KerbalX

Description

There’s no need anymore to send kerbals to take atmospheric temperature and pressure readings from faraway continents - this cheap UAV can do so all on its own! It can cruise at altitudes of over 13,000 meters (that’s close to 43,000 feet for you Americans out there), increasing to over 14,300 meters (nearly 47,000 feet) with about half its fuel burnt, and can potentially maintain level flight at over 15,500 meters (a bit under 51,000 feet) with the tanks nearly empty, all on the power of just a single small Juno turbojet.

A stock aircraft called Ghost. Built with 25 of the finest parts, its root part is probeCoreOcto2.v2.

Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.11.2.

Details

- Type: SPH
- Class: aircraft
- Part Count: 25
- Pure Stock
- KSP: 1.11.2

The Ghost has fairly-sensitive flight controls, so be careful when making large pitch inputs, or you could easily end up tumbling it end over end. Fortunately, it’s also quite durable; even without any struts for added reinforcement, it can withstand vertical G-loads in excess of 70 Gs without breaking up in flight. On the flip side, this same sensitivity makes it a wonderfully nimble plane to play with.

On the topic of flight controls, K and I (the translate up/down controls) are used to trim the elevators trailing-edge-up and trailing-edge-down, respectively, but you probably already expected that from my aircraft by this point.

Above right: Although the Ghost’s speed is quite respectable at high altitude, it gets even better in low-level flight, staying north of mach 0.95 in horizontal flight without any difficulty. It should be easily capable of going supersonic in a dive (and its incredible structural integrity and nimble flight characteristics allow it to dive to amazingly-low heights and still pull out safely before impact, even at very steep dive angles and very high speeds).