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

[Kronus_Aerospace]

I've been doing some more work on my large fighter jet, now dubbed the PTV. Subtle changes to its aerodynamics has made it more maneuverable and quite a bit more responsive. Switching out the Wheesley's for Panthers has also allowed the craft to reach supersonic velocities far easier, although it still isn't particularly speedy.

I also decided to give it a proper looking cockpit made out of a couple of fairings

The Soyuz fairing texture is certainly serviceable, as it is kinda reminiscent of the orange reflective cockpits often used on fighter aircraft. However I'm not entirely satisfied with it.

Since this craft was entirely inspired by @Servo's works, I decided to shamelessly rip off his technique of using solar panels. I gotta give him props, building a cockpit like this is actually pretty simple in terms of the geometry, it's just that perfectly orienting each individual panel is very time consuming and tedious, although to be fair this one is a lot larger than anything Servo has built to my knowledge. Once completed it will be composed of over 100 panels.

Just the work I've already completed on it has taken several hours, needless to say this cockpit will take me several days of work to finish.

EDIT:

In the meantime I decided to add some roll cannards on the wingtips, this one simple design change ended up being a colossal boon for the craft. The roll authority was increased so much with the simple addition of these canards that I was able to change many of the other control surfaces from roll to pitch. The craft is now far more maneuverable in every regard.

Edited May 30, 2018 by Kronus_Aerospace

[He_162]

2 hours ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

I've been doing some more work on my large fighter jet, now dubbed the PTV. Subtle changes to its aerodynamics has made it more maneuverable and quite a bit more responsive. Switching out the Wheesley's for Panthers has also allowed the craft to reach supersonic velocities far easier, although it still isn't particularly speedy.
I also decided to give it a proper looking cockpit made out of a couple of fairings
The Soyuz fairing texture is certainly serviceable, as it is kinda reminiscent of the orange reflective cockpits often used on fighter aircraft. However I'm not entirely satisfied with it.
Since this craft was entirely inspired by @Servo's works, I decided to shamelessly rip off his technique of using solar panels. I gotta give him props, building a cockpit like this is actually pretty simple in terms of the geometry, it's just that perfectly orienting each individual panel is very time consuming and tedious, although to be fair this one is a lot larger than anything Servo has built to my knowledge.
Once completed it will be composed of over 100 panels. Just the work I've already completed on it has taken several hours, needless to say this cockpit will take me several days of work to finish.
EDIT:
In the meantime I decided to add some roll cannards on the wingtips, this one simple design change ended up being a colossal boon for the craft. The roll authority was increased so much with the simple addition of these canards that I was able to change many of the other control surfaces from roll to pitch. The craft is now far more maneuverable in every regard.

I'd like to see a few kerbals fit in that cockpit! That would be cool, with an ejectable canopy and some ejection seats? The kerbals come with parachutes now so it will be easier to make those seats smaller than my old ones.

[Gman_builder]

On 5/27/2018 at 9:27 PM, He_162 said:

I'd say it looks a lot like that blue aircraft made by Bugatti, but also twin engine! Of course its zippy! Well done!

The Model 100? Yeah now that you mention it it kinda does. I designed the tail so that it wouldnt impact the launch clamps when i released the aircraft but it also looks pretty sleek and sexc i guess

[He_162]

1 hour ago, Gman_builder said:

The Model 100? Yeah now that you mention it it kinda does. I designed the tail so that it wouldnt impact the launch clamps when i released the aircraft but it also looks pretty sleek and sexc i guess

Model 100p, yeah. Really cool aircraft. You can guess why it isn't my favorite though.

[Gman_builder]

14 hours ago, He_162 said:

Model 100p, yeah. Really cool aircraft. You can guess why it isn't my favorite though.

Italian? Cause it's blue? Propeller powered? Idk my dude XD 

[He_162]

7 hours ago, Gman_builder said:

Italian? Cause it's blue? Propeller powered? Idk my dude XD 

Look my name without the underscore up on google really quick

[Gman_builder]

5 hours ago, He_162 said:

Look my name without the underscore up on google really quick

Haha, I assumed it'd be less obvious   

I love me a Volksjäger too

[Servo]

I posted my 40% scale F-14 on KerbalX, and within minutes, received this comment:

So I made this...

