Orbit Portal Showroom [Show me your OPT Spaceplanes!]

[stali79]

8 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Made a small thing based on what a famous player built on his YouTube stream recently. I held to his trend of avoiding fins/elevons up front and compensated with more in the back, but added my style of fins for yaw control, then ARI's to make it an SSTO.

Then I did a good bit of tooling around with the ISC Smoke's Future. Being a scientist and not a pilot, my meager piloting style requires less low-altitude cruising and proper to mildly excessive power for smooth and sharp ascents rather than really long, drawn-out flat runs to build speed. Like any OPT engineer, or any kerbal I saw the opportunity for MORE BOOSTERS staring me in the face and attached 4 J-92's to it (those open J Bicouplers)... and clipped 4 OPT mk2 intakes to feed them. the J-81 is a very complicated engine where atmo performance is concerned, and insufficient by itself on this super-heavy (300+ tons) plane.

@stali79 seeing as you made this thing. What is this sorcery that you've done to embed TAC-LS capacity in the cabins?

 

 

 

I just installed the mod lol. has patches for parts   nice to see someone flying my ladies though

[JadeOfMaar]

@stali79 Oh yeah. I'll be keeping Smoke's Future very close for when I start building bases and stations again. Most of the prepackaged ships are invalid to me. Remind me what mod is in them.

[stali79]

24 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@stali79 Oh yeah. I'll be keeping Smoke's Future very close for when I start building bases and stations again. Most of the prepackaged ships are invalid to me. Remind me what mod is in them.

have you got the latest legacy pack? I am certain they are all now stock. let me know what parts it claims are invalid

 

[JadeOfMaar]

I have version 1.0.2 of it... but it appears I'm behind on the main pack. I'm going to fix that...and really hope I don't have to fix my big flagship.

[stali79]

1 minute ago, JadeOfMaar said:

I have version 1.0.2 of it... but it appears I'm behind on the main pack. I'm going to fix that...and really hope I don't have to fix my big flagship.

I don't think there is any game breaking changes between Main 1.9 and 1.9.1

 

[JadeOfMaar]

@stali79 The invalid parts I'm reading are:

• km.smart.fuel
• lightstrobe.white
• mk4rcsblister-1
• mumech.MJ2.AR202

[stali79]

8 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@stali79 The invalid parts I'm reading are:

• km.smart.fuel
• lightstrobe.white
• mk4rcsblister-1
• mumech.MJ2.AR202

• Smart Parts - I attached to drop tank (stages/jettisons the tank when dry)
• Aviation Lights
• Mk4 Mod
• MechJeb

Which planes still have these?

[JadeOfMaar]

• Feline Sword has the Smart Part,
• Lucy's Ascension has Mk4,
• Sapphire Zeus A has...that's alotta parts. I didn't notice but a bunch of KKAOSS pieces,
• Sapphire Zeus has Mumech,
• Smith's Shield - D has aviation lights.

[stali79]

Cheers dude will take a look at them. you should get the smart parts mod. very handy. i would suggest aviation lights too but they broken

 

edit: smiths shield d is the same as the v variant except the bays open dorsal side as opposed to ventral

Edited November 21, 2016 by stali79

[JadeOfMaar]

I did install Smart Parts once and will easily put them back and find uses for them. I'm also interested in KPBS after making bases for a long time with only MKS Lite and Procedural Parts. Aviation Lights are nice too and I tried them but they didn't seem bright enough and didn't have freedom of colors like I wanted. Surface-Mounted Stockalike Lights should fill in well. Only thing is they don't pulsate.

What I needed custom lights for, doesn't contain OPT.

Spoiler

My replica of USS Enterprise D and a Federation Runabout.

 

[stali79]

4 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

I did install Smart Parts once and will easily put them back and find uses for them. I'm also interested in KPBS after making bases for a long time with only MKS Lite and Procedural Parts. Aviation Lights are nice too and I tried them but they didn't seem bright enough and didn't have freedom of colors like I wanted. Surface-Mounted Stockalike Lights should fill in well. Only thing is they don't pulsate.

