[Minimum KSP: 1.12.2] Heisenberg - Airships Part Pack

[colmo]

Who doesn't love a good death zeppelin? I suspect the weapons on an airship would be more likely on the underside, for both centre of gravity and arc of fire reasons. Top opening would work great for helicopters though.

Edited December 16, 2016 by colmo

[Angelo Kerman]

3 minutes ago, colmo said:

Who doesn't love a good death zeppelin? I suspect the weapons on an airship would be more likely on the underside, for both centre of gravity and arc of fire reasons. Top opening would work great for helicopters though.

Certainly would. That was just a test flight, I didn't want to bother flipping the hangar decks upside down until I knew I had a working weapons system. Like so:

It's just easier to place weaponry and such with the bays right side up.

[Stone Blue]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

I'm finding that the airship is a stable weapons platform.

Y THO??!!!???.... Oh, the HORROR!!!!...
@Angel-125 You WAR MONGERER, YOU!!!  

Edited December 16, 2016 by Stone Blue

[Beetlecat]

On 12/14/2016 at 8:32 PM, Angel-125 said:

Last images for the night:

Incredibly cool! I can't wait to play with these.

-- Does this mean the airship has to turn to 40° for landings?

[Angelo Kerman]

Bad news and good news.

Bad news: I won't have Heisenberg 2.0 ready this weekend. I'm pushing it out to next week, just in time for Christmas.

Good news: I've got a few new parts I'm adding including a drill, ISRU, airlock, shipping containers, radar, jump jet module, and (hopefully) a wheel.

Here's the drill:

And the Bison Jump Jet Module:

Edited December 17, 2016 by Angel-125

[Mekan1k]

3 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Bad news and good news.

Bad news: I won't have Heisenberg 2.0 ready this weekend. I'm pushing it out to next week, just in time for Christmas.

Good news: I've got a few new parts I'm adding including a drill, ISRU, airlock, shipping containers, radar, jump jet module, and (hopefully) a wheel.

Here's the drill:

And the Bison Jump Jet Module:

 

So wait- what's wrong with the Heisenberg? Why isn't it ready? It looked ready.
I want to land airplanes on airships! (Actually, I want to crash airplanes into airships many times in an attempt to land one on the other)

[Angelo Kerman]

3 hours ago, Mekan1k said:

So wait- what's wrong with the Heisenberg? Why isn't it ready? It looked ready.
I want to land airplanes on airships! (Actually, I want to crash airplanes into airships many times in an attempt to land one on the other)

Nothing's wrong. I simply haven't finished all the parts that I wanted to, and added some others. I was hoping to have it all done this weekend, but not going to happen. I might have something before the Christmas holiday but if not no big deal, I'll pick it up afterwards. It's not like this is a job, it's a hobby, and I want the parts list complete when I publish the next release.

And no, I'm not creating a release of what is done, then I just get complaints that the parts are incomplete. I've had enough of all the complaints as it is, so it's done when it's done.

[DStaal]

I for one am glad you're waiting and including the jump jet - While I want to send a zepplin around Kerbin to explore, I also want to land some Bison rovers, and they'll be very useful for that.  (Well, I hope they will anyway - it depends a bit on how literal the word 'jet' is in their name.  )

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, DStaal said:

I for one am glad you're waiting and including the jump jet - While I want to send a zepplin around Kerbin to explore, I also want to land some Bison rovers, and they'll be very useful for that.  (Well, I hope they will anyway - it depends a bit on how literal the word 'jet' is in their name.  )

Exactly.  I am designing the gondola parts to double as large rover parts, and originally I wanted to make the bare minimum needed. Then I realized that December was slipping by fast and that I was really behind in DSEV, and realized that I had momentum with the Heisenberg. Knowing how I operate best, I decided to keep going while I still had the motivation, and added in the remaining parts to flesh out the rover side. I'm waiting for this stuff to be done too...

Like the Buffalo's jump jets, the Bison's jump jets burn MonoPropellant and have a built in vertically oriented probe core for VTOL operations, so you should be good to go.  My original design didn't have the extending engines for simplicity- and I promptly blew up the wheels beneath the part, heh. If I released that version, you know I would hear a lot of complaining. Quality takes time, and I'm willing to wait.

The delay also lets me flesh out the Bison's role as a long duration rover. The Buffalo is the scout, the Bison is the follow on mobile base with capabilities similar to MOLE. Ideally I will have a docking port with flexible joints so that you can make a train. Just stuff the cars into a mk3 cargo bay, land them via the jump jets, dock them together, and go explore with your spacefaring wagon-train...