Hinge is a RCS ball inside a octagonal/thermo cage, held by the wing glove, and rotated by drag and a pair of Micro Landing Struts.

And somehow, it works! Albeit, rather poorly, but modifications are underway, might switch over to the small landing gear rather than legs, just for reliability, though size is the main concern here.

[Dman979]

Congrats on being featured as a Thread of the Month!

[EvenFlow]

Soon (TM).

Edited June 2, 2018 by EvenFlow

[Gman_builder]

@EvenFlow Viggen?

[EvenFlow]

1 minute ago, Gman_builder said:

@EvenFlow Viggen?

Absolutely. :>

[HB Stratos]

Hey @Kronus_Aerospace,

You can simplify your cockpit build by making one half ring of solar panels and then stack the small cubes on each other and rotate them a bit to match the shape. Lastly finetune it as you like...

Oh and if you guys spot any mistakes in my english pleae correct me it would help me a lot.

[Kronus_Aerospace]

@HB Stratos I appreciate the advice, but I can't quite visualize what you're trying to say.

[HB Stratos]

yeah thats hard...

Hope this helps @Kronus_Aerospace

Got some images for you:

Inside:

Final:

Edited June 2, 2018 by HB Stratos

[Kronus_Aerospace]

@HB Stratos Oh okay, I get it. That method for building cockpits does seem orders of magnitude more simplistic. While a good method, I personally want my cockpit to realistically recreate the shape of the bubble cockpits used on jet fighters. Like a Sukhoi or Lockheed Martin Fighter craft. The method I'm currently using may be extremely tedious, but it does offer a lot of precision.

Edited June 2, 2018 by Kronus_Aerospace

[Kronus_Aerospace]

@HB Stratos Well shut my mouth. I tried your technique and I take back what I said. It works perfectly, the resulting geometry is exactly what I was doing before, only orders of magnitude easier and faster. Thanks for telling me about it!

[HB Stratos]

ok glad I could help you

[PaperAviator]

Progress is slow 

[Kronus_Aerospace]

For the Past two months I've been working on what is by far my largest and most ambitious project ever. A 1:1 scale replica of the Boeing Pelican ULTRA (yes, that is its actual name). This project presented incredible challenges as the Pelican is a cargo ekranoplan measuring 120 meters in length and having a 150 meter wingspan, on top of all this it would've been powered by only 4 turboprops. While it was never built, this aircraft was seriously proposed by Boeing.

Due to the nature of the Pelican's design I had to pick 1 of two choices, either make it heavy or make it un-aerodynamic. This craft weighs 1.7 kilotons, and probably 90% of that comes from the Mark3 parts that make up about half of it's fuselage. The other half of the fuselage is made up of wing parts, these greatly increase the part count and cause drag, but they substantially reduce the mass, which in this case was the larger concern. The current part count is 2629 as a result.

Getting this craft to fly was extremely difficult, on top of increasing drag, the wing surfaces used in the fuselage mess up the CoL in the SPH so much that the only real way of determining how to configure the wings was excessive experimentation.

One of the most time consuming parts of building this craft was the engines. Before this I had never built a prop-plane that could get off the ground, so the fact that I began this project in the first place kinda shows how little sanity I truly have. This craft would have never flew if it weren't for the advice of the incredible @Azimech, seriously I knew bugger-all about Turboprops, he was a lifesaver. That being said, actually coming up with a good enough design was difficult.

Ultimately 4 turboprops were produced, all four weigh about the same (40 tonnes) and have similar part counts (130-180) yet they have a clear progression in quality from left to right. Their thrust (from left to right) goes: 1000 kN, 1500 kN, 2300 kN, 2900 kN. Each was put on the Pelican and tested, and it wasn't until the 4th that the thing was able to get off the ground. Each time I started on a new engine I took more and more of Azimech's advice into account. Considering that this took me 2 months, you can tell that it took me quite sometime to fully grasp what he was saying, very humbling if not also extremely embarrassing.

However, since this is the WIP thread you can probably guess that this thing ain't done yet. Even with its newest engines it still barely flies, and in reality this thing was supposed to be able to carry 1200 ton payloads, So I'm probably going to make yet another more powerful engine (though one would think that nearly 12000 kN of total thrust would be enough, this craft has a top speed of only 54 m/s).

