Jak Airways: Why fly the best, when these are good enough?

[Jakalth]

Ok, I should start out by saying... All these craft use only stock parts. Enjoy.

Lets start out with this oddity. It's a flying ring aircraft that has a tendency to refuse to land. It's been on final approach for the last hour and is still flying. The landing strip is miles behind it now. If that's not enough, it is capable of sustained flight, at over 100 m/s, using just the aileron thrust glitch. All I can say is: "Physics, your drunk..."

Yeah, that's right. 24.1 m/s and it's only dropping 1 M for every 2 seconds at this point. Plus it is completely out of fuel. I think I broke something here...

Download craft here:

Edited January 26, 2015 by Jakalth
added daylight picture and file

[Jakalth]

Next we have the "Fat Bat". It is a small SSTO space plane capable of lifting a single satellite into orbit. It flies surprisingly well at lower altitudes, despite the drag of the piggybacked satellite. But it becomes a handful when leaving the atmosphere and attempting orbit.

Fat Bat download here:

And going from ugly to sublime, I present the Mockingbird FS2. This SSTO aircraft is much more versitle. She is capable of reaching orbit with ease and is a dream to fly. The MK2 cargo bays allow for many differing types of missions to be completed, from survey to satellite launch, and refueling of orbital craft. The Mockingbird can reach orbit with at least 1/2 of her jet fuel remaining and around 1/3 of her rocket fuel, even when lifting her max payload weight of 4 tons. This means she could potentially be used for Kerbin to Mun, direct freight transfers.

Isn't she elegant even with her solar panels extended?

Carrying a complement of 3 small satellites destined for kerbin orbit.

Nearing her capacity with a single Mun orbiter/lander weighing in at 3.4 tons. There is room for more but it would require adding ballast weight to the rear of the Mockingbird to keep her enjoyable to fly.

Mockingbird download here:

Edited January 26, 2015 by Jakalth

[Jakalth]

Finally we have a pair of atmospheric only craft. First off is a simple and small V tail aircraft. This one is fun to fly. It's fast and nimble as well as being quite stable. In fact, it is hard to get this craft to completely loose control. Even if you do, it auto stabilizes and rights its self making it easy to recover. This little craft can easily top 2100 m/s at altitudes of 29,000 m or higher. I have not found its speed and altitude limits yet.

Who says you have to fly upright? Wait, is that a Mun - Minmus pairing I see in the background?

Microdart download here:

And this one is just for fun. A jet powered? Biplane. This version is armed to the teeth with 6 aerial rockets and 8 belly mounted dumb bombs. This craft may not be small, but it is extremely maneuverable. It is capably of making a turn within its own wing span. Normally it can take off at speeds as low as 35 m/s, but the added weight of the armament means it has to claw its way into the air using the entire runway. This craft flies best at speeds below 100 m/s so limiting the engines to only 16% works quite well.

On an attack run. Those darn kigeons keep building nests in the vehicle assembly building. Have some Rockets!

Twin engine biplane download, both armed and unarmed:

Edited January 26, 2015 by Jakalth
Post got doubled and odd things happened

[Jakalth]

For those lacking a lot of funds, needing a small craft to perform those fairly early survey missions(tech level 100), we have an aircraft for you. The Drifter, light scout plane. This little craft is simple, uses lower tech equipment, is fairly cheap to make(about 13K), and has good ground clearance for those EVA missions. Plus, it makes a decent rover in a pinch. It's low take off/landing speed helps considerably with the ground excursions. Just don't expect the craft to handle hard landings in one piece.

Suggested modifications include:

:Replacing the two structural fuselage pieces with liquid fuel tanks for extended range. Be warned though, manual fuel balancing is required to keep it flyable when adding tanks...

:Adding mounting points to the top for parachute tests. Handles these tests splendidly if you can keep the parachutes close to the fuselage.

:Replacing the delta wing tip sections with basic wing pieces, removing the solar panels, and removing the thermometer, to save cost.

