KSP: The Amphibious Spaceplane AND Stock Ocean Launch Site!

In today's video, I show you how to unlock the ocean launch site in Kerbal Space Program, and then showcase one way in which you can use it by building an aquatic spaceplane! What could go wrong, right?
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This video is intended for audiences 13+ years old.
Craft file:
bit.ly/3gWn18B
The music that plays during the ad is "Take a Chance" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons...

[@MattLowne]

NEW MERCH DESIGN! "Deep Space Kraken Slayer" - wearing this T-shirt/Hoodie/Sweater will instantly grant you +3 resistance to Kerbal Space Program glitches 🚀🚀🚀 bonfire.com/krakenslayer

[@Eager44]

Well you did it.

[@kengkitkatanyu7852]

Puddle landing

[@Somerandom1922]

Hey Matt, for any amphibious plane, it can be a good idea to add a couple of wings under the water (like a hydrofoil). They help it lift most of the craft out of the water at a low speed, decreasing drag letting you speed up enough to take off. It lets you make amphibious planes with smaller pontoons. Also, I had no clue about that take-off location!

[@alexanderchapman8728]

Send this plane to Laythe

[@cbs_sammy]

Matt plz test simplerockets2 !!!!!!!!!!

[@MrMistycakes]

7:09 "So I decided that my problem was that I didn't have enough boosters." True KSP mentality. Well done, Matt.

[@mafiaoverlord3112]

Even more boosters at 9:57

[@steveschritz1823]

MOAR BOOSTERZ!

[@spaceflight001]

Title: stock Parallax 2.0: 😭😭😭

[@dimihohota9942]

Yeah, that fixed my problem. I tried almost 100 times to launch an SSTO, and adding more boosters and wings fixed the problem.

[@Pribumi1]

@@spaceflight001 well that mod doesn't add parts right? So it is stock

[@taylorsounes8464]

This is the most chaotic thing I've watched but also. Exactly what I would expect from Matt

[@redderthanmisty6762]

Here is a few of the rules I always follow when making flying boats: 1) Lots of lift, or very little weight. You're never gonna get enough speed, so the slower you need to go before taking off, the better. Also, keep the center of mass and the aerodynamic lift very close together, as the less your plane wants to naturally nosedive, the better. 2)All of the mass near the fuselage. Don't put engines on the tips of your wings, as they're too heavy and will dip into the water, creating alot of drag, while the engine on the other wing will only then work to further push you into the side. 3)If all else fails, make a vtol.

[@snonsig2688]

all that but the easiest thing to make basically any floatplane work is ANGLE THE PONTOONS!!! seriously you only need to make them angle upwards towards the back a very small bit and that will basically always give your craft enough lift to take off. the nose of the plane needs to be higher than the tail

[@MattLowne]

Terrible advice tbh you can just add more boosters

[@snonsig2688]

@@MattLowne very true. After all this IS Ksp. But if you want another way to sensible tip: the Russian style long and pointy fuel tanks make for great pontoons

[@DeepProbe]

"lots of lift" - Just add (quite tiny) deployable lifting surfaces to underwater. Due to water density, such surfaces will push craft's main body out of the water while runing through it, having minimal mass and volume at the same time. "Undeployed" after takeoff said surfaces bring minimal to none impact for craft's aeral/space performance.

[@kornaros96]

@@MattLowne more boosters are good, but less drag is better

[@munk6576]

Uploading at this time means that Matt either stayed up all night to finish it, woke up early and is a productive member of society, or im just on something and he always uploads around this time. Something to think about

[@gametired4989]

While i have been watching him ( since about 2020) he has often posted earlier in the day ( he lives in the uk )

[@dillondriskill6403]

Correct me if i’m wrong but he’s in england which would have made it around late morning early afternoon when he posted this assuming he still lives in europe. Not too strange in my opinion, but maybe he’s in a different time zone now

[@BigSho0ter]

You may be on something. I’m drunk n stoned at 5:30AM. US bout to put the Netherlands in a blender

[@V0ID_Music]

He lives in the UK. He uploaded the video at about 10am

[@Seinaru]

@@BigSho0terwait what.. please, I don’t want to become a smoothie 😢

[@radicalgale]

Wait, WHAT? I never knew that you can unlock launch sites to begin with! How many launch sites are there to unlock? Also, this is one of the funniest videos on your channel. The comically awful spaceplane that you tried getting out of the water had me giggling the whole time.

