Infinity buggy

[gGATORr]

Hello fellas!

After seeing UpsilonAerospace's flying car idea, and how cute yet awesome it looked, I decided to build my own. But I took it one step further.

I present to you the Infinity Buggy, a one-man automobile that can hover, fly, and defy gravity in general infinitely without using any fuel.*

*fuel use required to gain altitude. Once at altitude, no fuel required to stay there

HOW IT WORKS

The Infinity Buggy use an old trick that exploits the flaws in KSP's aerodynamics. By mounting a bunch of control surfaces on the bottom facing down and backward (the amount they're tilted backward affects the level hover speed), the "lift" created by these control surfaces will always produce a force equal and opposite gravity in the vertical direction. However, because the control surfaces are tilted, a component of the force generated is also in horizontal direction. This is what propels the buggy forward.

Now, because the component of the force in the vertical direction never exceeds the force of gravity, an external force (mono prop engines in this case) are required for the buggy to gain altitude. Once at the desired altitude, no more fuel is required to stay there.

Pitching the buggy fore and aft changes the magnitude of the horizontal component of the "lift" force, thus controlling your speed.

HOW TO OPERATE

-EVA kerbal from attached capsule, and board the external command seat in the buggy

-Stage once to decouple from empty capsule

-(from here on out, SAS is highly recommend)

-Stage once to activate mono prop engines and throttle up to gain speed/altitude

-Once you are as high as you like, cut the engines and relax as your Infinity Buggy gently hovers along

-At this point, the buggy flies much like a plane (in terms of controls). You can do loops, barrel rolls, ect.

Important: The relationship between throttle/pitch and speed/altitude is counter-intuitive (for my fellow real-life pilots out there, this will be familiar). To gain altitude, open the throttle (increase thrust). To gain airspeed, pitch forward (not too much!).

As for descending, there are a couple ways.

1. Pitch forward until the control surfaces are past horizontal. This will result in a dive (and you will gain speed)

2. Alternatively, sudden direction change (by yawing) will cause you to drop

Once you get the hang of it, this little guy is wickedly fun to fly around!

Watch the video, give 'er a download, take 'er for a spin, and let me know what you think! Hope you enjoy!

GATOR

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Disclaimer: Does not work outside of atmosphere!

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Edited December 6, 2014 by gGATORr

[Naten]

Oh, you're a real-life pilot, awesome! I only am a flight simulator "pilot" who can't stand the infiniglide bug, so I got FAR, but this... it's like a... flying... car...! I liked BagelRabbit's, but this is just amazing, taking the OPness of control surfaces to a whole new level. I saw some people make airships with this concept, is that how you were inspired?

[gGATORr]

Oh, you're a real-life pilot, awesome! I only am a flight simulator "pilot" who can't stand the infiniglide bug, so I got FAR, but this... it's like a... flying... car...! I liked BagelRabbit's, but this is just amazing, taking the OPness of control surfaces to a whole new level. I saw some people make airships with this concept, is that how you were inspired?

Thanks! And yea, I first saw this technique used to make a blimp a while back. Never really tried it myself until now. So does this not work with FAR? (I've never used it)

[BagelRabbit]

Ha, thanks for taking my idea one step further!

I used to love making infinigliding stuff that's really not supposed to fly. I wanted to make my current flying car a non-infiniglider, though, because recently I've felt a bit guilty about blatantly abusing aerodynamics and only want to abuse them a little, now...

That being said, I personally prefer infinigliders with the control surfaces parallel to the craft's direction of flight. They seem to fly just as well, but they control like normal aircraft. You may want to give that a try, and see how you like it.

Also, is it possible to give the Kerbal a little more protection? I tried to make a roll cage for my car, because accidents happen, especially with me at the controls.

Nice job, overall, though. It looks very nice aesthetically, and it's so cute and small!

-Upsilon

[EDIT: Yeah, FAR makes aircraft behave realistically, and any non-realistic designs thus don't work too well with it installed. A solid 95% of my designs probably wouldn't work with FAR.]

Edited December 6, 2014 by UpsilonAerospace

[gGATORr]

Ha, thanks for taking my idea one step further!

