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This is an unofficial continuation of Ferram Aerospace Research by @ferram4 updated to latest KSP version. The original thread can be found here. New source code repository: https://github.com/dkavolis/Ferram-Aerospace-Research All content now licensed under GPL v3. From the original thread: Update to version 0.16.0.5 "Mader" (Note for Kopernicus users: DO NOT overwrite MFI that comes with Kopernicus since it is locked to that particular version) ALL USERS: NO LOGS OR REPRODUCTION STEPS = NO SUPPORT Original Review: Aerodynamic Failures: Building a spaceplane and talking about editor GUI stuff: Features Shape-Based, Vessel-Centered, Aerodynamics - Long, thin shapes drag less than wide, flat shapes, and smooth changes in body width reduce drag. The shape of the vessel as a whole, not individual parts, controls drag, so shape the vessel as you see fit. Emergent Fairings and Cargo Bays - The voxel model method FAR uses allows for the actual shape of the vehicle to play a role in how lift and drag are applied. Build a hollow shell, and close it up, and everything inside it will be protected from the airflow as it should. Wing Effects - Realistically adjusts lift based on wing position and configuration: wingtips lift less and drag more than wing roots. Stall - Passing the critical angle of attack suddenly reduces lift and greatly increases drag. Can put planes into tailspins, flat spins, and cause crashes. Mach Effects and Area Ruling - Lift and drag will vary as expected with Mach number. Supersonic planes will need to properly area rule themselves for optimum flight characteristics. Body lift - All parts lift: a fast enough brick will fly, if not that well. Download: Get v0.16.0.5 "Mader" from Github! Official FAR Craft Sharing Thread Post your crafts there, not here, please. Violators will have their posts moved by moderators, and will have everyone very annoyed with the additional workload for both moderators and me. The FAR wiki at GitHub The source at GitHub Everything licensed under GNU GPL v3 Part.cfg changes powered by sarbian & ialdabaoth's ModuleManager plugin. Interface with stock heating system and other mods interacting with the physics system powered by sarbian, Starwaster and ferram4 ModularFlightIntegrator Toolbar powered by blizzy78's Toolbar plugin. Installation: Copy the GameData and Ships folders into the KSP root directory and merge them with the existing GameData and Ships folders. Make sure that you copy over everything in the GameData folder. Serious issues will occur unless this is done. Changelog: FAQ - Common Questions and Solutions to Common Problems What does this mod do that stock KSP doesn't? Stock KSP calculates drag as a linear combination of the drag properties of a vehicle's parts, with some interaction changes to handle some of the most obvious aerodynamic interaction effects. FAR instead calculates the drag from the vessel shape as a whole, resulting in a more realistic model of aerodynamic drag and body lift. In addition, FAR accounts for wing shape, rather than just overall area like stock KSP. Finally, thanks to the overall vessel model, FAR can account for things like area ruling, where the vehicle's area cross-section must vary properly in order to fly at supersonic speeds (well, without MOAR BOOSTERS, in any case). I don't like my rocket coming apart under heavy aerodynamic loads; how can I turn it off? In the Space Center scene FAR has a debug menu that can be accessed to mess with a large number of the parameters. Under the "cheats" section of the first tab there is an option to disable aerodynamic failure. Does this plugin work properly with other mods / part packs? Sure; FAR figures out what the properties of the part should be based on its dimensions and some basic aerodynamic assumptions. If you use a mod and suspect that it causes unrealistic behavior, search the thread to see if it has been brought up / addressed by the latest release; if it hasn't, feel free to bring it to my attention. The only exception is with wing parts, which are more complicated and currently must have their properties specified manually. Does this plugin make payload fairings and cargo bays work properly? Yes, it will support any and all fairings and cargo bays. Even those that you make out of completely unrelated parts, so long as you close up the shape. In fact, to FAR, there is little difference between the inside of a closed fairing and the inside of a fuel tank part; they're both just as internal to it. I can't seem to turn off the Flight Assistance Systems... what's going on? In the Flight Assistance GUI every button that is pressed activates a control system; when none are pushed down no control systems are active. I suspect that you've actually created a poorly designed craft and that you're attributing aerodynamic forces that you're not used to dealing with to non-existent control inputs. Do I need ModuleManager and/or ModularFlightIntegrator? Yes; they are used to properly apply aerodynamic properties to stock wing parts and to interface properly with the game's physics system. Not using them will cause FAR to not function. I'm using the win64 KSP build and I am still too outraged to read the topic title or changelog, please mock me. Very well, I shall. Haha, silly person. Anyway, win64 is now unlocked for the foreseeable future. If it turns back into the crashtastic support-heavy nightmare it was, the lock may return, but I do not anticipate the need to do that.