[@VercilJuan]

There are 4 launch sites to unlock

[@joostvisser6508]

I decided to look into this after watching this video and it turns out that there are 4 discoverable launch sites. It's fairly well documented on the KSP wiki!

[@NomadUniverse]

I've barely scratched the surface in this game but i did notice the other sites were marked and wondered how to use them. It's as simple as discovering them it seems.

[@honglianglim8637]

Also a Mun launchpad. But it's only in PS4

[@Starlit_Crimson7644]

@@honglianglim8637 xbox has it too

[@nonnakk5893]

I might be a tad late but here are a few suggestions that could have made your design have flew since the start: 1-it does not matter the how much thrust vectoring you add so it goes up, the real think that makes it nose dive is actually the pontoons, you dont have to really alongate them but otherwise just push them to the very tip of the boat, if you look at sea planes, specially the japanese ones which are just normal biplanes with floats attatched to them, its basically your idea but the floats are more forward (thus making it fly) 2-make bigger wings, the reason why your flying boat design didnt worked was because it simply didnt had enough wings nor the power to actually take off, and this kind of goes for the ssto to, if you look at flying boats online you'll see they have massive wings with pontoons on the tips so they stay stable 3-pontoon size doesnt matter all that much, the thing that really matters is WHERE the pontoons are, think as this: the closer the wing pontoons are from the center of the craft the more useless they willl be, and the farthest away from the center of the craft the more it will want to nose-dive. 4-the engines should NEVER stay in the tips of the wings, because your plane already struggles with stability putting them on the tips is asking for the whole plane to be extremely unstable, as they will naturally hit the water by some point and while one works, the other doesnt because it got drowned, which leads to an eternal cycle of pain that only ends when the plane flips over. I hope this helped as i have already been through the same pain you are right now and those where the ways i found to solve the design flaws i had.

[@threetsandaten3524]

I haven’t seen many people do anything with water since the Life On Laythe series. I’m definitely going to need to go unlock that water launch site!

[@mafiaoverlord3112]

Every time he made a change the seaplane looked more and more comical, especially at 9:18.

[@engenireed3896]

I love how we all though Matt was so good at ksp and then this video comes out. He's all of us!

[@spaceflight001]

Title: stock Parallax 2.0: who i am

[@vicroc4]

One of us! One of us!

[@mitchlza]

Hey! I've been loving these videos for years now! I I've started watching launches live thanks to Space this week! My name is Michael Collins so I'm kind of dedicated to this space stuff.

[@growinggravity1842]

Gotta love the “controlled out of control maneuver”

[@josh98765432]

A 20 minute video that embodies the phrase, "technically still a win". Love it!

[@thatoneguyfromthtoneplace3498]

Using the mk2 parts as a pontoon is so pleasing. Thanks again for another great upload!

[@vebuus]

14:06 Hulk: "I See This As An Absolute Win"

[@ColdWindPhoenix84]

When you finally got that vehicle in the air I thought, "that was ridiculous, how could he top that..." And then you landed in that, (lake?) pond. This video had my wife interested, and she never watches KSP videos. Excellent work, thank you

[@felixcaskey4193]

I spent the first 5 minute screaming 'You should put a para-foil on the front!', it really does make it easier to nose up in the water. It also helps with the dolphin-like jumping the craft was doing. Edit: Para-foil may not be the best solution, but it was so obvious to me. It kinda hurts to watch somebody try everything else, but not think of the obvious solution.

[@kolibru]

For me this was a SUCCESS, and Im proud of how this video came out, good ksp content for ever!!!!

[@unity9514]

KSP content is what we need in these trying times

[@MrDR4G0NM45T3R]

4:50 what a magnificent space metal-dolphine, swimming so freely

[@garrisonbogen658]

12:19 "I feel like duct tape would be more secure than those rotation servos"

[@bulldogg_gaming4149]

**doc Hudson voice** "This ain't asphalt son, this is water." "I'll put it simple. If you're pitchin' hard enough down, you'll find yourself pitchin' up."

[@pseudocoder78]

Amazing 10/10 Video. Just because you didn't accomplish what you expected exactly, doesn't mean you didn't accomplish anything.

[@PomegranateJuiceSmoothie]

This is the most beautiful production I’ve ever witnessed

[@cj719521]

I literally just accidentally stumbled onto this launch site today! Like an hour ago! So cool! And so glad I wasn’t spoiled by this video. Great one!

