[Early WIP] Bingo Aerospace - Blizzard | B9-styled modular cockpit for HL fuselage

[nothke]

Bingo Aerospace presents you the BLIZZARD!

Here is a little project I was working on for some time, but not something I did actively. It's early WIP, and I won't actively work on it, just occasionally.

For the beginning I'd say that nothing what you see here is any close to being final. I am intending to make a long design process for the beginning so that I can make sure that everything works, and that I am satisfied with functionality and design. I intend to go "back to the drawing board" several times before deciding to polish the model and textures.

I needed a "proper" cockpit for my KTS program, so I decided to start working on the cockpit because I wanted:

- Better visibility (possibility to land from IVA, also zenith and aft windows)

- Better functionality (IVA RasterPropMonitor integration)

- more crew (3 upper deck + 4 in optional lower deck)

- to seamlessly fit with B9 parts and style

The design process

(from bottom to top) I started with the HL fuselage piece that bac9 kindly sent me, I just extruded from it and started shaping it.

on the fourth one you can see that I tried to make the cockpit windows part look like the real Shuttle, to make it look more realistic. I realized soon that the HL fuselage is pretty wide, so to make a cockpit where you would be able to look through the side windows, you would need to separate it somehow in a "bubble" like the 747 or Antonov 224 does. But I decided to go then with a more faceted sci fi look where the cockpit would stick out from the main part (inspired partly with Avatar's Valkyrie), which you can see in the sixth iteration. Then, I decided to make the front piece of the cockpit compatible with B9's S2 fuselage, so you can chose to continue it, design your own nose cone, but you can also put the custom made Blizzard parts.

Modularity

The cockpit in the end will consist of 3 modules where each will have different parts to chose from. For example, for the flight deck, you could put a for example a crewless probe core, or a rasterPropMonitor enhanced cockpit. For the lower deck, you could chose to put crew deck that can take 4 Kerbals, or a lab that takes less but can do science, or a supply container with monoprop and life support supplies, or even a small cargo bay. For the nose cone, there's more choice because it starts with the S2 size and you can practically extend it in whatever you like way..

Reports from the skunk works

Early visibility tests

Interior design. The textures are definitely matching B9 in quality =P

The first mockup enters VAB

In game tests:

There are several problems with current iteration, for example, the windows are too big, unrealistically big. I think the rear side window is larger than the one in cupola. A lot of the viewfield also goes up (zenith) for someone looking from the commander and pilot seats, which is quite unnecessary, the most important is the looking down into the runway and ground, so that is probably the space I should reduce, you really want to keep windows to necessary in space.

Edited January 19, 2014 by nothke

[Cooly568]

Nothke, WHY DO YOU MAKE SO MANY AWESOME THINGS.

[Helix935]

quizzical stare* so this is made just so that there would be a cockpit for the HL parts in B9?

Genius

although i just use B9 to make drop pods carrying cargo and jerbals i mean kerbals

[Nazari1382]

nice work!

[nsnipe]

Yep make them windows like 5% smaller and round the corners up. Otherwise I'm excited to see this baby when its finished.

[BLUAV8R]

Looks great! Cant wait

[NathanKell]

Well, *that's* pretty!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Subscribed!

And as a suggestion, making the nosecone it's own probe core for s2 use would be most helpful! I always seem to end up with an unmanned shuttle-c based on the s2 when i use b9.

[SkyHook]

This isn't even your final form!

[DasBananenbrot]

This isn't even your final form!

Yeah I am thinking this too nothke I really like the idea and what you got so far. Will be an instant download when it will be finished.

Take your time, I will wait patiently, as for me a good and polished part is more important than to have it instantly

[nothke]

And as a suggestion, making the nosecone it's own probe core for s2 use would be most helpful! I always seem to end up with an unmanned shuttle-c based on the s2 when i use b9.

I'll propose the idea to the Bingo Aerospace Instruments Laboratory (BAIL) and we'll see what they think about it. =)

[acc]

a-we-some! can't wait to play with it.

<ignore>suggestion/question: use rasterprop monitor!?</ignore>

the screens answered already

Edited January 21, 2014 by acc

[Sochin]

Yay someone has realised that you cant look out forward in a B9 cockpit:D. Thats not saying that B9 isn't excellent, it is, but the forward vis just annoys me and makes me not want to use an IVA view very much. The only other niggle I have is with attaching wings on a B9 fuselage part as the bottom of the part is either fillited (rounded) or chamfered (angular).

[1of6Billion]

Pure genius.....

[nothke]

Working on the nose cone, still thinking about using a more realistic (rightmost) or more.. Baboon shaped cones =)

[ferram4]

Actually, assuming that you're coming in at a very high AoA, the baboon nose cones aren't that bad from an aerodynamic perspective. It presents a very large radius at the nose to reduce aerodynamic heating, and on the back face where less heating occurs it has a much smaller radius, while the combination has the smallest nose possible at low AoA for better performance at low supersonic speeds. I'd have to run CFD on them to be sure, but that's my initial thoughts on the nose.

I like the left-most one to be honest. Make the nose itself grey, the bottom surface and the bits just above that black, along with the defined lip for the nose, make the rest the HL fuselage color. It'll look great.

[nothke]

Actually, assuming that you're coming in at a very high AoA, the baboon nose cones aren't that bad from an aerodynamic perspective. It presents a very large radius at the nose to reduce aerodynamic heating, and on the back face where less heating occurs it has a much smaller radius, while the combination has the smallest nose possible at low AoA for better performance at low supersonic speeds. I'd have to run CFD on them to be sure, but that's my initial thoughts on the nose.

I like the left-most one to be honest. Make the nose itself grey, the bottom surface and the bits just above that black, along with the defined lip for the nose, make the rest the HL fuselage color. It'll look great.

Thanks, you made me decide xD Hah, doing CFD on a low poly mesh would be quite amusing.

PS. Did anyone try doing CFD on the stock parts? =)

Edited January 21, 2014 by nothke

[nothke]

I think I'm gonna go with this:

nuff cockpit for today =)

[DasBananenbrot]

I think I'm gonna go with this:

http://i.imgur.com/Ex5zRPv.png?1

nuff cockpit for today =)

That looks amazing

[BLUAV8R]

I like the design you have going i hope the final texture will be as good as the S2 cockpit in the B9 pack

[astropapi1]

That's very nice, nothke! Looks a lot like the STS cockpit.

I wouldn't mind a cockpit like that at all. Looks like it would belong to this mod.

[Read have Read]

According to this North American Rockwell microfiche, they initially planned on putting the airlock in the nose. With the modular design of this cockpit, an optional nose EVA hatch or docking port would be useful, as putting a B9 surface docking port on the zenith of the cockpit blocks the hatch. One thing that we don't have in the B9 S2 parts is an inline docking port. Edited January 23, 2014 by Read have Read

[montyben101]

This isn't dead is it?

[DasBananenbrot]

This isn't dead is it?

I hope this quote from the OP answers your question

It's early WIP, and I won't actively work on it, just occasionally.

[nothke]

According to this North American Rockwell microfiche, they initially planned on putting the airlock in the nose.

I've seen these concepts some time ago and I might consider making one of nose cones with the hatch, but I will make a docking extension/module at the rear that can fit inside the cargo bay similar to the one on the real shuttle.