CPWE - Configurable Planetary Wind Effects (v0.8.6-alpha) This mod is under active development and is a WIP. Everything in here is subject to change. Please report any bugs and issues to me so I can fix them. CPWE is a plugin designed to provide a framework for defining wind patterns for any celestial body, including custom/modded ones. These wind patterns will then affect any craft that fly through them. In the time I spent on flight simulators, wind was always a persistent challenge element, and I've wanted something similar in KSP. However, none of the (admittedly very few) existing wind mods for KSP had what I wanted. Namely, I wanted to be able to configure the wind based on location to allow for interesting wind patterns. At the same time, while I loved the sheer depth that Kerbal Weather Project brought to the game, I felt that running a climate simulation for other celestial bodies might be a bridge too far (especially if we include custom bodies which may not necessarily be grounded in reality). CPWE is my attempt at filling the need I created for myself. It is designed to be relatively easy to configure and provides many options for configuring wind patterns and prevailing winds. The structure of the config entries is included on the GitHub wiki page, which will be updated as I update this mod. NOTE: CPWE does not add any visual effects to the game. However, integration with a mod that does is something I am considering. API (Coming Soon™) At some point in the future, I intend to include an API to allow other mods to not only retrieve the wind vector that CPWE is using, but supply CPWE with their own wind data. Exact details are not yet finalized. Planned Features (in order of priority): Support for dynamic wind patterns (i.e. ones that can change with time) The aforementioned API Possible integration with other mods I am open to ideas and feature suggestions. If you have any, please leave them below. Installation: Download: GitHub: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/CPWE/releases Download includes some (kinda terrible) configs for Kerbin, Laythe, and Duna. Dependencies: ModularFlightIntegrator Toolbar Controller ClickThrough Blocker ModuleManager Source: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/CPWE Mod Compatibility: Recommended Mods: Kopernicus KSPCommunityFixes Compatible With: FerramAerospaceResearch Most, if not all parts mods Conflicts With: Other mods that modify the stock aerodynamics system Documentation (WIP): https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/CPWE/wiki Known Issues (as of 03/09/2024): Changelog: Credits and Acknowledgements (not necessarily in order of contribution): @sarbian, @ferram4, & @Starwaster for making the ModularFlightIntegrator that allows interfacing with KSP's physics system. @cmet24 for creating Kerbal Weather Project, which was a big source of inspiration for this mod. License Information: The plugin, source code, settings & localization config files, and toolbar icons are licensed under the MIT License. All other config files and textures are licensed under the WTFPL license ( http://www.wtfpl.net/ )

Self explanatory - wings that tilt backwards and forwards to control the Center of Lift and maintain control in high-AoA maneuvers in addition to spaceplane wings. Just to draw one example on how these differ from spaceplane wings for anyone unfamiliar with Starship (or the KSP 1 re-creations by Scott Manley and Matt Lowne which recreate this mechanic), the way a set of spaceplane wings will tilt in order to roll doesn't really work when attempting a bellyflop. One set of wings need to fold inwards in order to increase drag on a particular side whereas standard control surfaces twist in a way that provides little control at high AoA. KSP 1 at least had robotics so you could jerry-rig Starship wings together, but even then and even if KSP 2 had robotics, SAS corrections are restricted to reaction wheels and RCS, the wings only adjusting for manual input. Proper support for these types of aerodynamic surfaces is well needed given that KSP 2 is going to be putting more emphasis on reusability as time goes on, and with that comes people wanting to fly mission profiles similar to Starship.

