"Non-fatal But Still Funny" Accidents or design flaws

[Tex]

(I shall post some pictures here in a few hours)

So I recently made an awesome supersonic jet aircraft (my first ever, as it happens), and was trying to convert it into a spaceplane. Well... Long story short, the nose of the aircraft was insufficiently strutted, so the nose wobbled all over the place during flight. I thought the whole concept of a wiggly-nosed spacecraft was absurd, but the best part was the landing: When I tried to brake, the landing gear, which was placed on the wobbly nose, caused the nose to bend almost 40 degrees towards the ground. I was cracking up by that point.

So what kind of hilarious design flaws have your crafts undergone?

[Franklin]

95% of my design issues surround how Kerbals seem to build their rockets out of silver spray-painted cardboard. "Wobbly and limp" is an understatement in far more designs than it should be, and kinda kills a lot of design freedom for me. I hope Squad reviews joint rigidity in the future.

But that said, my last non-lethal chuckle was accidentally deploying my satellite's solar panels before its fairings decoupled. it was like an awkward, metal bird hatching from a giant egg.

[Rarity]

95% of my design issues surround how Kerbals seem to build their rockets out of silver spray-painted cardboard. "Wobbly and limp" is an understatement in far more designs than it should be, and kinda kills a lot of design freedom for me. I hope Squad reviews joint rigidity in the future.

But that said, my last non-lethal chuckle was accidentally deploying my satellite's solar panels before its fairings decoupled. it was like an awkward, metal bird hatching from a giant egg.

They greatly increased joint strength in 0.23.5, if your craft still wobbles then you might want to either add a few struts or build smaller...

[Franklin]

I'm appreciative that they did for sure, but that just reinforces (heh) my point: it's design-limiting to give part joints the rigidity of a wet noodle. Rocket design in KSP is functionally better wide and flat over tall and long, which is counter-intuitive to what people think of with rocket design in general.

[KvickFlygarn87]

95% of my design issues surround how Kerbals seem to build their rockets out of silver spray-painted cardboard. "Wobbly and limp" is an understatement in far more designs than it should be, and kinda kills a lot of design freedom for me. I hope Squad reviews joint rigidity in the future.

But that said, my last non-lethal chuckle was accidentally deploying my satellite's solar panels before its fairings decoupled. it was like an awkward, metal bird hatching from a giant egg.

...are you running ARM?

[Franklin]

Of course.

Now granted most of my 'saggy, long rocket' issues revolve around heavy/long sections being joined by docking ports and/or decouplers, which are notoriously wobbly. A straight-up Tank > Tank > Tank > Tank tower is far more rigid.

[Xacktar]

I'm really bad about balancing things, it is quite often that a plane or rover is launched and immediately tips onto their nose.

[Tex]

Ah, me too. I once tried to build a jet biplane, and those wings give a lotta lift right at the front... At least my pilot got to do about fifty backflips before he died...

[cantab]

At the moment the joint strength compared to the joint stiffness is way out of whack.

That's 175 tons of weight hanging on joints bent nearly 90 degrees from their original state. I could have left this forever and it wouldn't have broken.

[SuperBigD60]

I meant to watch a particular launch from IVA, but instead of IVA, I hit EVA, and my poor kerbal never made it into space, even though his rocket did.

That may have been fatal, but considering I've had kerbals land from interplanetary trajectories and survive, I just followed the ship and assumed he'd survive.

I didn't care enough to make sure, though.

It was super funny to watch, and I actually think I recorded it. I'll have to find that.

[HafCoJoe]

Don't you hate it when you time warp while ascending and your payload flips completely over and gets stuck inside your staging?

[Rakaydos]

Oh the humanity! Oh godohgodoh...wait....

So all we lost was the lift engine? and we're in orbit? ...why was this not in he original mision plan?

[phoenix_ca]

Iridescent mixed cocks, hm?

[Accelerando]

Iridescent mixed cocks, hm?

best game, 10/10, GOTY amily edition.

[Tripzter]

Indeed the parts need to be stronger/sturdier. I know joints in ARM got a big fix but the rigidity of the parts needs to be increased more. Doing so will fix multiple bugs in the game as well as make it more realistic. Ever seen the orange tank on the space shuttle flex like a wet overcooked noodle?

[Boris_T_Roach]

At the moment the joint strength compared to the joint stiffness is way out of whack.

That's 175 tons of weight hanging on joints bent nearly 90 degrees from their original state. I could have left this forever and it wouldn't have broken.

What you need to to install some radial decouplers on either side of the wibbley joint and run some girders and struts between them, then dump them off when you stage at that joint

Works a treat for me

Boris

[Comrade Jenkens]

I put small cubic struts down the sides of the rocket and join them with struts. No matter how long the rocket it won't bend!

As for funny fails I've had to chase a rover down the side of a crater on the Mun to get it back.

[cantab]

For the example I posted I ended up strutting diagonally, the lateral parts of the payload to the central lifter core and vice-versa. Only needed 8 struts in all for that, and no need for girderwork. That was after my first attempt left ugly strut ends on the nuclear engines. For strengthening straight-sided rockets I'll indeed typically use cubic octagonal struts as anchor points, or the small hardpoints can make a more aesthetic, but heavier, alternative.

And on the topic of rovers, my Collins 1 mission was a comedy of errors with the nexus being a runaway rover. It ended up over 4 km from the landing site before Neilgee caught up with it, then promptly hit a bump while driving back up the hill in the dark. That'll teach me not to forget the parking brake!

[phoenix_ca]

I put small cubic struts down the sides of the rocket and join them with struts. No matter how long the rocket it won't bend!

Doesn't sound like something that would work with FAR, unfortunately. :/

[MC.STEEL]

Made a munar lander without a ladder and went on an EVA with Jeb so i can check out some craters,Ran out of remass just as i landed near the craft so i had to make it do some aggressive hip hop before i could get him to latch on the door.All was well and the crew returned home,But Jeb's ego was slightly scarred that day.

[NecroBones]

I was doing a test-launch, and even though it was a manual launch, I had forgotten that I had left MechJeb's "terminal velocity" limiter turned on. I got to see some amusing piston-like compression of the entire craft:

[Xacktar]

The sounds really make that, Necro. LOL

[Kasuha]

I believe this belongs here:

Jeb, Bill, and Bob returning to their ship after slight mishap with their rover.

... and successfully parked next to the second, still complete rover.

[corvustech]

The first time I experimented with the largest solid fuel boosters the rocket was too short, so I used girders to stand them out. Physics won...at launch they worked like two fiery hammers clapping together on the central fuel tank, and nothing was left but the pod and the pilot on the pad.

[InterCity]

I made an SSTO, but upon load it started to lean backwards, which eventually led to a loss of engines.

This is not exactly a failure (it's a success), but it's related to failures too, since it's the test of my emergency rescue system. The kerbals ended up flipped but unharmed, so it has done its job.