I often found the aviation lights to be too bright and they serve their purpose for aviation lighting. KPBS is a brilliant mod! 

 

EDIT: gonna take me a while to fix those planes. I have a choice, internet and 30 min ksp loading time or no internet and 2 min loading time lol

Edited November 21, 2016 by stali79

[JadeOfMaar]

1 minute ago, stali79 said:

KPBS is a brilliant mod! 

You don't say! I'll see for myself soon.

[stali79]

1 minute ago, JadeOfMaar said:

You don't say! I'll see for myself soon.

hahahahahaha you will enjoy it.

[stali79]

Here is the fixed ships! https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxe3mactblxulkm/SPH.rar?dl=0

[JadeOfMaar]

I see them all now and I like. Maybe I can use Smith's Shield and drop KPBS outposts around Gael.

Feline Sword reminds me of this SSTO. It had 4x J-61, 2x J-92 and either a J Aerospike or in the extreme case, a Dark Drive. it intended to be a Mun-and back dropper with mining gear and eventually, my first Duna-and-back SSTO. Since I try not to put too many, or only OPT engines on a craft I doomed it to be a fail and I quickly retired it. The J-60 and J-81 hadn't returned yet so I never knew of and never tried them on this.

 

[Starwaster]

Trying to figure out how to properly embed these again. (Imgur functionality is still broken?)

Anyway zoom in close... those aren't air intakes on the front. Those are forward facing jets. It touched down on the edge of the flat area in front of the pyramids and stopped in very short distance.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Starwaster

[stali79]

4 minutes ago, Starwaster said:

 

 

<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="650" frameborder="0" src="https://imgur.com/a/a4sed/embed" style="height: 665px;"></iframe>

???

[JadeOfMaar]

@Starwaster Never thought to use OPT engines for retro/braking. Nice! And Imgur embedding did break several months ago. It itself updated but the forum software hasn't caught up with it.

Edited November 21, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[MaxxQ]

So, I'm new to spaceplanes.  I've always liked what people came up with, but since I couldn't even get a regular airplane to fly - or if I did, I couldn't land the thing without a parachute or 2, or 3, or 10 - I tended to shy away from them.  However, OPT has given me the incentive to try them out.  For now, I'm sticking with playing around with the ones included in the mod(s) - OPT and Legacy - but eventually, I plan to build my own.

The best effort I had was with the Kannam II.  Flew it a couple times bone stock, but was having trouble getting it to orbit, until I saw the "tips" in the comment window below the craft name.  Even so, I thought I might be able to modify her slightly, and this is the result:

I added an extra J tank, canards, an extra pair of airbrakes (after moving the existing two pairs to above and below the wings - the third (new) pair went to a spot between where the original pair was located), an extra reaction wheel/RCS block between the cockpit and new J tank, a pair of solar panels (because I hate never having them when I need them), red and green nav lights on the wingtips, vertical stab tips, and at the forward edge of the wing root, and finally, spotlights above the crew hatch, just behind the cockpit above and below (pointing aft), and a pair above and below at the aft end (pointing forward).

Managed to get her into an 81x80km orbit with plenty of DV left, if I'd wanted to use it.  Ended up doing a night landing in grasslands, and only lost one of the main airbreathers.  No parachutes involved 

 

[Andrew2070]

Designing a SSTO isn't as quick a process as designing a rocket for instance.

However there are a few concepts to keep in mind when attempting to build one.

1. You will fail a bunch of times in different aspects of flight, orbit, landing, take-off etc, but keep trying!

2. Every failure is success if you are able to find the causes of error and patch them up in the hangar.

3. Compromise is essential, you need to sacrifice aesthetics for functionality or find a gray area between the two.

 

Personally I favor aesthetics over efficiency, but I've managed to produce something that is 50-50 in both.

It can fly anywhere, withstand extreme force and heat but requires 160 m/s to take off and 70 m/s to land.

That big of a gap is why I sacrificed a slot on my rapiers for a larger afterburner, and placed smaller radial parachutes.

