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

[Thor Wotansen]

Is it weird that I find night landings easier?  They certainly are prettier.

Edited June 24, 2017 by Thor Wotansen

[selfish_meme]

1 hour ago, Thor Wotansen said:

Is it weird that I find night landings easier?  They certainly are prettier.

Gosh that looks like an old payload fraction challenger of mine

[TheEpicSquared]

Alright, so after some testing, I've found that in the two weeks that the SQUAD challenge is on, I won't be able to get my monster plane to Laythe. So I'll just fly it around on Kerbin, but I'll have to make up for the absence of getting it to Laythe. Solution? Add more crew cabins! I'll probably add a central row of Mk3 crew cabins, and maybe a row or two of Mk2 cabins on the top. We'll see. 

I will however try to get the plane to Laythe sometime in the future. 

[Thor Wotansen]

9 hours ago, selfish_meme said:

Gosh that looks like an old payload fraction challenger of mine

That's my Róta SSTO.  It can put 36t into a 100km orbit and land at less than 50m/s.  I'm working on a new modular exploration system and I'm using it to put all the bits up.  I was honestly expecting to fail hard at the night landing but I nailed it first try.

[qzgy]

For @MiffedStarfish's YT battle thing. Still undergoing construction.

Sea trials of an earlier version.

Edited June 24, 2017 by qzgy

[MiffedStarfish]

16 minutes ago, qzgy said:

For @MiffedStarfish's YT battle thing. Still undergoing construction.

Sea trials of an earlier version.

That looks great! 

Kerbals are so efficient, they conduct sea trials while the boat is still being built. 

[evader]

On ‎26‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 2:51 PM, Torquimedes said:

I have spent a lot of time figuring out how to make craft with rotating sections, and I still haven't tried one with rotating engines.  Yours is an interesting failed unfinished creation.  I saw one very important feature: the rotation works!

It looks like you use tiny rockets to rotate the engines.  Are those Separatrons?  That's a clever way to get independent sections to rotate at the same time.  Do the rotating sections redock with the main craft for throttle control?  It looks solid after rotation.

From the video I can see Vernors for pitch control, but you might want to add some big reaction wheels.  These will save fuel if you're concerned about efficiency and will help the main craft fight the independent sections if they wobble at all.  And for forward flight it looks like you might need more wings aft to move the CoL behind the CoM for stability.

You may not need it based on this video, but the RCS Build Aid mod is great for balancing VTOLS.

You were right, my work was not a failure but an unfinished prototype.  I simply didn't know it at the time.

This may be the world's first swivel VTOL (from Kerbin's surface) mining rover SSTO cargo spaceplane.  Phew, that's a lot of descriptors.  I have tried studying other's swivel hinge designs (except for downloading them cause I'm too lazy ) but could not get the sideways facing symmetrical docking ports to attach at the same time which would cause wobbling with the resulting crashing into the ground.  This design continues the use of independent self rotating engines that attach without switching to probes (though they're still there in case of emergency) thanks to 3 pairs of twitch engines located on each vector nozzle.  They are the only dead weight when not in use, meaning greater efficiency (actually it's awful efficiency if counting the horrible drag from the sideways pointing fuselages on the wings, the downwards facing docking ports and rocket fuel tanks acting as hinges).  The attach success rate is surprisingly high if time is given for wing wobbling to settle down.  Just don't press z when taking off or the wings will fly away without the ship.  Thrust must be applied steadily using shift.

This design required stripping everything to the bone.  Smaller cockpit, smaller mining rover that can only convert ore once docked and tiny tail fins to keep down weight.  I also had to sacrifice the use of heavy nuke engines.  Even the VTOL docking ports must double as refuelling lines.  Aesthetics have suffered greatly as a result.  The takeoff profile is also very tricky.  I only got it to orbit once using a 45 degree takeoff angle once in horizontal flight mode.  However I build all my ships without offset mods or file tweaks and fly without any mods like mechjeb so for others it may be easier.