Spoiler

https://goo.gl/images/yz1jch

Of course the kerbal wagon-train is a science vessel designed for peaceful exploitation...

Edited December 18, 2016 by Angel-125

[Shnyrik]

Some practical notes on the use of airship carriers

Spoiler

I’ve made a few test flights with a significant redesign after each one (not an uncommon thing for dirigibles in fact)

I’ve made parking pads on top of the airship’s center of mass, so that I could free landing deck.

 

Here you can see them, as well as ballast tanks, that were supposed to compensate mass of the planes.

Big mistake, by the way. In the first and only flight with biplane on only one pad I’ve got terrible roll oscillations. And despite all my desperate efforts to pump fuel in and out of ballast tanks I didn’t manage to calm it down.

The only way out is, I’m afraid, either to park identical aircraft symmetrically, or to park them as close to the airship’s symmetry line as possible.

You might also notice something Mitchell-like on the deck here. Well, who said kerbal airships are only capable of taking light aircraft on board  

I’ve also managed to find the reason for the landing gear explosions. Well, the only thing I can blame is … physics To be more exact, it is the way docked crafts interact with each other. When plane stands on the flight deck, it’s landing gear is shrinked by the plane’s weight. When you dock it, the plane stops interacting with the flight deck and it’s released landing gear goes through the deck. And when you later undock, KSP suddenly realizes that your two crafts intersect – and you get an explosion.

That is rather unfortunate.

 

Of course, the easy way to avoid those explosions is to retract landing gear (just like in the video with the elevator test).

But this is the easy way and kerbal way is not an easy one   Besides, you can’t retract fixed landing gear. So I’ve tried to invent some walkaround.

If you get explosion during undocking – then do the planes really have to be docked at all? I took two winches per each plane and fixed those planes on the deck without docking – as separate crafts. This worked well (or so it seemed for the beginning). At least I could fix and unfix planes without any problems.

 

So I decided to make a short tour to the Kerbin City – to show off my fancy new two-seated training biplanes

 

At first everything seemed to be all right, except for scratching sounds (from mod Collision FX) in my left headphone. The right one was occupied by nice roar of four NK-12 engines. The dirigible was flying slowly (because 450 tons mass make it VERY inert) into the sunset.

 

But when it finally got to it’s full speed, the biplanes suddenly awoke. They remembered that they actually were aircraft and that they were moving faster than their usual landing speed. So they took off. Of course cables didn’t let them fly too far away, and they began dancing wildly on the deck.

Then one of the cables broke (Did you know, that KAS cables actually can?) And the planes were damaged far beyond any repairs.

 

So I finally gave up and went the easy way. With retractable landing gear there are no explosions.

Ready for launch.

Short take off.

In the air.

 

Time to go back.

With new OLS final approach is not very hard.

Tochdown.

Not all landings go exactly that smooth

Besides, if you approach too fast, arrest wire may not help

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by Shnyrik

[Angelo Kerman]

@ShnyrikLOVE those pictures and the discussion, thanks for sharing! I ran into similar issues with exploding wheels during testing. In my case, it was rover wheels. I was concerned that there was a fundamental design flaw in the flight deck system. It's good to know that it's a problem with the stock game too. It also means that I may need to create special rover wheels for Buffalo to allow rovers to dock on the deck. At the very least I'll put a disclaimer on the OP, warning people about the potential hazards of fixing aircraft to the deck.

I noticed the rolling issue as well, and gave the gyro rings a major increase in roll control. That should help with aircraft operations.

And I absolutely love those biplanes! I may have to create a follow-on release for Heisenberg that has 0.625m airplane parts.

I'm hoping today to finish up the ISRU- it fits in that cargo gondola I showed earlier, and get a good ways done with the airlock module. With the exception of the wheel and docking port, the rest of the parts will be pretty easy..

[Sharpy]

What's the ballpark of ceiling altitude of Heisenberg?

[Angelo Kerman]

6 minutes ago, Sharpy said:

What's the ballpark of ceiling altitude of Heisenberg?

I can't really say. It depends upon how many airship hulls you use, what type, and how much mass you're carrying. You can find the ceiling altitude by using the Hooligan Labs' Airship plugin while in the VAB/SPH.

[sirrliv]

8 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

I can't really say. It depends upon how many airship hulls you use, what type, and how much mass you're carrying. You can find the ceiling altitude by using the Hooligan Labs' Airship plugin while in the VAB/SPH.

While I haven't gotten around to experimenting with this using the Heisenberg parts, I do recall taking a Hooligan Labs airship up to its max altitude some time ago. As I recall, I managed to get it up to around 16,000 meters before it leveled off, much higher than my KAX engines could breath, so I made much of the climb without power.

