I've discovered a new way to propel a craft using no motors, only aerodynamics

[kodack]

I noticed when my cats run, their back bones act like a spring, storing energy between strides, and releasing it in a snap when called upon. I set out to design a craft that would make use of the SAS systems tendancy to over correct and turn it into an organic oscilation. In short, I was trying to design a new type of aircraft that was organic looking and swam through the air like a fish or an insect. I didn't expect to uncover a new method of propulsion.

In effect I have developed a craft that can propel itself simply by flexing it's body, like a fish swaying it's body back and forth to propel itself through the water. I created a craft built of segmented sections with one pair of wings each, and then assembled a half dozen of these into a long and flexible aircraft. The way it works is that the control surfaces in the front are in 180 to the ones in the rear causing the entire fuselage to bend under extreme control inputs. Once released, the fuselage straightens back up which whips the wings out and propels the craft forward. It does this many times a second and the result is up to 200m/s without an engine, at sea level. Even a rocket motor can't make a small craft go this fast. Yet I'm able to achieve it with a huge, very weird looking craft, and without any engines or thrusters pushing me.

Because it needs to bend in order to work, for take off you must still use regular propulsion. You lift off at 50m/s and shutdown the engine. Then you can begin.

If you turn on SAS it will begin undulating like the legs of a millipede in a corkscrew type motion. I've set it up for steady propulsion as SAS corrects back and forth. This is mode A.

Mode B is turning SAS off and using up and down oscilations manually using the keyboard to create a wave like undulation along the length of the fuselage, this propels the entire craft at great speed. It propels the craft through the air, similar to the way those new water bicycles propel people on hydroplanes through the water, with an up and down flapping motion.

Here is a video. Enjoy. I will post a tutorial on how to build one later.

[thes50]

Yeah this is the infini-glide glitch, it's well known. You can do it with smaller crafts without engines. All you have to do is spam control surfaces or wings and you can get infinite glide, sometimes reaching over 1500m/s at sea level.

[Capt'n Skunky]

The reason this works is due to the quick and dirty implementation of aerodynamics. Wings and control surfaces can propel a craft forward by alternating their position which induces momentum. I'm sure someone can explain this better than I, but that's the gist of it.

This will be fixed when we implement a proper aerodynamics/atmospheric model.

Cheers!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

[UmbralRaptor]

I think the term you're looking for is "infiniglide." It's been around since we've had control surfaces, though took a bit to figure out. Still, nice demonstration.

[kodack]

So it's a bug? Oh well, I thought I found something to contribute to the community. Maybe next time.

[mcirish3]

REgardless of why it works I just thought I would share these inspired by this thread.

[maackey]

*shudders* for some reason those images of that plane reminds me of this (nsfw)

[Aeshi]

Yeah, the infinite-glide thing is an old bug (though I don't think anyone's done it with quite this much style)

[Specialist290]

Now for the real question: Is it possible to reach escape velocity using this method?

[TanC]

cool flying fishbone.

[numerobis]

Now for the real question: Is it possible to reach escape velocity using this method?

Yes, you can even escape the solar system with this. Controlling where you're going is harder!

[neutralParadox]

That is a great ornicopter. I hope they never fix that glitch.