[Stock] X-wings with moving S-foils and repulsorlift (image heavy)

[Torquimedes]

Everyone remember their geometry lessons?  There will be a quiz.

“Big Six, flying top cover.” “Little One, starting my attack run.”

Both X-wings:

• can takeoff and land with “repulsorlift” engines.
• contain a VTOL-oriented probe core for easier hovering.
• can toggle S-foils between cruise and attack position.  Attack mode is more stable during forward flight in atmosphere, but cruise mode is required during takeoff and landing.
• mount an “astromech” parachute which is mostly decorative.  It may assist a repulsorlift landing, but it will not ensure a safe unpowered landing.

Mods EditorExtension and HangarGrid were used during construction of both craft, but the results are pure stock.

I tweaked the thermo-RCS hinge of @Majorjim! (et al) into a ball-and-socket arrangement by angling the thermometers, which resists longitudinal compression of the axle.

Little One moves its two double-wings by deploying flaps against one RCS ball per axle.  The RCS is sandwiched between two flaps.  This is a bit flappy since they don’t lock into position.

Big Six moves its four wings by deploying airbrakes which are sandwiched between pairs of RCS per axle.  The wings rotate between two docking positions so the flight engines work in either position.  Upper wings dock against the fore end of the machinery bay, lower wings dock against the aft end.  Each wing docking will set throttle to zero, so the pilot must mash the full-throttle control until all four have docked.

Thanks to research by @Servo, we know the ports must move at least 1.3m before they’ll dock again.  That distance (1.3m) is one factor in our geometry problem.  Another is the max distance between the axle and the dockingport inside our machinery space, which is 2.5m.  Since the radius of the moving dockingport doesn’t change, that makes an isosceles triangle with base 1.3m and height 2.5m.  

Question: What is the angle of axle rotation?

Due to the 4D Tetris of the machinery and the space requirements of the moving bits, they don’t quite fit inside a Mk3 cargo bay.  The aft fairing makes the machinery bay a cyllinder 3m long and 3m in diameter with 113 parts inside.

Little One

Operation

1. Engage SAS. Throttle full. Stage to engage repulsorlift
2. Retract landing legs once airborne
3. Stage again to engage forward thrusters and unlock the S-foils
4. Avoid the Dreis maneuver

Action Groups

1. Toggle Repulsorlift
2. Toggle Forward Thrusters
3. Toggle S-foils

KerbalX link

• Mass 7.73t
• Cost 126,205.0
• Part Count 135
• Built in KSP 1.2.2
• Size 9.14 x 2.34 x 6.71

Big Six

Operation

1. Engage SAS. Throttle full. Stage to engage repulsorlift.
2. Retract landing legs once airborne
3. Stage to ignite forward thrusters
4. Press 3 to toggle S-foils
5. SPAM Z until all four wings redock because each one sets the throttle to zero
6. Don’t switch off the targeting computer

Action Groups

1. Toggle Repulsorlift
2. Toggle Forward Thrusters
3. Toggle S-foils
4. Toggle afterburners

KerbalX link

• Mass 25.22t
• Cost 352,354.0
• Part Count 191
• Built in KSP 1.2.2
• Size 15.1 x 4.85 x 13.98

Tiny Two

Tiny Two answers the question, can the X-wing design be scaled down even further?  What began as an April Fool's lark has (by request) been added to the Squadron, since it is a more-or-less flyable craft.  Trench runs with this are very tricky.

Operation

1. Engage SAS. Throttle full. Stage to engage repulsorlift
2. Stage again to engage forward thrusters
3. Stay on target!

Action Groups

1. Toggle Repulsorlift
2. Toggle Forward Thrusters
3. Toggle S-foils

KerbalX link

• Mass 2.83t
• Cost 43,520.0
• Part Count 42
• Built in KSP 1.2.2
• Size 3.94 x 1.66 x 2.95

Apologies for the obnoxious number of animated GIFs, but the motion is the notion of these craft.

Youtube will be added after I find suitable trenches to fly.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2017 by Torquimedes

[moronwrocket]

Not one, but two stock X-wings. We truly live in an age of wonders!

