Indigo - Light Cargo SSTO (1.1.1/1.1.2)

[Cupcake...]

CRAFT FILE(S):

https://goo.gl/rG2L8N

 

Heh folks it's my great pleasure to present the Indigo; a solid, dependable SSTO designed to ferry light dropships/landers to high Kerbin orbit.

Gentle handling characteristics coupled with generous DV reserves makes this craft well suited to novices and pro's alike.

The design is capable of lifting a fully fuelled Mindy Dropship (included) to Munar insertion! Once launched the Mindy has enough DV to handle Mun/Minmus and perhaps even Duna missions, which is great news for all those budget minded flyers out there.

 

It's taken a lot of fiddling but I've managed to get the plane handling well at all stages of the flight, so you won't need to worry about pumping fuel around to tweak the balance.

CONTROLS (INDIGO SSTO):

6 - Toggle Rapier

7 - Switch Rapier Mode

8 - Toggle Juno Engines

CONTROLS (MINDY DROPSHIP):

1 - Toggle Engines

5 - Undock Top Docking Port

0 - Toggle Cockpit Doors/Landing Gear

ABORT - Undock Cargo Port

 

FLIGHT MANUAL:

Oh and a big shoutout to @Rune for helping me out with the fundamentals.

 

Cupcake...

 

Edited July 13, 2016 by Cupcake...

[Majorjim!]

Nice one Cupcake! Brings back memories of my Eagle SSTO with little cargo craft.

 I don't understand your 'pre-release' releases though.. What's that all about?

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

That's not a stock RAPIER

[Cupcake...]

28 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

Nice one Cupcake! Brings back memories of my Eagle SSTO with little cargo craft.

 I don't understand your 'pre-release' releases though.. What's that all about?

For me a full craft release entails a funk laden video of some sort. Putting them out earlier lets me gather feedback and make a few tweaks before a full "release version", if that makes sense.

24 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

That's not a stock RAPIER

With all the sonic booms the neighbours were starting to get grumpy, hence the muffler that was bolted onto the exhaust. The fact that it brings the centre of mass forward to help with the handling is purely coincidental. 

 

Cupcake..

Edited July 9, 2016 by Cupcake...

[Rune]

2 hours ago, Cupcake... said:

Oh and a big shoutout to @Rune for helping me out with the fundamentals.

Glad to be of help, as always!

2 hours ago, Cupcake... said:

Due to its landing gear setup the Indigo is at risk from tail strikes on anything other then flat runways. For this reason I recommend a water landing which the craft handles well. You should be able to get your speed down to 50m/s before easing her gently into the drink.

If you have insufficient clearance because you give the plane an initial AoA so it takes off on its own... have you considered that nothing is stopping you form using a taildragger undercarriage arrangement? It's what the planes that take off without rotation use in real life, after all! (think Spitfire or DC-3 if you don't picture what I'm referring to)

I think you have room in the wing pylons to put the gear forwards of the CoM, and then you would be 100% immune to tailstrikes, and capable of a runway landing for 100% recovery.

 

Rune. Not to mention the bird could be reloaded and reflown, which would make for a hell of a video.

[Cupcake...]

55 minutes ago, Rune said:

Glad to be of help, as always!

If you have insufficient clearance because you give the plane an initial AoA so it takes off on its own... have you considered that nothing is stopping you form using a taildragger undercarriage arrangement? It's what the planes that take off without rotation use in real life, after all! (think Spitfire or DC-3 if you don't picture what I'm referring to)

I think you have room in the wing pylons to put the gear forwards of the CoM, and then you would be 100% immune to tailstrikes, and capable of a runway landing for 100% recovery.

 

Rune. Not to mention the bird could be reloaded and reflown, which would make for a hell of a video.

I did try a taildragger layout before but I had trouble making it work. It does make sense though, I'll have another play with it and see if I can get it working.

 

Cupcake...

[Cupcake...]

