Mutant Hero’s Spaceplane w/Mothership [Stock][22.X]

[Guest Space Cowboy]

Three solid days work including a complete rebuild from scratch. I am able to get into a nice orbit, do a de-orbit burn, and land with fuel and oxidizer onboard. I prefer to burnoff at least the oxidizer before touchdown. I am working on a full flight video right now.

Spaceport Download

Spaceport Download

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A pic of the original. Mothership thrust and wing area increased, spaceplane rocket fuel decrease, and spaceplane up / down balance zeroed out.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Space Cowboy

[barrenwaste]

Ok, that's some nice craft building there. I think I like the mothership more than the shuttle, but they are both very good builds. What's the range on the shuttle?

[Guest Space Cowboy]

Thanks very much.

Well the shuttle can reach orbit. But for flying by itself - pretty far on its jets. Not sure. I guess the thing to do would be to climb to 12000 or higher and see. If you fly that way I would burn off the rocket fuel in the climb and acceleration to get rid of the weight.

Here is a movie: takeoff, separation, several orbits, and touchdown on the same runway.

http://youtu.be/3VWuF3Tkc-I

I will be releasing the crafts that came about during this process in a single download soon, and I will include the mothership. I expect to run into center of thrust issues, when removing the piggyback payload. There was an atmospheric only variant of the spaceplane which was imho the best thing that actually came out of this.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Space Cowboy

[Guest Space Cowboy]

One thing I have learned is that it is useful to toggle the lower two jets engines, and the orbiters jet engines, to keep the vehicle trimmable during ascent and acceleration. I didn't plan that.

[Guest Space Cowboy]

The upload has been updated. The CRAFT file was changed slightly, I removed one set of separation rockets, so there is very little pitch induced during separation.

There is a new video over there (and updated instructions) and will be processing awhile. I did a better flight profile, and built up much more energy before separation. The landing is the best I have made on video so far.

TECH:

The CG of the whole assembly shifts during the jet engine burn portion of flight. I could fix this another way, but I have found something that works for me. If you look at the jet engines, there are three levels. Level 1 is the single pair mounted low on the mothership, Level 2 is the pair of long rows of engines on the mothership, and Level 3 are the jet engines on the orbiter itself. During rotation (liftoff the runway) the vehicle had a nose down tendency, which also caused the nosewheel to track. I begin flight with the orbiters jets (group 3) off now. Those problems are solved. Right after liftoff, I engage group (or Level) 3 engines, which poses no problem, as aiflow over the control surfaces is sufficient to overcome pitch issues. With SAS engaged you will see a single pitch oscillation and then it will hold. You can climb vertically if desired. The wings of the mothership are really only needed during acceleration.

SpacePort Download

I wish I knew how to man the mothership for return flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XMzI2w5oynw

My next thing will be to fix the whole center of thrust issue, by placing engines only on the vertical center of mass, of both vehicles, experimenting with the correct number of engines on each vehicle so that when joined the center of thrust and center of mass of the entire assembly is matched as well. Then I will make a movie of both vehicles returning to base somehow. That will be cool.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Space Cowboy