Firespitter propeller plane and helicopter parts v7.1 (May 5th) for KSP 1.0

[Wolf123]

When they said there was a smog advisory for the KSC today... I didn't think they were serious!

http://i40.tinypic.com/2i71sgw.png

What in the world is that? And great job Snjo, awesome mod! BTW if your remember I still haven't fixed the water launch in your mod! Works with the boats part though.

[RussianIvan]

The biggest propeller is too small for my transport helicopter. I'm sorry for my bad English.

PS: I would be happy to see the big fuselage for helicopters. Beautiful sightseeing and cabin size 2.5m. for example ch53

and add animation for propeller please.

Edited January 12, 2014 by RussianIvan

[ultrasquid]

Just to fill in the early history of aviation, we need an ultralight airplane of some kind. It could be like the Wright brothers' original flyer, or the more modern hang-glider with a fan and a chair, or some combination thereof that's just barely enough to get a nearly naked kerbal off of the ground in sustained controlled flight. Then, between this and the other airplane mods and stock parts there'd be enough to really have a special aviation evolution tech tree. I tried building one already with TreeEdit.dll but I couldn't make that work. I'll keep at it though.

[Bloodbunny]

I swear that the propeller engine models torque...Does it or is there some other kind of sorcery at work? When starting takeoff roll, I have to use right rudder just as I would in FSX, IL-2, or some other advanced sim.. I thought doing that was beyond the scope of KSP. I'll upload a video of it unless someone can easily explain the phantom force.

[ultrasquid]

I swear that the propeller engine models torque...Does it or is there some other kind of sorcery at work? When starting takeoff roll, I have to use right rudder just as I would in FSX, IL-2, or some other advanced sim.. I thought doing that was beyond the scope of KSP. I'll upload a video of it unless someone can easily explain the phantom force.

I've had that lateral drift problem with just about any aircraft rolling on the runway whether driven by propellor, jet, or rocket. It seems to be nearly impossible to set landing gear with perfect symmetry, and that subtle deviation is enough to make a plane track off-center.

[Bloodbunny]

Weird, you are probably right though. But the gear shouldn't be misaligned, as I'm using the biplane 1 piece gear and the skid

[Snjo]

I can't explain why it would always drift to the same side, but some of the problem has to lie with the wheel physics. In some planes, you can go perfectly straight for a long time, but usually you start to see some deviation when lift starts building.

At that point, if the left wheel gets slightly less suspension compression than the right, it will apply less friction, causing a subtle pull to the right side. At that point, you should perhaps see some reaction from the mass of the plane wanting to pull left, but either way, the reaction has started, and you are no longer going perfectly straight.

So why do you see this with the propellers and not with other engines? No idea. There is no code running to produce torque. Maybe the fact the you are pulling on the front, instead of pushing at the back increases the effect? Maybe the different parts being pulled apart is worse than them being compressed? The possibilities are legion.

[Bloodbunny]

the odd thing is, that plane flies perfectly once it is actually airborne

[wasmic]

The biggest propeller is too small for my transport helicopter. I'm sorry for my bad English.

http://cs314520.vk.me/v314520692/52f1/Ey7GRg_fe70.jpg

PS: I would be happy to see the big fuselage for helicopters. Beautiful sightseeing and cabin size 2.5m. for example ch53

and add animation for propeller please.

You're using the B9 HL fuselage. Of course the rotor is not big enough. And I'm sure that Snjo will make the animation, the part isn't finished yet. If you use some of the normal rotors, you'll se that they do have an animation.

[Kaethorin]

http://youtu.be/3RPTDpO3Kxc

the odd thing is, that plane flies perfectly once it is actually airborne

I believe KSP has a flat runway modeled on a curved surface you are flying straight but the ground is turned slightly do to kerbin's curvature (hence the runway being raised and having varying hieghts from the ground either side) its more Kerbin's fault than your own if you try to just balance out befor take-off it'll work a bit better possibly then turning to straighten out. turning applies centripetal force to the outward side of the planes causing wings to dip causing your crashes, from what i could see. It may also be FAR being a bit funny with lift dynamics before takeoff with your wheels etc, i noticed in stock KSP you could move fast with a plane over the ground in FAR you want off the ground ASAP from my experiences

[Wahgineer]

i think squad has another modder that they need to hire.

[RussianIvan]

You're using the B9 HL fuselage. Of course the rotor is not big enough. And I'm sure that Snjo will make the animation, the part isn't finished yet. If you use some of the normal rotors, you'll se that they do have an animation.

Thank you. I think, my helicopter is very big, but it is only suitable housing for transportation equipment.

[InfinityArch]

Hey, is there any way to automatically change the buoyancy of the seaplane floats without having to click "increase buyoncy" 100 times for each float with relatively heavy seaplanes?

[Snjo]

Hey, is there any way to automatically change the buoyancy of the seaplane floats without having to click "increase buyoncy" 100 times for each float with relatively heavy seaplanes?

Excellent idea. I made a slider to alter buoyancy in the hangar (I can now remove the ones you see in flight perhaps), and a toggle to disable the sometimes annoying splash effects.

