Show off your B9 Designs!

[Van Disaster]

Saves on carrying monoprop/RCS/reaction wheels and so on - aim was to be as light as possible as a small rocket replacement. I thought about making it orbital ( it'd hardly be much bigger, 300ish dV would do it counting for deorbit also ) but then I realised I really didn't need to, just needs to be supra-atmospheric for a few mins. I am going to try and set up some Scimitars ( the hybrid jet based off the Sabres, designed for that hypersonic A2 airliner ) & borrow the small Sabre model and see if that works, the real ones are theoretically good up to mach 5+ & have a high-bypass subsonic cruise mode, sounds almost too good to be true tbh.

[Voculus]

I call this one the Monarch, and I've pimped it in a few other threads before, but this is my favorite spaceplane in my collection, and she'll carry 40 tons into orbit.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Voculus

[PCanas]

So, I've tried to land my latest creation, and, again, failed. This time, didn't even touched the ground. I burned when I was orbiting over the KSC until I got a PE of 25km. As expected, I went flying all the way around the planet, and maintained a pitch angle of 25º. Never slowed down below 1900m/s.

Tried again latter with a pitch angle of 40º (just on the edge of stalling) and went to about 1700m/s. Never managed to really slow down, even when I was flying at about 25km high or less. This time, I also tried some maneuvering to slow down. The plane handled the stresses even when flying almost 90º away from prograde marker (I've noticed that no matter how hard I rolled and pointed the nose away from prograde, the prograde marker wouldn't move from an heading of 90º - without SAS).

Then I tried something stupid: turn retrograde and burn... while in the atmosphere. Obviously the plane went completely insane and lost control, with the tail section being ripped apart... good thing I had those chutes on the wings

All this was made with the air brakes on.

The engines would'nt turn on if set to jet mode. A warning would appear saying the engines shutted down due to eminet catastrophic failure because of overheating. Only rocket mode was available.

So I really have a problem of (not) slowing down. How can I solve it?

(I think I've uploaded the craft file... if not and if you want to try it, let me know and I'll upload it)

[Voculus]

PCanas, try keeping your ship pointed prograde. Pitching up is causing you to gain a lot of altitude, or stall. Let the thick lower atmosphere slow you down.

[PCanas]

PCanas, try keeping your ship pointed prograde. Pitching up is causing you to gain a lot of altitude, or stall. Let the thick lower atmosphere slow you down.

My idea was to increase the area that hits the atmosphere, thus increasing drag, thus slowing down the ship. The altitude gain affected the AP only, the PE was decreasing. In fact, it got to about -30000 km. The last time I pointed prograde, I flyed past KSC at 2000m/s and 12/15km high!

But I'll try again.

[Voculus]

Pitching up to slow down will work when you're still very high, but will start causing problems as you descend, as you've seen.

I like to burn retrograde for reentry when still over halfway around the the planet from KSC. It gives me plenty of time to slow down once I finally hit the atmosphere, and can make minor pitch adjustments to control my landing point.

You might also consider the Trajectories mod, which is a huge help for pinpointing your landings, taking atmospheric drag and planet rotation into account.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Voculus

[Van Disaster]

My idea was to increase the area that hits the atmosphere, thus increasing drag, thus slowing down the ship. The altitude gain affected the AP only, the PE was decreasing. In fact, it got to about -30000 km. The last time I pointed prograde, I flyed past KSC at 2000m/s and 12/15km high!

But I'll try again.

Note I did say I either held 25km ( there was a point to 25km - it's low enough to build some dynamic pressure & slow down, but not too low to hurt so much ) or 0 pitch - if you hold the nose up high what you'll do is keep climbing up into thin atmosphere again, and that won't slow you down at all unless you go into a tumble & don't bother recovering, at 35km you're effectively back in orbit in a big plane. If you pitch up enough to completely stall you'll get a ton of drag but then you may not be able to unstall again, so that's up to you.

[PCanas]

Note I did say I either held 25km ( there was a point to 25km - it's low enough to build some dynamic pressure & slow down, but not too low to hurt so much ) or 0 pitch - if you hold the nose up high what you'll do is keep climbing up into thin atmosphere again, and that won't slow you down at all unless you go into a tumble & don't bother recovering, at 35km you're effectively back in orbit in a big plane. If you pitch up enough to completely stall you'll get a ton of drag but then you may not be able to unstall again, so that's up to you.

Got it

Yesterday I tried with 0 pitch and it worked, although I was still at almost 2000m/s at 20km high, but I was at about 200m/s when getting really close to the runway. Anyway, I failed to land: ended up passing too high over the runway, had to throttle up and go around to try again, but failed again (crashed). I'm thinkind about getting the higher landing gear, since the ground clearance is very small. And practice landings...

