Cockpits, who needs them anyway?

[Cupcake...]

Built on the Herbie chassis the Corgi is built to tackle the rather more serious business of getting into orbit. Low level performance is pretty anemic but up at 20,000m the Corgi really comes into its own and will happily get to Minmus and back on a tank of fuel, not bad for a single engine VTOL.



It comes with two hard-points which can be fitted with detachable RCS pods or other accessories. It's been built around the top docking port so can be easily integrated into existing designs using the sub-assembly saver.



The tanker has also had a bit of a spruce up, with a new RCS fuel reserve and an extra axle for improved maneuverability and strength.



With the manslaughter trial still in progress I can't go into the reasons why the KSP Barbour-shop Quartet were banned from ever performing on Kerbin again, but I can tell you they've been making good use of the Corgi to hold fortnightly practice sessions on the Mun. In space nobody can hear the audience scream.



INSTRUCTIONS:
You can download the ship from here:http://goo.gl/jccxg7 It needs to go into your SPH folder.

The Corgi is controlled by a horizontally placed probe head mounted slightly towards the stern, if you prefer you can also fly it like a regular rocket by switching command over to the docking port, which must be used when navigating.

Once you launch the vessel your two Kerbals will be sat in the fuel tanker, the first thing you'll want to do (assuming you want a manned mission) is put on the handbrake and transfer your Kerbals to the seats. You can do this by climbing up the ladder and walking along the gangway or dropping down and using the ladders on the ship.

After driving the fuel tanker out the way you'll be ready to launch, activate the ASAS (recommended) and press 1 to fire up the jet. If you're not doing any docking eject the RCS pods to add lightness. Once the ship takes off now will be a good time to make a coffee, check emails, watch some Victor Lewis Smith videos on Youtube or look at pictures of cats. After about 5 minutes you will have reached your target altitude of 12,000m, pitch over to 50` and start building up speed. Once you get to 20,000m pitch down enough to slow your rate of ascent, from here on in you'll want to squeeze every bit of speed you can from the jet. At this point the air pressure will try and force the nose down but the new ASAS does a commendable job of keeping you on course. When changing pitch you might just have to crank it up about 20` past your target elevation then let it take it over and lock. I've added an air intake aft of the vessel which acts like a dive brake and makes the Corgi controllable at almost any speed (this is a big improvement over the R-type and Scythe).

I'm still experimenting with the ideal ascent profile for the Corgi (and am a really lazy pilot) so I don't want to give too much advice, but as a rough rule of thumb if the craft isn't glowing red-hot you aint going fast enough! Once you've air-hogged yourself silly press 2 to fire up the rocket engines, then 1 and 0 to shut down the jet and close the intakes. Upon your return to Kerbin Pressing 3 will set you in landing mode by shutting down/activating 2 of the four rocket engines which will help get rid of the throttle lag from the main jet engine while still maintaining a relatively broad throttle response.

If things go a bit pear shaped you've two ejector seats and parachutes, these work great on Kerbin, not so well on the Mun.

With the tanker I recommend you drive it off the runway and park it somewhere, you can then use it to re-fuel the Corgi later on. You can also use it as a tow truck to haul the ship back to base. It's pretty heavily laden with fuel so needs to be driven with a light touch.

The Corgi has quite a narrow undercarriage compared to Herbie so a bit of care needs be taken on landings and I recommend keeping the brakes off until after touchdown.

The Corgi relies on its engines and two small solar panels for power, the solar panels can soak up sun at most angles but if the batteries do go dead you can use your Kerbal's jet packs to rotate the Corgi if needbe.

Sometimes after saving/loading you'll see your Kerbals sat at odd angles in the seats, it doesn't seem to affect anything but if it bothers you just make them leave the seats and board again.

CONTROLS
1 - Toggle Jet
2 - Toggle Rocket Assist
3 - Toggle Landing Mode
5 - Toggle Docking Port Light (Fuel Tanker)
6 - Toggle Docking Port Mating Engines (Fuel Tanker)
9 - Toggle ASAS Torque
0 - Toggle Intakes

ABORT - De-couple
SPACE - Detach RCS PODs/Eject! Eject! Eject!


Enjoy!
Cupcake... Edited July 31, 2013 by Cupcake...

[littlebattler]

Amusing name, and that video is very well made.

[Kevinement]

Great video, especially the music and an interesting vehicle you build there, kerbals seem to have pretty heat resistant clothing if they can survive a flight with that thing.

[Cupcake...]

Great video, especially the music and an interesting vehicle you build there, kerbals seem to have pretty heat resistant clothing if they can survive a flight with that thing.

I would quite happily sit on a lawn chair during re-entry but until our earth clothes catch up with Kerbal tech it probably wouldn't be a good idea...

Cupcake...

[Cranium]

I tried making a larger version of this(of my own design of course), but since I don't do part clipping(not debug menu part clipping anyway), how did you get those air intakes on the sides of the ship like that? I can't seem to get parts to connect in such a way without cheating.

[karolus10]

Very elegant spacecraft, nicely done .

[Cupcake...]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, it's really nice to hear. To answer your question I don't use debug menu clipping as this makes for some very sick spacecraft. The way I do the intakes is by using the small cubic struts but instead of connecting them straight, I lay them one on top of the other, leaving both attachment points free for the intakes. Hope this helps...

Cupcake...

I tried making a larger version of this(of my own design of course), but since I don't do part clipping(not debug menu part clipping anyway), how did you get those air intakes on the sides of the ship like that? I can't seem to get parts to connect in such a way without cheating.

[georgTF]

Brilliant! Love the video, excellent craft. Great stuff!

[Cupcake...]

Cheers! Glad you like it.

Cupcake...

Brilliant! Love the video, excellent craft. Great stuff!