VA Stallion Carrier Aircraft

[RedDwarfIV]

After reading TouhouTorpedo's carrier aircraft thread, I decided to construct my own transporter aeroplane. The inspiration was TouHou's Ironclad B, which had cart undercarriage, four engines and cargo space for one small tanker vehicle.

The Veto Aerospace Stallion also has cart undercarriage [front wheels motor disengaged, rear wheels steering disengaged], has four engines [was five, but it kept pushing it down instead of letting it go up], and cargo space for two small tanker vehicles. Unfortunately, the ramp is annoyingly steep because the fuselage is quite high off the ground. I don't have a way of fixing that. However, it is very easy to control, takes off like awesome incarnate, glides exceptionally well, long ranged, and recovers from stalls easily, even with cargo on board.

Gear set for takeoff angle. This removes the wobblyness of the front carts, and generally provides a more stable base. It also angles the craft upwards for easier take-off.

After takeoff.

Rear view. Pretty ugly from here. Notice the capped off tailplane engine nascelle.

Coming in for landing. This craft has excellent glide capability. It can also run reasonably well at up to Non-Rails Warp X3.

Underside. As you can see, the Stallion is thinner than the Ironclad.

Touching down at 28 m/s, and around 3 m/s fallspeed.

Bit of a problem here, badly designed ladder system means this Kerbal can't get back in.

Ramp down.

Small tanker.

Small tanker in cargo bay. Bit of a squeeze, but it fits in the shallowest part at the far end ok.

From outside. Note the free space. Nothing there because loading the second tanker was proving irritating. Like the third Mini in The Italian Job trying to get on the bus.

Takeoff with cargo.

Please ensure handbrakes remain in the 'engaged' position for the entire flight.

Mun and Minmus above.

Coming down at sunrise.

Landed, braking.

Ok, this happened because the ramp hinge glitched [again] at 180*, so I had to try reversing the tanker off the end. Failure ensued, but hey, fuel delivered!

Tanker's chassis rolls away whilst the Stallion's crew gazes at Kerbolrise.

Edited September 26, 2012 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

.craft below.

Requires HSTW Carts and Damned Robotics plugins.