Difference between revisions of "Breaking Ground Stock Craft"

Revision as of 17:07, 22 December 2023

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The Breaking Ground DLC comes with several stock craft which showcase construction techniques making use of the new robotic parts. They all have an even number of rotors (or propellers or ducted fans), half of which rotate clockwise and the other half counterclockwise in order to balance out the torques.

Most have a KAL-1000 Controller which is controlled (via Action Groups) by the main throttle and which in turn controls propeller blade angle, i.e. it "translates" the main throttle position to propeller blade angle to control the thrust. Another method to control thrust is by controlling rotor rpm and/or torque.

Overview

Name	Hangar	Mass (t)	Cost ()	Part count	Stage count	Description
Arrow-E	SPH	3.405	20 003.00	94	1	Ultralight propeller plane
Butterfly Rover	SPH	2.326	24 756.00	37	1	Manned rover
Jeb's Quadtaxi	SPH	14.370	23 804.00	55	1	Manned quadcopter
Kerbodyne Rotodyne	SPH	12.137	27 995.00	67	1	Compound gyroplane
Seahawk	SPH	8.351	19 614.40	53	1	Propeller plane
Val-Thopter	SPH	0.853	7 636.00	38	1	Flying contraption

Arrow-E

Arrow-E ultralight on the runway

This solar powered two seat aircraft may look like an ultralight but its weight is anything but.

The main throttle controls rpm limit and torque limit of the rotors.

Trivia: The Arrow-E is the only Breaking Ground stock craft that does not Utilize the KAL-1000 Controller

Butterfly Rover

Butterfly rover on the runway

This is a manned rover with a scanning arm and two ducted fans which allow it to reach speeds up to 50m/s. A KAL-1000 controller is used to translate the main throttle position to the deploy angle of the ducted fans' blades. Press custom 1 to toggle the rotors on/off.

Jeb's Quadtaxi

Jeb's Quadtaxi on the runway

This is a manned quadcopter. There are two KAL-1000 controllers for pitch and yaw respectively. The controller for yaw modifies the rotors' rpm.

Kerbodyne Rotodyne

Kerbodyne Rotodyne on the runway

Closeup view of engine and rotor hub and the controllers

This compound gyroplane has coaxial rotors for lift and propellers for thrust. One rotor uses an engine and the other a rotor which has been moved into position above the engine.

It uses three KAL-1000 controllers:

• the translate f/b keys control the pitch of the propellers that provide thrust for translational flight
• the main throttle is bound to the main rotors' blade pitch
• yaw is bound to a controller which controls the rpm limit of the lifting rotor and engine.

Trivia: This vehicle's configuration and name resemble the Fairey Rotodyne; however, that had only one main rotor which was powered by tip jets.

Seahawk

Seahawk on the runway

A propeller plane with two engines. The main throttle controls a KAL-1000 controller which in turn controls the deploy angle of the propeller blades and the torque limit of the engines.

Press custom 1 to toggle the rotors on/off, custom 2 to deploy the elevon and custom 5 for the experiments.

Val-Thopter

Val-Thopter on the runway

Note the blade orientation of the left and right rotor and the two counterrotating rotors in the center fan shroud

This is a small VTOL aircraft with four rotors which showcases two contra-rotating rotors in one fan shroud (the center one). One rotor is attached to the shroud's inner node and the other to the bottom node and rotated upwards so that it overlaps completely with the first rotor. They are set to rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise, respectively, and their blades are configured correspondingly.

The other two rotors are in the left and right fan shroud, respectively.

In addition to normal pitch control there is also the possibility to control the hinge on which the probe core and the seat are mounted. This tilts the vehicle forwards and backwards relative to the seat.

Trivia: This vehicle has a vague similarity to vehicles like the Curtiss-Wright VZ-7 or the Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep.