OHM Skylon Spaceplane

hribek

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Do you mind if I take a stab at creating a DLL for it?

I wouldn't publish it without your permission of course and I probably won't produce anything useful due to a busy life.

I can't see a reason why you couldn't. If it works better than everybody else's, I'm not gonna get green in envy but download it instead.

@all C+++ writers
Did anybody start to writing a DLL?
Yep, I'm working on it.

Hurry up all,
The real Skylon may take 10 years to build and 12 billion dollars to develop and test.

I want the entry to be flyable with an autopilot that doesn't cheat. Which is not very common for spaceplane Orbiter addons (I know of none other than XR. I'm still not through with the book but I figure that adjusting the default CG for other vessels might help, in theory)

So 10 weeks for a fully working, UMmu-safe C++ version with a negligible CTD rate should be good enough, since it's for free. Granted, I might be able to spit out a Made-In-China version as a Christmas present - but then again, 24th or 25th isn't Tuesday. On a more serious note, I'll probably release anything that can be branded a test vehicle. So the first release should be able to speed up to half the speed of sound and then brake in an abort while releasing some steam.

If you want to help, I'm looking for payload meshes, and a good mesh for the Fluyt stage. And if you really have nothing else to do, the gear deployment animation on Izack's model coud be a touch better. (There's some pipe breaking going on)

I can't do all the above and study robotics and control engineering and live at the same time. ;)
 
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Moach

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I can't do all the above and study robotics and control engineering and live at the same time. ;)

i know how that feels... surely that whole "sleep" thing has gotta go :rolleyes:

guess i was beaten to the punch on the DLL initiative... well, if there's anything i can do to help, feel free to ask - and go ahead and take as much as you need from the G42 source code (i have a functional engine-performance lookup by bitmap system in there)
:cheers:
 

Inzane

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Hi hribec!
I am really looking forward to your dll version of Skylon:thumbup:
If you want any help with the meshes and textures I am at your service.:)
Feel free to use any information in this addon in your version.
I hope you can use my Skylon mesh, but thats of course your choice. If you want it I can improve it.

---------- Post added at 04:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:35 PM ----------

@Axel
I made a scenario with Skylon and Velcro rockets, but I haven't yet been able to make a multistage vessel with it. But I am working on it:yes:
 

Axel

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@hribek
Ok thats fine, that you began to start writing a DLL. Then if everybody would guess/hope, that another man write the DLL, nothing would happens. 10 weeks are Ok for this vessel, but your "Pre-release" test versions would be cool ofcourse, we could help you to give suggestions and Beta-testing. And this pre-releases you must not release at Orbithangar main side, give just a small link here, like Moach with his G42. I was test pilot for some other famous ships, like the Perseus or NickDs VASIMR Bekuo.

Then you are our man now, the holy orbiter-world is looking at you. And if it works, your ship maybe could help to convince some important people at important places/organisations, to invest in the real Skylon project. A working model is better than pics or animations.

@Inzane
I know now some about velcro rockets too, the manual is very well. Multi-exhaust are possible, we need 8 for Skylon. But no smoke, but in 26km altitude smoke can't really exist, because the very very thin air, when rocket mode will be activated. I modified a velcro test vessel with dates from skylons rocket engine. I reached orbit without problems. I tested a version too with "Carina" orbiter standard vessel, its very simple too. Carina is no spacecraft3/multistage2/velcro or DLL-vessel. I set fuel to 190mT, thrust to 3 MN and Isp to 4500. I reached orbit too. But i don't know how to set exhaust at this kind of vessels, so velcro would be the best for us non-dll-experienced people.
Both vessel-types i conected via UniversalCargoDeck to the skylon. But with velcro rockets its possible to do that without UniversalCargoDeck, but CargoDeck has the advantage of adding further payloads simple.
If you want i could write a spacecraft3-velcro version of Skylon and would give you it. You give then permission to release it at Orbihangar. So we would have faster a mutch better working Skylon, before we have a right DLL-version.
 
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Inzane

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@Axel
It would be nice if you did that! :thumbup:
I tried to make own velcro design, and ended up with a Skylon stage with two velcro stages acting as two JATO's. The second stage has a delayed start of 645 seconds which is right after the first stage is depleted. I adjusted the Skylonstage's engines to be really weak like the spacestage. This is because the delayed start wouldn't work without the skylon's engines activated.

The upside is that you'll get sound and smoke from the engines.
It is also easy to add cargo to Skylon when it is a spacecraft.3 vessel
The downside is that its no throttling on the engines and they cant be turned off.

I also tried with two stages using the "seriesburn" command but that didn't work unfortunately.

I haven't tried all the rockettype commands yet but I will tomorrow.

I hope your design is better than mine but we should compare to get the best
fix for this addon. :)
 

Axel

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@Inzane
Oh no, you used a SRM modell right? SRM you cant stop if activated. Velcro supports many kinds of rockets, i use N2O4 with ISP 4500, because it has the nice blue exhaust. Yours from Skylon_Sabre is yellow, but i dont know, maybe its yellow in airbreathing mode. But later in pure rocket mode its blue like the shuttles main engine, because same fuel type (LH2). I dont like the original LH2-Velcro-Exhaust, its grey and weak. I configured 8 exhaust, exactly for every engine. You can stop and throttle the engine perfectly.

