Rune's Slightly Used Vehicles

[Tangle]

Hmm... Broadsword, but instead of cargo it carries crew... She looks longer than Broadsword, but Longsword is kinda silly... After some wikipedia, I see Greatsword or Claymore- for a 1.2 Meter sword.

[Rune]

Hmm... Broadsword, but instead of cargo it carries crew... She looks longer than Broadsword, but Longsword is kinda silly... After some wikipedia, I see Greatsword or Claymore- for a 1.2 Meter sword.

She is actually considerably lighter than the Broadsword, and a bit shorter, so in the end I went with Spatha, a roman cavalry sword. And then I almost forgot to add it! That's corrected now.

Rune. Enjoy!

[Firenexus13]

This stuff is awesome

however, due to a bug mediafire isn't working. can you PM me a Dropbox version? of the white dart prototype.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Firenexus13

[Rune]

This stuff is awesome

however, due to a bug mediafire isn't working. can you PM me a Dropbox version? of the white dart prototype.

Sorry, I just saw this, and I don't get Dropbox very much... but the nice piece of news is Mediafire is working perfectly fine now. If it's a problem in your end, give me a shout and I suppose I could learn how to use the darn thing, but perhaps it was a capacity issue or something that fixed itself by now? Anyhow, hope you enjoy the craft!

[Firenexus13]

well, there is stuff other than dropbox, and yes, it is a problem on my end.

[Rune]

well, there is stuff other than dropbox, and yes, it is a problem on my end.

Turns out I did have an account already! ^^' Here you go, enjoy! And if you want some other file and/or I did something wrong, tell me and wait a bit

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yg5mnxx9an8eugh/White%20Dart%20Prototype.craft

Rune. In the meantime, a revision on the Broadsword is in the works, making it truly, truly reusable.

[Firenexus13]

Cool thanks! i will tell you if i need more.

[Tangle]

Can't wait for that Broadsword revision! I am squealing with glee! But you can't hear me. Mostly because of the rapier engines on Spatha! Speaking of Spatha...

Spatha One, "Ariel"! Courtesy of emblems for KASA goes to whoever made those flags and FASA mod. Credit to coloring goes to KerbPaint.

[mythic_fci]

Me: C'mon! I can't even dock!

*reads thread*

Rune: "... an actual aerospace engineer in training!"

...

*facepalm x10000000000000000000*

Edited February 23, 2014 by FCISuperGuy

[Tangle]

What do you mean?

[Rune]

Can't wait for that Broadsword revision! I am squealing with glee! But you can't hear me. Mostly because of the rapier engines on Spatha! Speaking of Spatha...

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/052/3/c/red_spatha_by_hgfggg-d77f55y.png

Spatha One, "Ariel"! Courtesy of emblems for KASA goes to whoever made those flags and FASA mod. Credit to coloring goes to KerbPaint.

Glad to see you are enjoying it! I hear when it's red it goes faster. And if you add stripes to it, then it must be awesomer yet

Me: C'mon! I can't even dock!

*reads thread*

Rune: "... an actual aerospace engineer in training!"

...

*facepalm x10000000000000000000*

Hahaha. Don't beat yourself! That may sound scary, but it just gives me a leg up in the design department... 99% of my piloting skill comes from this game! I sucked at first as bad as anybody else... the only thing is I knew about delta-v and good ol' Tsiolkovsky and Hohmann and such already, and all that happened a long, long time ago (like in 0.16 or 0.17). You'll get better at it in no time! In the mean time, I suggest the easier of my builds, like the White Dart for SSTOs or the old Aurora orbiters (somewhere in this thread are the old ships), to practice your hand at the basics, then upgrade to the delta-v starved ons to improve your efficiency.

Rune. I still remember my first docking. It took me a couple of hours and more sweat than I care to admit, but boy did I felt good when that sucker slid into place.

[Tangle]

Hey, if you have a side of your ship that isn't gonna be on the burning side upon reentry, it's best to paint it.

[Rune]

Update! The tweaked files that make the Broadsword a shuttle capable of being refuelled and reloaded by a dedicated crawler have both been released to the public. Ladies and gentlekerbs, a truly reusable space program in two craft files! Check the OP for the files.

Rune. Now onto Phoebus MkII testing. With new... everything, really!