I already made a post about this issue, but it went sideways, and for readability reason I'm making a new post. KSP Version v0.1.1.0 Operating System and version Arch Linux x86_64, Kernel 6.2.7-arch1-1 CPU and GPU models, any other system information which could be relevant AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, AMD ATI Radeon RX 7900 XTX Description of the bug. Expected Behavior In level flight, the 4 forces acting on an aircraft are the following: Lift, is a force acting perpendicular to the flight path or the airflow; Drag, is a force acting parallel to the airflow or the flight path; Gravity, or weight, is a force acting toward the center of the celestial body, and should in level flight be acting parallel and opposite to the lift; Thrust, is the force produced by the propulsion system . Those 4 force in level flight should be in equilibrium. Source: NASA In order to simplify the calculation thrust will be assumed to be parallel to the airflow and opposite to the drag. With this in mind, in order to achieve level flight, the drag must be the same intensity as the thrust, and the lift should be the same intensity as the weight. In this case equilibrium is achieved and we can fly without losing altitude or accelerating. Observed Behavior In order to achieve level flight, the airplane require much more lift than it's weight. This requirement appear to be link to the longitudinal static stability margin of the aircraft. Steps to Replicate Use this aircraft. (I don't know how to upload save file so I copied the whole .json file in the following spoiler). Moving the main wing front and back should allow to change the longitudinal static stability margin by moving the relative position of the center of pressure in function of the center of mass. The design below has been chosen to simlify any calculation. The wing, horizontal tail, and vertical tail are square. The propulsion is aproximatly inline with the center of mass. Flying and trimming the aircraft while monitoring the aeroGUI should allow you to observe the same issue. Fixes / Workarounds (if known..) None. A list of ALL mods. If the list is long, please consider using a spoiler window. None. Other Notes / Screenshots / Log Files (if possible..) The test below show the effect described above. The airplane is flown and trimmed until it reach quasi level flight (easier said than done). This has been done for two postition of the wing, changing it's longitudinal static stability margin. Them the lift was recorded. The measurement was repeated at 4 second interval to assess the quality of the level flight. Wing position 1: Wing Position 2: Measurement: Wing position 1: Higher longitudinal static stability margin; Dry mass: 3.34t; Total mass: 3.98t; Mass: 3.78t; Weight: 37.069kN; avg Lift: 59.91kN; Ground speed: 179 m/s; Load factor: 1.62. Wing position 2: Lower longitudinal static stability margin; Dry mass: 3.35t; Total mass: 3.99t; Mass: 3.80t; Weight: 37.265kN; avg Lift: 50.93kN; Ground speed: 185 m/s; Load factor: 1.36. It is important to note that the load factor in level flight is supposed to be 1.0. It is also interresting to note that the thrust is higher than the drag. And if we look at Wing Position 2 the mach number slightly drop while the drag is lower than the thrust. It is also part of the problem. I'm unable to assess if this is an aeroGUI bug or an aerodynamic model issue. But issue there is. Thanks to @Buzz313th , who helped me understand that the issue might be linked to longitudinal stability. (Maybe) Linked issue:

Today I wanted to try aerodynamics. I ran into a lots of issue. The first one is that the shape of the airplane does not seem to influence the ability of the airplane to break the sound barrier. As can be seen from the image below the airplane fly in low atmosphere at Mach 2.6, without any shape optimization. Either the aerodynamics does not simulate the shock wave drag and its relation with area rules or the thrust of this motor is way too high! Second issue I had is about trimming. As can be observed in the screenshot below, the airplane is gliding at around 250 m/s, with all control surface at 30° deflection to increase lift and pitching moment. It is generating around 170kN of lift force and weight about 40kN. Even with a lift that is enough to fly a 4G maneuver, the airplane can almost not pitch up. When the engine is running it is perfectly trimmed at those speed but without engine it is flying like a stone. All of the above is extremely counter intuitive and seem very unrealistic. I suppose some more work is urgently needed in the aerodynamic simulation section.