@RuneDo you ever get tired of being right? Now all I gotta do is find a good place to put a docking port.

 

Cupcake...

[Majorjim!]

5 hours ago, Cupcake... said:

I did try a taildragger layout before but I had trouble making it work.

Why could you not get it to work before? It's just adding a wheel or two to the rear right?

Also, whats up with the Rapier? Is that a mod part? Does it work with the stock rapier?

A tip, adding a small antenna to the nose cone MASSIVELY increases the crafts temp resistance.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Majorjim

[JaffaPadawan]

I don't think that's a modded RAPIER at all...

That's a PRE-COOLER!

@Cupcake... am I right?

 

 

Edited July 9, 2016 by JaffaPadawan

[Rune]

1 hour ago, JaffaPadawan said:

I don't think that's a modded RAPIER at all...

That's a PRE-COOLER!

@Cupcake... am I right?

 

 

Yup, it looks like @Cupcake clipped the intake with the engine for a two-in-one solution.

Rune. No intakes on the bird otherwise!

[Camaron]

I realize I am way off topic, but what visual mods are those, Cupcake?

[Majorjim!]

6 hours ago, Majorjim said:

whats up with the Rapier?

You can tell I have not touched plane parts for a while. Yup, it's just a clipped pre-cooler.

 

Edited July 9, 2016 by Majorjim

[Cupcake...]

14 hours ago, Majorjim said:

Why could you not get it to work before? It's just adding a wheel or two to the rear right?

Also, whats up with the Rapier? Is that a mod part? Does it work with the stock rapier?

A tip, adding a small antenna to the nose cone MASSIVELY increases the crafts temp resistance.

Mod part!? You know me better then that! I'll try adding a small antenna to the front, thanks for the tip. I'm not sure what was happening with the wheels before but they were giving me problems, it could have been that I had them recessed in too far. 

 

7 hours ago, Camaron said:

I realize I am way off topic, but what visual mods are those, Cupcake?

 

Scatterer and Planetshine.

 

8 hours ago, Rune said:

Yup, it looks like @Cupcake clipped the intake with the engine for a two-in-one solution.

Rune. No intakes on the bird otherwise!

9 hours ago, JaffaPadawan said:

I don't think that's a modded RAPIER at all...

That's a PRE-COOLER!

@Cupcake... am I right?

 

 

It is indeed a pre-cooler. I was having trouble getting the centre of mass forwards and was reluctant to bolt on heavy items for the sake of it.  When I had the Rapier on the back the handling would be good at the start but as soon as the fuel emptied the craft would spin out of control. Conversely I could get the plane handling well with low fuel but it would want to plow itself into the ground on take-off. By shifting the (rather heavy) rapier engine inside the pre-cooler I'm able to get the centre of mass forward enough to give good handling at all fuel/cargo loads.

 

Cupcake...

Edited July 10, 2016 by Cupcake...

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Cupcake... said:

I'm not sure what was happening with the wheels before but they were giving me problems

Wheels are super broken ATM, probably that.

Just now, Cupcake... said:

Mod part!?

Yeah I should have guessed..

[Cupcake...]

6 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

Wheels are super broken ATM, probably that.

Yeah I should have guessed..

Wow, that small antenna makes such a big difference to the performance, I'm just about within reaching distance of Minmus now! If it is a bug long may it live! Cheers again for letting me know.

 

Cupcake...

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Cupcake... said:

Cheers again for letting me know.

I'm happy it worked! I heard it on a thread somewhere but have never tested myself. I think its just a consequence of the way the game models drag. It's an awesome looking SSTO man, and very Cupcakey!

Edited July 10, 2016 by Majorjim

[Cupcake...]

Heh all,

           I've added a new Mk2 version to the D/L folder. This new model does away with the Junos and is now capable of carrying its Mindy interplanetary!

I'll have to update the flight manual but the new profile I'm using is much simpler.

Once you reach 400m/s pitch up to 10* and hold that heading.

