Is it possible to make wingless planes?

[RonnieThePotato]

I have been wondering if it is possible to make something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifting_body#/media/File:X24.jpg

I am aware of the Mk2 shape fuselages that provide lift, but how does the mass of those fuselages balance, with the lift? Would it be possible to make a plane with no other form of lift? (besides elevons of course)

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Yeah, totally possible.

Although they aren't particularly useful or good planes lol.

I doubt you'd even need the Mk2 body lift, or elevons for that matter.

With enough thrust, some reaction wheels, and a set of landing gear; you could prolly build a "plane" that takes off, flies, and lands horizontally. Although at some point I suppose it just becomes an "air breathing rocket?"

Edited December 31, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Geonovast]

I've actually been trying to make a strictly MK2 SSTO with no wings or control surfaces.

Balancing the CoM and CoL has been nightmare.

[RonnieThePotato]

  On 12/31/2017 at 7:39 PM, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Yeah, totally possible.

Although they aren't particularly useful or good planes lol.

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  On 12/31/2017 at 7:42 PM, Geonovast said:

I've actually been trying to make a strictly MK2 SSTO with no wings or control surfaces.

Balancing the CoM and CoL has been nightmare.

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Any of you known any completed projects of such plane? I would love to see what it would look like.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

  On 12/31/2017 at 7:42 PM, Geonovast said:

I've actually been trying to make a strictly MK2 SSTO with no wings or control surfaces.

Balancing the CoM and CoL has been nightmare.

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Nice, I have a shuttle that re-enters and lands with Mk2 body lift alone (It does have control surfaces though), but it's an absolute pig to fly, and your landing needs to be perfect.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd call it practical; would you?

[Geonovast]

  On 12/31/2017 at 7:44 PM, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Nice, I have a shuttle that re-enters and lands with Mk2 body lift alone (It does have control surfaces though), but it's an absolute pig to fly, and your landing needs to be perfect.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd call it practical; would you?

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Hahhaha nooooo.  I was just seeing if I could do it.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

  On 12/31/2017 at 7:44 PM, RonnieThePotato said:

Any of you known any completed projects of such plane? I would love to see what it would look like.

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Umm...I could make you one in about 5 minutes prolly? Lol.

I imagine it'll just look like a plane with no wings, heavily featuring the Mk2 parts.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket

[RonnieThePotato]

  On 12/31/2017 at 7:44 PM, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Nice, I have a shuttle that re-enters and lands with Mk2 body lift alone (It does have control surfaces though), but it's an absolute pig to fly, and your landing needs to be perfect.

Overall, I'm not sure I'd call it practical; would you?

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Do you have any screenshots of it? I would love to see it.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

  On 12/31/2017 at 7:46 PM, RonnieThePotato said:

Do you have any screenshots of it? I would love to see it.

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Sure lemme check.

It's heavy, with not a lot of lift and weak engines, especially in atmo. (Cockpit is the original Mk1 before they changed the model.) Launcher is obviously not shown, this is just the shuttle bit.

The preferred way to land it, is to come in high, dive for speed; then fly the runway a bit before touching down. You only get one shot at it though. No go arounds lol.

Anyways, it was so unpleasant to fly, it was eventually modified into it's very odd successor which carries it's wing in a lift neutral position on the way up, then flies back home like a regular plane after re-docking with it.

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Edited December 31, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket

[RonnieThePotato]

  On 12/31/2017 at 7:47 PM, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Sure lemme check.

It's heavy, with not a lot of lift and weak engines, especially in atmo. (Cockpit is the original Mk1 before they changed the model.) Launcher is obviously not shown, this is just the shuttle bit.

The preferred way to land it, is to come in high, dive for speed; then fly the runway a bit before touching down. You only get one shot at it though. No go arounds lol.

Anyways, it was so unpleasant to fly, it was eventually modified into it's very odd successor which carries it's wing in a lift neutral position on the way up, then flies back home like a regular plane after re-docking with it.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

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Looks cool, I can see why it's hard to fly  thanks for posting!

[NSEP]

Wait, if a plane has a really wide fuselage that almost looks like a wing, does that make it a lifting body?

[linuxgurugamer]

Yes

[Whackjob]

Technically wingless!  

With enough thrust-to-weight ratio, everything becomes a plane.

[Jas0n]

  On 9/14/2012 at 11:22 PM, ferram4 said:

Body lift - All parts lift: a fast enough brick will fly, if not that well.

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This is for FAR, but should still apply to MK2 parts.

[FancyMouse]

  On 1/1/2018 at 3:13 AM, Jas0n said:

This is for FAR, but should still apply to MK2 parts.

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Stock aero also models body lift. F12 and look for cyan arrows.

[Vanamonde]

This is going to turn into a craft sharing thread, and so it has been moved to the craft sharing subforum. 

[SG Aero]

Well someone shared a swing wing plane here and I have a much smaller variation. I don’t have images atm but back before 1.0 I did have a plane that started with wings before ejecting them and it was actually capable of getting high apoapsis suborbit. Hey

[qzgy]

There's this craft I made which technically has a fuselage/wing that's pretty much the same thing based off of a NASA lifting body project. Others have made that exact craft shown. So it is possible to make something like it with a similar shape.

https://kerbalx.com/qzgy/Martin-Marietta-X-24B

[RocketSimplicity]

I think they are called “rockets”

No, I’m just kidding.

Nasa in the 60s made a wingless plane, it’s body generated lift, so if they can, you can.

[Jens Lyn IV]

I made a tailsitting VTOL SSTO reusable lander for Laythe some time ago; it ain't pretty, but it gets the job done.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Jens Lyn IV

[Van Disaster]

  On 1/3/2018 at 6:02 AM, RocketSimplicity said:

I think they are called “rockets”

No, I’m just kidding.

Nasa in the 60s made a wingless plane, it’s body generated lift, so if they can, you can.

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There have been many. Rockets have body lift too, any angled cylinder does.

The problem you'll probably run into in KSP is stuff is a bit dense, and also there's no *proper* lifting body modelling as in treating the body as an aerofoil, just aero-planing. The ideal lifting body is a flying wing

Edited January 4, 2018 by Van Disaster

[RocketSimplicity]

  On 1/4/2018 at 7:23 AM, Van Disaster said:

The problem you'll probably run into in KSP is stuff is a bit dense, and also there's no *proper* lifting body

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So you will need a Mod to redo physics e.g FAR.

[Guest]

Yeah, ive made a couple in FAR... they all lost control and crashed though (they did produce decent lift)