[prysmatik]

[...] I plan to short out the mess it is, and re-populate it with a few selected crafts, all form 0.23 or updated to it. Why? well, because now I build better and this is a wall of pictures with a lot of not-so good-anynore craft in my eyes. For now, I'm just going to delete all the ones that don't make this new cut[...]

Sad to see the Razor didn't make the cut, thanks for saving the backup in-thread. Been away for a while, assembling one of your Medusa crafts at the moment though. And I was looking for something to scoot around in. I s'pose the White Dart is a the new ride; I'll give it some flight time and see how it does.

Thanks Rune!

[Rune]

Sad to see the Razor didn't make the cut, thanks for saving the backup in-thread. Been away for a while, assembling one of your Medusa crafts at the moment though. And I was looking for something to scoot around in. I s'pose the White Dart is a the new ride; I'll give it some flight time and see how it does.

Thanks Rune!

Yeah, that was a though choice, but it was just too similar to the White Dart (nuke version) to keep. But too cool to completely throw away! Hope you like the replacement

[Comrade Jenkens]

The Hopper is still my favourite jet on here. Small and simple yet still looks great!

[Rune]

The Hopper is still my favourite jet on here. Small and simple yet still looks great!

Thanks! That design is old... I remember it was the first time I said: "if I'm studying to be an aeronautical engineer, I should be able to design a pretty stable plane". I must have done well, because it still works fine after a lot of updates... mostly because it doesn't need SAS or engine thrust vectoring, and it is passively stable.

Rune. Basically, it's a classical configuration that works just like it's supposed to.

[mythic_fci]

Rune, can I recreate the old Razor clipjet? I've got a working prototype here, but it uses an aerospike.

[Rune]

Rune, can I recreate the old Razor clipjet? I've got a working prototype here, but it uses an aerospike.

Sure! You can, in fact, grab the original craft file from here to see how I put it together, the file is still up (around page 9 is the backup, but follow quote links). Just give credit if you use it somewhere, I guess. And a spike is probably much more thrust than you need for something that light, with an isp lots of other engines can match with less weight. Aerospikes, in general, are only worth it if you light them at sea level.

[mythic_fci]

Sure! You can, in fact, grab the original craft file from here to see how I put it together, the file is still up (around page 9 is the backup, but follow quote links). Just give credit if you use it somewhere, I guess. And a spike is probably much more thrust than you need for something that light, with an isp lots of other engines can match with less weight. Aerospikes, in general, are only worth it if you light them at sea level.

A tribute to the Razor clipjet. Requiscat in pace (RIP).

You were right about the aerospikes I redesigned the thing twice before I got a working clipjet WITH the nuke. It uses a similar design, but has major changes. I've made it to High Munar Orbit with this thing. PS What was the max range of the old Razor?

Edited March 21, 2014 by FCISuperGuy

[Rune]

http://i.imgur.com/uGXMQm6.png

A tribute to the Razor clipjet. Requiscat in pace (RIP).

You were right about the aerospikes I redesigned the thing twice before I got a working clipjet WITH the nuke. It uses a similar design, but has major changes. I've made it to High Munar Orbit with this thing. PS What was the max range of the old Razor?

Great! We always like screenies here! The old Razor did about the same, IIRC, but you can guess yourself if it was more or less, since it used two T400 fuel tanks at nuke-like isp. But I like what you did with it!

Rune. The worst thing about retiring that craft was losing the "cutting edge" pun.

[The Silent Majority]

Rune, I have been reading this for months, and can I just ask that you please, please make either a tutorial for large/cargo SSTO's or simple tips.

Keep up the great work!

[Rune]

Rune, I have been reading this for months, and can I just ask that you please, please make either a tutorial for large/cargo SSTO's or simple tips.

Keep up the great work!

A couple of people have asked me this a few times, so I'm thinking perhaps that will be my next project now that you bring it up. I'm thinking perhaps a series of articles explaining the different aspects of SSTO building, with some example crafts that illustrate them? There are a lot of misconceptions out there, and it is a wide enough topic to warrant more than a single, however large, post. Anyhow, ideas on the format, anyone?

Rune. Good excuse to design a few new birds.

