[Stock/VTOL] X-1 Pogo

[randyrules711]

Story: The Pogo was developed with great secrecy during the War of the Stolen Cookie. Meant to Help Kerbals maneuver through urban environments while sitting on top of jet engines. The idea was scrapped when the engineers realized that Kerbin had no urban environments. However, one of the volunteer test-pilots stole the schematics and set off to finish the project. Using parts from his personal junkyard, Jebediah Kerman designed and manufactured the final version of the X-1.

I hope you enjoyed that little backstory. Now, for the words of the real developer. I live near an air and space museum that I visit quite a lot. On one such visit, they had a one-day-only exhibit featuring a craft that hovered by the use of jet engines mounted on the bottom. My first thoughts were "That's Kerbal" and thus the X-1 project began.

Pictures:

Edited August 17, 2012 by randyrules711

[that1guy]

Brilliant!

[Spartan117]

Jeb finished the craft but Bob flew it? Cool looking craft nonetheless! I'm just interested as to why you used decouplers. Could the craft not land on the engines, or maybe could've used some landing gear?

[randyrules711]

Jeb finished the craft but Bob flew it? Cool looking craft nonetheless! I'm just interested as to why you used decouplers. Could the craft not land on the engines, or maybe could've used some landing gear?

The decouplers were originally meant for emergencies, but after several failed attempts to land it on the engines, I decided it was pretty much impossible. The jet engines don't react to thrust changes nearly fast enough to be controlled with that kind of accuracy vertically.

[Spartan117]

The telescoping landing gear might work in this situation. The LT-2 Landing Struts.

[randyrules711]

The telescoping landing gear might work in this situation. The LT-2 Landing Struts.

Tried it. Didn't work. Still crashed into the ground and died. I don't care if it fell short of one goal. My goals were: VTOL, easy to fly, high speed and altitude, maneuverability, and landing in one piece. That's 4/5 achieved. And, not only is it easy to fly, it's the most fun of anything I've yet built.

[Tim_Barrett]

I thought the pogo launched and landed upright...

[darkwolfpaw54]

the pogo didnt the samon (its tiwn brother) the samon took off and landed upright the pogo didnt it landed the same up to see it look at the pics the x plane pogo

[Millst0ne MK II]

Craft file?

[randyrules711]

Craft file incoming! Duck!

[spike52656]

This is a very good design for a stck VTOL. Also, was the name inspired by the real-life XFY-1 pogo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_XFY , r did you think of it yourself? Either way, good aircraft.

[TheRocketMan]

Hmm, If you are having trouble with landing on the engines, you could add struts and some radial liquid engines that activate for landing only.

They might be able to give it a safe landing?

[randyrules711]

This is a very good design for a stck VTOL. Also, was the name inspired by the real-life XFY-1 pogo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_XFY , r did you think of it yourself? Either way, good aircraft.

The name was my idea after I threw out "Banana" and "Da-Vinci". Banana didn't seem to fit well and Da-Vinci had too much of a tie-in the our world. However, That aircraft is INCREDIBLE. I studied military history with a special focus on air and armored forces for years, and I have never once heard that thing mentioned.

[randyrules711]

Hmm, If you are having trouble with landing on the engines, you could add struts and some radial liquid engines that activate for landing only.

They might be able to give it a safe landing?

Having just tried that, I can confirm it just screws up the balance in the first configuration I tried, and weighs down the second.