Stock Spaceplane Cargo Bay

[MajorNr01]

Suggestion is simple as that: One or maybe multiple parts to create cargo carrying spaceplanes.

With a rocket, you would simply stack your payload on top (not even any need for fairings yet, cause of incomplete aerodynamics), but with a plane you have balance issues. What's needed then is a means of placing your cargo somewhere near your spaceplanes center of mass in order to maintain CoM to CoL balance (mainly).

I know of a good handful of mods that provide cargo bays or even cargo bay construction systems (I made one myself) but as we now have SCIENCE! I feel discouraged from using modded parts (even more than I used to), because they might not be properly integrated into the science tree.

I simply feel like the need is arising at this point, because SSTOs (especially spaceplanes) are in fact a viable option for a launch system and likely to be the future of space in reality. Without a structural part that enables you to place your cargo in line with your entire craft, whilst not having to stack it on top of the plane's nose, making an SSTO spaceplane launch system proves to be very impractical.

I am under the impression that such a part would come up at some point in the future, but I am interested in how much of priority this feature has at the moment.

Thank you, for your time!

[DerpenWolf]

I think that a stock space-plane cargo bay would be a great addition and would think that they would work great for the Mk3 fusalage! If this were to be implemented I would expect to see the Mk3 plane parts to be used far more often than they are now!

[brusura]

Yes please very needed

[Snow Leopard]

Totally agree, something exactly like the Mk3 Fuselage - same dimensions and shape, even the same texture.

[Outlander4]

It was requested a lot in the early days, and it's a logical thing to do. As far as I remember, Chad aka C7 even had such a part in the pipeline a while ago. I guess re-making part system prevented it from appearing in the game.

We'll have to wait for the atmosphere/spaceplane update for this to happen - so it's definitely coming, just not now.

[UberFuber]

The currently issue I have with the space-plane launch system is that the spaceplane is, essentially, disposable. Once it deliver its payload, the spaceplane plunges to its doom (since you're now controlling the payload, not the rocket). While this isn't much of an issue with the economy disabled, it is still a bit bizarre why you would go through the effort of building an airplane that will just smash itself into the ground every single time.

Arguably, we'll need some sort of basic auto-pilot for planes, something as simple as altitude and speed hold should be sufficient.

I simply feel like the need is arising at this point, because SSTOs (especially spaceplanes) are in fact a viable option for a launch system and likely to be the future of space in reality. Without a structural part that enables you to place your cargo in line with your entire craft, whilst not having to stack it on top of the plane's nose, making an SSTO spaceplane launch system proves to be very impractical.

Thank you, for your time!

That, and the ability to setup a preset list of "trims" you can add to the plane during assembly. So you can setup a trim for when there's a payload and when there's not. Then, when in flight and you launch the payload, you just switch the trim setting to the "no payload" setting and your plane should still remain stable.