plane conversion

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

this is a user desired challenge where people will take there favorite plane they have already built and turn it into a vtol.

rules:

1. it has to be a plane you've already made

2. it can't be one just perfect for a vtol conversion

3. you have to have a craft file of the original and of the vtol.

4. if you do not have a craft file then just record the original and it flying and the vtol with it flying normal and vtol mode (with it switching between them mid flight)

5. it has to have a vtol mode AND a normal mode.

how the competetion will work: you will do whether rule 3 or 4 (preferably 4). and after a week or two I will de-side on the best 10 converted crafts. and then I will make a pole with pictures of all of the crafts and a brief description of how they fly and then the craft with the most votes will be crowned: THE VTOL CONVERSION KING!!!! 

my attempt: 

 

P.S. making a vtol from a normal plane is very hard, so you don't have to make it look as original as possible, but do try to.

contenders:

drtricky with:

 https://kerbalx.com/drtricky/ABH-17-Rapture it is a modded super weaponized plane and the original https://kerbalx.com/drtricky/A-15-Big-Eagle

Torquimedes

Grumman F-14 Tomcat 

Numerlor with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZZiPRFTeHw

 

Ozelui with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlNmHfNSEc8

 

Edited May 25, 2017 by rockets-don't-make-toast

[drtricky]

I have two aircraft that were built off previously non-VTOL airframes.

https://kerbalx.com/drtricky/ABH-41-Titan

https://kerbalx.com/drtricky/ABH-17-Rapture

 

Evidence for their non-VTOL beginnings: https://kerbalx.com/drtricky/FAB-41-Taurus-competition2

(I will upload the second one later)

Edited March 15, 2017 by drtricky

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

I will do only one entry from each contender. so which one would you like to be entered into the competition?

Edited March 15, 2017 by rockets-don't-make-toast

[drtricky]

5 hours ago, rockets-don't-make-toast said:

I will do only one entry from each contender. so which one would you like to be entered into the competition?

I would like to enter the ABH-17 Rapture

https://kerbalx.com/drtricky/ABH-17-Rapture

Original airframe

https://kerbalx.com/drtricky/A-15-Big-Eagle

Edited March 15, 2017 by drtricky

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

ok

[Torquimedes]

Here's the original craft file and flight video:

I added a single Panther under the CoM, taking care to keep it clear of the wing-sync mechanism.  Now it can hop off the deck without a catapult.  The transition is dramatic if you accidentally cut the hover engine early.

I bet there are a lot of folks who could convert their planes to VTOL if they saw this challenge.

[Ozelui]

Here's my entry.  The original was meant to be similar to a F4 corsair, but i made it from memory and since it was made with stock parts it turned out to look very different.  Specially with the engine being below the fusselage.  However i find it very fun to fly and aestethically it keeps that lovely ww2 feel.

I don't know if it qualifies for "perfect vtol conversion", i honestly expected the angled wings to give me a lot of trouble in vtol mode but surprisingly it is very stable.  If you think it breaks the rules, i will try to convert a different plane, but this one was a bit of a pet project when it was built and i wanted to try the conversion. 

 

Craft files:

Original https://kerbalx.com/Ozelui/Mad-cat-mk-3

Conversion https://kerbalx.com/Ozelui/Mad-cat-mk-3-VTOL

 

I just added 5 Junos below the main body, balanced with the center of mass, with an extra pair of air intakes in case the two already built in the original plane were not enough.  If both engine groups are working at the same time, the nose will raise a few degrees, but that's all.  And in horizontal mode the weight of the Junos is hardly noticeable, so it keeps the same maneuverability as the original.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2017 by Ozelui

[rkarmark]

Will stock craft count as a original

[Numerlor]

The landing is a bit rough, but it always was.

Original:

 

Edited April 13, 2017 by Numerlor

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

On 4/13/2017 at 3:52 AM, rkarmark said:

Will stock craft count as a original

nope

-----------------------------------

the deadline is the 20th.

Edited May 16, 2017 by rockets-don't-make-toast

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

sorry I haven't gotten the board up yet, I've been pretty busy.

On 4/7/2017 at 8:11 AM, Torquimedes said:

Here's the original craft file and flight video:

I added a single Panther under the CoM, taking care to keep it clear of the wing-sync mechanism.  Now it can hop off the deck without a catapult.  The transition is dramatic if you accidentally cut the hover engine early.

I bet there are a lot of folks who could convert their planes to VTOL if they saw this challenge.

you did that in a gif?!?!?!?!?!

