Extremely Long Range B9-Kethane Aircraft

[SPWeber]

So I was trying to make a new plane, something I have never really been good at in KSP, but then I made this thing and thought that I should share it with the world: http://imgur.com/a/WsS6o

The lamely-named Quadros is a 4 engine aircraft that can take advantage of kethane deposits on Kerbin to give it a possibly infinite range. It requires the B9 Aerospace and Kethane mods, and I have only tested it with the stock aerodynamics.

Craft file: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5CpMuclV6jHem5HbWR1SWdnT2M/edit

Edited July 29, 2013 by SPWeber
Removed KW Rocketry part

[Immashift]

Cute little plane there. I might use a variant of that for rescuing stranded pilots, since that actually matters now.

I've always wanted to try kethane on planes. The only problem I think I'd have is that I'm not that great at atmospheric landings, and might miss the deposit. Then again... it has wheels and can take off at will... so not really an issue.

I actually took that a step further and made an SSTO which supposedly has enough DV to make it to other planets. Have yet to really test it though. Landing a plane horizontally on a planet/moon with no atmosphere is gonna be fun.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Immashift

[Audiopulse]

bear in mind, immashift, that without any atmosphere you will not slow down by the tiniest bit - that means you will be going hella fast when you touch the ground. Unless the Moon is perfectly flat - even the tiniest bump _will_ mean death for you.

In other words, your plane needs some kind of engine under its belly to keep your distance from the ground until you slowed down far enough.

[Event Horizon]

bear in mind, immashift, that without any atmosphere you will not slow down by the tiniest bit - that means you will be going hella fast when you touch the ground. Unless the Moon is perfectly flat - even the tiniest bump _will_ mean death for you.

In other words, your plane needs some kind of engine under its belly to keep your distance from the ground until you slowed down far enough.

You could add some reverse-VTOL engines to slow down, then go vertical to slow down ascent.

As a side note, I'm going to download this and test it with Ferram Aerospace on.

Edit: I'm missing a part. From which mod?

Edited July 29, 2013 by Event Horizon

[Teek]

You could add some reverse-VTOL engines to slow down, then go vertical to slow down ascent.

As a side note, I'm going to download this and test it with Ferram Aerospace on.

Edit: I'm missing a part. From which mod?

Based on the original images and the error text, the nose cone on the space plane is from KW rocketry.

To the OP, very cool design, keep up the good work!

[SPWeber]

Crap, didn't think that nosecone was from KW, I'll fix it...

[gamerhater]

Cute little plane there. I might use a variant of that for rescuing stranded pilots, since that actually matters now.

I've always wanted to try kethane on planes. The only problem I think I'd have is that I'm not that great at atmospheric landings, and might miss the deposit. Then again... it has wheels and can take off at will... so not really an issue.

I actually took that a step further and made an SSTO which supposedly has enough DV to make it to other planets. Have yet to really test it though. Landing a plane horizontally on a planet/moon with no atmosphere is gonna be fun.

Can you upload the craft file for this? If not that's fine.

[SPWeber]

Ok I took that KW part off, should be able to use it now, Event Horizon.

[Event Horizon]

Ok I took that KW part off, should be able to use it now, Event Horizon.

Wow, thank you! You didn't have to. I could have hunted down KW's mod

[Event Horizon]

Look what I did to your poor plane

I swear I was being nice with it... you know, trying to land softly on hills and grass! Actually, the landings went well for the most part, except when I forgot to retract the solar panels one time, yeah that was my fault, sorry. And I had a bit of a hard landing on one and kinda broke nose cone. I hope insurance covers that. Also, I pitched too hard trying to take off before a hill right in front of me caused a rapid unplanned disassembly and kinda broke the tail off. Sorry! It still flies... sorta.

[Immashift]

bear in mind, immashift, that without any atmosphere you will not slow down by the tiniest bit - that means you will be going hella fast when you touch the ground. Unless the Moon is perfectly flat - even the tiniest bump _will_ mean death for you.

In other words, your plane needs some kind of engine under its belly to keep your distance from the ground until you slowed down far enough.

I'm aware of the physics involved in landing this thing. The plan is to come in butt first, and slow down till I'm sub 100m/s horizontally, try to kill vertical velocity as much as possible, and land on the gear, rolling BACKWARDS. The craft has rear wheels positioned far back for this particular maneuver. I have yet to try it, but in theory it should work. Lifting off again will have it take off rolling forwards, and pulse the aerospike in the underside of the nose to pitch up. Alternatively you can use terrain features to sort of launch off of. As for bumpy terrain.... well.... That will be fun to work around. I'll try to land it in a crater or something really flat. Minmus's ice lakes come to mind.

Craft file as requested. Was gonna touch it up before I posted so don't expect perfection. This is a prototype.

Needs:

Mechjeb

TT Modular Wheels

B9 Aerospace

Kethane

Radial Nuclear Engines

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2gU8i82Ok0VNWpFaWMxLV9ycDg/edit?usp=sharing

Yes there are RCS tanks, no there are no RCS ports. The RCS fuel is there to balance the 2 tons of gear on the belly. It wanted to spin downward out of control in rocket mode before I added them.

Popup on launch will tell you what action groups do.

Be warned, it's a bit of a bitch to get into orbit.

Take off, immediately hit 45 degrees and park the pitch there for the ENTIRE FLIGHT. It has a tendency to dislike lowering angles to speed up.

When you see it start to drift off center (usually happens around 20km up) hit 3 to switch to space flight mode, and burn till you get your apoapsis.

This thing was unable to fully circularize at 100x100 and I ended up having to refuel it in its 70x100 orbit.

I'll record a video of a mun landing using my strategy today and post it later. Good luck with my craft

If you can improve on it in any way, post or PM me. I'd like to see revised designs.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Immashift

[SPWeber]

Look what I did to your poor plane

I swear I was being nice with it... you know, trying to land softly on hills and grass! Actually, the landings went well for the most part, except when I forgot to retract the solar panels one time, yeah that was my fault, sorry. And I had a bit of a hard landing on one and kinda broke nose cone. I hope insurance covers that. Also, I pitched too hard trying to take off before a hill right in front of me caused a rapid unplanned disassembly and kinda broke the tail off. Sorry! It still flies... sorta.

Hahahaha I have seen it tail-less a few times myself, and it's you're fault it had that lousy nosecone! Don't worry, the insurance is very easy to take advantage of.