Compromise is essential since you cannot include every aspect of every aircraft in a single one (as far as I have seen).

If you need help compare your craft to one of similar size and design, then evaluate the data to find where you lack.

Every flight is bound to have at least 1 failure (big/small), but eventually you can patch them all up and reduce error probability.

 

So far I have to learn how to get my SSTO to take off at 70 m/s and not stall under 60 m/s and survive a 150 m/s impact landing.

Of course kerbin is easier, but I suggest you download hyper-edit and test out the spacecraft in planets you might want to visit.

That's how i found most of my errors (enlarged wing size for Duna, more intakes for Kerbin/Laythe, etc).

 

What I mean to say is, personally I have found that SSTO's are a lot simpler with OPT and knowing the CoM, CoL, CoT.

If you can get the CoM and CoL to line up and have the fuel draw rate to be balanced, the aircraft will fly anywhere.

 

The sky maybe the limit, but you can exceed that limit by quite literally burning a hole through the sky. (750m/s> at 20km alt).

 

If you need any help feel free to ask me

 

 

[JadeOfMaar]

I think I'm on to something here. This is the Lawndart. Another very experimental spaceplane. It has a 1.25m Ore tank in the inline Mk2 intake behind the cockpit to counter-weigh the J-60 Screamjet. The pod on top is not an aero hazard and pretends to be a relay device (actual relay device under it and clipped into engine). But the main thing is I've begun to learn to tweak engines and have given the Screamjet a harder kick and a longer stride. Since its power doesn't scale with its size versus the J-61 and J-92, It's been largely useless to me.

Also I've wanted to bluntly plug this behind a cockpit and call that a day.

If anyone's going to replicate this, I advise you to move the forward canards onto the J-60 itself. The CoM is pretty far back.

   

 

Edited November 25, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[gilflo]

Last version of my OPT tanker K59, 480T on take off and much more maneuverable with 2 sets of "canards" near cockpit. 59T of liquid fuel or whatever fuel you need (more than 8 rockomax Jumbo 64), 80% left on 110km orbit.

Dry COG and fueled COG are exactly at the same place. Tested within flight enveloppe with Correct COL mod and in flight. Engines working only on LiquidFuel

Downloadable

https://kerbalx.com/gilflo/OPT-tanker-K59

Edited December 9, 2016 by gilflo

[Andrew2070]

I have a question.

How do you improve take off speed or lift to get 80 m/s take off?

I screwed something up in my mark 8 version that made my take off speed go to 150 m/s.

(No weight was added, wheel height remains the same).

[JadeOfMaar]

@Andrew2070 Sorry, man. But you cannot ask us for design tips anymore if it's to improve your Longsword spaceplane. you've already shown that you will not accept any advice as such will upset your design scheme.

Show us a new ship and we'll gladly answer as we did before.

 

On 12/1/2016 at 6:47 PM, gilflo said:

Last version of my OPT tanker K59, 480T on take off and much more maneuverable with 2 sets of "canards" near cockpit. 59T of liquid fuel, 80% left on 110km orbit.

Dry COG and fueled COG are exactly at the same place.

I've been watching your posts in OPT's mod thread. I'm amazed by the engineering that went into this and that it gets away as a practical vessel.

[gilflo]

Some pics of my OPT supertanker K59in flight. It left more than 8 Rockomax Jumbo tank of full of liquid fuel in orbit at 100 kms

After take off, during acceleration after 10kms

Spoiler

After retrograde breaking on back, flip to Cobra re-entry on Radial+ position, helped with RCS vernors over and under the cockpit and at wingtip, and Monoprop thrusters used for docking

Spoiler

Diving to airport and loosing speed

Spoiler

Short final 09, we will land on grass fro training, landing on runway is very difficult because I need to touch down at less han 3m/s and it's not easy to plan without a glideslope.

Spoiler

Flare with drag chute, speed brakes are not necessary and they will be removed

Spoiler

 

Edited December 9, 2016 by gilflo