Meanwhile I'm trying to create a drone based on my latest design. Simply put, instead of a cockpit, there's a probe core and a tail piece in the front (to make it pointy ). And a few engines concerning number and placement of engines.

Edited December 15, 2014 by PCanas

[Van Disaster]

If you want a dynamic process for re-entry rather than a fixed "hold this pitch" or "hold this alt" - open the FAR flight data window and try and hold a fixed dynamic pressure ( Q ) - the deceleration of the aircraft varies with pressure and cD so if you hold Q steady you'll get a roughly steady deceleration, although varying pitch might change your cD slightly. Too high pressure and you will burn up if you're running a re-entry mod, so it's good practice for if/when you install one.

I did a sub-orbital hop in the last craft I posted to put some satellites up yesterday, with an ascent profile to get me a 140km AP about 2/5s of an orbit around from KSC I re-entered & landed -albeit on runway 27 but that's usual - on the same revolution with a highest dyn pressure of ~35,000. A heavier craft is going to take longer to slow down, obviously, but the actual deceleration will depend on it's shape too so it's something only the builder can really guess at.

[Hodo]

My re-entry with my highest flying SSTO, which goes to Geo-sync orbits to place satellites, the re-entry comes from a lower orbit of 100km, then I hold a 5-10deg AoA, and try to keep the dynamic Q around 35-45kpa. My airbrakes get really hot while doing this but it isn't that horrible, within 100c of burning off. The landing is always a fun one. Because I usually do the spiral down from 10km about 100km out from the KSC.

[Van Disaster]

176t of Duna-bound orbital dockyard core lofted to LKO... with half the fuel left, some optimisation needed here.

Still, 176t and an easy ride up was pleasing.

[Hodo]

176t of Duna-bound orbital dockyard core lofted to LKO... with half the fuel left, some optimisation needed here.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8599/15853740260_250a099e2e_b.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7503/16039068181_84fe88e0d1_b.jpg

Still, 176t and an easy ride up was pleasing.

Is that from .90 or still in .25 like me?

Because I didn't know Pwings was fixed yet.

[Van Disaster]

0.25 still. Probably won't move to 0.90 for a month at least even if all my mods update.

So I used all that fuel capacity to up the payload, and managed 276t payload to orbit ( which is the mass of the fuelled unloaded craft ). As efficient launchers go that seems ok...

And having said that I think some parts are bugging out because launching again with a different payload I have a cD down low of 0.278, which is massively higher than I was expecting.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Van Disaster

[Hodo]

0.25 still. Probably won't move to 0.90 for a month at least even if all my mods update.

So I used all that fuel capacity to up the payload, and managed 276t payload to orbit ( which is the mass of the fuelled unloaded craft ). As efficient launchers go that seems ok...

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7518/15424379773_fb16416e3f_b.jpg

And having said that I think some parts are bugging out because launching again with a different payload I have a cD down low of 0.278, which is massively higher than I was expecting.

Yeah I had the same problem with drag on one of my newer designs the SP-317 Stork which uses the MkIV parts and is a VTOL. It has a huge amount of drag, but it is designed like a brick with wings. I think it has a cD of around .28 at low alt, below 10km. And its L/D number is a low 3.1:1. But it brute forces its way to orbit.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Hodo

[Van Disaster]

Small note to people re-reading this thread: re-entry with FAR in 0.90 ( FAR 14.6 is current right now ) is a *lot* easier thanks to the new highspeed drag model it has - testing from a 90km orbit I can just deorbit burn with about 600km to run to KSC and put the trajectory mod's landing prediction cross on KSC, PE is somewhere around the next coast to the east I think - and glide down to a turn to runway 27 without provoking any high dyn pressure at all. That's with the test plane still massing about 170t on re-entry.

What is a bit more awkward is burning to orbit, you have to keep a little thrust on all the way out of the atmosphere to keep your AP up, which is a right pig with four huge SABRE Ms. Might have to try and write an AP hold proglet for kOS...

( also I was right about bugs, loading the same giant craft into a fresh 0.90 install not only gave me 300m^2 wing area back but cut the cD by 9/10ths )

[Van Disaster]

0.90 version of my sub-orbital lifter ( currently very much orbital, way too much fuel ). Landing speed is rather terrifying atm.

[Zuqq]

Some pretty awesome designs in here! I feel a little inadequate lol.

I am a huge fan of B9 and have been playing around with the new B9 procedural wing mod. I hope it's okay if I post a picture of one of my planes that doesn't use B9 fuselages but does use B9 procedural wing.