[@techny3000]

Seeing matt struggle so much is something I haven't seen in a while, and it's surprisingly entertaining

[@RichsRidesandRestorations]

That was some interesting take-off technique! Cove Launchpad by name, Launchpad McQuack by nature 😆

[@pathindsley]

Matt, your center of thrust is above your center of mass. The net effect is that it will constantly force your velocity down. You always want your center of thrust to be online with your center of mass or it won’t fly well.

[@davidkailer5522]

This was hilarious and a lot of fun to watch. Also, I really love watching these types of iterative design videos where you encounter problems and then redesign to try and solve them. Cheers!

[@maxboskeljon6440]

"The kerbals are fine" The 76Gs of deceleration:

[@AdamBoothUK]

Hydrofoils!!! Work a treat and only a little aero cost. Got my sea SSTO to orbit but couldn't get to Minmus because of an *extensive* tweaking program eating half my day. Cheers for the inspiration Matt!

[@ВикторФирсов-е9ф]

Turns out, I'm pretty good at flying boats in KSP. My two best designs are: 1) no pontoons, relatively heavy front. You purposefully dive down in the beginning, and then start pitching up deep underwater. In result, your jump out of the water and then fly. 2) angled wings instead of pontoons. You should have at least one wing on front and at least 2 on the sides. When you start accelerating, the craft will slowly rise and then take off. The challenge is then flying the craft with these extra wings.

[@Fabri91]

When building seaplanes I often place small winglets on the pontoons/hull underwater, since as soon as I have some speed they'll lift the craft out of the water with their lift, like a hydrofoil.

[@wombyy]

you're so much better than me at ksp lol, i decided to land the entire mothership next to my crashed lander as a rescue mission lol

[@thombg83]

My jaw dropped when you got that beast in the air... damn.

[@HaZZeHuNtEr42o]

Been watching for ages and noticed straight away that you almost lost your mind on this one because you didn’t run out of things to say in the video😂❤️

[@greenglassblock1324]

I'm so looking forward to ksp 2 and seeing all the stuff I didn't see in ksp 1 I know the sequel is gonna be absolutely jam packed

[@MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

Watching Matt spend a really long time misunderstanding the fundamentals of center of gravity was highly amusing.

[@framezerogaming8727]

One of your biggest issues throughout this whole thing is trying to pitch up from the get go, dipping engines in the water will shut them off, and the top engines will pitch the nose forward, effectively stopping your momentum; reach take off speed before pitching up so that you have the speed to stay in the air while any engines respool

[@logancrawford5379]

Your tutorials are super helpful btw. I managed my first mun landing today from an old video of yours.

[@alexn5155]

literally a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the whole video.

[@bearnaff9387]

Scott Manley did a video on hydrofoils in KSP almost a decade ago. It's possible that all of the changes since then have rendered his designs moot, but it would have been a good starting point in designing a sea plane that can reach takeoff speeds.

[@thetechnoninja3859]

As someone who is in their senior year for aerospace engineering. Take your time, get your schoolwork done and finalized for the semester. I don’t mind the wait if it means you will be successful in life. If you’re successful, well… more videos in the future. Especially for KSP2

[@nickthorp1624]

"Nothing exploded, I'm counting that as a win" - new slogan for merch :D

[@gearandalthefirst7027]

Ngl that landing was kind of insane. I wouldn't have even thought about trying that lmfao, glad it worked (for your sanity and bragging rights)

[@btl4665]

I enjoy these videos that show how the iteration went

[@joostvisser6508]

If you ever decide to revisit the concept of a water based -SSTO- _cough_ SSTS, consider experimenting with hydrofoils instead of pontoons. - The hydrofoils will gain a lot lift as you speed up, so you don't need a lot of them to hover the craft above the water at speed - They are light and can be places a lot closer to the CoM, so instability in the upper atmosphere should be a non-issue - Control surfaces have massive control authority under water, so if you use elevons you can pitch up at a high speed. This will result in a massive force pushing the nose upwards, essentially ejecting yourself out of the water. This way you don't need thrust vectoring panthers to eject the craft (dead weight above 15km or so)

[@h.a.9880]

The centre of mass that's lower than the centre of thrust, that prevents this plane from flying in a stable manner in orbit, is also the reason why it has so many difficulties taking off. The Panther barely manages to out-thrust the 4 Rapiers that push the nose down. The placement of the Panther also means it dips into the sea and shuts down I think. Additionally, as nice as the wingtip engines look, they dip into the sea, they too stall and cause much more resistance than a "naked" wingtip would provide, which leads to the whole plane shimmying, which is amplified by the still running engine on the other wingtip. I've been trying to make a seaplane for Laythe, but it never really worked for similar reasons. It's a shame KSP doesn't offer stock-pontoon parts to make seaplanes. I think I'll attempt to use clues from the Beriev VVA-14, which at some stage of planning was meant to have engines near the cockpit that were angled slightly downwards to help push up the nose and create an air cushion under the lifting-body fuselage to help with lift.

