KerbalX

Details

• Type: SPH
• Class: aircraft
• Part Count: 54
• Mods: 2

Mods

• Squad (stock)
• TweakScale - Rescale Everything!

Description

A mod aircraft called Hawkmoth VTOL (Service Bay Edition). Built with 54 of the finest parts, its root part is Mark2Cockpit.

Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.3.0.

This is a VTOL modification of my Hawkmoth jet.

This version uses stock Service Bays to shield the vertical engines from drag.

It uses one mod, and that is TweakScale. The vertical engines are scaled down to fit inside the service bays, and the front fuel tanks are scaled up a tiny bit for balance, with the nice side effect that the range increases a bit.

As the scaled-down engines lost a significant amount of power, there are six of them to reach enough TWR to be able to lift off.

Multiple engines also made it easier to balance the thrust, so for this version I didn’t need the half-length fuselage from Airplane Plus, and the fueled and dry CoM are perfectly aligned for this version, too.

This VTOL version lost some amount of top speed compared to the original, and it’s a bit slower than the fairing edition, but it’s still fast. The range is also decreased, but not by as much as the fairing edition, because of the upscaled front fuel tanks.

The vertical engines produce no thrust when the service bays are closed, so remember to open the bays for landing!

Also, the engines are not shielded when the bays are open, so close them for forward flight.

See also the Fairing Edition of this craft for a version that uses fairings, and for more background reading about my quest to get this working.

Craft updated: I think I forgot to set the thrust limit of the forward engines back to normal. Fixed.