And some B9/Intersteller planes

[Ya_Boi_Assault]

With my advice, add some air breaks to dump off unnecessary Airspeed while on final approach so that you don't end up as a flaming crater on the ground

[Othuyeg]

Oh, the marriage of KSPi and B9 is beautiful.

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Especially when you just fool around.

[Othuyeg]

Repurposed the interplanetary jumbojet, turned it into an actual cargo plane

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And went to the south pole.

[MisterBennock]

This is my current stuff. Not pictured are attempts at SSTOs and failed designs.

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Edited February 10, 2015 by MisterBennock
Thanks TheXRuler

[peachoftree]

Love the HL cockpit, makes some beautiful planes

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[TheXRuler]

Hey guys, finally found this thread, and though i'm new to the forums, I have 500+ Hours of KSP experience. All my experience, together with the incredibly helpful [thread=52080]Basic Aircraft Design[/thread] Thread started by keptin, enabled me to build this SSTO.

It Features incredible stability during high angles of attack (AoA) and very good yaw authority, although the latter is better for preventing sideslip than actually turning the aircraft. Trying to turn with the yaw controls usually sends it into a crazy spin, or a full scale stall.

The swept wings give it quite good performance at super- and hypersonic speeds, the angle of the front and rear wings give it reasonable manouverability and high stability respectively.

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Technical Specifications

• Class: Heavy Cargo/Refueling SSTO (possible use as super large crew ferry for sth like 40 Kerbals
  
• Mass: ~300t at launch + payload
  
• Payload Mass: Successfully tested with 65t, probably capable of up to 85t if you have the patience for a slow ascent (i dont:sticktongue:)
  
• Payload Size: 2.5 m diameter (optionally up to 1.25 meters on each side [only in two fold symmetry]), up to 24m length
  
• Launch duration: 80km circular orbit ~15-20 minutes ingame time to AP (not necesarily real time, depending on PC performance)
  

Ascent Profile

• Important let the engines spool up for at least 30 seconds prior to launch, otherwise you will not be able to lift off.
  
• Accelerate without touching the controls till the end of the runway, then ease the nose up (if you pitch to high you will break the engines on the ground, if you don't pitch enough you will not lift off.
  
• Keep accelerating horizontally until you hit ~ 200 m/s, then lock her in at ~20 degree pitch angle and climb to 12km
  
• Level off at 12km and accelerate to ~600 m/s then slowly climb while building speed till you hit ~1800 m/s at ~25-28 km
  
• At 28 km pitch up sharply (AoA should be ~20° i know this is very high, but this thing is crazy stable ) and let the SABRE's autoswitch to rocket mode.
  
• Keep pushing upward till your time to AP is ~90s then burn prograde.
  

Important! No matter which descent profile you choose, it is essential to pump remaining fuel to the frontmost tank. This has to be done for stability reasons.

For the true Kerbals among you:

1. Lower Periapsis to ~75km, then circularize
   
2. Kill Orbital Velocity until the orbit hits the ocean to the west of the Space Centre shortly behind the other continent.
   
3. Plummet through the atmosphere at ridiculous speeds and start sharply pulling up once you reach ~22 km
   
4. This should decellerate you enough that you can easily glide in for a powered or unpowered descent
   

For the less insane among you:

1. Lower Periapsis to ~75km, then circularize
   
2. Come in for your regular spceplane descent and landing
   

Note that if you are returning from LKO you should still easily have enough fuel to fly to KSC if you mess up your descent. Touchdown velocity should be ~130m/s.

Full Version with Life Support (Batteries NOT Included)

Requires [thread=40667]Thunder Aorspace Corporation's Life Support System[/thread] and [thread=104943]KSP-Interstellar[/thread]. There are no batteries attached, scince I was using KW Rocketry Batteries and that would just mean more dependencies.

Version without TAC-LS

Other Dependencies:

• bac9's amazing [thread=104966]B9-Procedural Wings[/thread] for the wings
  
• The B9-Aerospace Pack for the Hull parts
  
• ferram4's [thread=20451]FAR[/thread] to make it fly (it might work without this, i haven't tested it)
  

Not a dependency, but strongly recommended is [Thread=25823]Thunder Aerospace Corporations Fuel Balancer[/thread]. Again this is not dependant, but I would recommend everyone everywhere to use this awesome piece of plugin-goodness.

I am as of yet looking for a good name, so please do post suggestions

This is one of my first post's and it took me ~40 mins to make, mainly because of all the BB-Code Research i had to do >.< Hope you enjoy

Edited February 3, 2015 by TheXRuler
The Me-tard forgot a link

[Van Disaster]

Looks like some sort of sea dinosaur, maybe there's a good name in there.

More experiments with B9 p-wings, think I'll stick with canards in future though.

[bdito]