C7 SpacePlane Exchange

[C7Studios]

*Please note - these ships are for an old version of KSP and the flight pack. I will update them as soon as I have time to the current version of the flight pack. Sorry for any confusion on this.*

-C7-

These Ships now require version 1.3 or higher of C7 Flight pack.

I\'ve gotten a lot of requests for some 'ready to fly' spaceplanes. So here they are! Tweak them, crash them, and otherwise have a good time with \'em.

Please contribute your own revisions and designs to the thread. I\'d love to see what you crazy Kerbalnauts can come up with 8)

Quad Platform - Just seeing what I can get away with. It can\'t land, so you have to ditch and parachute to live.

Sr-Mockingbird - My main testing ship. Very agile and rather resiliant.

Flying Delta Wing - A very large glider, use only low engine power and try to avoid going faster then around 200 m/s. Just seeing if this type of design is effective.

TestBed - Another testing design I use a lot. Simple canard jet design.

Sample Craft files

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36240098/C7Ships1-3.zip

C7 Flight Pack Current Version

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=1172.0

Although these were made using only the stock and C7 parts. Feel free to add designs using any modded parts you like. Just let people know what packs you\'re using so they can load em up!

[Mictaste]

I have 2 to add to the mix. They are more plane than spaceplane though.

Basic KSP and C7's 1.2 Pack.

Warning:Large Images

This one flys OK in low altitudes (below 5k maybe?) (its the Low altitude plane attachment)

This one is my best yet, its fairly well balanced and can take some rough landings.

Have not had time to test it much so. Use it for landing practice or something

Btw the little bump on the side of the airfield likes to blow it up. (its the Balanced attachment)

Any tips on something i can use to easily shrink my images?

[sirscott]

I present for your consideration , the Jeremiah 1.2 Lander prototype

The Jeremiah has an unusual history. As part of the 'Doing it like Jeremiah challenge' (http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=2338.0) in which all liquid fuel tanks and parachutes are forbidden , ive been experimenting with re-entry gliders that utilise a used SRB as a fuselage. The 1.2 is the most reliable model yet , as it lands without killing the crew at least half the time. So far I have yet to build a booster stable enougth to lift it into orbit , so at the moment it is launched as it is , using the SRB to boost it to 3-4000 metres before rolling over to attempt a landing.

The wings only just provide sufficient lift , and to quote the Infamous Zapp Branigan 'she's built like a steakhouse but she handles like a bistro'. Getting her down is not hard but she lands like a dodo , at 40 m/s and bouncing all over the place.

The greatest danger in the whole operation is actually being thrown skywards again whilst trying to bleed off speed once on the ground. To this end each of the the landing gear struts is attached to a radial decoupler , so that it can be blown away once speed drops low enough (~15m/s) and the remainder of the craft drops to the ground and belly-brakes. Jeb loves that part.

Its proven a usefull experiment in the very least , I hope you all enjoy practising with it 8)

[Tim_Barrett]

You know whats funny, the lading gear wheels function much better when they are on an angle under the hull, as if they have upside-down v's under them xD

[sirscott]

You know whats funny, the lading gear wheels function much better when they are on an angle under the hull, as if they have upside-down v's under them xD

You know whats funnier? Ive discovered that the timely use of a Retro-rocket during the landing cycle allows one to effectively stop the aircraft in mid-air and drop it to the ground , eliminating the need for the wheels altogether 8)

[iamwearingpants]

C7, your parts are of godly quality!

I made a very large plane called the SPX-10 Van D'oh

It's named after a famous kerbal artist.

The Van D'oh is stable, responsive, and very large!

I can barely run her on my computer.

[Fennar]

Here is the Pride of Kerbonia, and two stage to orbit, landable (Jeb looked sad when we told him) space plane.

A few things of note here:

• 
  [li]For some reason, it seems to want to start tumbling wildly when it begins re-entry. With a firm but deft hand on the stick, you can recover from this.[/li]
  [li]When landing, pop the nose parachute at about a thousand meters. It will want to flip over, but you have enough command authority to maintain your heading and touchdown at about 15m/s.[/li]
  [li]I used parts from C-7's pack, Sunday Punch's pack, and NovaSilisko's pack.[/li]
  

[C7Studios]

@mictaste Aww I can't seem to view any of your photos I'll have to try these craft files and see how they handle. As for the photos you could always use something like GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to edit them. Gimp is free and Open source. Two of my favorite things

@SirScott I am very much reminded of the ME-163 and its rather amusing use of 'jettisoned' landing gear. You literally landing the thing on a skid and prayed. I endorse your breaking method as being highly Kerbal. 8)

@TimBarret the landing gear is actually a V shaped collision mesh with the bottom part flattened. The connection side is the opening of the V. This helps with the whole snapping off during landing thing...

@Iamwearingpants I'm glad you like the parts. I spend a lot of time making and testing them. I try to please everyone, but its not possible... hehe. I really like your heavy plane. Its like a massive version of my blackbird clone

@Fennar Welcome to the atmospheric brick wall effect. Your control surfaces suddenly generate lift along with your wings at an incredible pace. As you can image this has some rather 'fun' side effects. The atmosphere is being re-tooled to have a more natural blending instead of being a hard demarcation point. I've also heard that there might be some testing on the re-entry heat. That will be rather amusing to say the least lol.

