totm june 2018 Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread

[Majorjim!]

I've tried that before. The TR-2C is much weaker than the TR-XL and requires more struts. 100t is very heavy.

Yeah deffo needs more struts but not so many as to render the method unusable. (just personal preference)

It is weaker but I have used it on many heavy builds and, well, all my rockets with zero failures, but again as you say, needs moar struts.

Although I often say to myself, 'part count be damned!' when building.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Majorjim

[Giggleplex777]

Centurion looks like an appropiate name for it. Nice engine cluster btw.

I think I'll use Antares to go along with its little brother, Altair:

Link: http://i.imgur.com/i2tEMHf.png

[Giggleplex777]

These wings were surprisingly hard to make:

It's pretty sneaky cargo bay trick, but at least it looks cool.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[andrew123]

These wings were surprisingly hard to make:

http://i.imgur.com/83o0tUM.png

It's pretty sneaky cargo bay trick, but at least it looks cool.

I was thinking of making a V-Bomber replica with that bomb day design. How's it working out aerodynamically?

[astropapi1]

These wings were surprisingly hard to make:

http://i.imgur.com/83o0tUM.png

It's pretty sneaky cargo bay trick, but at least it looks cool.

Jesus, that things is beautiful. Can't wait for 0.25, just to see what you guys can make with it!

[andrew123]

Jesus, that things is beautiful. Can't wait for 0.25, just to see what you guys can make with it!

Don't worry, we've been busy with sp+...

Heck, those two MK2 bomb bays blend in perfectly with the whole fuselage.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Darth Lazarus]

working on better version of Sgt_Flyer's Blok D i have used for momths. sadly in 24.x+ teh fuellines won't work correctly anymore so i have to redo some of his works. THX AGAIN TO SGT_FLYER FOR HIS BLOK D BEAUTY !

as some of you already expected: some kind of curiosity. here a detailed view, skycrane is half hidden by aeroshell

EDIT:

Blok D and Proton K

Edited October 4, 2014 by Darth Lazarus

[Redrobin]

working on better version of Sgt_Flyer's Blok D i have used for momths. sadly in 24.x+ teh fuellines won't work correctly anymore so i have to redo some of his works. THX AGAIN TO SGT_FLYER FOR HIS BLOK D BEAUTY !

as some of you already expected: some kind of curiosity. here a detailed view, skycrane is half hidden by aeroshell

~snip~

For getting that small gap in between the nosecones on the "boosters" you can put one of the white, 1.25m-6.25m adapters on upside down.

[Darth Lazarus]

For getting that small gap in between the nosecones on the "boosters" you can put one of the white, 1.25m-6.25m adapters on upside down.

which adapter? you mean the cone shaped 0.625 to 1.25? the ones at the end of the "boosterS" ?

[GusTurbo]

These wings were surprisingly hard to make:

http://i.imgur.com/83o0tUM.png

It's pretty sneaky cargo bay trick, but at least it looks cool.

I had the same idea. Very well-executed

[Redrobin]

which adapter? you mean the cone shaped 0.625 to 1.25? the ones at the end of the "boosterS" ?

yea (10char)

[1greywind]

Side effect of my ring-like station building project is completed. Subassemblies to build rings, spheres, cyllinders, etc; First release: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/95538-Subassemblies-to-build-rings-spheres-cyllinders-etc

[Frozen_Heart]

Continuing work on my station. Its being launched in 3 main parts on a Saturn V rather than on the shuttle.

I've just docked the truss to the main station body.

The shuttle is also working very well as crew transport and unlike the real thing is a relatively cheap way of getting to orbit.

[Frozen_Heart]

Adding more crew to the station. Been having some trouble with the shuttle due to the decoupler bug which is causing the wings to be removed by the jettisoned boosters. :/ Really hope 0.25 fixes this.

Using my not so historical SSTO instead:

[Gue__1]

Starting to rebuild my Shuttle with the new plane parts. The wing parts are really nice mostly because they're actually straight .

I would however have hoped that they redid the cockpit aswell

Gue

[Yakuzi]

I've been working on a single-seater SSTO that makes it to orbit very easily using a single turbojet-aerospike hybrid engine. It's also quite agile (though doesn't spin out of control easily) and is very entertaining to take for an acrobatic flight session around the KSC.

EDIT: Just noticed this is a stock craft only thread, whoops... Any modded version of this thread around? The above craft uses the B9 and Procedural Wings mods btw.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Yakuzi

[SofusRud]

I'm currently working on building a duna base. As part of that I intend to do some exploration of the planet, which requires some form of vehicle. Rover won't do, way too slow, which means that I have to build some form of airplane. Process of elimination determined that regular fuel and monoprop have insufficient fuel efficiency for what I'm planning, leaving me with having to build some form of ion-powered aircraft. Another stipulation is that since I'm running a 100% reusable space program it needs to be lifted into orbit to dock with a tug using one of my cargo SSTOs, putting restrictions of the size of the aircraft. Also, for it to refuel it needs to be able to dock with surface base installations, necessitating the Landing legs and the bottom docking ports so that rovers can dock and move it.

I'm looking for ways to cut down on part count, so if there are any suggestions regarding that then it would be appreciated. I'm also not sure how many solar panels are needed to run two ion engines on Duna, and I'm also a bit worried as to whether I have enough lifting surfaces to fly safely on Duna. I've only tested it out on Kerbin, where it flies like a dream, but I'm not sure how it would handle the thinner atmosphere. If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing on Duna I'd love to hear it.

Here's a picture of one of the prototype versions.

