Shuttle won't fly straight.

[GoSlash27]

Thanks for the help guys. The shuttle is now in a workable state and seems to be pretty reliable. Only thing I need to be careful of now is turning too fast which removes the wings.

I'll probably start doing that pretty soon. Where could I store the fuel so the thud engines could use it but the main ones couldn't? And the only place I can put their fuel is either in the cargo bay or at the back where it already is.

Frozen Heart,

The standard approach is to clip a couple small tanks into the rear tank where the actual shuttle's OMS pods live and then attach the thuds to them. The thuds will draw from those tanks when activated but the SSMEs won't. It's "legal" clipping since the rear tank doesn't contain any fuel and is merely empty structure.

To be super- accurate, you'd use O-10 engines and monopropellant.

Anywho... glad to hear you've added your STS to the fleet and kudos on the achievement. This ain't an easy undertaking!

Best,

-Slashy

[AaronLS]

Anytime you are comparing position of CoL and CoM, temporarily remove any vertical wings or control surfaces such as your rudder. They will cause your CoL to appear to be further back than it actually is.

[Vegetal]

Anytime you are comparing position of CoL and CoM, temporarily remove any vertical wings or control surfaces such as your rudder. They will cause your CoL to appear to be further back than it actually is.

Actually no, the CoL display only accounts for the transverse axis - pitch up and down - so vertical surfaces don't affect it, go test it

[Frozen_Heart]

Should be about ready for the spacecraft exchange!

[AaronLS]

Actually no, the CoL display only accounts for the transverse axis - pitch up and down - so vertical surfaces don't affect it, go test it

My mistake, it's the horizontal control surfaces I always have attached to the vertical fins. Still I would remove them when positioning wings/CoL. At least according to the Aero overlay, control surfaces don't actually produce lift when not deflected. If I had positioned my CoL with them attached in the below, I would have ended up with CoL in front of CoM. Before I first discovered this, my planes were not always stable, and after discovering this nuance, I can now consistently make stable planes.

Edited September 19, 2015 by AaronLS

[Vegetal]

I just made a test and I don't know what to think of it....

[Val]

I just made a test and I don't know what to think of it....

http://i.imgur.com/6ibAiwN.png

I'm not surprised that it flies, but I am surprised it could get off the ground. Impressive.

Edit: And even more incredible if it could go supersonic, being that much off prograde to maintain level flight.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Val

[Vegetal]

It was kinda hard to go supersonic, but far from impossible. It got off the runway quite easily actually, pretty much like a normal plane. The CoL was at the tail basically, but you can see the pitch indicator is also like a normal plane, just a little above center.