Stock Spruce Goose 1:1 Replica

[Kronus_Aerospace]

This craft is a 1:1 scale full stock replica of the H-4 Hercules, more popularly known as the Spruce Goose. This craft, while relatively simple in its design, ended up being one of my more involved replicas, with a large amount of work and experimentation put into replicating the design. The craft is powered entirely by 8 of my R-4360 turboprops, which combined produce 3200 kN of thrust. The wings of this replica represent my first attempt at fully constructing a custom aerofoil. The technique used is effective, but I have since improved upon it,and you can expect more advanced versions of it in my future replicas. One interesting quirk of these wings, is that the enormous amount of drag and lift they produce means that this craft flies very smoothly at its top speed of 26 m/s, yup. Performance wise, this craft did not meet up to my expectations. I had intended for this craft to be capable of water takeoff and landing. With this in mind I kept the craft as light as possible, being about half the weight of my other replicas of similar size and complexity. Unfortunately, this craft was not able to land, nor take off from the water, meaning that this replica is basically completely aesthetic. While I am somewhat disappointed by this craft, I learned a great deal whilst making it, and it was ultimately a valuable experience.

Download: https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/Kronus-H-4-Hercules-Spruce-Goose

Craft Mass: 310.95 tonnes
Part Count: 2141 parts

I would love any suggestions about what *big* plane I should build next!

Edited April 2, 2019 by Gargamel
tags?

[Dman979]

Looks awesome

What about building the Stratolaunch?

[Majorjim!]

Damn... any chance of a video of it in action?

[Kronus_Aerospace]

1 hour ago, Majorjim! said:

Damn... any chance of a video of it in action?

As awesome as that would be, I get like, 1 or 2 fps with this thing. And, with it's topspeed of 26 m/s, that would just take WAY too long for my tastes. Not to mention this craft suffers from visual glitching bad, that's why all of the screenshots of it flying are from so far away.

[klond]

 The 3rd picture is my favorite.  The curve on the top of the wings is beautiful, especially where it meets the fuselage.  You got all the tail pieces nicely rounded at their edges.

 Ever think about trying one of those mods where you can weld pieces together?

[Kronus_Aerospace]

On 3/2/2019 at 4:52 PM, klond said:

 The 3rd picture is my favorite.  The curve on the top of the wings is beautiful, especially where it meets the fuselage.  You got all the tail pieces nicely rounded at their edges.

 Ever think about trying one of those mods where you can weld pieces together?

I have, I don't think it would be very useful with this craft, If I recall correctly, welding doesn't work will with wing pieces, and considering 90% of this craft's part count is wings I'm not sure how it would affect it.

On 3/2/2019 at 2:28 AM, Dman979 said:

Looks awesome

What about building the Stratolaunch?

 Hm, I had to give this one a think. Doing an accurate 1:1 replica would certainly be a complex task. It's not a bad idea, I already had something else in mind, but this sounds good as well.

I'll have to give it some time.

[Chel]

Oh my god. This thing is HUGE!

[eagle92lightning]

I have seen a section of the airfoil, your airfoils look slightly diamond shaped, now I understand the limits of KSP but if you could give me a rundown of the cross section I might be able to help. Other than that GREAT JOB! LOOKS AWESOME!

Edited April 6, 2019 by eagle92lightning

[Kronus_Aerospace]

1 hour ago, eagle92lightning said:

I have seen a section of the airfoil, your airfoils look slightly diamond shaped, now I understand the limits of KSP but if you could give me a rundown of the cross section I might be able to help. Other than that GREAT JOB! LOOKS AWESOME!

Thank you!

The aerofoil becomes increasingly distorted as it goes down the length, the tips are a bit silly looking because of this. But the rest has a rounded over top and a flat bottom, I have since experimented with more symmetrical aerofoils and have improved on various techniques used.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Kronus_Aerospace

[eagle92lightning]

On 4/6/2019 at 11:37 AM, Kronus_Aerospace said:

The aerofoil becomes increasingly distorted as it goes down the length, the tips are a bit silly looking because of this. But the rest has a rounded over top and a flat bottom, I have since experimented with more symmetrical aerofoils and have improved on various techniques used.

I very much figured that, if it weren't stock with at least tweakscale it would probably be much easier to keep it the same

[FahmiRBLX]

What about the Lockheed CL-1201? It was Lockheed's entry competing with Boeing's 747 AAC in terms of airborne aircraft carrier. Though, nobe if these two was built. Neither the 747-AAC nor the CL-1201.

I recommend building two versions; one is in Kerbal scale and one is truly 1:1 scale. Beware, this thing is extremely huge. That's actually on actual scale against a Boeing 747-100 /-200.

Edited April 11, 2019 by FahmiRBLXian

[Kronus_Aerospace]

6 hours ago, FahmiRBLXian said:

What about the Lockheed CL-1201? It was Lockheed's entry competing with Boeing's 747 AAC in terms of airborne aircraft carrier. Though, nobe if these two was built. Neither the 747-AAC nor the CL-1201.

I recommend building two versions; one is in Kerbal scale and one is truly 1:1 scale. Beware, this thing is extremely huge. That's actually on actual scale against a Boeing 747-100 /-200.

I've been eyeing up that plane for a long time. I even started working on it not too long ago, but lost the craft file when the game crashed whilst loading it. May try again with that one in the future.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Heliocentric]

Congrats on TOTM!

[Guest]

What was the FrameRate? Very low?

[Kronus_Aerospace]

39 minutes ago, HelioCentric said:

Congrats on TOTM!

Thanks man!

 

32 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

What was the FrameRate? Very low?

You don't even want to know, but my PC is dirt cheap and has a crappy CPU. So unless you're on a laptop I suspect most people will get better performance with this craft than I did.

[Klapaucius]

On 3/2/2019 at 2:59 PM, Kronus_Aerospace said:

This craft is a 1:1 scale full stock replica of the H-4 Hercules, more popularly known as the Spruce Goose. This craft, while relatively simple in its design, ended up being one of my more involved replicas, with a large amount of work and experimentation put into replicating the design. The craft is powered entirely by 8 of my R-4360 turboprops, which combined produce 3200 kN of thrust. The wings of this replica represent my first attempt at fully constructing a custom aerofoil. The technique used is effective, but I have since improved upon it,and you can expect more advanced versions of it in my future replicas. One interesting quirk of these wings, is that the enormous amount of drag and lift they produce means that this craft flies very smoothly at its top speed of 26 m/s, yup. Performance wise, this craft did not meet up to my expectations. I had intended for this craft to be capable of water takeoff and landing. With this in mind I kept the craft as light as possible, being about half the weight of my other replicas of similar size and complexity. Unfortunately, this craft was not able to land, nor take off from the water, meaning that this replica is basically completely aesthetic. While I am somewhat disappointed by this craft, I learned a great deal whilst making it, and it was ultimately a valuable experience.

Download: https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/Kronus-H-4-Hercules-Spruce-Goose

Craft Mass: 310.95 tonnes
Part Count: 2141 parts

I would love any suggestions about what *big* plane I should build next!

Dornier DoX.