Operation Gato Drop: Kerbin's first Inter-Oceanic Ballistic Spy Submarine

[gabyalufix]

So this was a fun set of runs I did a few days ago. Figured I\'d post it here. I wanted to play with the capabilities of my new submarine pack. After all, what was the point of having submarines if we didn\'t use em. I was also in a bit of a silly mood at the time.

So the top brass of the Kerbal space program was worried. Sure, they can put all kinds of deadly missiles into orbit, and rain down hellish Armageddon upon any nation they choose. But how do they know which specific nations are acting in a manner that would require them to respond with aforementioned hellish Armagedda? They can\'t just nuke everyone. Well they could, but it would totally screw up their yearly budget.

Thus was the IOBS born. The idea was thus: we can launch missiles into space, and we can launch boats underwater, right? Why not do one, then the other, on the same mission? The logic was ironclad.

For a plane, it\'s pretty big. For me, though, it\'s tiny.

Single stage. Originally it had multiple stages, but that was abandoned when the stage separations kept knocking off wings.

Launch:

You can see the ballast weight there. I reinforced it a bit so it wouldn\'t tear off.

The wings were designed to be ejectable. they\'re too big for a submarine. Note the digital periscope and the radar periscope.

After picking up some speed, we leveled off at 45 degrees and eased off the throttle. We wanted to get up where the air\'s a bit thinner before we really start accelerating properly.

Once we hit around 20km, we go horizontal and burn HARD. We keep burning until the engines don\'t have enough air. It\'s hard to say when this would actually happen, since the loss of air pressure is counteracted by our massive velocity. The intake air pressure probably stays reasonable for quite a while. I guesstimated and cut the engines at 50km.

After a while, I remember to eject the wings.

Now it\'s just the submarine, the parachutes, and the CC/LA rocket engines (Course-Correction/Landing Assistance).

I do a couple burns to correct for aim. Since my final real burn was in atmo, I am NOT in orbit. I\'m in a ballistic trajectory,

Didn\'t get a pic of my final run, but it was something like this:

I did many tries, since I usually landed in the deep ocean. I was aiming for this coast:

Bullseye! I come down at night, unseen, invisible.

I used the CC/LA rockets a little, to slow myself down so I didn\'t smash apart on splashdown. It required a little practice, if you stop yourself the parachutes dissapear and you shatter when your nose comes down. You need to time it just right.

Success!

I detach the rockets and the parachutes, and I\'m a submarine!

Now I do some spying/exploration.

When I\'m near the coast, I submerge the sensor periscope, and rely on the camera only.

Even fully submerged, I can pull 3 m/s pretty easily. That\'s 5.8 knots, not much slower than the WWII german u-boats. I can go faster, but when I do, I sometimes break apart, especially if I\'m careless. I was careful this time, and didn\'t want to risk it.

I putter around, exploring, spying, watching local broadcast TV. Maybe do some prank calling. Whatever.

I\'m invisible, can you see me?

Sometimes I took deeper dives, but I forgot to take pics.

Interesting coastline.

Sunrise on a spy.

Eventually I snapped off the tail on the ocean floor. Whoops.

Whatever. It\'s compartmentalized. We\'re fine. Who needs a tail anyhow?

You\'ll need:

-C7 flight pack + the experimental set

-Novapunch

-Probodobodyne

-Down Under (for the capsule)

-My submarine pack

-Silisko edition (maybe?)

-KW challenger (maybe. I often use their struts)

edit: forgot, you\'ll also need that heavy decoupler. from the same guys as the kerbylon launch tower, which you will also need.

[C7Studios]

Holy... I give the tools. You build pyramids of awesome. I salute you sir.

[RedDwarfIV]

Suspicious used parachutes wash up on the shore...

[Tim_Barrett]

That plane has the biggest wings and the smallest fuselage (submarine), interesting combo.

I\'m suprised you were actually able to put all those fuel tanks on those fragile huge wings, but I guess thats what struts are for now huh?

[foamyesque]

You have NO IDEA how much I want that launchpad part.

[Katalliaan]

You have NO IDEA how much I want that launchpad part.

It\'s 'Project Kebylon' - you can find it here (scroll down a bit).

[gabyalufix]

@foamy: I know, right? That part changed everything. Not only does it let you just ignore the tower, it also comes with these uber-heavy, uber-strong struts that you can use the hold any rocket together on the launchpad. No more launchpad explosions!

[Tim_Barrett]

For a plane, it\'s pretty big. For me, though, it\'s tiny.

I\'d have to agree on that one, not huge, but still bigger than most craft.

If you call this tiny, what else do you have up your sleeve hm? 8)