Helicopter with Stock Parts? Hang Gliders and VTOL...

[Callisto]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently working on a STOCK ONLY helicopter for Kerbal Space Program...

I've ran out of ideas... I've had a fuel can with horizontal engines on it's diameter spinning around a crazy speeds with wings and canards... with no luck!

Does anybody have any ideas/tips?

I've accomplished a Hang Glider & a single seater VTOL plane with Missiles... with great success! Just wish I could work out how to create a helicopter!

- Kerbal Space Program - Hang Gliders and VTOL Planes - STOCK ONLY

[Racketman]

You could always use the Firespitter mod from the Spaceport?

I've subbed to your videos as it'll be interesting to see! Love the Cargo Plane, btw!

[Starwhip]

I made a "helicopter" out of a FL-T200 and some swept wings, with the little orange radial engines to spin it. Lots of struts to keep it together. It kinda flew, for a while.

[LordOfTheOrbits]

I found this:

It's fully electric and uses a rover wheel for the spinning.

[Callisto]

I tried this and it just ripped my craft apart and the "engine" remained on the runway like a spinning top...

I'll add more struts - thanks for the tip!

[allmappedout]

I remember seeing it done, a long time ago, and it relied on the main rotor being disconnected but contained within the body so it didn't fly off. Apart from that, balancing the required thrust from the tail rotor little rocket should be much easier now with tweakables. I can't remember who did it, it was around 0.18 I think, but it's definitely possible. Good luck!

[DrLex]

I did some experiments with very basic helicopters that just spin in their entirety. It proves difficult to get these things to fly in a pilotable way, but a careful design can be pretty usable. Some hints:

• While assembling your craft, it is essential that you know how to change the orientation of parts (read: wings). Use the WASDQE keys before attaching them. Hold down Shift for small increments, otherwise rotation is 90°. You must orient the wings such that they will produce lift when the craft spins, a craft with only horizontal wings will not take off.
  
• Rotor lift can be tweaked with control surfaces (especially the small one is interesting because it offers quite a bit of lift for its low weight). It is essential to disable at least the ‘roll’ component of these surfaces, in most cases you will want it to not react to any controls at all. Right-click the part and disable pitch, yaw, roll.
  
• A two-blade rotor design will have a different impulse moment in different directions (in other words, it will turn faster in some directions than others). This makes it even harder to pilot than it already is. Use three or four blades.
  
• Tiny engines at the tips of the wings can provide torque for spinning, or a few stacked reaction wheels can serve as an electric motor on their own, and at the same time provide much-needed stability. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the large rockomax-sized wheel is the lightest.
  
• Really light crafts will behave like a mixture between a helicopter and a hang glider. Landing these at a predefined location is challenging. You may want to make the craft heavy enough that it starts losing altitude relatively quickly once it stops spinning, otherwise you'll be hovering around your landing spot for a long while.
  

Here's an example of a basic electric helicopter (hidden inside the stack of wheels is a probe, battery, and another smaller reaction wheel):