I’ve been messing around with trying to piggy back satellites to orbit with a mk2 SSTO. (Think how the SR-71 carried the drone, except the plane gets to orbit before launching the payload) But it seems putting even a small mk1 size space craft on the back causes some ridiculous drag. I built the launcher plane first and it blasts through 440 m/s without breaking a sweat. But with the mk1 craft piggy backed on, it struggles to hit 300 m/s. I know cargo bays have been thought to be an issue but I have none on either craft.

so, i bought ksp about a month or two ago, i played around 10 hours and i have not been really successful, all my attempts at building a plane so far have failed, mostly because none of my planes are able to turn and about half of them aren't even able to keep flying for very long and really struggle at gaining lift, whenever i try to turn with my planes they mostly just turn sideways and crash in the water shortly after, i have absolutely no idea what the hell i'm even doing tbh also, sometimes my plane starts to wobble a lot just as i go to the runway here's some footage of my current design

Realistic aerodynamics is not only an essential topic for aerospace engineering, it is absolutely FASCINATING. I wanted to break the sound barrier with the Farrem Aerospace mod and the Realistic Progression mod tech tree. This led me to spend a whole 2 days researching aerodynamics, including watching the old Shell Oil film "High Speed Flight," which explained all the considerations of transonic and supersonic flight. This included elevator issues, thin wings, the area rule, sweeping wings behind the shock wave so they experience subsonic flow, etc. I spent 2 days excitedly researching, but I had also taken both incompressible and compressible flow courses. Think of all the fun I would have had if I were to discover those aerodynamic principles for the first time! If the developers want to make a game marketed as being a fun way to educate the next generation of engineers and scientists, they should go all the way and implement realistic aerodynamics so players can try to break the sound barrier and optimize the aerodynamic profile of their spaceplane for supersonic flight. Procedural nozzles could even be added just to experiment with optimizing engine efficiency for different atmospheric pressures (future update?). Make the game the ultimate sandbox of aerospace engineering! (The same goes for including realistic n-body gravitation like in the principia mod! But while it can and should be implemented I know it probably won't be...)

Make hitting the ground a challenge A runway is a death trap designed to kill pilots who do not understand the concept of Ground Effect, a phenomenon created by communists to allow ships to fly with tiny wings. This simple mod adds Ground Effect to the stock aerodynamics, by applying extra forces over existing wings. It allows ground effect vehicles (GEV) to work properly. Features Increased lift over terrain and ocean Reduction in Induced Drag Up to 200% more lift at closest proximity Custom Lift multiplier can be set per-part config Ground effect scales based on an approximation of wing span Some GEV designs can stay stable without SAS No significant performance loss Works on stock rotors Installation No dependencies, and works on almost every KSP version, just put it anywhere in GameData (yes it's just a single DLL). CKAN and Spacedock links coming soon? [Latest Github Release] Is it working? Check the developer console, and it should say "CraftName has entered Ground Effect." Notes Wing span is roughly calculated by getting the largest value of a lifting surface's distance from the COM, scaled by how perpendicular the wing's position is with it's velocity. It's pretty complicated to understand, it's better explained in the source, but I put this in because it allows rotating vessels to work, such as non-DLC stock propellers. This mechanic can be abused for very slow aircraft There may be a few problems with Breaking Ground rotors, or any mod that has moving parts on the same vessel, as wing span calculations are done per-vessel. Tested to work with the following aerodynamics-related mods: Procedural Wings Bulleted List Extender Continued May unknowingly clash with other installed mods. No FAR compatibility planned; I was working on it for a while but it was really messy, and why make an aerodynamics mod for an aerodynamics mod? Development Thread Media