Edited June 25, 2017 by evader

[Servo]

I had a long car ride to kill, so I played around a bit more with lifting bodies. I shipped my M2F2 and NB-52008 out to the desert and had a bit of fun droptesting the craft. After spamming in a couple elevons, it flies just dandy. Now on to the M2F1, M2F3, and HL10

 Dropping it is still a little hairy. I found a way that works in deploying the elevons down to force the craft away from the B-52 on launch.

The desert makes for some really beautiful screenshots, I don't know why I didn't try this sooner.

I also did a smoothing pass on my F-14 Tomcat. There are changes to the wing glove, vertical stabilizer, and air intakes. 

Also, I am developing a weapons loadout for it, in case anyone intrepid wants to dogfight with it (if my computer were any beefier I would). I've got 4 AIM-54 Phoenix, 2 AIM-9 Sidewinders, and 2 AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, plus two drop tanks (not pictured) replicated.

 And yes, they work. The AIM-9 and AIM-7 are unguided, but I'm currently testing designs for the AIM-54 to be a guided fire-and-forget missile, like I had on my original F-14 replication.

[qzgy]

2 hours ago, Servo said:

I had a long car ride to kill,

Now the real question is how did you play KSP in a car? Laptop?

[selfish_meme]

8 hours ago, evader said:

You were right, my work was not a failure but an unfinished prototype.  I simply didn't know it at the time.

 This may be the world's first swivel VTOL (from Kerbin's surface) mining rover SSTO cargo spaceplane.  Phew, that's a lot of descriptors.  I have tried studying other's swivel hinge designs (except for downloading them cause I'm too lazy ) but could not get the sideways facing symmetrical docking ports to attach at the same time which would cause wobbling with the resulting crashing into the ground.  This design continues the use of independent self rotating engines that attach without switching to probes (though they're still there in case of emergency) thanks to 3 pairs of twitch engines located on each vector nozzle.  They are the only dead weight when not in use, meaning greater efficiency (actually it's awful efficiency if counting the horrible drag from the sideways pointing fuselages on the wings, the downwards facing docking ports and rocket fuel tanks acting as hinges).  The attach success rate is surprisingly high if time is given for wing wobbling to settle down.  Just don't press z when taking off or the wings will fly away without the ship.  Thrust must be applied steadily using shift.

This design required stripping everything to the bone.  Smaller cockpit, smaller mining rover that can only convert ore once docked and tiny tail fins to keep down weight.  I also had to sacrifice the use of heavy nuke engines.  Even the VTOL docking ports must double as refuelling lines.  Aesthetics have suffered greatly as a result.  The takeoff profile is also very tricky.  I only got it to orbit once using a 45 degree takeoff angle once in horizontal flight mode.  However I build all my ships without offset mods or file tweaks and fly without any mods like mechjeb so for others it may be easier.

4

You may want to look up a guy called Stratzenblitz75 before making that claim

 

Edited June 25, 2017 by selfish_meme

[evader]

Yes, but does it carry a rover onboard?  Lol, j/k.  With enough descriptors, I can make any of my designs seem to be the 1st of their kind.  It's true that I've seen that creation when it came out.  I was still racing towards just achieving orbit with a rotating VTOL design at the time.  I saw its build tutorial but decided to go my own route since I didn't want to tweak any files for auto struts or extra offsets.

Edited June 25, 2017 by evader

[qzgy]

6 hours ago, evader said:

I didn't want to tweak any files for auto struts or extra offsets.

Heh? No files need to be tweaked... Those are part of the very stock game. No Offset limits is by holding down shift, Autostrut is a tweakable in the part menu (may need to enable advanced tweakables)

Edited June 25, 2017 by qzgy

[evader]

55 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Heh? No files need to be tweaked... Those are part of the very stock game. No Offset limits is by holding down shift, Autostrut is a tweakable in the part menu (may need to enable advanced tweakables)

After researching, I found out that autostrut has been added to the menu in version 1.2.  Boy I'm behind the times.

Edited June 25, 2017 by evader

[Azimech]

22 hours ago, qzgy said:

For @MiffedStarfish's YT battle thing. Still undergoing construction.

Sea trials of an earlier version.

That looks a lot better than the strictly utilitarian look I give to my ships!

