Recloseable fairings and/or custom cargo bays

[Pds314]

I was thinking, fairings are super useful as single-use cargo bays. It would be really nice though if, with a balanced mass penalty and whatnot, we could have a fairing which would not shatter or break off but either swing open its nose, split like a normal cargo/bomb bay along one side, or banana peel at the base, then close and seal back up.

This would allow, for example, super-sized cargo transports that had >3.5-meter-wide "cargo bays" using ALMOST existing parts.

Alternatively, we could have dedicated parts for either modular or procedural cargo bays that would actually seal and be recognized as such ingame. Note that the modular option may involve more coding headaches to try to determine whether the cargo bay is in fact enclosed, whilst procedural cargo bays would have no such problem since they could use the same code as fairings and normal cargo bays for that.

Another thing that would be nice is if both these and normal cargo bays had the option to negate water physics, and if possible water rendering, inside them.

Edited September 22, 2018 by Pds314

[Aeroboi]

3 hours ago, Pds314 said:

I was thinking, fairings are super useful as single-use cargo bays. It would be really nice though if, with a balanced mass penalty and whatnot, we could have a fairing which would not shatter or break off but either swing open its nose, split like a normal cargo/bomb bay along one side, or banana peel at the base, then close and seal back up.

This would allow, for example, super-sized cargo transports that had >3.5-meter-wide "cargo bays" using ALMOST existing parts.

Alternatively, we could have dedicated parts for either modular or procedural cargo bays that would actually seal and be recognized as such ingame. Note that the modular option may involve more coding headaches to try to determine whether the cargo bay is in fact enclosed, whilst procedural cargo bays would have no such problem since they could use the same code as fairings and normal cargo bays for that.

Another thing that would be nice is if both these and normal cargo bays had the option to negate water physics, and if possible water rendering, inside them.

Let's start with what isn't possible.

Banana peeling will not be possible in stock. The way stock fairings work is that they are different then the other parts and are just static, but become none persistent and physicsless after they deploy and cannot really be modified to consists out of multiple sections. And thus banana peeling will not work unless they redesign fairings from scratch. Current stock fairings are not overly complex and light on system resources.
It is pretty much the design mentality of stock KSP to keep it that way so everybody can play it optimally. Therefore there is no complex multi part fairing system that allows these vessel design options. And I don't think this will be adopted in stock for the reasons I mentioned.

There are certain part packs and station mods that have opening and closing fairings or super large bays with plenty of spaces. Unfortunately I can't dig up which exact mods these are. I thought that either kw rocketry of SpaceY had intersections with folding (banana peels) fairings in which you could install a healthy amount of cargo.

Now as for creating cargo bays and bomber bays. Your actually in luck.

You can already do that in stock if your a bit skillful in how to create things. I made somewhat of a guide for that purpose and I hope you can replicate and use it. Remember that you can also create stock hinges to further complement the method posted below.

Here is the album https://imgur.com/a/2INKToT

Make sure the settings are enabled on the following pictures and that you autostrut all the parts in the assembly.

As you can see there's much you can do in stock.

Rather then suggesting all sorts of stuff it is challenging and rather kerbal to do it the ingenious and difficult way. With a bit of searching around you can do a a lot of other technical stuff for which you would want to suggest a mod or game addon for while you really don't need that at all.

FYI: And the fuel tanks inside the bays is just dummy cargo. You can take it out and put something else in.

 

Edited September 22, 2018 by Aeroboi

[Tyko]

Check this link out. The models are beautiful and a quick test shows they still work in 1.4.x. I haven't reviewed the aerodynamics / drag yet, but the doors open and close and the aero configs "look" okay.