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A dropship for the working man (or woman)...

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By Cupcake...
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Cupcake...

Cupcake...

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UPDATE:

Good news! The 2.0 version of the Bulldog is out now, all the landing legs have been replaced by landing gear on all models. There's also a shiny new docking port on the nose, yay!

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Whether you're felling trees in the Kerbin highlands, laying down an oil pipeline, or just doing a spot of dynamite fishing with the guys, the Bulldog is the Dropship of choice for man work or man play. Hell yeah! Notices description is already camp as a row of tents but continues bold as brass.

94Gek94.jpg

Combining the nuanced styling of the Humvee with engines big enough to power the 3rd world, the Bulldog has received almost universal condemnation from Greenpeace, Friends Of The Earth, Al Gore, The UN, The Green Party....List goes on for some time.... Jeb likes it though. Especially the driving position which says "Look at me, LOOK AT ME! Now get out my way before I crush you."

FyXNGRv.jpg

The Bulldog comes in two main flavours. Firstly, there's the long range LV-N powered Routemaster model, which uses its monstrous drop-tanks to pull off some impressive feats of endurance, including return trips to Duna!

0DUX4OR.jpg

Hauling capacity is a recommended maximum of 9 tonnes, enough to carry light SSTOs such as the Scythe into orbit and beyond.

hMcSpTN.png

Next up we have the Model L or Lifter Edition. This puppy trades in efficiency for raw lifting power and is able to haul some quite ridiculous loads into orbit. Maximum recommended payload is 18t. There's also a trainer or work experience model which you can use to hone your skills at the shallow end.

2013-10-28b.jpg

A big thankyou to The 14th for kindly providing these great pics!

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While the main airframe of the Bulldog came together quickly the air intakes proved to be an absolute nightmare. With my lighter SSTOs I can offset the drag of various intakes or components by using specially positioned "drag intakes." However with big SSTOs such as the Bulldog there are so many intakes needed and so much drag produced that it becomes almost impossible to get decent handling at high speed. In the end I had to be a bit naughty and flip all the intakes upside down so they don't produce any drag at all during the ascent. :(

This isn't something I'd normally do, but things were just getting impossible. So to any purists out there I do apologise, however in my defence I don't think KSPs aerodynamic model was created with my VTOLs in mind. :P On the plus side, well, no drag! That means silky smooth handling at full power all the way up to 30,000m. Sweeeeeeeeet. :D

Due to its compact construction the Bulldog has excellent handling for a ship of its size, with smooth harmonised control across all three axis. The centralised engine block also means the ship can laugh off all but the most severe flameouts.

OWNERS MANUAL:

You can find the craft file here:

http://goo.gl/H9iIp3

It comes with both normal and RCS verions of the L and R model as well as the trainer version. Joystick not included.

CONTROLS:

1 - Toggle Jets
2 - Toggle LV-Ns/LV-909s
8 - Open Docking Port Shield
9 - Toggle Ladders
0 - Toggle Intakes (Only toggles intakes that produce drag during ascent)

ABORT - De-Couple All Ports/Eject Drop Tanks

Like all my craft the Bulldog features a horizontal axis cockpit for suborbital flying and a vertical axis docking port for orbital piloting and navigation. The top docking port operates in line with the engines and must be used when performing burns with the navball. You can also use the top docking port if you'd rather fly the Bulldog like a regular rocket.


SSTO MISSION PROFILE:

Activate the SAS and keep it on all times, then set full throttle and press 1 to start the jets. Once you do reach 15,000m pitch over to 45`on a 90`heading and hold this course till you hit 20,000m. Now keeping on that 90`heading gently pitch forward and slow your rate of ascent. You've got 640 units of jet fuel which is pretty much expendable so take your time and really try and squeeze every ounce of speed you can out of the jets.

Once you hit 30,000m light the LV-Ns and pitch up to 45`. You should let the SAS take over for this part of the ascent. Keep the jets going as long as you can by reducing throttle. You don't need to be over concerned about flameouts, the ship will give you plenty of advance warning, and it's only if you ignore these then you'll spin out. If the craft does start to list don't try and correct it yourself, instead just reduce throttle and let the reaction wheels pull the ship back into line.

Don't forget you can press the abort key to eject the drop tanks once they're empty.Once you lose power from the jets press 1 to shut them down and 0 to block the intakes. From this point on you can slowly pitch flat to the horizon and round out your orbit.

Once you're ready to land back on Kerbin swap command back over to the cockpit. Press 0 to re-open the intakes and 1 to fire up the jets. Upon landing press 2 to give yourself rocket assist, this will help get rid of the throttle lag from the jets and ensure a smooth touch down.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy getting to know the Bulldog, treat it right and you'll have a loyal companion that'll be with you to the ends of the earth. :)

Cupcake...

wA9gAj0.jpg Edited by Cupcake...
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Cupcake...

Cupcake...