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

the poll: 

 

[Pds314]

Maybe I should convert one of my stock props. Like giving the massive thing in my profile pick a tiltwing.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Pds314

[DualDesertEagle]

Obsolete

Edited May 28, 2017 by DualDesertEagle
Post can be removed by a mod

[DualDesertEagle]

Ok, here we go:

My F-22 in its former unmodified form, nothing special:

 

And now for the heavily modified and much more badass VTOL-capable version:

The weight in the screenshot above wasn't the final weight coz I had to use 2 VTOL-engines clipped into each other. A single Wheesley is just not powerful enough to lift this heavy monster.

 

The screenshot above shows the failed config with reaction wheels only, instead of using RCS. But RCS was MUCH NEEDED to keep the plane under control in hovering mode.

 

This was the first truly successful vertical take-off after I had to shift the VTOL-engines back and forth until I found the sweet spot (coz for some reason placing them directly at the CoM didn't work properly)

 

Excellent view of the "VTOL-bay" as I call it.

 

With the VTOL-bay closed the plane looks barely different from the standard version. To achieve this I had to swap the MK2 liquid fuel tank for an MK2 cargo bay and since I didn't wat the landing gears to extend and retract through the cargo bay doors I had to place them inside and at an angle to still achieve proper stability while standing on the ground. The cargo bay doors and engine are both bound to the extend / retract key of the landing gears.

 

Had I not done this myself I wouldn't believe it either, but after a transition from level flight to hovering mode I managed to land on the VAB at the first try!

Now that could have been luck, I thought to myself and attempted to land on the administration building, also after transitioning from level flight to hovering mode, and did it on the first try!

 

And to top things off I also landed here:

 

And I tried to land on an even smaller rooftop, at which I failed spectacularly, tearing down a part of R&D:

 

And this shows where exactly I tried to land:

 

 

Conclusion: While I'd proven several times to be a decent plane builder and pilot, I've surprised and possibly outdone myself here, despite having torn down a building after my modified F-22 got outta control, its right elevon got caught on a small structure sticking out of the rooftop, the plane flipped over and landed on the R&D building upside down with the VTOL-engines throttled up to somewhere around 15 tons of combined thrust. But I think the 3 successful landings before that incident speak for themselves.

I would've recorded some gameplay footage but I'm pretty sure my 10-year-old piece of junk laptop that I'm currently restricted to after my high-power gaming PC never arrived (and to this day I haven't got my money back either!) wouldn't be able to handle both KSP AND OBS.

 

I can try, but don't hold ur breath for it.

 

Let's see how far I get with this.

[DualDesertEagle]

I've actually managed to create some footage of my converted F-22 in action. I'm hoping to get enough actually usable material from that to come up with a proper video. But be warned, at certain parts of the recording the video is gonna be LAAAAAAAGGING LIKE HELL!

And I should also mention that the plane is an absolute B**** on the controls in hovering mode simply coz it's heavy as f***. I attempted to land atop the tower of the abandoned island base and just couldn't gt the plane to stay on or even centered above the rooftop coz the handling in hovering mode is admittedly total CR4P.

 

To the mods: Sorry for triple-posting, but both of the latter posts are important news to the challenge so I wanna make sure the OP gets notified of them.

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

2 hours ago, DualDesertEagle said:

 

And I should also mention that the plane is an absolute B**** on the controls in hovering mode  HELL!imply coz it's heavy as f***. I attempted to land atop the tower of the abandoned island base and just couldn't gt the plane to stay on or even centered above the rooftop coz the handling in hovering mode is admittedly total CR4P.

when I made that giant passenger plane into a vtol, I just clipped like 60 large reaction wheels, 20 in the front and 40 in the back, with 2 or 3 nuclear generators on each.

this is the poll for the plane conversion to see who made the best craft, please go there and take part.

[DualDesertEagle]

I hate to say this but the footage I recorded is completely FUBAR due to its low "framerate" of a fifth of an FPS. I don't know why it lags so badly, but it's about a thousand times worse than I anticipated. And after trying several players and editors it's safe to say that it's the footage itself that is "corrupted". The reason is most likely that my sh!tballs laptop is 10 years old and thus totally underpowered despite its dual graphics cores. I will try to record a shorter clip once I'm in the mood for that and see if the long duration of the first clip is part of the issue. I really wanna make a video to make my submission more interesting but so far my laptop has been refusing to give me the desired results.

[rockets-don't-make-toast]

Torquimedes is the winner with 60% of the votes (or three).

 

thank you all for participating and the 5 how voted.

 

and a special thanks to duel desert eagle for being a big part in the comments.

[Ozelui]

Those stock variable geometry wings were too sexy

Congratulations Torquimedes!