u/wheeze-51_mustang

behold! the Zephyros Aircrafts Z-560! this tiny but mighty plane is almost entirely electric (uses a turbine APU so the control surfaces aren't floppy) and can travel a fairly long distance if you manage your energy correctly.

Speaking of control surfaces, this aircraft uses a V-tail empennage (where the contra-rotating fan assembly is mounted) and has split elevon/rudders. The wings have ailerons as well to assist with rolling. However, a large portion of the wing which would at first glance seem to be flaps or slats, are elevators. (u can see how they move in the last few pics)

fsr I decided to give it a frutiger aero/aqua livery bc i thought it'd look cool hehe

stats:

top speed: 480 knots
cruise: 180-200 knots
stall: 97 knots

battery cap: 1500 MJ

It hovers much better now than it did previously. Still can't hover in one spot or descend very well, idk how to fix that :P (also tested the landing gear extending and retracting in flight)

Still trying to get her to hover, but I updated the nacelle intakes and added the rear landing gear (finally)

She can hover under her own weight, and I played around with the cog a bit to get it in a decent spot, but the balance is still incredibly choppy. im almost constantly having to fight the aircraft to balance the thrust of the fixed vtol thrusters in the fuselage and the thrusters in the nacelles, but it's a good start i'd say.

She's FAR from being finished, but so far she can fly and (sort of) hover. Top speed is Mach 2.14, weight is 35 tons, and she has a very complex FBW system that keeps her in the air. I'm still trying to experiment with ways I could get it to hover without working vtol nozzles in the game yet, and im also modeling a full interior (at least as much of it as I can) as well :D

There is a brief window at 134,000 ft. to 200,000ft in the mesosphere that will put jimmy through the wringer and bring the rocket out of control, making him black out and the rocket to tumble out of the sky. (I don't know why it happens) The way past it that I figured was to get the rocket to be as stable as possible through the fins. My hypothesis is that the excess thrusters mounted on the second stage were primarily the cause for this, as when i ejected them, it stabilized rather quickly.

Update: I ran another test, and somehow I managed to get past that brief tumble window without a need for separation. So really, it's just a gamble I suppose.

am i the first person to try this

Ditched the twin engine layout for a single engine that was also much larger, added basic FBW to the control surfaces, and decreased the area of the wings and vertical stabilizer by a large margin. This was all in attempt to make the aircraft more stable (which was the case) I believe the maximum performance I'll get out of this engine configuration is roughly mach 5.5, which was the trending top speed at maximum performance altitude of about 63,000 ft.

edit: i also used plutonium for my fuel :D

I just snapped this photo and it was quite far away, hence the lower quality. By the looks of it the top wing had red paint, the fuselage is blue, and there appears to be a blue and red stripe running across it? My guess would be a Boeing stearman maybe?