Designing a plane to drop a plane.

[glen.mack]

Has anyone done this in 0.25?

Any tips as I embark on this stupid journey in an attempt to recreate the interstellar trailer - (0:32-0:38)

The planes need to fly somewhat coherently as a unit, but stable enough for filming once detached.

Edit: After a bit of trial and error it worked!

Edited November 7, 2014 by glen.mack

[r4pt0r]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T TELL ME YOU SAW THE BELL X-1 FOOTAGE AND THOUGHT IT WAS FROM THE MOVIE.

(sorry if that comes off as condescending , but really)

Edit: Just in case, heres some aviation history for you. Im big lover of history, so anytime I can help someone learn something I will.

Double edit: OK great, my apologies. Best of luck in your endevor. I'm not the best at planes in ksp. RC planes I can handle.

Edited November 5, 2014 by r4pt0r

[glen.mack]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T TELL ME YOU SAW THE BELL X-1 FOOTAGE AND THOUGHT IT WAS FROM THE MOVIE.

(sorry if that comes off as condescending , but really)

Edit: Just in case, heres some aviation history for you. Im big lover of history, so anytime I can help someone learn something I will.

Totally aware it's not in the movie, I'm just recreating the trailer in KSP.

[Tex_NL]

First design the small plane you're planning to drop. Make sure it is capable of flying on it's own. Then build the carrier around it. If you do it the other way round there is no way to know for sure the dropped plane is aerodynamically stable. Plus the control stays with the small plane instead of the carrier.

Also you want the small plane to be carried in front of the CoM of the carrier. Dropping the plane will cause the carrier to pitch up clearing the way for the dropped plane to fly off. If you hang the small plane behind the CoM the carrier will pitch down, potentially colliding with your payload.

[BagelRabbit]

Here's the best advice I can give you:

>Build the smaller plane first. Fly it, get comfortable with it, make sure that it's stable and nice. Then build the larger plane around it. [TexNL already said this.]

>Be sure that the larger plane has plenty of lift and thrust, enough to fly the small plane around safely.

>Try to keep the smaller plane inline with the larger plane. This will make everything easier; you won't have to deal with the center of thrust being in the wrong place.

>Try to drop the small plane from the middle of the larger plane. If you do this correctly, the larger plane's Center of Mass and Center of Lift will barely change. This is what you want.

>Throttle down the engines on the big plane before dropping the smaller plane. Otherwise, the thrust will cause the smaller plane to hit the back of the cargo bay before being released.

Best of luck. Try not to die. This is a really difficult thing to build, but it's certainly possible.

[Engineer of Stuff]

Instead of taking the 'dropping a plane' route, you could use the Persistant Trails plugin.

Link here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/49216-0-24-2-Persistent-Trails-record-share-and-replay-track-data!-(Aug-1-V1-1)

If you do drop a plane, then make sure you do it without FAR/NEAR. I did it with FAR, and the plane crashed. I then did it without, and they flew.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Engineer Of Stuff

[cantab]

One other factor in stock aero: if the small plane has less lift-to-weight, you want to drop it. If it has more (unlikely but could happen), you want to let it fly off the top.

[justidutch]

...Try not to die...

Heh heh! Always the fun part!

[Soda Popinski]

It's out today on IMAX screens (maybe just 70mm film IMAX, not digital "Lie-MAX"). Anyone seen it yet, or seeing it tonight?

[dryer_lint]

I wonder who will be the first to remake the Endurance?

[Madrias]

Most of the advice I could give is already mentioned, but a few other things.

Fall a few meters away from your other craft before igniting your main engine. An ignition kick at full throttle may, depending on engine location and angle, cause the vehicle to violently pitch up. This is especially true if your drop-craft has an engine mounted lower than the Center of Mass.

Make sure your carrier plane can fly on its own without control inputs for a reasonable duration. Angle your main wings upward a little (adding dihedral) in order to apply some native anti-roll to your aircraft. Also make sure any low-hanging parts won't get in the way of your launch (another good reason to fall a few meters away).

If you're worried about killing Kerbals, build your carrier with a probe, or a cockpit with no Kerbals onboard. I recommend the probe if you intend on saving the plane.

Always bring an emergency set of parachutes in case everything goes wrong. Better to have an emergency plan and never use it than to find yourself wishing you had one.

Make sure your landing gear can reach the ground on the carrier with room to spare. Don't damage your drop craft because of a landing gear issue.

And lastly, wish for some good luck. Planes dropped from planes isn't easy to do.

[Pecan]

Ten words are worth a video - except that they don't waste bandwidth and I might read them.

What do you want to DO?

[-ELF-]

Pecan, he wants to re-create a trailer to the "Interstellar".

There are some footage from Bell X-1 flight, where it is carried in upper atmosphere by a bigger plane, then dropped from below, ignited its engine and started ascend.

This is the moment he wants to do.

[zekes]

Planes, rockets, colony ships... whatever it is, i can drop it.

CRAFT:

http://www./download/ft0rrwioee2ky2u/WAL+I.craft

[Alshain]

Planes, rockets, colony ships... whatever it is, i can drop it.

Can you drop me off in someplace tropical?

[DunaRocketeer]

This was a drop test for a shuttle I made a while back.

Make sure your carrier plane is well balanced with lots of lift and a reasonable amount of power. Test each plane seperately before flying together. Also, make sure your subassembly for the dropped plane can be easily attached to the parent craft.

[Parallax]

i dont have any advice to add that hasnt already been posted in this thread, but this video i made a few months ago should give you a few ideas:

Edited November 7, 2014 by Parallax

[glen.mack]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! It worked really well!

[Guest]

Dropping plane from plane ... started thinking about infinite recursion.

[zekes]

dropping plane from plane ... Started thinking about infinite recursion.

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDD what have you done <grabs calculator>