10 hours ago, selfish_meme said:

You may want to look up a guy called Stratzenblitz75 before making that claim

I only discovered him yesterday ... the guy is a legend!

[qzgy]

2 hours ago, Azimech said:

That looks a lot better than the strictly utilitarian look I give to my ships!

That's just the basic, unfinished hull.

Also includes a table. Not useful, but anyway, I have it.

Slight downside to a pretty thing - performance is a lot less than ideal. (1600ish parts)
But also, thanks!

Edited June 25, 2017 by qzgy

[TAL]

я просто это здесь оставлю

Craft: http://spacedock.ru/ksp/sandbox/saves/rockets/5630-eve-mk2s.html

[Servo]

I filled my ranks with lifting bodies yesterday, and finally broke on building my X-53.

M2F1, M2F2, M2F3, and HL10 all in a row. They represent most of NASA's progression in lifting body designs from 1963 (M2F1) to 1970 (M2F3).

The X-53 was a NASA craft that explored the practicality of using wing warping to control craft. I was trying to do actual wing warping (using moving wing segments), but it kept falling apart in the air. So I just used elevons instead.

[Kryten 2X4B 523P]

I set myself a little challenge - what different aircraft could I build using a limited array of parts from only the Aviation node, keeping it under 25 parts, 200 units of LF and 2 Junos?

Parts used throughout:

Juno Engine, Mk0 LF Tank, Swept Wings, Small Circular intake, Tail Fin, Elevon 1, Mk 1 Cockpit, Taill Connector A, LY01 wheel, LY05 wheel.

 

Ended up with this lot - the TX range.

Left to right TX0 (18 parts), TX1 (22), TX2 (24), TX3 (22)

As expected each have slightly different takeoff / landing / flight characteristics, each can be flown without SAS using just some trim adjustment (although I prefer with, just for the fun of it)

TX1 is probably my favourite, with TX3 a close second.

[PointySideUp]

I've been working away at some new protypes, a medium-lift SSTO, a new Mun lander, and an exploration base.  The base can land at Duna and juuuust barely make orbit again.

 

[klond]

 Tryin to shoe-horn this faux engine into one of @Azimech's cars.  Looks a little out-of-place.

Edited June 29, 2017 by klond

[Azimech]

1 minute ago, klond said:

 Tryin to shoe-horn this faux engine into one of @Azimech's cars.  Looks a little out-of-place.

 

XD

I can build you a bigger one ;-)

[Azimech]

Stock shotgun. Initial muzzle velocity 350m/s. The only problem is the mass and the fact it's a single shot.

The force of the separator defines the spread, in the above gif it's at 100%.

In this gif the separator force is at 0%.

I'm already working on lighter designs with less parts. Minimal configuration is 7 parts with a single pellet, muzzle velocity 610m/s. It drops of rapidly when you add more pellets.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Azimech

[Kryten 2X4B 523P]

Must admit, it continually amazes me what you can do design wise with even a limited range of parts in this game.

Added another one to my TX range, the TX04. Same as previously in terms of parts used, but only 20 this time.

Using the pitching control surfaces on the outer wing as flaps on take off gets the nose up easily, and also helps with keeping the nose up on landing. We could really do with a separate deployment range slider to go alongside the control authority slider though.

 

[MiffedStarfish]

2 hours ago, Azimech said:

Stock shotgun. Initial muzzle velocity 350m/s. The only problem is the mass and the fact it's a single shot.

The force of the separator defines the spread, in the above gif it's at 100%.

In this gif the separator force is at 0%.

I'm already working on lighter designs with less parts. Minimal configuration is 7 parts with a single pellet, muzzle velocity 610m/s. It drops of rapidly when you add more pellets.

That looks great! Is there a craft file? I wonder how it would perform in space.... 

[klond]

2 hours ago, Azimech said:

Stock shotgun. Initial muzzle velocity 350m/s. The only problem is the mass and the fact it's a single shot.

The force of the separator defines the spread, in the above gif it's at 100%.

In this gif the separator force is at 0%.

I'm already working on lighter designs with less parts. Minimal configuration is 7 parts with a single pellet, muzzle velocity 610m/s. It drops of rapidly when you add more pellets.

 AA flak gun!