Update to version 0.15.9.1 "Liepmann", now with voxel-model based aerodynamics! ALL USERS: NO LOGS OR REPRODUCTION STEPS = NO SUPPORT CKAN USERS: PLEASE READ THIS FIRST Users who put issues on Github are awesome. Please consider being awesome. Original Review: Aerodynamic Failures: Building a spaceplane and talking about editor GUI stuff: Features Shape-Based, Vessel-Centered, Aerodynamics - Long, thin shapes drag less than wide, flat shapes, and smooth changes in body width reduce drag. The shape of the vessel as a whole, not individual parts, controls drag, so shape the vessel as you see fit. Emergent Fairings and Cargo Bays - The voxel model method FAR uses allows for the actual shape of the vehicle to play a role in how lift and drag are applied. Build a hollow shell, and close it up, and everything inside it will be protected from the airflow as it should. Wing Effects - Realistically adjusts lift based on wing position and configuration: wingtips lift less and drag more than wing roots. Stall - Passing the critical angle of attack suddenly reduces lift and greatly increases drag. Can put planes into tailspins, flat spins, and cause crashes. Mach Effects and Area Ruling - Lift and drag will vary as expected with Mach number. Supersonic planes will need to properly area rule themselves for optimum flight characteristics. Body lift - All parts lift: a fast enough brick will fly, if not that well. Download: Get v0.15.9.1 "Liepmann" from SpaceDock! Get v0.15.9.1 "Liepmann" from Github! Official FAR Craft Sharing Thread Post your crafts there, not here, please. Violators will have their posts moved by moderators, and will have everyone very annoyed with the additional workload for both moderators and me. The FAR wiki at GitHub The source at GitHub Shader and art assets licensed All Rights Reserved Source code and binaries licensed under GNU GPL v3 Part.cfg changes powered by sarbian & ialdabaoth's ModuleManager plugin. Interface with stock heating system and other mods interacting with the physics system powered by sarbian, Starwaster and myself's ModularFlightIntegrator Toolbar powered by blizzy78's Toolbar plugin. Installation: Copy the GameData and Ships folders into the KSP root directory and merge them with the existing GameData and Ships folders. Make sure that you copy over everything in the GameData folder. Serious issues will occur unless this is done. Changelog: FAQ - Common Questions and Solutions to Common Problems What does this mod do that stock KSP doesn't? Stock KSP calculates drag as a linear combination of the drag properties of a vehicle's parts, with some interaction changes to handle some of the most obvious aerodynamic interaction effects. FAR instead calculates the drag from the vessel shape as a whole, resulting in a more realistic model of aerodynamic drag and body lift. In addition, FAR accounts for wing shape, rather than just overall area like stock KSP. Finally, thanks to the overall vessel model, FAR can account for things like area ruling, where the vehicle's area cross-section must vary properly in order to fly at supersonic speeds (well, without MOAR BOOSTERS, in any case). I don't like my rocket coming apart under heavy aerodynamic loads; how can I turn it off? In the Space Center scene FAR has a debug menu that can be accessed to mess with a large number of the parameters. Under the "cheats" section of the first tab there is an option to disable aerodynamic failure. Does this plugin work properly with other mods / part packs? Sure; FAR figures out what the properties of the part should be based on its dimensions and some basic aerodynamic assumptions. If you use a mod and suspect that it causes unrealistic behavior, search the thread to see if it has been brought up / addressed by the latest release; if it hasn't, feel free to bring it to my attention. The only exception is with wing parts, which are more complicated and currently must have their properties specified manually. Does this plugin make payload fairings and cargo bays work properly? Yes, it will support any and all fairings and cargo bays. Even those that you make out of completely unrelated parts, so long as you close up the shape. In fact, to FAR, there is little difference between the inside of a closed fairing and the inside of a fuel tank part; they're both just as internal to it. I can't seem to turn off the Flight Assistance Systems... what's going on? In the Flight Assistance GUI every button that is pressed activates a control system; when none are pushed down no control systems are active. I suspect that you've actually created a poorly designed craft and that you're attributing aerodynamic forces that you're not used to dealing with to non-existent control inputs. Do I need ModuleManager and/or ModularFlightIntegrator? Yes; they are used to properly apply aerodynamic properties to stock wing parts and to interface properly with the game's physics system. Not using them will cause FAR to not function. I'm using the win64 KSP build and I am still too outraged to read the topic title or changelog, please mock me. Very well, I shall. Haha, silly person. Anyway, win64 is now unlocked for the foreseeable future. If it turns back into the crashtastic support-heavy nightmare it was, the lock may return, but I do not anticipate the need to do that.

