Ekranoplan

[Cavscout74]

I continued a little work on a Wing-in-Ground Effect craft - I abandoned efforts on the more visually accurate A-90 Orlyonok and went back to my first attempt which flew better and was somewhat simpler.  Not sure what I did, but I managed to make it fly worse - but still better than the second design.

Coming in to land on the water, all went well

First water takeoff went ok as well:

Second water landing, not so much.  The plane snapped around so hard the cockpit was offset from the center line.   A previous attempt actually broke the cockpit off & dropped it into the cargo bay, but I didn't get any pics of that one

[Pds314]

Probem with GEVs is that they are actually seaplanes in KSP.

[IkranMakto]

2 hours ago, Pds314 said:

Probem with GEVs is that they are actually seaplanes in KSP.

There's a simple mod creating ground effect lift so these "seaplanes" can glide near surface with very small wings. 

Edited October 26, 2019 by IkranMakto

[TheKSPBeginner]

Cool and good

[moritree]

On 10/26/2019 at 10:55 PM, IkranMakto said:

There's a simple mod creating ground effect lift so these "seaplanes" can glide near surface with very small wings. 

What's the mod called?

[Cavscout74]

8 minutes ago, moritree said:

What's the mod called?

Work continued, as did crashes:

[IkranMakto]

7 minutes ago, moritree said:

What's the mod called?

Maybe it is called.... ground effect? 
Sure! 

 

[Cavscout74]

More testing & crashing.  I first tried moving the tail turboprop down the the middle of the tail, then swapped it out with first one, then a pair of tail Wheesleys.  I also changed to stock gear and adjusted the mounting after I got stuck trying to taxi back onto the runway after a successful (the first!!) landing on solid ground.

Last flight on turboprop power:

The tail Wheesley works better:

 

First landing on land:

Another change - dropped the wing tip water rudders in favor of a centerline strake & rudder.  Works best if you lock the water rudder before water take-offs.

First successful landing on land - got stuck trying to climb on the runway

Upgrade to twin tail Wheesleys and taller gear

Semi-final version - I was able to maintain this with just the tail engines for more than a few seconds.  Granted, its much higher than a true WIG ship but I've noticed when I get lower, I start slowing significantly and occasionally see splashes like the game thinks some part of the plane is in the water

[IkranMakto]

Seems like it is no more GEV. And I think it has more thrust than its weight.

[Cavscout74]

It only flies on 2, the nose engines are for takeoff and set to an action group to toggle on/off.  And this has all been with an empty cargo bay. 

Also, I really think something got messed up in the design, because the very first design did "ok" - around 85 m/s on the turboprop at <20m, but it was hard to control - especially on the water.  When I started trying to improve it, it started losing speed down low like something was dragging in the water, as well as the random splashes I see in front of me during low altitude flight.  At 10m, it doesn't want to do over 60 m/s with all 4 jets running now.   Oddly, it seems to handle flying over land better than over water.   I "think" I still have the original design saved and I'm going to try reloading it and see how it performs.

Edit:  I found the original, and I was correct - it holds about 85-90 m/s on the turboprop alone at 10-20m above water, no random splashes like something invisible is hitting the water, no sudden loss of 30 m/s airspeed at 10m altitude.  Something is messed up on the "new & improved" design.  Its not simply a matter of the new design getting heavier - the old design is 73.16 tons and the new one is 75.75, and almost all of that is the second tail engine & nacelle

Original design flying like it should - if it could maneuver in the water at all, I would be tempted to just leave it "as is" after all the trouble I've had "improving" it, only to come back to where I started

Edited October 29, 2019 by Cavscout74

[PositronLance001]

Neat!

[Cavscout74]

1 hour ago, PositronLance001 said:

Neat!

Thanks!