I maked a Velcro-Vessel with a invisible mesh. Conected via CargoDeck. I seperated the passenger-cabin too as an extra Velcro-Vessel too, with very small fuel too! Thats funny, it has its own RCS now, if something goes wrong with Skylon carrier, the Crew could survive in the passenger-modul. If another ship wants to grapple/dock, it must have RCS for rotation kill, and you can dock the cabin alone now to the ISS. Your Skylon_Sabre.cfg i modified too, i deleted the passenger_cabin from it.

This all works very fine, its very luxury and easy to get to orbit with Skylon now. At 26km altitude i have MAch 5,5, tank is near emnpty. I activate the rocket-Velcro and go easy to orbit at 250m climbing rate. I activate rocketmode manually, by pressing F3, select it and Ctrl+. Then i switch back to Skylon_Sabre, because i use its trimming and aero steerings which Velcro doesnt has. Near orbit, i switch back to rocketengine and stop it. In rocketmode you are automaticly inside the nice passenger-modul and have a nice view! Its a big difference to the stressfull flights of Scramjet-Vessels like the DGs, because you can relaxe instead to look at altitude and speed permanently to avoid glowing/destruction. If Skylon someday will fly, it will have a big future!!!

If you want then release i the new version to Orbithangar tomorrow Ok ?

---------- Post added at 01:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 AM ----------

Heres my complet config of the Velcro rocketengine for own experiments:


; === Configuration file for vessel class Generic CVEL stage Skylon_rocketengine ===
;ClassName = Skylon_Rocketengine
Module = Velcro
Meshname = dummy ;invisible mesh
Size = 4.0

Mass = 0.00001 ; empty mass [kg] ;because its mass is integrated in Skylon_Sabre-vessel
MaxFuel = 190000 ; max fuel mass [kg]
Isp = 4500 ; fuel specific impulse [m/s]

MaxMainThrust = 3000000
MaxRetroThrust = 0
MaxHoverThrust = 0
MaxAttitudeThrust = 24500
COG_OverGround = 4.0
CameraOffset = 0.0 0.0 0.0
CW = .2 .3 .7 .7
LiftFactor = 0.0
CrossSections = 0.0 0.0 0.0
RotResistance = 0.7 0.7 0.3

; === Attachment specs ===
BEGIN_ATTACHMENT
C 0.0 0.0 0.03 0 0 1 0 1 0 VELCRO1
C 2.18 0.0 0.0 0 0 1 -1 0 0 VELCRO2
P 0.0 0.0 0.03 0 0 1 0 1 0 VELCRO3
P 2.18 0.0 0.0 0 0 1 -1 0 0 VELCRO4
P 0.0 2.7 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 XS
END_ATTACHMENT

; === Engine reference points ===
ExhaustType = N2O4
MEngineRef1 = 10.75 -1 -13
MEngineRef2 = 10.75 -2.4 -13
MEngineRef3 = 9.5 -2.4 -13
MEngineRef4 = 9.5 -1 -13

MEngineRef5 = -10.75 -1 -13
MEngineRef6 = -10.75 -2.4 -13
MEngineRef7 = -9.5 -2.4 -13
MEngineRef8 = -9.5 -1 -13
 
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Inzane

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@Axel

Sound's good!:thumbup:
I'll let you release your version, but remember to write in the description that this is a modified version of my addon.

I am looking forward to fly your modified version!:)

Before you release it, you must check that everything is working on a fresh orbiter install whith all the required addons.
 

Axel

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@Inzane
Ok i thank you very mutch, ofcourse i will name you as the main actor of it.
And i will make it compatible with your first original Release, no files will be overwritten, so user can decide which Skylon he want to use. It needs only some fine tuning, i will reconfig the camera position of the velcro stage, so that user has a nice look from middle seat at the cabin. and some exhaust looking tuning.

Ok here we are, lets see in space later my friend !!!

---------- Post added 10-29-10 at 01:37 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-28-10 at 06:12 PM ----------

Ok i have released the new update of the Skylon! Its the C1 to C2 Config from Reaction Engines. C2 is 1.08 times bigger and 1.25 times heavier than C1. Plz Inzane check my settings at the Skylon_C2 Sabre stage, i did simply multiplicate all HAIRVOIL,VAIRFOIL, Areas and Lifts by the factor of 1.08. I hope i did right so? Without this the C2 got no airborne or very late at 300m/s. With my new setings it lifts up at Mach 0,45 like your C1.
C2 because its a better "post space shuttle replacement" with 15 tonnes payload capacity.

But it would be nice if you could scale up the mesh 1.08 times and replace the C1-textures at heck with C2-Logo?!
 

Axel

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@andy-to-the-d

Orbiter 2010 P1
 

hribek

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I was wondering if somebody is interested to make an updated Skylon D1.5 mesh. The shape difference compared to C1 can be told from the figures presented in an IAC2010 paper that is referenced in the Reaction Engines News topic. Here's a direct link. (page 5)

Edit: here is a comparison image extracted from the PDF:
 
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