Once you start losing speed (now around 1530m/s) press 7 to switch modes but stay at 10*.

Once the airspeed indicator goes from surface to orbital set the craft to point Prograde and keep gunning the engine till you reach your desired orbit.

 

 

Easy huh?

 

Cupcake...

 

Edited July 11, 2016 by Cupcake...

[Thatguywholikesionengines]

That feeling when you're so bad at flying SSTOs that you need to reattach the junos to get to mach 1...

[Cupcake...]

1 hour ago, Thatguywholikesionengines said:

That feeling when you're so bad at flying SSTOs that you need to reattach the junos to get to mach 1...

The trick is to line it up on the runway as early as possible and just keep your hands off the stick till you hit 400m/s, do that and you won't go wrong.

 

Cupcake...

[Thatguywholikesionengines]

Thanks! 

[Thatguywholikesionengines]

Okay, I've done exactly what you said, but it doesn't get above 290 m/s. Sorry for repeatedly bothering you, but I'm just such a bad pilot and i want to actually be able to get the Mindy to orbit legitimately with an SSTO. Albeit one built by only the best rocket/plane/whatever builder. 

[Cupcake...]

12 hours ago, Thatguywholikesionengines said:

Okay, I've done exactly what you said, but it doesn't get above 290 m/s. Sorry for repeatedly bothering you, but I'm just such a bad pilot and i want to actually be able to get the Mindy to orbit legitimately with an SSTO. Albeit one built by only the best rocket/plane/whatever builder. 

Looks like they've tweaked the aero with the latest version (I was rocking 1.11), and I can see the issue you've been having now. Maybe you can slap the Juno's on in the meantime as a stopgap measure? Apologies for all the hassle.

 

If someone could enlighten me what's changed with the aero/engines I'd appreciate it, the Rapiers seem to have been severely neutered. I thought by now they would have stopped mucking round with that stuff.

Cupcake...

Edited July 13, 2016 by Cupcake...

[Rune]

26 minutes ago, Cupcake... said:

Looks like they've tweaked the aero with the latest version (I was rocking 1.11), and I can see the issue you've been having now. Maybe you can slap the Juno's on in the meantime as a stopgap measure? Apologies for all the hassle.

 

If someone could enlighten me what's changed with the aero/engines I'd appreciate it, the Rapiers seem to have been severely neutered. I thought by now they would have stopped mucking round with that stuff.

Cupcake...

The aero model might well have nothing to do with it... See this thread I started a few days ago, I was having very similar issues with my previously working SSTOs... the Mindy doesn't have any wheels, right? Because we might have found out another bug with occlusion. Apparently it's because of the new layer they use so wheels don't fling kerbals to their deaths.

 

Rune. The RAPIERs are unchanged, but if you can't get them supersonic because of drag...

Edited July 13, 2016 by Rune

[Cupcake...]

4 minutes ago, Rune said:

The aero model might well have nothing to do with it... See this thread I started a few days ago, I was having very similar issues with my previously working SSTOs... the Mindy doesn't have any wheels, right? Because we might have found out another bug with occlusion.

 

Rune. The RAPIERs are unchanged, but if you can't get them supersonic because of drag...

No wheels on the Mindy. Anyway, I'm going back to 1.11, come get me when this is fixed! I suggest anyone else that wants to use the Indigo do the same. Was 1.12 working ok for you Rune?

Cupcake...

Edited July 13, 2016 by Cupcake...

[Rune]

Just now, Cupcake... said:

Damn it! Ok I'm going back to 1.11, come get me when this is fixed! I suggest anyone else that wants to use the Indigo do the same. Was 1.12 working ok for you Rune?

Cupcake...

Not sure, since I didn't play much before 1.1.3 hit. Maybe? Just check which update brought the wheel fixes that put them in a new layer, and check if that is what is happening.

 

Rune. OTOH, 1.1.3 purrs like a kitten with smooth FPS instead of freezing half the time. Not going back to that!