I used to love making infinigliding stuff that's really not supposed to fly. I wanted to make my current flying car a non-infiniglider, though, because recently I've felt a bit guilty about blatantly abusing aerodynamics and only want to abuse them a little, now...

That being said, I personally prefer infinigliders with the control surfaces parallel to the craft's direction of flight. They seem to fly just as well, but they control like normal aircraft. You may want to give that a try, and see how you like it.

Also, is it possible to give the Kerbal a little more protection? I tried to make a roll cage for my car, because accidents happen, especially with me at the controls.

Nice job, overall, though. It looks very nice aesthetically, and it's so cute and small!

-Upsilon

[EDIT: Yeah, FAR makes aircraft behave realistically, and any non-realistic designs thus don't work too well with it installed. A solid 95% of my designs probably wouldn't work with FAR.]

See I've never really messed with infinigliders much, so when SQUAD announced that they'll be overhauling the aerodynamics, I figured that I need to abuse the current aerodynamics as much as possible while I can haha

As for the angle of the control surfaces, I completely agree with you in that putting them parallel to the flight path gives you a much cleaner, conventional flight profile. However, with my buggy, I wanted a nice slow hover rather than a glide at level attitude, with the ability to adjust speed by pitching fore or aft. I found that putting the control surfaces on at a 45 degree angle achieved this beautifully.

And finally, I tried giving the buggy a roll cage, but everything I tried just looked goofy. Unfortunately, I'm a sucker for aesthetics, even if it means sacrificing a Kerbal or two

Again, thanks for the inspiration!

[panzer1b]

Im gonna use this to make a flying KubelWagen, too bad it wont work on mun (hopefulkly works on duna)

[Majorjim!]

This is a cool little car!

Also, to the person voting 1 star on craft lately, locate your Ker-balls and post a message as to why you have voted 1 star. Damn cowards.

MJ

Edited December 7, 2014 by Majorjim

[andrew123]

This is a cool little car!

Also, to the person voting 1 start on craft lately, local your Ker-balls and post a message as to why you have voted 1 star. Damn cowards.

MJ

Agreed. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion of his identity...

[gGATORr]

Guys, I'm having way too much fun with this infiniglide stuff...

[Majorjim!]

Guys, I'm having way too much fun with this infiniglide stuff...

http://i.imgur.com/D2SjnPC.png

Wait.. what? Tell me you landed those craft on it! A video please!

[gGATORr]

Wait.. what? Tell me you landed those craft on it! A video please!

Well, I launch it with the aircraft attached. But once I get the carrier airborne, yea, I take off and land on it. It's somewhat challenging; you have to come in slow with breaks on and fire the retro mono prop engines as soon as you touch the deck. But boy, is it fun! The floating carrier itself is surprisingly stable. Even as imbalanced as it is in that picture, it stays nice and level. And it can sure take hard landings!

Once I get a little more free time, I'll make a video and start a new post for it and all that jazz.

Just wish my computer could handle high part counts;.;

[Majorjim!]

boy, is it fun!

I bet it is! Looks great fun.

I look forward to the video.

MJ

[Rune]

Well, I launch it with the aircraft attached. But once I get the carrier airborne, yea, I take off and land on it. It's somewhat challenging; you have to come in slow with breaks on and fire the retro mono prop engines as soon as you touch the deck. But boy, is it fun! The floating carrier itself is surprisingly stable. Even as imbalanced as it is in that picture, it stays nice and level. And it can sure take hard landings!

Once I get a little more free time, I'll make a video and start a new post for it and all that jazz.

Just wish my computer could handle high part counts;.;

What kind of part count in ailerons are we talking about here? Like, have you worked out a ratio per ton? Not that I'm considering building myself one of those... after all, I didn't have enough with my blimp. This things fly so smooth!

Rune. This is awesome!

[EladDv]

i wonder if this effect can be used for submerging submarines without engines.....we could make some awesome weap...AHEHEM... crafts with this method...please squad let us choose what aerodynamic models we would like to use if you are going to implement better ones

[vsully]

WOW! This is so COOL!!! I love infiniglide, I've flown a glider to the abandoned airport.