Persephone VTOL dropship (and others)

[Cranium]

So after ogling Cupcake's dropships(They're very beautiful, I must say), and not seeing many others, I've decided I'll try to augment the community with at least one of my own. I originally tried copying(they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) what was already made, with moderate success. Enter Persephone Mk 1:

It was sufficient, but only barely made orbit and landed back at KSC. Nice, but not enough to rival anything already out there. So I needed to redesign a bit.

Mk 2 was not much of a difference, just some repositioned intakes, and a different landing gear position.

Unfortunately, it didn't make it any further than the original. So I think it's back to the drawing board for this one. Mk 3 is a complete redesign with more rocket fuel, a proper cockpit, and lighter landing gear(slightly).

I think it looks kind of like an insect, so I'm debating on a name change to be more appropriate.

I did try a winged version, but it simply does NOT work at all after transitioning to horizontal movement. It may not have enough lift, and I probably need to add more wing to it.

So far, I have yet to be able to test the Mk 3 properly, and attempt an extraplanetary mission. It does have a number of problems with it before I can test it completely, chief among being the issue I have with the amount of part clipping(no debug menu, just a lot of smart placement), it tends to perform a rapid, unplanned disassembly if the engine even touches the ground slightly. I don't think there would be any way for me to fix that without completely redesigning it again.

Let me know what you think, and tell me what I can improve upon.

Downloads:

Persephone Mk 1

Persephone Mk 2

Persephone Mk 3

Persephone Mk 3 Aero

Note: All crafts have MechJeb installed. If you don't want MechJeb, or don't have it installed, you'd need to edit the .craft file directly to remove the modules.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Cranium

[Spartwo]

Did you copy,sorry reverse engineer the Scythe too?

[Cranium]

Nope. I only had pitures to go off of. I did use the method he uses by starting with the docking port first, but beyond that, all parts and designs are 100% mine. They only resemble Cupcake's dropships.

[Spartwo]

How did you fix the fuel flow?

[Cranium]

If you take it apart, you'll notice that all fuel flows into the center tank that's positioned vertically. It's a bit of hackery and even more part clipping to get that working, but it does it nicely. appartenly, existing fuel lines continue to pump to their original destination if they are completely clipped inside another part, and not sticking out.

[Spartwo]

I blatantly ripped of the struts idea from Cupcake:P

[Cranium]

Oh? What struts? Is that internal? Because there are no struts on any of my crafts. Again, I just copied pictures, and never actually downloaded the crafts he's posted.

[Spartwo]

In the bloopers of this:

,the inside is a mish-mash of struts to stop the fuel flowing to the engine without fuel lines(I think).When fuel lines are attached the fuel is pulled evenly from all the tanks.

[Cranium]

Hmm, I think the struts themselves weren't there for fuel flow, but more for structural integrity, since those tiny grey tanks aren't very strong.

[Spartwo]

If so,my idea:D

[Cranium]

Important report from the launch crew:

"It will not make orbit. She's too fat"

Well, time for another redesign :/

[Ojimak]

[snip]...and lighter landing gear(slightly)...[snip]

Uhh, it might be helpful to note that the small gear bays are considered massless by the Kerbal physics engine, whereas the landing legs are considered to have mass.

-Ojimak

Edited December 5, 2013 by Ojimak

[Cranium]

Yeah, I know they don't have mass. I just think this is a better set of landing gear for a VTOL, and it looks better. Perhaps my choice of words was not the best.

[Cupcake...]

Looking good, I'll be waiting for you on Minmus.

Cupcake...

[Spartwo]

Minmus is getting crowded.

[Cranium]

Hmm, the more I work on this, it's becoming clear. We need more thrust for the weight we have. I guess I'll work on a dual engine design. I think i'm trying too hard to get as much fuel as possible into orbit without sacrificing aesthetics. Next version that comes out will have better engines, and should actually have capabilities to exit Kerbin SOI.