Release Thread This is a very simple mod that increases the lift of a lifting surface at close proximity to ocean, terrain, or buildings. It makes it a little harder to hit the ground. Though far from realistic, it allows ground effect vehicles to function nicely. Drag isn't decreased, but at least it considers wingspan. All of these are old: Ekranoplan of course: https://gfycat.com/TenderIllHedgehog Floatiness over the runway: https://gfycat.com/slowordinaryamericancreamdraft Test of old version: https://gfycat.com/HoarseFixedGroundbeetle Requires Module manager Tested to work on almost all versions above 1.3.1 Github Releases First post, I've just been looking around the forums for some help, though you might recognize me from the /r/kerbalspaceprogram discord server. I'm not really sure if I'm doing things properly. Plenty of testing, cleaning, and a few tweaks is needed for this mod to be considered complete. I also have a mod that creates particles on separations, and one that ejects kerbals when the cabin explodes. This was the only mod that seemed successful.

So I have been trying to model the physics in KSP for a while, using kRPC. I am trying to compute the air drag acting on my rocket so I can compute the trajectory. The kRPC states that the dynamic pressure is a measure of the strength of the aerodynamic forces (link) and the formula is 0.5 * air density * velocity2. Now the KSP wiki states that the atmospheric drag follows the same fomula with an extra constant (coefficient of drag * cross-sectional area). Hence I assumed that when I fly my rocker straight up, where the aerodynamic forces is basicly air drag downwards (numericly checked), the dynamic pressure would be linear to the aerodynamic force. But the experiment shows the other way, as the following figure depicts, where Q is the dynamic pressure. So aerodynamic force is firstly near linear with repect to Q, then as Q hits 40000, is negatively linear and then follows this strange curve. After max Q, it's near linear again. Dynamic pressure data is acquired by vessel.flight().dynamic_pressure, while aerodynamic force data is acquired by norm(vessel.flight().aerodynamic_force). Can anyone share what is the relationship between dynamic pressure and aerodynamic force?

I am always wondering how aerodynamics is being calculated in KSP? For example, I want to know how does the game calculate the force produced by the wing(s) while flying in a specific speed. Any equations (as detailed as can be) will be appreciated.

I created an SSTO to take to different planets on my Space Station. It worked perfectly without the ducted fans. With 1.9, I decided to try them to save fuel and weight. Now, every time it is airborne, it slowly twists to the left. I keep SAS on, but it does not help. All parts were applied in mirror fashion by the system. From what I can tell, my center of gravity is slightly ahead of the center of lift, just like it should be. Both are going down the center of vessel. After displaying my aero forces, the root of the problem is in the cargo, from what I can tell. It seems that the cargo is now generating aero forces while enclosed in a MK3 cargo bay. Does anyone know of a way to fix this? Below is the .craft file for the SSTO in question. I don't have an image account, sorry. Science Rover SSTO

as the wiki page states you need to have a understanding of the forces at play to get the most out of your turboprop i want to use the kal-1000 to dynamically change my angle of attack relative to my air speed but cant find a way to do so. alternatives are welcome because i cant find any way to change the attack angle passively that would be effective.

