Viper Aerobatic Aircraft

[Pixel of Life]

Here's a neat little propeller plane I built.

Meet the Viper. A fast and extremely agile twin-engine propeller aircraft inspired by the Reno air racers. Available in two engine configurations: the Viper T with turboprop engines (4 blade propeller), and the Viper R with radials (3 blade propeller). Top speed at sea level is 120 m/s for the R model and 150 m/s for the T model. A high tech electronic stabilization system makes it possible to slip the aircraft in just about any direction without the risk of an unrecoverable stall. Reversible propellers enable the aircraft to hover nose down or even to fly backwards.

Download:

Viper R

Viper T

Mods required:

B9 Aerospace

Procedural Wings

Firespitter

Kerbal Aircraft Expansion

Ferram Aerospace Research is recommended. The aircraft may or may not work correctly without it - I have not tested it.

How to fly:

Taxiing:

- Enable tail wheel steering by right clicking the tail wheel. Remember to reverse the steering or it will turn in the opposite direction.

- Keep it nice and slow so that you don't tip the aircraft over when making steering inputs. I recommend locking the steering before you try taking off. The same applies for landing.

Taking off:

- Start the engines.

- Apply full throttle

- The aircraft will lift off on its own at around 100 m/s. Avoid abrupt yaw inputs as these can cause the aircraft to start oscillating.

Flying:

- Do whatever the hell you want! Flips, spins, slips, stalls, hovers, knife edges, anything! The aircraft handles all kinds of maneuvers very well. Do keep the SAS on, though, as it's extremely unstable without it!

Landing:

- Approach the runway just like with other aircraft. Touchdown speed should be a bit less than 100 m/s.

- After touchdown, apply reverse thrust by pressing 1. Do not apply full power when the reversers are active! 10 to 20 percent should be enough. If possible, avoid using wheel brakes as the aircraft may nose over. Most of the time the reversers are more than enough.

- Set throttle to idle and disable reversers once you've decelerated enough.

Enjoy! Improvement suggestions are welcome!

- CK

Edited May 24, 2014 by CaptainKorhonen