Gliders

[Skivvaxlare]

I started experimenting with gliders a bit the other day and I came up with a pretty good design.

It gets 10 minutes of air time easy, flying between 60 and 100 m/s and with an average height of 800 m.

Anyone else make a good glider? Post it here, I\'m interested in seeing your designs.

[zekes]

Heres the Ramair 1.

It takes off with a jet, then can glide forever. Also has lots of fuel for flying over mountains and takeoffs.

I really love this plane.

[dunk443]

i just made this glider and i think gliders are totally not lame!

i cant even fly the thing into the buildings >

[wildkittyv1]

I\'ll toss one up in a bit or tomorrow afternoon. I\'m going to steal some concepts from that video in the Kong Rider challenge since his 'bomb' glider thing from atmosphere down to KSC was pretty damn effective for only using a Kerbal\'s EVA pack as a thrust mechanism.

[wildkittyv1]

Alright, I did an initial concept up last night after I posted and was relatively pleased with it, but knew it needed some tweaking and I wanted to sleep. Got some good work done on it this morning and I\'m pleased with this iteration of it so far. Pics in the spoiler below. This craft will be added to the WRI repository in my thread under the Marathon Distinction class.

MD Flying Squirrel MK II

Here\'s the Squirrel during launch/liftoff stage.

Here is the Squirrel after it\'s boosters have been ejected. I dumped the boosters after their fuel was depleted (appx. 2min 10sec) and was around 10km in altitude. From here, I just turned on SAS and kept the nose pointed up.

This is a shot of the map screen after about 10mins of descent. At this point I was only losing around 1.5m/s in altitude and I believe I could\'ve reached the next continent, but I stopped after another minute or so of flying. Occasionally I would even gain a few (appx. 5m) meters of height.

Some info about the MD Flying Squirrel MK II

The vehicle is all stock parts except for the bits which connect the booster LFEs to the glider\'s wings. I used the packaging jigs here from the Kosmos pack because they are easier to place and more aesthetically pleasing. Stock radial decouplers should suffice just fine if trying to convert this to pure stock.

The original design did not have the set of delta wings towards the rear. The canards below the wings were originally there, but my first design didn\'t have enough lift so I moved them down (wanted to keep them to aide steering) and added the delta wings. The delta wings and swept wings are slightly rotated so they run parallel with the ground though they are not in the center of the main fuselage, they are both also slightly pitched upwards to aide in lift.

The boosters last for just over 2 minutes. They\'re not perfectly parallel with the glider\'s fuselage, so it can be a bit of a pain to control on the runway. Honestly, I just couldn\'t be bothered to rotate them because I knew it wasn\'t going to be that important once I took off, and it gets air at full throttle a few seconds after ignition. You can even retract the gear at around 100m/s (gained quickly because of the little weight) and it will take off near vertical.

I flew up to appx. 10km up and ejected the boosters. I originally doubted the new design because I was losing altitude fairly fast. However, after the atmosphere began to thicken, descent declined to around 10m/s loss around 5.5/6km, and when I reached appx. 3km, it had diminished to appx. 1.5m/s loss in altitude. I imagine as I continued to approach sea level, this declination in loss would continue to less than 1m/s. The efficiency of the craft could probably be improved simply by toying with the height and angle at which I decouple the boosters. I\'m certain I could reach the continent to the east of KSC, and, with a bit of tweaking, possibly get this glider to one of the poles.

The boosters on the glider will get it to orbital height.

Cheers

[scratch]

Can\'t we just use this thread for the society?

[zekes]

Sounds good....

EDIT:

EVERYONE DROP EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!

Everyone should use this glider!!!!!!!!

you say.

Well, Here it is:

Just try it and you\'ll love it....flies forever on SAS Control!!!!!

[AeroPelican]

Wow, just wow, I am horrible with spaceplanes.

[Giggleplex777]

I made a glider named: 'Polar Express'. I was originally designed to be launched like SpaceShipOne, but I failed to build a carrier aircraft for it, so I straped on some rockets 8). It can be boosted into orbit and glide back safely. Please note that it is rocket powered and can glide as soon as it gets off the ground.

Note the low profile if the plane, as explained above^.

On the north pole with Bill Kerman!

---

Download:

BTW this ship was renamed, its originally name was 'SpaceGlider'

https://sites.google.com/site/giggleplex777/-crafts/Polar%20Express.craft?attredirects=0&d=1

Enjoy!

[Space_Nomad]

Just wanted to let you know I took your Ramair 1 up for a spin. That is a great plane!

Highest altitude was over 15.5km, went from launch to the other side of the north pole with a few liters of fuel to spare. Took about an hour. Thanks for the fun!

[zekes]

Just wanted to let you know I took your Ramair 1 up for a spin. That is a great plane!

Highest altitude was over 15.5km, went from launch to the other side of the north pole with a few liters of fuel to spare. Took about an hour. Thanks for the fun!

Im glad you liked it! I have found it will glide forever if you put it a 30 degrees and put SAS on. When it tries to pull up, it actually goes faster! It cruises at about 80 m/s so its not too slow... but I actually put the engine only for takeoffs. Keep them flying!

ZEKES

[Resender]

My orbiter can glide from orbit to land quite well, even when I have to abort I can get her to glide to the ground rather then use the parachutes

Their is an engine on the orbiter but that's useless during the return trip and get destroyed upon landing

Edited August 9, 2012 by Resender

[Whaliin]

Heres the Ramair 1.

It takes off with a jet, then can glide forever. Also has lots of fuel for flying over mountains and takeoffs.

I really love this plane.

HOW DOES IT EVEN MANAGE TO DO THAT?! Its amazing!

[Tim_Barrett]

The best glider I have ever built wasn't made for gliding, but for acting as a bomber. Super old, though.

[zekes]

HOW DOES IT EVEN MANAGE TO DO THAT?! Its amazing!

There are what I call "Ghost engines." Since the control surfaces have loft ratings, when they are moved into the "up" position, the lift vector moves forwards, and provides free lift. Quite tricky to do, but there is a page someone wrote about this.......

EDIT:

This is like what I mean:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/14496-Unpowered-Glider-GD-09A-Infinite-Flight%21?highlight=free+lift

But my plane has a built in engine with lots of fuel, highly maneuverable, and adorable on the ground (it looks like a puppy from the front!)

Edited August 11, 2012 by zekes

[zekes]

Hey....

I dare you to try this.....

(for the fun of it, all ill tell you is that you need to pull up when taking off to acheive speed....)

Laugh like crazy at it!

EDIT:

Heres a video:

Edited August 12, 2012 by zekes