KnightRider

Almost every time I load a rocket on the pad, it jumps into the air and crashes as soon as physics start. This effect doesn't only happen on particularly heavy rockets; my Vanguard clone does it just as much as my Delta IV. Adding clamps does nothing -- the rocket simply shakes itself to pieces and breaks in half instead of jumping. It's gotten to the point where I have to revert to launch one or two dozen times every single time I want to launch something just to finally get lucky enough for my rocket to only lose a few fairing panels when it loads. I have the Real Solar System mod installed, and I have the Kerbal Joint Reenforcement as well, although the second one seems to do absolutely nothing to keep my rockets from detonating on load.

Does ksp with FAR accurately model variable geometry intakes in terms of inlet drag? Also, is there any info out there on whether or not FAR models compression lift? From what I've seen compression lift can be generated by a caret wing, which is essentially a delta wing at an anhedral angle.

But I've seen videos of people making mach 5+ aircraft with FAR. And there are real life designs like the SR-72 and Skylon that don't appear to use wave rider designs and that should be able to achieve speeds around that range (even if they can't reach their design speeds, they'll surely be able to go faster than Mach 3.5). What design features do they have to allow them to achieve such performance? With regards to area ruling -- how do I achieve it in KSP? All the fuselage parts, both stock and in mods like B9, appear to be flat-walled, with no taper that could be used for area ruling. I suppose I could implement it using procedural parts, but is there any other way? Also, what do you mean by "regular delta wing?" Are other variations of the delta wing better at reducing wave drag? And do you have any specific tips regarding the placement of intakes to reduce wave drag? I'd assume I should place them at the narrowest possible point to improve area ruling, but are there any other guidelines?

I'm trying spoilers ATM. As far as reducing drag goes, is there any way to implement a supercritical airfoil in KSP with FAR or any other mods? Also, are there any other ways of increasing the critical mach number of an aircraft that's been designed with FAR in mind? What about reducing wave drag at supersonic speeds? At the moment my only knowledge is that you're supposed to use a thin, highly swept wing, use area ruling, and keep everything external to the aicraft within the shock cone. Are there any other tips? Regarding wings, is a delta wing better than a trapezoidal/diamond shaped wing for supersonic drag, or is it the other way around? I'd assume the delta wing is best, since it gets the most wing area inside the most limited span, which helps both with area ruling and keeping the wing inside the shock cone. But I've heard that the diamond wing is also very good, and the F-104 used it instead of a delta and performed very well. Is a trapezoidal wing better than a delta?

I've gotten the basics of aircraft design with FAR installed down (CoM ahead of CoL, landing gear close behind CoM, check stability derivatives in the FAR analysis screen, etc) as well as the basics of designing low-drag aircraft (area ruling etc), but I'm interested in any resources or information about optimizing aircraft as much as possible to perform well in terms of maximum speed and altitude. What kinds of features should a plane have to perform better in those regimes? I'm currently working towards sort of an X-plane program in my career mode install (i.e. building faster and faster planes leading up to a spaceplane), and I'd like to optimize the aircraft as much as possible. I'm working with FAR and RSS in terms of mods, so the difficulty is greater than stock. Also, how can I make my high-speed aircraft perform better at low speeds and altitudes? I understand that it's difficult to do that, since getting an aircraft to perform well over a wide range of speeds and altitudes is very difficult, but I'm currently having issues with my latest X-plane stalling at speeds below 120 m/s, which makes landing a pain. I typically end up trying to come in as slowly as possible (in the vertical direction) at 120 m/s and then flaring/cutting power, but this just leads to me bouncing down the runway several times, flipping over, and destroying the plane. I'm not posting from my computer with my KSP install on it, so I can't post the craft file at the moment, but I will as soon as I get back to my KSP computer. Basically, it's a single-engined delta wing aircraft with no horizontal tail or canards, powered by a single J-33 jet engine. I essentially attempted to get it as close as possible to look like the F-106 (pic included). It performs pretty well, achieving a maximum speed of almost mach 2 and a maximum altitude of ~20 km on a 20 kN engine (the engine only produces a fraction of its rated power due to airflow restrictions). However, its performance while landing leaves a lot to be desired.