To whoever may have experience with this kind of problem. I have recently encountered a problem in the 1.8.x versions of KSP in which a Mk3 spaceplane (stock + mk3 expansion) was struggling to break 300m/s with 11 tonnes stowed. When in previous 1.7.x versions the craft had little issue with a 40 tonne to orbit payload. This took some time to uncover as to why the plane lost so much performance over the update and it turns out that the stock mk3 cargo bay parts are no longer shielding any contained parts from aero forces during flight regardless of open or closed state. Because this is a problem with broken stock parts I already contacted KSP support without thinking about how fundamentally even basic mods can change the functionality of the entire game. I still have yet to determine if this is a stock or a modded issue. What could possibly cause stock aero shells to not perform their intended function? It is hard to depict just how much drag is coming from within the craft where it should not. So you may have to take my word for it when I say that the longest drag indicator is coming from a clamp-o-tron Sr just inside the MK3 tail section which is on the front of this aircraft body.

I saw in yt that ppl can make free-shape wings as they like (in the past version). Is there still a function like this stayed in ksp, or again add-ons?

I have encountered a bit of a problem while designing how the re-entry of a large rocket will work. I have a 3-2 converter at the top of my rocket under my command pod. It would be the heaviest thing on the rocket with a mass of almost 17 tons while full. During reentry, the rocket would almost certainly flip and burn up. Question: Is there any way to drain all of the fuel off of a tank without accelerating or moving? If I could, it would reduce the weight to just under 2 tons which should be easily manageable.

Hey, guys. This is my first post here but I have a question which I am hoping someone could answer for me. There is a certain common feature lots of the Russian rockets have like the Long March versions and the Falcon Heavy from SpaceX where the head of the rocket has a bigger diameter than the middle and then the end of the rocket has a diameter similar to the head. So the rocket has a thinner part in the middle. Is there any aerodynamic reason for this or is it simply to use up less material? I have no idea about rocket shapes and have every little experience with stuff like this but it would be great if someone could shed some light on this for me.

Hi there, I'm an aerodynamics student and am looking to do the same kind of medium-fidelity aero modelling that's done with Ferram Aerospace - the calculation of aerodynamic coefficients, stability derivatives, and the like for some arbitrary body, and as functions of Mach number, AoA, etc. Does anyone know if the developers compiled a bibliography/list of references/papers for the algorithms they implemented? If not, is there any information on how their algorithms work, or could anyone recommend some papers I can look at to get started? (I'm familiar with basic flight dynamics theory already, and am more interested in the actual computational component.) Thanks!

Hi all, Does anyone know how KSP computes aerodynamic heating on vehicles in the atmosphere of a body? I've found some basic relationships on aerodynamic heating in this chart package (slides 17-19), but I'd like to find out what KSP does and uses. Does anyone have any insight? Thanks!

I would like this discussion to be a place to share personal interests related to KSP. Aerodynamics, rocket science, physics, chemistry, etc. People can ask questions about real life topics they're interested in and learn about things others are interested in.

So I recently decided to make a larger plane than I normally do. But whenever I make turns or pitch it goes forcefully then goes back down. I've noticed it happens around 100 m/s. I's Guessing it is drag because I learned that with my rockets. Please excuse this horrible question I have very basic knowledge on aerodynamics let alone in KSP.

So I wanted to use one of my premade planes but now when I try to fly them, they just spin out and go wild. Also I do use cheats in my science save cause why not. Though I only use Unbreakable Joints, No crash damage, Inf Electricity and Inf Propellant. I have accidentally click on the physics tab but went back. So I don't think I changed the aerodynamics myself as they worked the last time I play KSP. Was there a change I wasn't aware about? Also running 1.4.1

I'm making some really big truss segments, but the procedural drag cube treats each part like it's clad in plastic. When falling through the atmosphere, it basically drifts down like a feather. I could just make the parts super heavy, but they're supposed to be made of lightweight materials. Anyone had a similar problem in the past? I could use the help