[STOCK HELICOPTER] KH-7 Electrocopter

[Jon144]

Hello reader!

Remember my older jet powered helicopters?

Well its always a goal to keep moving forward with new and better technology.

That's why I am proud to present the new KH-7 Electrocopter. Unlike its predecessors this helicopter is completely electric powered. This gives it a nearly unlimited range.

Not only is it the most fuel efficient helicopter in the lineup so far, it is almost one of the smallest.

It is both capable of landing on land and sea with its large floats.

Get the craft file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w93178euuwmg6hc/KH-7%20Electrocopter.craft?dl=0

Lengthy Directions

#1 Decouple rotors by pressing space only once

DO NOT ENGAGE SAS IMMEDIATELY

#2 Switch back the main helicopter

#3 Press "Control here" from the small probe core above the cockpit

#4 Engage SAS

#5 Switch back to the rotors and do not engage SAS

#6 Hold down Left Alt + Q until the rotors are spinning enough to get the helicopter off the ground.

#7 Switch back to the main helicopter unit and enjoy your flight. Don't take it faster than 20 M/S

Landing Directions

#1 Try to cancel out most horizontal speed

#2 Quickly switch control to the rotors

#3 Hold down Left Alt + E for only a few seconds to slow down the rotors

#4 Quickly switch back to the main helicopter unit

#5 Press B to engage the brakes, this will marginally slow the RPMs of the rotor.

#6 If helicopter does not descend while engaging the brake repeat #1-4

#7 If the helicopter descends to rapidly do the opposite of #1-4

#8 Vertical landing speed should not exceed 7 M/S

Edited January 26, 2015 by Jon144

[_Bugs]

Nice

Looks really good

[Pourpaya]

Awesome design!

I've been messing around with roller bearings, and I've found the wheels might not be totally necessary. Have you tried building an axle held in place just by cubic struts around it? It would be smaller and might improve performance. All around though, cool design, best helicopter I've seen so far.

[Nik_601]

Damn, you've built the first true stock helicopter in KSP! Its small neat rotor is amazing)

[Jon144]

Has been updated with a craft file link and directions. Have fun anyone and everyone.

[Prof. Endwalker]

Great craft! I keep seeing more and more propeller based crafts on the forums! Maybe someday Squad will add propellers to the stock game. I actually don't want this, though, so people can keep making crazy amazing crafts like this! With stock propellers, what would be the fun of a helicopter?

[zekes]

I'm definitely making one of these. How do you keep the rotor from flying out? I can't see in too well.

[Jon144]

In these rotors you need landing gear with the wheel in contact facing down on the bearing. This will provide a resisting force on the rotors keeping them from flying out and transfer the lifting force to lift the rest of the helicopter.

You should look at my Skywhale helicopter that has larger more obvious bearings to understand.

[Azimech]

Damn, you've built the first true stock helicopter in KSP! Its small neat rotor is amazing)

The first true stock helicopter is from a few years back.

[Jon144]

The first true stock helicopter is from a few years back.

It sure was. And back before there were a lot of the new parts and features in KSP today. That is what really makes it amazing. That being said that original is very outdated compared to our new ones.

[Azimech]

Yeah ... putting rockets or jets on blades ... It always felt stupid. That's why I developed the turbine.

[Jon144]

Yeah ... putting rockets or jets on blades ... It always felt stupid. That's why I developed the turbine.

I wouldn't exactly call it stupid. Although it makes more sense in real life. KSP is obviously VERY far from real life.

The really neat turboshaft idea doesn't exactly hold up in some areas. For one... they are sure not EPA friendly. They produce a ton of smoke. Also by connecting the engines directly to the blades less energy is lost as all of the trust is put into spinning the blades. This makes them more fuel efficient.

For a number of reasons putting jets directly on blades makes a lot more sense in real life too. By having the thrust directly spin the blades less energy is lost to the other mechanical processes. We simply just don't have the technology for that though.

Electric powered rotors seem like a really good idea to me since you don't have to deal with smoke and have a near infinite source of fuel.

[Azimech]

Then humanity would need to invent a new jet engine principle ... Current jet engine designs are not feasable for operation mounted a rotor for a number of reasons. One of them is g-forces ... current bearing designs can't cope with the enormous forces the central turbine axle will endure. During horizontal movement, a jet engine will encounter dramatic pulses in dynamic pressure when moving through the blade phases: giving compressor stress & creating a huge risk of compressor stall, flamout etc.

[Redshift OTF]

They did make a helicopter with ramjets on the rotor blades but it was really noisy as well as having other disadvantages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiller_YH-32_Hornet

[Jon144]

Then humanity would need to invent a new jet engine principle ... Current jet engine designs are not feasable for operation mounted a rotor for a number of reasons. One of them is g-forces ... current bearing designs can't cope with the enormous forces the central turbine axle will endure. During horizontal movement, a jet engine will encounter dramatic pulses in dynamic pressure when moving through the blade phases: giving compressor stress & creating a huge risk of compressor stall, flamout etc.

KSP helicopters made on the same principle suffer similar problems. I tested the concept one and many times the rotors are just completely destroyed by the stress.

[Pds314]

This is something I've realized about bearing designs. Miniaturized ones are inherently lower torque per thrust. I kinda want to try to build a bearing consisting of a giant ring with rotors inside, although it would almost certainly need to have a counterpart spinning in the opposite direction if it used jets for thrust.