easier to land on.

To turn planes around I usually engage SAS and make sure the front wheels turn in the direction you want to turn and the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction. There's usually enough torque to move the plane with the default SAS.

If you ever update the Dominion, or when you do the bigger one, I have a suggestion. To make landing non VTOLs on it easier, it is good to align the carrier to a cardinal direction for a simpler approach. This was rather hard and slow to do on the Dominion, so I mounded a pair of the largest jet engines in the front activated by hotkeys as bow propellers to turn it on a dime, which I found really useful. I suppose it will also be able to do sharper turns at speed, but I have never tested that.

I also don't know how big of a monster the next one will be, but somewhere of to the side to park aircraft while still leaving the runway clear would also be nice =).

[Redshift OTF]

That's a good idea. Probably better than using control surfaces. I'm hoping my next beast will be 11 fuel tanks wide with an extra 2 at the side for a bit more width at the back. It's not a lot more but it should help.

[Redshift OTF]

Do you think this will be good enough?

[RixKillian]

Yeehaw, first try!

This is a lovely ship, for sure.

[Redshift OTF]

Thanks RixKillian! Nice flying and nice plane. I have built a large carrier available in the thread linked below however I don't think it is practical. At least not like the Dominion is:

 

 

[TheKosanianMethod]

Now I have a backup for if I can't find the carrier mod that I'm looking for. How much does it lag in 32 bit, I still use a lightly nodded 1.0.5 save. Also, VTOL tip:  The radial monoprop engine make nice jump jets. 4 can easily lift a stock Aeris 3A. 4 would be good for me, I use STOLs, I am horrible at landing vertically. Screw your stall speed!