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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.

Hey guys, been a while since I've been here, but man, I love these forums. Hey all, been a long time since I've been here, but man, I really love these forums. Anyway, I've been building rockets for a while now, both in stock and with Realism Overhaul. I've also become fascinated with real world rockets through all this and I've noticed there's one topic I rarely see posted about here that I'm very curious about. What's the real deal with rocket shape? Feel free to talk about KSP or real world, even though I know they're quite different. I'm primarily concerned with multistage stacks and the dimeter of the various stages. (But I'm also very interested in anything to do with this topic.) My big question is, what are the considerations when designing rocket's stages as far as diameter? I've seen rockets like the Falcon 9 or Arianne 5 have upper stages with the same diameter as the lower, while others, like the Saturn V or Atlas V don't. I would think that, aerodynamically, a rocket that is a consistent diameter with a good nose cone would have less drag than one that tapers, but I'm not positive about this. Also, in stock KSP, it's much more mass efficient to use smaller diameter upper stages, except that you then need an adapter, fairing, or other inter-stage element. In real life though, the upper stage shape doesn't have as much effect on mass, so it makes much more sense to go with a cylindrical rocket.

So, i recently installed procedural parts. the issue is that every 9 in 10 times when i am building a procedural tank it for some reason does let me change the shape. The shape slider does not even appear. this is very frustrating because i am stuck with the normal cylinder shape. please help me.