[Mekan1k]

19 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Nothing's wrong. I simply haven't finished all the parts that I wanted to, and added some others. I was hoping to have it all done this weekend, but not going to happen. I might have something before the Christmas holiday but if not no big deal, I'll pick it up afterwards. It's not like this is a job, it's a hobby, and I want the parts list complete when I publish the next release.

And no, I'm not creating a release of what is done, then I just get complaints that the parts are incomplete. I've had enough of all the complaints as it is, so it's done when it's done.

Oh- I thought you had found an issue with the coding or something. I understand this is a hobby- and we are all appreciative of your work. I am just so psyched for this pack, you know? Anyway, I hope the Christmas holiday is treating you better than me. (My siblings, parents, and I are all sick with the same bug.)

[Angelo Kerman]

[StevieC]

You keep showing us all these parts for the Bison, but I have yet to be able to actually try any of them out myself. WHY must you TEASE us so?!

((not actually angry, just hamming it up for comedic effect ))

Edited December 19, 2016 by StevieC

[Angelo Kerman]

12 hours ago, StevieC said:

You keep showing us all these parts for the Bison, but I have yet to be able to actually try any of them out myself. WHY must you TEASE us so?!

((not actually angry, just hamming it up for comedic effect ))

Anticipation is half the marketing ploy.

Actually, even with the new parts I added, I'm almost done! Here is the new Search Radar:

It's functionally equal to the stock Orbital Scanner, but it's available earlier, costs 10x as much, and is 4x heavier.

The finished airlock (it can be used as a command pod in a pinch, and it serves as a survey station when you have EL installed)

And here is a shot of Valentina performing a walk-around after a test flight to the abandoned island airstrip:

There is a Mk1 ISRU in the cargo gondola along with a new Buckboard 6000. The Mk1 ISRU is available early and is heavier and more expensive than the stock mini ISRU. At first you only get the ability to turn Ore into LiquidFuel, but eventually you'll get all the converters shown (the Konstruction templates are only available if Pathfinder is installed). I'm making sure that things like the new drill works properly, the converters are running right, you can use the ladders on the gondola correctly, etc.

I also did some doodling with a new wheel today, but haven't come up with anything that I like. It should be as big as the stock TR-2L but still fold to fit in the mk3 cargo bay for stowage. Since the stock TR-2L pretty much does what I want, I made a modified TR-2S for interim use until I create a proper wheel design. I don't think I'll have one before my deadline.

The last part I need to make is a docking port for the gondolas. It will (hopefully) have a flexible linkage to let you make long trains with. @DMagic generously provided me with some samples to study so hopefully I will have a new docking port by the end of the week. It isn't mission critical, so if I don't have it done by Friday, that's ok. Friday is my new target to release Heisenberg 2.0. No promises, but I hope to make it.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Angel-125

[Angelo Kerman]

Well, I slogged through the docking port and finished it. It has a nice feature that will let you auto-dock two vessels together if you're close enough- great for those uneven slopes, but use with caution. I haven't found a way to make the docking port flexible like I was hoping though. Looks like you'll need KAS for that. I also tried out some more wheel designs and still haven't found one that I'm satisfied with. I keep coming back to the stock TR-2L (well, the -2S with stack attachment that I made). I'll give it a day or so, and meanwhile do my final checks.

[Angelo Kerman]

I sort of have a solution to the linkage problem: The Claw!

The upside is that you'd be able to manage inclination changes, the downside is that lining up the cars properly will be a major challenge. Still, I think a claw-like linkage part is warranted...

[Angelo Kerman]

Needed a short break, and did some random musings:

[Orion Kerman]

May I ask, is this able to fly in space... I have my reasons. I just thought with the flying ability it might affect the physics in space. Bin the star destroyed buy a non warranted never tested space air ship to rule the kraken!

[Angelo Kerman]

27 minutes ago, Orion Kerman said:

May I ask, is this able to fly in space... I have my reasons. I just thought with the flying ability it might affect the physics in space. Bin the star destroyed buy a non warranted never tested space air ship to rule the kraken!

I don't know how Hooligan labs will react in space but my guess is above a certain altitude you'll lose static lift. I've increased the temperature tolerance on the parts (but crash tolerance is still deliberately low) to better handle atmospheric entry for.. reasons.. So yes it should be able to fly in space for deployment on another planet. Certainly the gondola parts are airtight. :)

[Orion Kerman]

Thanks I will see what I can do...

[Turtles4Life]

Can someone help me? im not that good with airships.