Front view shows the tall and wide landing gear arrangement that makes it a good craft for survey missions.

Download the Drifter here:

Edited January 27, 2015 by Jakalth

[NeatCrown]

Why fly the best, when these are good enough?

I just cracked up at your motto!

For your "Fat Bat", are you sure that it's safe? ...or any of them?!

[Jakalth]

Never said I was a real, or even Kerbal, aeronautical engineer. heh But yeah, most of the craft are safe to fly. The Fat Bat can be a bit tricky to keep under control at altitude though. And the flying ring craft is not a practical aircraft in any way, but it is silly enough to mess around with, and most likely crash repeated for the fun of it.

I have actually used the Fat Bat to launch satellites into Kerbin orbit. It is a very hands on process to get it up there. After about 30,000 m in height, it wants to pitch up, HARD. But manually controlling the pitch works, along with reducing thrust. Once it has deployed it's satellite, it flies much better on it's way back to the KSC. Thing to remember when using it, Try your best to minimize fuel usage. It only has enough to get you up there and break orbit. After that it's pretty much a glider.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Jakalth

[Jakalth]

These two craft are from the Future Craft Extradition project.

I present the HDV-132 NullHammer. This SSTO reconnaissance craft is equally at home in space and in the atmosphere. It's engine nacelles are designed to provide lift as well as thrust, reducing its reliance on "wings". This gives the craft excellent durability, making it ideal for wreckage salvage and asteroid mining. Jak Airways is in no way responsible for damaged received while performing such activities or damage caused from small objects. This craft is not rated for water landings.

Here you can clearly see the thrust vectoring on the engine nacelles and the 9 point rocket assist system.

A profile view showing the lifting body design of the engine nacelles.

Next entry is the PigeonHawk medium gun fighter. This Body-in-Wing designed aircraft has full tail vectoring to improve control at higher angles of attack. It features a front mounted engine with rear exhaust nozzle giving it a much lower heat signature then conventional craft of its type. This type of fighter should be seeing full use within the next 50 years, or so our reliable Prediction Duck says.

Edited February 8, 2015 by Jakalth

[Jakalth]

Once again, another submission from the barely acceptable folks at Jak Airways. This time around, it seems someone made a mistake. An Aircraft that is actually practical? Prediction Duck is not amused...

We present the Halaphax.

This small aircraft weighs in at 11.8 tons and has it's engines mounted high on its back. Why could that be??? Because it's a float plane!

This aircraft uses Hydro-Ski technology allowing it to skim across the water at high speeds. It's twin engines give it an "absurdly more then necessary" thrust to weight ratio. This simple craft will happily lift off the ground, or water, at speeds below 60m/s with little drama. The tough construction of the hydro-skis also mean that it can cruise on the water at speeds in excess of 80m/s. Speeds above 90m/s, on water, are not recommended and Prediction Duck will disavow any knowledge of a warranty. Turning at speeds above 60m/s, on water, is highly recommended and our R&D group termed it's water turning stability as "Why is this not even trying to blow up? Bored now..."

In all seriousness. This aircraft is stable on the water. It turns nicely at speeds on the water. And it's only real quirk is that it wants to nose dive at times, but doing so only digs the skis into the water causing it to slow down. You have to really try to get the cockpit to actually touch the water or for it to actually take any damage at all. SAS, for the most part, stops this from happening. The wing floats do a very nice job of preventing the wings from touching the water as well.

In the air, there is little drama. It likes to drop its nose due to the elevated position of the engines, but with SAS engaged, this is completely negated. It is not an acrobatic aircraft, but it does turn nicely. It is simply easy to fly.

On a side note: it is possible to taxi and lift off the ground with the landing gear raised. It has a low enough take off speed that the structural intakes, that make up the skis, are not damaged by being scraped along the ground. Landing with the gear raised, on the other hand, does not go well unless landing on water.