[sirscott]

@SirScott I am very much reminded of the ME-163 and its rather amusing use of 'jettisoned' landing gear. You literally landing the thing on a skid and prayed. I endorse your breaking method as being highly Kerbal. 8)

One of these days im going to have to film both versions. The Wheel-Jetison model is hillarious to watch because for a few moments the wings continue to sustain the empty tank , giving it a cartoonish 'Just ran off a cliff' look. The Wheel-less retro-braked approach is worth filming because otherwise I doubt you will believe its survivable 8)

Oh , and the Me163 tended to jettison its landing gear immediately after launch , rather than during landings. This of course led to its own problems , as the highly unstable rocket fuel that the Germans used had a nasty tendency to detonate if they had even the smallest vapour left in the tank during the skids-only landing. Needless to say , they had a pretty high attrition rate.

[C7Studios]

Yea, not to mention the landing gear would occasionally bounce right back into the fuselage of the plane. Or if you landed wrong it would do 'fun' things to your spine. Or the issues with the shock absorption system failing during landing and breaking half the pilots bones. Sufficient to say, it is not a plane I would care to ever fly. But somehow, I think I know a pilot who would be up for the challenge --- 8)

[sirmonkey]

heres one i made just screwing around for a few minutes..

i call it the HATCA(high altitude trans-continental aircraft)

end result.. running out of fuel with no chute is not a good idea..

[Fennar]

Behold! The JohnMars Spaceplane.

A compleatly reusable SSTO design, it is capable of injecting two com satellites into a low circular orbit, then returning safely and landing on an unimproved runway. Additionally, it possesses an advanced design (now with aerodynamics!) that allows it to smoothly slip through the atmospheric brick wall without becoming a leaf on the wind.

[CarolRawley]

Introducing, the Aerospike! Using a revolutionary new design of thruster control surfaces, the Aerospike can manoeuvre twice as efficiently. It can also fly and land unpowered, use a revolutionary wing design, have a shadow that looks like a fighter jet, and be used to simulate airliner flights! Be careful, fly in precision mode whenever you use any level of thrust above zero(more thrust=more thruster control surface power=more sensitive), and do not try to manoeuvre when using afterburners(full thrust). Maneuvering while using thrusters can cause aircraft to split apart at the seams.

Needs Tuned SAS set, and Wobbly Rockets Yawmaster.

[foamyesque]

I haven't come up with a name for this yet. Right now it's just

Spaceplane 25

It'll get you up, down, up, and down again. An earlier version could make orbit three times.

Non-C7 parts used: Wobbly Rockets 1-3m decoupler/fairing (as a stand); Wobbly Rockets mini-liquid engine; Wobbly Rockets nosecaps, Wobbly Rockets vernier SAS modules (lots of), Wobbly Rockets Yawmaster.

EDIT: Handles like a dream in space; perfectly balanced even under thrust. I've successfully landed it with keyboard controls at all points of fuel consumption, including full and completely empty. I don't say it's easy, but using rapidfire control inputs in standard mode, with SAS on to damp them, works.

[SteevyT]

Once it runs two tanks empty, it begins to fly like a piece of paper. However, it is fun to fly and try to land, if any one knows why it can't land anywhere other than the space center though, I would like to know.

I had a rough landing.

[Guest LoSboccacc]

Here is my first stable design. It's stable enough that you can land it using the keyboard. I'll try to put it on a rocket now and stabilize that :-\

[C7Studios]

Very nice planes everyone. Its great to see the cool stuff that you can do when you mix the pack with other parts

[Red_October357]

Here is an idea I got from the 'White Swan'by Bananaft. It's has a conventional aircraft design with 3 engines total. The ones on the bottom are detachable but it can land relatively unharmed without detaching them.

Notice how I got the landing gear? It's landing gear mounted off of the SP-5 Stabilizers. It makes a lower overall profile but if you try to land with the 2 bottom engines attached, the glide slope has to be very shallow or you run the risk of killing err'ything.

Sorry about the sucky screenshots but you get the idea.

Requires C7 Flight Pack and Sunday Punch's pack

[Tiberion]

Cool one.. double capsules?

[Red_October357]

I never wanted or felt the need to mess with changing the pod out.

[Tiberion]

Ah.. I set up that mod manager from this thread: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=997.0

And then created a mod called 'Original pod' in the mods folder with a copy of the default pod, so it takes like 2 seconds to uninstall a modded one and reinstall the default.

[Red_October357]

I should have probably read that post all the way through Thanks Tiberion

[AstroAndrew]

Here is my semi-stable delt-wing design, it'll hit escape velocity from a circ orb no problem at all despite it's small size.

WARNING: X-4 has nimble fighterjet like handling, worst part is takeoff just use the twin rudders on it to get it to 90 deg then climb up crazy around 50 deg+ once at 10km. I use full throttle too, but you may need to play with it.

(Uses Nova, C7, Wobbly, and stock parts)

-The pros, it doesn't break up easily in turns/ rolls/ split S or whatever else you dish to it, besides crashing ofcourse.

-Stable enough to not need C7 pod, uses stock MK1 pod and can be flown on keyboard with practice.

-The cons, it made Jeb grin so big it broke the canopy inflight so it's slightly used now, landing gear not included, Bob ate them!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/231/x43u.jpg/

Now tested in 10.1, needs C7 V1.2 files to load properly and FLY. You can make one with 1.3 parts but it won't go far, LOL!?

[Tiberion]

I just deleted my Ships folder when I updated to 0.10.1... and like a moron I shift-deleted (which bypasses the recycle bin)

So I lost all of my ships - save the couple I uploaded.

Make backups. Often.

Ooh, I like that one Andrew.

[Saratje]

F-35 Lightning II - Joint Strike Fighter (or a close approximation).