[Stock] F-8 Crusader with working variable incidence wing

[Servo]

The Last of the Gunfighters, as it was known, the Crusader marked the end of an era for U.S. Fighter aircraft. It was the last fighter to use guns as weapon of choice, serving from 1957 until 1976 in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps as a carrier-based supersonic fighter.

The F-8, as it was later designated, served many roles during the Cold War. the RF-8 was a dedicated reconnaissance platform that captured important information during the Cuban Missile Crisis, while in Vietnam, F-8s served as carrier-based fighter-bombers.

Now, the gunfighter is back in stock KSP. This model has a fully functioning variable incidence wing, actuated up and down by action groups. The wing can be raised 7 degrees for takeoff and landing, giving the Crusader superb STOL capabilities, plus excellent low and high-speed handling. True to the replica, the F-8 becomes tough to fly with the wing in cruise mode below a certain speed, requiring the wing to be raised for landing approaches.

Once in the air, the Crusader is fairly nimble, and can break the speed of sound in level flight. Remarkably, it is also stable under high G-loads (tested up to 15) and at 4x time warp.

Download Link:

https://kerbalx.com/servo/Vought-F8U-Crusader

 

Instructions for use:

Spoiler

1. On the runway, press 1 to decouple the wing. If it doesn’t snap into place by itself, press 3 to force it down. Once it snaps into place, press 3 again.
2. Press 9 and 0 to turn on the turbojets. Once at 45m/s pitch up to take off.
3. Once airborne, press 1 to detach the wing and 2 to raise it if necessary. Press 2 again to reset the mechanism.
4. On landing approach, decouple the wing with 1, then press 3 to lower the wing. Press 3 to reset the wing and approach and land at 50-60m/s.

 

[Rath]

How is the rotation so exact?  And how much tiny tweaking was needed to get it so secure?

[Dman979]

Inspired by reading The Great Santini, I tried to make an F-8 Crusader myself a bit ago. While yours is stable at 15G, mine was... not. When I tried to turn too hard, it would literally break apart midair, and stop all forward progress due to too much lifting surface. Also, the wings didn't move.

 

So, I'm curious as to how you built yours. And how stable is it in yaw? It looks like you have a lot of lifting surfaces for the body.

[YoeriCookie]

I'd very much like to see the mechanism for this thing, downloaded

[Servo]

6 hours ago, Dman979 said:

Inspired by reading The Great Santini, I tried to make an F-8 Crusader myself a bit ago. While yours is stable at 15G, mine was... not. When I tried to turn too hard, it would literally break apart midair, and stop all forward progress due to too much lifting surface. Also, the wings didn't move.

 

So, I'm curious as to how you built yours. And how stable is it in yaw? It looks like you have a lot of lifting surfaces for the body.

It's really stable (unlike the real thing). The stability under warp is due to autostruts and the fact that it docks in both configurations.

3 hours ago, YoeriCookie said:

I'd very much like to see the mechanism for this thing, downloaded

Inside the structural fuselage, there is a standard small SAS hinge with a cubic octagonal cage. The I-beam is attached, and forced up and down by the landing gear. An offset clamp-o-tron Jr. connects to one of the two you can see in behind the structural plates to allow control.

A slightly older version, but it shows the docking port alignment.

7 hours ago, Rath said:

How is the rotation so exact?  And how much tiny tweaking was needed to get it so secure?

NoOffsetLimit was a godsend, but it still took a few hours just tweaking the system to be able to connect, then another few to get it to do it when moving 100m/s.

[Majorjim!]

Awesome work mate! It was great to see this come together and see how persistant you where to get it to work. I know how satisfying that is! Keep it up!

:-)

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

It's always amazing to see what can be done with the stock parts.  Great work getting a inflight bearing to work too.

[Torquimedes]

Congratulations making this complex mechanism work!

Clever sculpting the fuselage out of fuel tanks forward and wing sections aft to maintain CoL/CoM balance.

[Servo]

Thanks for the compliments all!

I noticed that the version in the original screenshots is a bit scrappy looking, so I gave it a slight aesthetics spruce-up. Same part count, just lines are much smoother. No more hard lines on the wing and fuselage, plus other minor stuff.

The KerbalX page has been updated as well!