Redshift OTF Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Hello, this is my first post on the forum and I’m relatively new to KSP having played for about 2 months. I looked around the forums but couldn’t find any ships that did what mine did, (apart from infinigliders), so I thought I would post them here instead of the Spaceship Exchange as I thought the mechanisms these work with would prompt further discussion. Sorry if this post is a bit long.A little background first. I had completed many challenges in the game but hadn’t got around to getting a ship on and off Eve and didn’t want to build a 200 ton monster to do it. So, after being inspired by some of the stock helicopters people had built I wondered if this would be a viable method for escaping Eve’s thick atmosphere. Despite my enthusiasm and after numerous failures I decided that while the concept did work to a degree I always ran out of fuel before making it very high. It then struck me, why not build an infinicopter? People have made infinigliders so surely I just need to make some rotors, put some control surfaces on and use SAS to make them twitch like mad and the thing should start spinning enough to carve itself through the atmosphere. Right? In hindsight this shouldn’t have worked since the latest update had changed the way SAS worked so you don’t get control surfaces that twitch so much but I didn’t think of that at the time and tried it anyway and came across an interesting effect.(Links instead of emdeded images because they haven't been resized, sorry)http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921270022883021005/676E74D1E3A393EA5D88D6443B682DEDC79A3542/http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921270022883083665/3B06DD13B95BD0F6B4D4B281925A71D95B922193/This is a base configuration as an example. I haven’t included a craft file as it should be simple enough for anyone to build. To fly it you simply turn on SAS and prime the rotor by holding down Q to turn it clockwise until the rotor becomes self sustaining. The flaps lock into an downwards position and they generate thrust which turns the rotors fast enough for the airflow over the flaps to generate lift and the thing takes off. I have no idea why this works as the SAS is supposed to try and stop the ship spinning but it actually does the opposite. It is definitely SAS that is powering this because as soon as you shut it off it drops from the sky like a stone. It is also MechJeb friendly with the effect working with both the Ascent guidance and Smart Ass enabled.There are many different configurations you can play about with and it can lift very heavy loads with only a small number of control surfaces, (well over 100 tons), but the disadvantages are that you can’t really control the craft, (it can only go up), centrifugal forces tend to put a lot of strain on complex payloads and of course there is the dreaded cartwheeling. I’m not sure what causes this but it is when the craft starts to tip off centre and slowly becomes uncontrollable until it falls to its death. It doesn’t seem to be a centre of gravity issue and flex on the rotors affects this whereby if it spins too fast then centrifugal force straightens the rotor arms, increasing the effect and then the craft ascends to quickly and cartwheeling starts to appear. Adding vertical wings seems to mitigate this, I think because centrifugal force on the tips forces the rotor arms to bend back downwards moderating the lift but after many tests I cannot be sure. If anyone can cure this once and for all I would be very grateful. Anyway, I eventually built an Eve version and hacked the save game file and deorbited it. Unfortunately the spinning on the way down, (even with high altitude parachutes), broke one of the 8 arms in half. It landed ok and it did work propelling the ship up to 13500m high but when I decoupled the rocket from the base rotor the wobbling caused the rocket to hit the rotor and it blew up. Further attempts to make Eve infinicopters have been futile and I’m a bit too burned out to attempt more. It does work though!http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921270022883044043/D4E4BB06F1A9500E0AD71217A37A6E5887DC78C8/http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/921270022883131818/2FD81CD4B9A7F4D558A7D0DB6127B9E29BDCABA6/So after giving up on Eve for a while I thought I would go all out and build a proper infinicopter inspired by such helicopters that have been built by the likes of MeticulousMitch. As you can see I copied the bearing design from him. Now, with the ability to stack SAS that the latest update enables this infinicopter doesn’t even need RCS or engines to hold it steady, the SAS modules are enough to hold the infinicopter stable. It uses no fuel and only needs electricity to run, (powered by about 28 RTG’s), although it is more of a novelty as you can’t really control it well enough to steer it anywhere. http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921270022883183947/F1AD42215CC3395F138E50B71131AF856C373708/http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921270022883227141/FCD4F187EDFF88961BE7CC2A8FDF341FCC3588EF/http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921270022883260691/B5AF4C9B00FF0E664D9E8151792236D6DED66335/Craft file - Super Copter III : http://www./?7ua32ep70x4iap7Instructions for use:1) Retract gears2) Press Space to decouple the rotor from the main body of the craft3) Lower gears4) Press the close square brackets key to switch to the control ring on the rotors5) Engage SAS6) You will need to prime the rotor by holding the Q key. You will probably have to turn it the other way a bit using the E key and then prime again with Q just to get the rotor to start spinning7) Once the rotor becomes self sustaining switch back to the main body of the craft by pressing the open square brackets key and engage SAS to ensure the craft is stablised during flightNow you’re flying! I say flying but you’re a better pilot than me if you can actually make this thing go wherever you want to. It has a control ring at the base of the vehicle as well as a horizontal facing cockpit so you can choose your method of piloting.Like I said if anyone else has made these I apologise for the long post and wasting anyone’s time but I’m fairly sure this is a new thing that the latest update has introduced into the funky aerodynamic system, (not complaining, it makes the game interesting). Hopefully some of the better builders out there can make better vehicles than I can with this technology. 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Spacepigu Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 I bet that i could make a smaller one. Posting pictures soon! I saw the rotors of of the k-29b.Check it out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirligig Girl Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 This is what's called a "Necro". This thread is over a year old! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanamonde Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 This thread is old enough that some of the info in it probably is no longer valid. Closing it to avoid confusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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