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Well, I hope you didn't mess up with the trainer version again :P

Anyways... Hello again cupcake :D

Oh, hello, there. You got here fast, who tipped you off? Anyway, In light of the previous... Um... Incident... I've put a posted note on the dashboard of the trainer version saying:

Do Not Take Into Orbit, But If You Do Get Into Orbit, Well Done, But You Shouldn't Bother Because You Probably Won't Make It That Far.

Should clear things up a wee bit. :wink:

Cupcake...

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I struggle to make lifters that can get 18 tons into orbit. :P You can do it with a dropship!!

It's still a very inefficient way of getting stuff into orbit, but you look good doing it... :)

Ahem... *Tries AGAIN*

*moment of realization*

NO VIDEO? ;.; no music! ;.;

;.; I know, I'm sorry. Another 2-3 weeks and video production will start up again, you have my promise... :wink: Anyway, I gotta turn in, have a good night all.

Cupcake...

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*Writes down memo*

:P

I've still gotta do a video for the Queen Bee as well, I'm getting a bit of a backlog here....

These dropships actually fit the SSI footprint... hmmm

Is that a plan forming? :D

you should use mods! they make KSP more awesome!

I played around with the B9 Mod once but I found it just offered too many possibilities and I started getting lost. :P Making stock ships just keeps things a bit more focused I find.

I think it is pretty cool.

Cheers, it's an ugly looking brute to be sure but it does grow on you. :) Still, I can't see my drop ships getting too much bigger, certainly not as big as the behemoths on your SSTO thread. :wink:

Cupcake...

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The14th

The14th

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Fantastic... that's a real beast and I love it! :D

I've seen some huge lag-inducing "cargo" space planes that can't boast lifting even half of that tonnage!

I've been planning to build a small station in LKO to act as a quick crew transfer point between other orbital structures. I was going to lift the parts using Temstar's awesome Zenith lifters just like I normally do (I love those Zenith rockets), but you know I've decided that since it's only a small station, it might be fun to try lifting all of the sections using only Bulldogs! :D

When it's done I can post some screenies if you like. :)

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Fantastic... that's a real beast and I love it! :D

I've seen some huge lag-inducing "cargo" space planes that can't boast lifting even half of that tonnage!

I've been planning to build a small station in LKO to act as a quick crew transfer point between other orbital structures. I was going to lift the parts using Temstar's awesome Zenith lifters just like I normally do (I love those Zenith rockets), but you know I've decided that since it's only a small station, it might be fun to try lifting all of the sections using only Bulldogs! :D

When it's done I can post some screenies if you like. :)

Absolutely, please do! The only thing I should mention is that all docking ports are plumbed into the Bulldog's fuel system so just make sure the taps are shut if you're carrying any fuel in your modules. Can't wait to see the results. :D

Cupcake...

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Try making a drop ship in career mode... hahahahaha xD

I tried unlocking new parts so I can make an SSTO but I have no idea what to do : U

I was kind of busy polishing off the Bulldog in 0.21 so I've only got as far as downloading 0.22. :P I kind of got the impression the career mode thing was just a way of introducing new players to the game. The science stuff looks pretty groovy but I'm holding out for a system that uses cash. It would be cool if they had a Privateer style system where you could earn money by doing specific missions. Take pre-made Rover X to Duna for $50,000, Rescue Bill from the Mun for $7, stuff like that. Or maybe you could get cash rewards for re-fuelling and re-using your existing ships rather then spawning news ones. I'm sure all this had been suggested already I've just been too lazy to look. :)

Cupcake...

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CressAlbane

CressAlbane

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This is one sweet VTOL. I might need to emulate it a bit for my next craft, if you don't mind!

And, because I care:

The Bulldog comes in two main flavours, firstly there's the long range LV-N powered Routemaster model, which uses it's monstrous drop-tanks to pull off some impressive feats of endurance.

Should be

The Bulldog comes in two main flavours. Firstly, there's the long range LV-N powered Routemaster model, which uses its monstrous drop-tanks to pull off some impressive feats of endurance.
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*Wakes up from sleep*

Waiitttt, You're still online?! welp :P

And yeah, Making a VTOL was easy in career mode, of course it was impossible to land :P

But making a ssto is way beyond my tier ;.;

Been up a few hours. I'll have to give career mode a whirl sometime. The new landing gear looks nice, kind of annoyed I didn't wait a bit, it probably would have have worked well on the Scythe. Oh well, guess there's always the Mk 4. :wink:

This is one sweet VTOL. I might need to emulate it a bit for my next craft, if you don't mind!

And, because I care:

Should be

Damn it! Did I mention English was my first language? Thanks for that. Feel free to steal whatever you want from the Bulldog design, or any of my dropships actually. :)

Oh look! Another fantastic ship for me to crash attempt to fly. :)

I prefer to think of crashing as "landing at speed". :P

Cupcake...

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