[@Crunchnaut4]

Matt really just landed in a tiny puddle from space moving at 2 km per second with an inevitable landing in a mountain range.

[@camerondale6529]

I still explode landing in water at 6.1 meters per second.

[@ahernplays2239]

I genuinely thought that the puddle he was trying to land in was smaller than the craft he was flying until he landed in it.

[@carltonleboss]

I loved that takeoff procedure

[@s4dg]

RC testflight would be having a stroke watching this

[@planespeaking]

if you put four canards on each pontoon (deployed) it will lift the aircraft out of the water and stabilise it. Thanks cove launch site

[@SEB9630_pl]

Seems like Matt realised most basic way to take off seaplanes, most of people don't know this cuz usually you launch from ksp but to start from sea you need to slightly pich down to go into the water then as the water pushes you up start agressively piching up, it works in most cases

[@Cohac]

We need a part 2 where you take what youve learned into a build youre actually proud of! Always enjoy your videos and this was a good comedy/schadenfreude episode :D

[@guitarcheng]

I am sure Matt was very thrilled when the hilarious plane took off hilariously 😂

[@3DPDK]

Three things to consider: 1. The hull of the pontoons on a float plane are designed to "plane" over the surface of the water. They plane out at as low a speed as possible. They do this with flat edges along the length of the pontoon called a chine. Anyone running a speed boat knows that maximum speed can NOT be obtained while the pontoons are in displacement mode. 2. Why do non stunt surf boards have one or more small fins located at the back of the board. A float plane has very small rudders at the very back or stern of the pontoons. They are mechanically tied to the aircraft's rudder but with greatly reduced movement. 3. KSP is a game built around orbital mechanics, not hydrodynamics. The water in KSP is a simple plane, warped by an animated mesh displacement texture. *It has no volume or weight.* The pontoons are not actually floating, virtually or otherwise. They are maintaining a height below the polygon in that section of "water". The only force being applied to the pontoon is resistance to forward motion. The buoyancy of an object in the Kerban Sea is a mathematical illusion.

[@demolition3612]

The edge pontoons need to be the biggest ones, that should help, also cool idea, use inflatable pontoons so you can retract them when you get flying and reduce drag, and redeploy them when you go to land on the water

[@sffan10]

I've found that hydrofoils are preferable to floats for amphibious SSTOs. Way less drag in the water allowing you to reach higher speeds before takeoff and less drag in flight.

[@adorimable9690]

A while ago i made a non ssto aquatic plane called the dolphin, it went up by diving first then going strait up when fully submerged, i had to use infinite fuel and electricity but it was cool

[@hazardousmike4862]

Came for an aquatic SSTO, received Matt having a breakdown instead. 10/10 would like and subscribe again

[@MatmarSpace]

WOW!!! LET THE SEA SHANTIES SOUND! ⚓🏴‍☠

[@Sfsandroblox0093]

Finaly another Ssto (single stage to ocean)

[@dylanwatts9344]

More wings so your launch speed doesn't have to be as high would be my suggestion. Also, a centralized thrust bank so you don't have as many issues with the engines getting flooded. And finally, motorized wing tip pontoons to realign center of gravity for space flight.

[@Madnessnunky]

That was pure chaos. Loved it.🤣 I feel like the pontoons forward was the better design to give you a permanent "nose up", but the wings were a bit too low. That "SR-71" design needs so much speed that water takeoffs are a little tough... I'd like to see it done with a slightly more "conventional" wing design maybe on some sort of rotator like the F-14 to allow high speed flight and the better glide profile between forms. -I guess it's a "2-stage" single stage plane like that lol.

[@stephenwells6434]

"I can't believe that worked." I imagine that Jeb and Bill have said that a lot over the years.

[@MrHws5mp]

The pitch-down problem is caused by the fact that you've got a ton of drag from the floats that's well below the thust axis. The floats need to be much longer to support the nose and they also need to generate hydrodynamic lift. use Mk.2 fusealge parts the right way up (they generate lift) and angle the front one upwards.

