Veto Aerospace Robin

[RedDwarfIV]

When new space station nodes arrived in the lorry parking space behind the VAB yesterday, Veto Aerospace engineers decided they were too fond of six of them to put them into orbit forever. These six nodes were instead used in the construction of a glider-dropship, the VA Robin, which is designed to carry crates with a medium range. It can fly reasonably stably without payload, though has a funny habit of making explosions when its lands, though on inspection, the flight crew couldn\'t see where the destroyed sections had come from. In other words, it lands pretty well intact. Uses huge amounts of RCS fuel.

It is difficult to land with payload.

[Joshmo]

That is just scary.

[RedDwarfIV]

Habitation modules for overnight stops are just behind the cockpit.

Also, due to the nature of its being STOL and the near-impossible task of aborting a landing, I used the stacked skids landing gear type that Tim favours, to keep the whole thing from blowing up. Usually.

In fact, the most dangerous part is horizontal takeoff, though its not much better afterwards when the two lower engines run out of fuel, leaving the Aerospike engine operable but bad for maneuvring, and there is the possibility that if you are too liberal with the RCS it could run out before attempted landing.

That said, most flight collisions involving this craft are the result of pilot errors such as oversteering, misuse of RCS or failing to check whether the SAS is on or off. Or going in at the wrong angle. Or using too much fuel. Or crashing into a mountainside because of using too little fuel because you don\'t want to use too much fuel. Or attempting maneuvres that would be possible with all engines running but only the Aerospike engine still has fuel and the whole thing flips out.

[Tim_Barrett]

First of all, nice ship!

If it is flying in an unstable manner when using what it seems to be as the main three engines in the back of the craft, the payload may be bending the center spine of fuel tanks. What kind of payload are we talking about here? How heavy? Different payloads may call for different versions due to the new center of gravity.

Also if you have splosion problems whilst landing, try placing one skid under another, maybe three if needed. They will act like a form of suspension since they are so strong.

[RedDwarfIV]

First of all, nice ship!

If it is flying in an unstable manner when using what it seems to be as the main three engines in the back of the craft, the payload may be bending the center spine of fuel tanks. What kind of payload are we talking about here? How heavy? Different payloads may call for different versions due to the new center of gravity.

Also if you have splosion problems whilst landing, try placing one skid under another, maybe three if needed. They will act like a form of suspension since they are so strong.

Having a payload on board makes the setup more stable, if anything. Its just that it means that it should have more RCS ports but there is nowhere to put them. And usually is just small things like satellites or mini-spacestations, or fuel tanks. It is, after all, basically a short range non-exoatmospheric flying van.

[Tim_Barrett]

Having a payload on board makes the setup more stable, if anything. Its just that it means that it should have more RCS ports but there is nowhere to put them. And usually is just small things like satellites or mini-spacestations, or fuel tanks. It is, after all, basically a short range non-exoatmospheric flying van.

I had the exact same problem with a similar design replica of the Eagle Transporter (my centaur), where the heavy payload actually cancelled out the weight of the overhead support. I temporarily fixed the issue with heavier legs and rose the payload so regardless if it is on or not, the cent of gravity is relatively the same.

Obviously I scrapped that due to a better and more structurally stable design in my head, and the current legs are weighed evenly with those two top tanks.

[RedDwarfIV]

Ok.