I also would like to add the cargo bay door mechanism, the entire nose section can be decoupled so this shouldn't be toooooooo difficult to incorporate, but I am willing to pass on it if it does turn out to not be feasible. Admittedly, the nose section does weigh nearly 300 tonnes.

And, in case you were wondering. No, I am not adding the tilting wingtips, even my insanity has limits.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Kronus_Aerospace

[Azimech]

Gotta hand it to ya @Kronus_Aerospace ... what a fantastic build!

[Rune]

So, after many, many moons playing this thing, I am becoming lazy. So I build the most convenient, cheap way to orbit. Up like a rocket, down like a plane. Ditch nothing, of course.

And yes, I know the Sirius is kinda new. But I was getting a lot of OCD on account of not nailing the runway all the time, and not getting that sweet 100% recovery message.

 

Rune. Not that I don't have 30 million in the bank on my save...

Edited June 4, 2018 by Rune

[Triop]

Upgrading my F-800, past the tests

[Kerbalwerks]

On 6/3/2018 at 2:52 PM, Kronus_Aerospace said:

For the Past two months I've been working on what is by far my largest and most ambitious project ever. A 1:1 scale replica of the Boeing Pelican ULTRA (yes, that is its actual name). This project presented incredible challenges as the Pelican is a cargo ekranoplan measuring 120 meters in length and having a 150 meter wingspan, on top of all this it would've been powered by only 4 turboprops. While it was never built, this aircraft was seriously proposed by Boeing.

Due to the nature of the Pelican's design I had to pick 1 of two choices, either make it heavy or make it un-aerodynamic. This craft weighs 1.7 kilotons, and probably 90% of that comes from the Mark3 parts that make up about half of it's fuselage. The other half of the fuselage is made up of wing parts, these greatly increase the part count and cause drag, but they substantially reduce the mass, which in this case was the larger concern. The current part count is 2629 as a result.

Getting this craft to fly was extremely difficult, on top of increasing drag, the wing surfaces used in the fuselage mess up the CoL in the SPH so much that the only real way of determining how to configure the wings was excessive experimentation.

One of the most time consuming parts of building this craft was the engines. Before this I had never built a prop-plane that could get off the ground, so the fact that I began this project in the first place kinda shows how little sanity I truly have. This craft would have never flew if it weren't for the advice of the incredible @Azimech, seriously I knew bugger-all about Turboprops, he was a lifesaver. That being said, actually coming up with a good enough design was difficult.

Ultimately 4 turboprops were produced, all four weigh about the same (40 tonnes) and have similar part counts (130-180) yet they have a clear progression in quality from left to right. Their thrust (from left to right) goes: 1000 kN, 1500 kN, 2300 kN, 2900 kN. Each was put on the Pelican and tested, and it wasn't until the 4th that the thing was able to get off the ground. Each time I started on a new engine I took more and more of Azimech's advice into account. Considering that this took me 2 months, you can tell that it took me quite sometime to fully grasp what he was saying, very humbling if not also extremely embarrassing.

However, since this is the WIP thread you can probably guess that this thing ain't done yet. Even with its newest engines it still barely flies, and in reality this thing was supposed to be able to carry 1200 ton payloads, So I'm probably going to make yet another more powerful engine (though one would think that nearly 12000 kN of total thrust would be enough, this craft has a top speed of only 54 m/s).

I also would like to add the cargo bay door mechanism, the entire nose section can be decoupled so this shouldn't be toooooooo difficult to incorporate, but I am willing to pass on it if it does turn out to not be feasible. Admittedly, the nose section does weigh nearly 300 tonnes.

And, in case you were wondering. No, I am not adding the tilting wingtips, even my insanity has limits.

Too much awesome in this project !

On 6/3/2018 at 1:59 PM, PaperAviator said:

Progress is slow 

Looking promising!

[Kronus_Aerospace]

1 hour ago, Kerbalwerks said:

Too much awesome in this project !

Thanks man! I can't wait till It's finished, till then there is a lot more work to do, but I am finally making progress in this craft's coolest feature!

It also has new engines which give it a total thrust of 18600 kN, which theoretically should give this craft over 1 TWR.

I am definitely gonna have some fun with that!