Also, I'm kinda worried about the change to the spaceplane parts that's coming up in .25, so I might not send ship it off to Duna until after I see the practical implications of that update.

So far it's unnamed, so its going by the placeholder name "duna glider" for now, if anyone has any suggestions for a better name, feel free to suggest one.

Edited October 7, 2014 by SofusRud

[Majorjim!]

I'm currently working on building a duna base. As part of that I intend to do some exploration of the planet, which requires some form of vehicle. Rover won't do, way too slow, which means that I have to build some form of airplane. Process of elimination determined that regular fuel and monoprop have insufficient fuel efficiency for what I'm planning, leaving me with having to build some form of ion-powered aircraft. Another stipulation is that since I'm running a 100% reusable space program it needs to be lifted into orbit to dock with a tug using one of my cargo SSTOs, putting restrictions of the size of the aircraft. Also, for it to refuel it needs to be able to dock with surface base installations, necessitating the Landing legs and the bottom docking ports so that rovers can dock and move it.

I'm looking for ways to cut down on part count, so if there are any suggestions regarding that then it would be appreciated. I'm also not sure how many solar panels are needed to run two ion engines on Duna, and I'm also a bit worried as to whether I have enough lifting surfaces to fly safely on Duna. I've only tested it out on Kerbin, where it flies like a dream, but I'm not sure how it would handle the thinner atmosphere. If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing on Duna I'd love to hear it.

Here's a picture of one of the prototype versions.

http://i.imgur.com/QE9pu2A.png

So far it's unnamed, so its going by the placeholder name "duna glider" for now, if anyone has any suggestions for a better name, feel free to suggest one.

Hey man,

As part of my Constellation mission I brought along a little ion glider:

It had more than enough lift in the thin atmosphere and the one ion engine was enough to circumnavigate the planet reaching an orbit of around 80,000M.

As long as you launched to coincide with the day cycle its totally doable. And the one ion engine although slow to get going was more than enough power.

I didn't need to use full throttle either and the number of panels was sufficient. Doing it again I would have taken one more Xenon tank though for longer stays.

The many probe bodies really helped to keep it controllable, it was very tricky without them. And landing was very tricky as scrubbing off speed takes an age on Duna.

But all in all it worked as intended even though it ended up like this:

Edited October 7, 2014 by Majorjim

[Rune]

Hey man,

As part of my Constellation mission I brought along a little ion glider:

http://i.imgur.com/P1BlEus.jpg

It had more than enough lift in the thin atmosphere and the one ion engine was enough to circumnavigate the planet reaching an orbit of around 80,000M.

As long as you launched to coincide with the day cycle its totally doable. And the one ion engine although slow to get going was more than enough power.

I didn't need to use full throttle either and the number of panels was sufficient. Doing it again I would have taken one more Xenon tank though for longer stays.

The many probe bodies really helped to keep it controllable, it was very tricky without them. And landing was very tricky as scrubbing off speed takes an age on Duna.

But all in all it worked as intended even though it ended up like this:

http://i.imgur.com/hxGyqY1.jpg

Yeah, I see how that would happen. See (and this also goes to SofusRud), Duna's low density atmosphere doesn't make flying difficult, it makes flying slow a hell of a thing to accomplish. The low density decreases lift, yeah, but by the same amount that it decreases drag. So the same thrust will get you flying, by taking you to a higher speed whee the lift is the same as on Kerbin.

Now the problem comes when you couple this "fly twice as fast" to "no runways built here": coming back to ground is tricky, to say the least. The only way to approach the ground with a manageable vertical speed is to go insanely fast, where any bump can send you to a fiery death as soon as you touch the ground, and your shallow angle of descent means if you overshoot a little you can miss the flat spot and run into the side of a hill.

Now how would you go about designing an ion glider for Duna then, if you can't test it there (easily)? Well, simple: shoot for a ridiculously low landing speed. I'm talking something that to start dropping 1m/s, has a surface speed of under 15m/s. Then when you get to Duna, you will be able to do the same thing at 50m/s (in case you haven't noticed, I'm pulling the numbers out of my ass... but they have the right order of magnitude). This basically means very low wing loading, or in other words a load of wings per ton. To fix that ion glider so you can land it without a stroke of luck and a lot of sweat (nobody said a landing at 200m/s is impossible, just incredibly tricky), I'd first double on wings: doubling the wing area should divide landing speed for the same drop rate by the square root of 2, if I solved the equation right in my head (Lift=0.5*Cl*density*wing area*velocity^2, drag is the same thing but with Cd, a different coefficient).

Rune. Math and aerodynamics! My thing!

Edited October 7, 2014 by Rune

[Giggleplex777]

Editor Extensions don't work in 0.25.

This is going to delay some projects.

Edit: Temporary fix by Padishar: Editor Extensions 1.4

Edited October 7, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[Majorjim!]

EditorExtensions don't work in 0.25.

This is going to delay some projects.

Yeah I just found this out.. Oh how Ive come to rely on it! On a brighter note Ive begun remaking the craft that where affected by the patch.

The SPR rover still looks cool:

This is what greeted me on the site of the Duna Constellation landing! Hedgehog rovers!

[Frozen_Heart]

Having to rebuild every spacecraft. Going to be both a frustrating and interesting exercise. :/

[Darnok]

Yay, now I can make it tiny

[Giggleplex777]

Antares' vast fairings:

Woah, that's big!

Also, 100% stock.

Yay, now I can make it tiny

http://i.imgur.com/BpiTANFl.png

Almost didn't notice the resized SAS. This is going to be very useful.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[Redrobin]

Just playing around with the new parts.

You can make a sort of R7-lite with the new SP+ parts: