Long Range Rescue aircraft design help required

[Shania_L]

@ Markus, Ohh really? I think VTOL is beyond me just yet taking off vertically sure you just Jeb the throttle and wait till the ground isnt so close, but hovering or *shudder* landing? err nahh. But, I would love to see some pictures of your flying oil platform if you have some available?

@ TheFod, Thankyou for the clarification, it certainly is a beast and I love the blended body look. I assume you have stacked on a fair few intakes to get 9.6 intake air? is that a nessesity for attaining orbital velocity? I am not entirely comfortable with abusing a game mechanic that way myself.

As for my own designs, well, today I had somewhat of a breakthrough. It turns out half the engines = half the fuel burn ... who knew?

Interestingly though, I only went for a single jet design so I could try out the high altitude flameout skimming, but I realised soon enough that I was getting just as fast and as high on 1 jet as I had been on 2. So this begs the question, why would I want to fit twin jets to a plane?

Here are some pics of the new craft, it is only a single seater as it is a testbed design, but it is now the new holder of both my speed and altitude records, 1,412m/sec and 27,153m. It is also my first pure atmospheric craft to achieve a full equatorial Kerban circumnavigation. Not too bad for a plane without a name

There are some glaring issues that do need to be sorted though, as you can see in this image, the pitch input there is all trim tab!! yes it is kindof nose heavy in flight

It turns out that overshooting the space center is something I do for planes as well as re-entry capsules ...

As you can see here even with half a fuel tank full, (yes I miscalculated slightly, I'm a twin jet gal, I double stuff automatically!!) the landing stability and speed of this plane are amazing, 35m/sec at 80m and hands off.

And finally here are the mission details, the full 4 million meter journey in 1hr 6 minutes, that is just about an acceptable length I think.

I would still like ideas on how I could improve this design and also if there are ways I could travel even higher and faster, as that seems to be the way to go. All I need now is to strap on 3 more crew spots and I have at least a capable rescue plane.

I want to think you all for your help, (but don't stop here I have still a few unanswered questions earlier in this post) especially Nurph, whos fuel tank arrangement I have unashamably, umm, borrowed

Edited June 13, 2013 by Shania_L
Typos, and thats all I am admitting too :)

[TheFod]

@ TheFod, Thankyou for the clarification, it certainly is a beast and I love the blended body look. I assume you have stacked on a fair few intakes to get 9.6 intake air? is that a nessesity for attaining orbital velocity? I am not entirely comfortable with abusing a game mechanic that way myself.

I used no less than 40 intakes, to make the turbojets work at the 3rd atmosphere layer up. While I'm sure the pane could manage on less, it makes it far easier to get to orbit with.

[Macenzie]

I'm doing exactly this for my up coming video series. I'm going for a solution involving a aircraft carrier and a sea landing capable helicopter (using Firespitter)

[sauliukas]

I think you should lower amount of wings, for such light aircraft you don't need so many.

[Shania_L]

@ Macenzie, An aircraft carrier, as in a ship? You would have it permenantly stationed at some distant place on Kerban then? I do not envy you sailing it out there initially A helicopter would be perfect for oceanic landing, but as I will not use mods I am restricted to thrust based VTOL.

@ sauliukas, How much wing do you think is appropriate then? I mainly put that much on as that is what was required to fill the shape I had envisioned. Is there a ratio of wing to mass that I should try to adhere to? This craft is only a testbed, I am looking to build a new plane next with less fuel but 4 cabins, that will be my operational model.

As for the oceanic lander, does anyone know what the fastest safe entry speed into water is, or how the destruction of parts is caused? I have had capsules on parachutes land in the sea at below 8m/sec yet still parts are broken off them. Also, how does bouancy work, if it works? in Kerbal? what hull form should I be looking at to maintain a level floating position allowing easy ascent?