[Majorjim!]

Great work on these mate.

 Anyone that says something is impossible in KSP is a filthy quitter! :-)

 oh, and thanks for the mention! 

[Torquimedes]

25 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Great work on these mate.

 Anyone that says something is impossible in KSP is a filthy quitter! :-)

 oh, and thanks for the mention! 

I linked the whole thread, since so many people invented variants of the thermometer hinge.  That link may be hard to see, so here's a proper thread insert:

 

[Kerboom]

Awesome Craft , great Engineering , how does one get the single port RCS to attach to the airbrake, have tried and no joy.

[Jarin]

9 hours ago, Torquimedes said:

Youtube will be added after I find suitable trenches to fly.

 

I believe there's a decent river canyon on the eastern continent. I recall Kerbin-Side having a helipad near it.

[Servo]

Awesome builds man! The gif of the little one dropping from the big one made my day.

24 minutes ago, Kerboom said:

Awesome Craft , great Engineering , how does one get the single port RCS to attach to the airbrake, have tried and no joy.

You can't attach it per se, but if you offset it so that the airbrake pushes against it, it works just the same. If you want control in both directions, have a RCS ball on both sides of the airbrake. The gif of the guts of the big one should give you a pretty good idea of how to do this.

 

[Torquimedes]

16 hours ago, Kerboom said:

Awesome Craft , great Engineering , how does one get the single port RCS to attach to the airbrake, have tried and no joy.

Thank you.  Maybe these will help.

This is one axle.  The RCS on the left normally sits inside the bearing at far left.  Both RCS are connected (offset) to the cubic strut outlined in yellow, which starts attached to a decoupler.  After decoupling from the base craft these three parts become a separate craft which can move independently.  The bearings allow movement only rotating around one axis.

This is a wing assembly.  Green arrows show parts which are attached to the cubic strut outlined above, and then shifted with the offset tool.

The airbrake is attached to the base craft.  The red line is where an airbrake fits.  When the axle is a separate craft (decoupled and undocked) and the airbrake moves in the orange direction, it pushes the RCS as a lever and the cubic strut rotates.  This causes the dockingport and wing to rotate (yellow) because they are also connected.  

For more information and many more examples I recommend the hinge thread I linked above.

Edited March 30, 2017 by Torquimedes

[klond]

Little one - took off at a 45 degree angle after spooling up the vertical engines first, played with the wings a bunch, and landed with only vertical engines, no splosions.  Good!

[Rath]

Are the vertical engines just clipped jets?

[Torquimedes]

9 minutes ago, Rath said:

Are the vertical engines just clipped jets?

They are.  Little One has four horizontal and four vertical Junos inside its fuselage.  The "engines" on its S-foils are purely decorative.

Big Six has two vertical Panthers inside its fuselage and the four you see on its S-foils.

[Torquimedes]

On 3/29/2017 at 10:49 AM, moronwrocket said:

Not one, but two stock X-wings. We truly live in an age of wonders!

Now it's a trilogy. *  Tiny Two has been added to the Squadron in the OP. 

* Squadron formation staged with Hyperedit, does not reflect opertational capability

[Torquimedes]

Does anyone know of royalty-free music that sounds vaguely like a John Williams soundtrack?

[4d4Garrison]

5 hours ago, Torquimedes said:

Does anyone know of royalty-free music that sounds vaguely like a John Williams soundtrack?

Two steps from hell songs.

[Torquimedes]

4 hours ago, 4d4Garrison said:

Two steps from hell songs.

Thanks, but they don't appear to be free to use on youtube.  Anyone else?

[4d4Garrison]

2 hours ago, Torquimedes said:

Thanks, but they don't appear to be free to use on youtube.  Anyone else?

I am surprised, Matt Lowne has used their songs in his videos....

[Torquimedes]

May the Fourth be with you!  [TEASER]

Teaser for upcoming youtube of all three X-wing models in action.  Had to inline the image because IMGUR borked the embedded version.

Edited May 4, 2017 by Torquimedes