Download pre-release

[Bloodbunny]

The biplane parts really bring my current career mode (treeloader traditional tech) to life. Here Jeb takes to the skies in his garage built flyer.. and yes, it flies.. has enough range to reach the end of the runway, comparable to the real life Flyer.

One request, more wooden beam parts. I had to use the tail skids creatively to make the flyer, works well but tedious. I may make an Airco DH1 like this as well.

[sagirfahmid3]

Hi there, I have installed this mod and the wings, engines, and cockpits are great. They work just fine. Just one issue I have is that the propellers do not spin, but they do produce thrust.

I installed the mod according to instructions: unzipped the zip, get presented with a folder called "Firespitter," and paste this directory into the GameData folder.

I am on KSP 0.23. Any ideas?

[Snjo]

If you have the dll, but it's not working, something must have stopped loading either the part's modules or plugins in general.

If you have other mods, try a clean KSP installation plus FS and see if that works. If so, add mods one by one until it starts breaking again to find the culprit.

If you still have problems with just KSP+FS, throw your output log on pastebin or similar and link it here.

[Bloodbunny]

Hi there, I have installed this mod and the wings, engines, and cockpits are great. They work just fine. Just one issue I have is that the propellers do not spin, but they do produce thrust.

I installed the mod according to instructions: unzipped the zip, get presented with a folder called "Firespitter," and paste this directory into the GameData folder.

I am on KSP 0.23. Any ideas?

Check your other mod folders, there is likely an outdated version of firespitter.dll sitting in there.

[sagirfahmid3]

If you have the dll, but it's not working, something must have stopped loading either the part's modules or plugins in general.

If you have other mods, try a clean KSP installation plus FS and see if that works. If so, add mods one by one until it starts breaking again to find the culprit.

If you still have problems with just KSP+FS, throw your output log on pastebin or similar and link it here.

Hmm weird...I just overwrote the Firespitter directory with the same unzip and now the propellers started to spin!

So guys, if your propellers aren't spinning for some reason, just overwrite your current Firespitter directory withe another unzip!

[InfinityArch]

Damn that was fast. Works perfectly to as far as I can see, though I think it could be even better if the in flight buyoncy control used the tweakables sliders, or at least if there was some readout the displayed the amount of buyoncy a particular float was currently exerting.

[Snjo]

Damn that was fast. Works perfectly to as far as I can see, though I think it could be even better if the in flight buyoncy control used the tweakables sliders, or at least if there was some readout the displayed the amount of buyoncy a particular float was currently exerting.

I made some late changes to use the slider in both hangar and flight, so if you get the pre-release again or just the dll, it should be slightly better.

[Bloodbunny]

Hot on the heels of the Flyer, the Airco DH 2 is at least partially done.. (Can take off, fly around, and land without killing Jeb) Remarkably, its one of the most stable planes I've made

[Snjo]

Hot on the heels of the Flyer, the Airco DH 2 is at least partially done.. (Can take off, fly around, and land without killing Jeb) Remarkably, its one of the most stable planes I've made

http://s6.postimg.org/4yaheb3ox/screenshot36.png

Nice nose!

I see now what you meant about wooden struts. I thought you meant the stretchy kind, but I guess you mean some fixed beams. Interesting.

An observation about planes and stable flight in KSP. It seems it has always been very hard to make stable planes out of stock part, but quite a bit easier to build them out of Firespitter parts, even when they are using the same code.

The difference between them is that FS parts are generally lighter, meaning you can depend on your wings to both lift you and provide stability without fighting gravity all over the place. It almost makes you ponder if low weight would be something a real aircraft would strive for too... Hmmm...

According to Ferram, the stock lift is 2.44 times too low. No idea how he came up with that figure, but I trust him. I will try to keep any new wings around that value, and see if it works out nicely with larger planes and their take off and landing speeds. With some luck I can also tweak a new engine module to give a better feeling thrust response, where you take off at a reasonable rate, and don't immediately go to Mach 1, only to hen be stuck there. But that all might be dependent on the drag model as well. We'll see.

(biplane lift is actually a bit higher than this number to get the proper take off speed, but unfortunately, it's hard to get the proper engine response. ID's engines help a bit though)

Some of the problem here is also the fact that there is a poor perception of speed in KSP because you have so few reference points. No clouds, roads, trees and towns etc, and no distance haze.

[Bloodbunny]

Yeah, its tough to get proper lift. I de-rated the engine through tweaks to make them somewhat more similar to their real life counterparts, but even so, the Airco stalls out at around 35 m/s. Seems everything has to be faster in KSP.

As for the beams, yeah the stretchy struts are great, but you can't attach things to them, hence the need for stringing tail skids together. I did however find that P-Wings and kerbpaint can be used as a stand-in; I'll try it out on my next project, the FE2B.

EDIT: FE2B (mostly) Done. The P-Wing+Kerbpaint solution worked pretty much perfectly, though the parts added some unintended lift towards the rear of the plane..being technically wings and all

Yeah, I caught the missing wing support..fixed

Edited January 15, 2014 by Bloodbunny

[Renousim]

Woah are those Machine guns?