Retractable wings

[ianyikos]

I can't make it into orbit with a spaceplane mounted to a rocket, because it always flips over because of the wing, so retractable wings might help with that.

[AVaughan]

Shuttle style lifters are easier than mounting a winged spaceplane on top of a booster.   (That is never going to be aerodynamically stable).  You can also do something similar to Falcon Heavy/Delta Heavy, and mount a pair on boosters on the spaceplane's wingtips and/or 2 pair of boosters attached to the wings. 

[Gargamel]

You can balance it by adding fins to the back.  Might be a lot of fins, but it'll get you... somewhere.

A few players have made retractable wings in stock I believe, but they might be too cumbersome for the average player / ship.  Check the spacecraft exchange to see if you can find some. 

[RoboRay]

9 hours ago, AVaughan said:

 (That is never going to be aerodynamically stable). 

Never say "never"...

[Mission Album]

Edited June 21, 2018 by RoboRay

[ianyikos]

In the past the only way I've been able to get into orbit is to roll 90 degrees, so the ground is to your side.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Carry it up in a drag neutral position.

Then re-dock with it for a more re-entry friendly profile.

A bit unconventional, but it works!

Edited June 21, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[qzgy]

Getting things with wings into orbit I don't think would be the main use. I think the real advantage is sticking things with wings in cargo bags and fairings. So.... I don't mind this. 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

10 hours ago, RoboRay said:

Never say "never"...

Absolutely gorgeous screenshot and rocket.

My hats off to you.

[AVaughan]

15 hours ago, RoboRay said:

Never say "never"...

Fair enough I shouldn't have said "never".  It can be done.  But as your screenshot shows it requires large wings on the booster, wings that might be larger than the shuttle's wings, to achieve something that is aerodynamically stable.   

[Dimas152]

actually sxt had a folding wing
idk if it's re-entry proof
 

[RealKerbal3x]

5 hours ago, [INDO]dimas_1502 said:

actually sxt had a folding wing
idk if it's re-entry proof
 

Kerbal Reusability Expansion has a folding wing mount for flyback boosters too.

[RoboRay]

9 hours ago, AVaughan said:

Fair enough I shouldn't have said "never".  It can be done.  But as your screenshot shows it requires large wings on the booster, wings that might be larger than the shuttle's wings, to achieve something that is aerodynamically stable.   

The launch vehicle's wings have to be larger than the ones on the spaceplane atop the stack, yes.  That would have been the case for Dyna-Soar as well.

Edited June 22, 2018 by RoboRay

[Gargamel]

^ Well, that's just a goofy looking thing.

@Rocket In My Pocket, Did you ever misalign the wing on redocking and not realize it till it was too late?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

1 hour ago, Gargamel said:

@Rocket In My Pocket, Did you ever misalign the wing on redocking and not realize it till it was too late?

Actually misalignment was the rule not the exception to be honest lol.

If I could get it within 5 degrees I was usually happy with that, it might pull a bit to one side but it was still manageable.

It only flew a handful of missions, and I think I only got it "perfectly" aligned once. The more interesting question is "Did I ever accidentally hit it and send it twirling off into space?" ...Yes, yes I did.

[KerikBalm]

I would love retractable/foldable wings... just as I would love retractable/fold-able rover wheels... like those found in the Kerbal Planetary Base Systems mod (the making history retractable rover wheels don't have enough range between deployed and retracted for my purposes)

Ideally something like this:

(the animation is a bit incorrect, the wings would swing out, then rotate, doing it simultaneously results in the clipping that you can see in the video).

I've tried to make designs that fit in a mk3 cargo bay, I havn't used a dockable wing like the poster above... maybe I should have, these dockable aircraft look bad, and land horribly (I wasn't able to bring them to a stop successfully on the ground of the target body... which is more challenging to land on than kerbin)

These looked and flew horribly, they were abandoned:

Spoiler

For launching winged craft via rockets however, the solution is rather simple, have them at the bottom of the craft:

Now if you don't want it directly inline, you can do two on each side for easy balance, or put in the extra tweaks to make asymetric designs (such as STS style designs) work.

The final transfer stage had to rotate 180 degrees in this design... but that is due to specific peculiarities of my design which also included an orbiting relay and an inflatable heat shield