[@scottkirby9675]

Took me 2 days but finally got it. Pontoons and hydrofoils don't work with the waves. A flat bottom MK2 plane skips over the top to about 35ms, then hit whiplash afterburner and verniers, pull hard up and you'll get out of the water.

[@omegaminus]

I've had the same issue with water physics in Scatterer! Active seas are hugely appealing for realism, but a lot of my stock seaplanes can't take off anymore since the undulation in the waves catches any "draggable" surface and keeps my speed well below stall. I think the best solutions are building bigger floats and taking care how they're positioned w.r.t. CoL and CoM, ensuring wings/engines are high up out of the water, and aiming for higher aspect ratio wings to increase lift. I'd rather take a little more care in design than go back to stock Kerbal water graphics 😅

[@Estuardomendez13]

Also having a wide V shape to the pontoons cpuld help with the stability as mk2 fuselage has lift vectors so you basically just put 2 big rudders down in the water any yaw made it roll dipping the wings

[@samuelpettit7985]

Laughing out laugh for real.... and I needed it, thanks Matt!

[@noofdavy]

best game play ive seen in a while

[@jamesmcinnes525]

That was amazing Matt 👏 that's exactly how I play. A win is a win.

[@bennyfactor]

Technically correct is the best kind of correct, Matt.

[@TacticalScythe]

Just found this channel an hour ago, and it's great. Good work! akakakakaka

[@miracleeze6659]

Thank you for another KSP video

[@Seeraphyn]

I think you can disable interactable waves in the Scatterer config. You can probably do it either in the in game GUI that can be toggled with alt+f10 or alt+f11, or by editing the config file

[@MattLowne]

Yes but this way is more dangerous

[@opportunity-kfpairlines6716]

That has to be the most Kerbal way of taking off

[@josescalcagno]

Lovely chaos, ty. Also control and stabilization surfaces are also important on the parts that go underwater to help with stabilization... just little ones... like in boats, ships, submarines, surfboards... pontoons.

[@marcoplayz7911]

good luck on your master’s module!

[@corajallen9471]

I loved this video, I love how silly it was but I really hope you return to this concept later

[@JTanSC]

was listening to 1812 overture, lets just say it's timed perfectly with the start of the successful takeoff

[@oasntet]

Oh, the whiplash of that landing. Ow.

[@tjkelly9051]

YES NEW KSP VIDEO

[@linuxsbc]

This was very funny. I tried an amphibious plane once, and the solution that I found was a few small pontoons (Mk0 fuel tanks, though a larger plane might need Mk1) and, essentially, a small wing with a high angle of attack below the water near the front of the craft to lift the nose out of the water.

[@matthewmartin5763]

When I'm trying to build a speed boat, I use hydrofoils. I usually use wing parts that extend under water to act as sort of a Lifting body. Like other commenter have said; center of mass and lift are also important too. Also good to build up speed slowly. 😪 I miss my burnt out graphics card.

[@jasonyesmarc309]

I swear this video is in my top 5 fav Matt Lowne videos ever.

[@OmikronTitan]

Need some sea barriers to help hold back those nasty waves!

[@oscills]

Is is probably the best new matt lowne video its just so chaotic and I love it

[@random_guy_on_the_internet69]

Bro really said "Back to your scheduled programming" while I was actually programming 🤣🤣🤣

[@vosechu]

If at first you don’t succeed, lower your expectations until what you did was a success! That’s the engineering motto I always strive for too!

[@hazelbaumgartner9706]

Your pontoons should be nice and wide, usually coming out from under the wings. This makes your plane more stable on choppy water and less likely to flip.

[@Peacich]

that landing in the lake though

[@Ultraramage]

What an inspirational flight

[@SteveHARDWATER]

For Laythe; maybe a hydrofoil with a ballast like you made earlier with cargo tanks.

[@Cjalmighty1]

Getting practically rickrolled going to download a craft is one of the best things Matt's done yet

[@bestboyishigami5154]

Next time try a tripod configuration like a normal land runway craft for better stability, and maybe put some strong RCS thrusters on the bottom to help pitch up.

[@Syllaren]

I feel like them giving this kind of nod to the water stuff gives some hope that Kerbal 2 will have more focus on water. Better physics, underwater research etc

[@schlix101]

This was a good laugh... Thank you Matt!

[@radosbarner1734]

Hey Matt. I actually built an accidental sea plane once. Would you like the craft file? It basically takes off by diving down under the water, then pointing upwards and hitting full thrust ;).