[USKnight]

Dear Rune,

I suppose a simple layout to your Tutorial program would be to start with a basic example SSTO. This craft can then by replicated by the student and the flight characteristics of how it flies can be showcased. Then it would be a matter of flying the SSTO into orbit, with the emphasis on how. Then coming back and landing safely. Phase 1 should be show me.

Phase 2 begins after you've shown how to build and fly one, to then discuss why the craft was built the way it was and why it needs to be flown the way you showed the student how to fly. Why do you need to pickup speed before climbing to orbit? Why does it need (whatever) Delta-V or some part of the design, etc. Phase 2 should be, this is why we do it this way.

Phase 3 is building a better or a more complex SSTO. Maybe it's a light cargo carrier, maybe it's an ultra light. Whatever. The point is to focus on what it takes to create a new SSTO from scratch that works. What does it take? How do you know it will work (or do you?) before it's tested. Should they be fast? Should they be slow? How many wings, is there a rule of thumb for design? Phase 3 is how you build an SSTO.

Phase 4 could be advanced flight, such as a more planned way of returning a craft to KSC, or at least a landmass of the student's choice, rather than "let's re-enter". Their may even by other awesome things you can do with an SSTO that you do every day that I've never even thought of. Phase 4 is advanced tactics.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on how it could be conducted. It's your program and I'm sure it will be an enjoyable read.

[Rune]

Dear Rune,

I suppose a simple layout to your Tutorial program would be to start with a basic example SSTO. This craft can then by replicated by the student and the flight characteristics of how it flies can be showcased. Then it would be a matter of flying the SSTO into orbit, with the emphasis on how. Then coming back and landing safely. Phase 1 should be show me.

Phase 2 begins after you've shown how to build and fly one, to then discuss why the craft was built the way it was and why it needs to be flown the way you showed the student how to fly. Why do you need to pickup speed before climbing to orbit? Why does it need (whatever) Delta-V or some part of the design, etc. Phase 2 should be, this is why we do it this way.

Phase 3 is building a better or a more complex SSTO. Maybe it's a light cargo carrier, maybe it's an ultra light. Whatever. The point is to focus on what it takes to create a new SSTO from scratch that works. What does it take? How do you know it will work (or do you?) before it's tested. Should they be fast? Should they be slow? How many wings, is there a rule of thumb for design? Phase 3 is how you build an SSTO.

Phase 4 could be advanced flight, such as a more planned way of returning a craft to KSC, or at least a landmass of the student's choice, rather than "let's re-enter". Their may even by other awesome things you can do with an SSTO that you do every day that I've never even thought of. Phase 4 is advanced tactics.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on how it could be conducted. It's your program and I'm sure it will be an enjoyable read.

I'm thinking along similar lines, but the division being more between the different aspects of SSTO building, rather than difficulty levels. You know, like aerodynamics on stable flight, as separate from T/W, or Delta-V. The delta-v demonstrator could be a VTOL rocket, for example, while the ones used to explain aerodynamics a couple with different classical configurations (Delta+Canard vs a classic T-tail, for example). Thus one section could be called "On the art of getting a stable plane", while another "T/W: How much is enough?". Those are the ideas I've been toying around with, but I really want to have a consistent structure before I begin so it is really simple. So far the chapters I've come up with would be:

Intro: delta-v to orbit vs orbital speed. Title, anyone? "SSTO: what does that even mean?"

Flying, CoM, CoT, CoL: This is where the aerodynamics stuff goes, and I'm pretty sure I'm going with "Earning wings: On the art of getting a stable plane".

Taking off: and landing, what it takes to start and end the flight in the first place. Not trivial. Let's call that one "There and back again: How to stay in one piece while visiting air."

T/W, isp and powerplant issues in general: ascent profiles, gravity losses, impact on mass ratios and delta-v and all that jazz. This is the part where you learn how to make a T/W 0.5 plane fly, and why that could be a good idea. The title could be "Taming fire: How much oomph is enough?"

Airhogging/cutoff speed: This could be called "Speed demons: Getting the most out atmosphere".

In-space: docking, payloads, stuff that alters your in-space delta-v and advanced techniques and tricks in general. Very preliminary title of "Chasing Icarus: How high can you go?"

I think I start with the thing very well fleshed out, then get a bit lost towards the end, but I'm not sure about the order, does that makes sense to you? Do you think there is some chapter I haven't included and I should?

Rune. This may take a while, be warned. I'm lazy. ^^'