Air Intake Suction

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

I've been thinking that jet engines in game seem a bit too docile for the air hungry things that they are. You can (in game) have them roaring full blast with an object directly in front of them and nothing will happen. Meanwhile you can easily find a video from the USS Theodore Roosevelt on which an A-6 intruder sucked in a man working on deck. Luckily for him his helmet and his own blockage of the airflow into the engine saved him among other things. Many other incidents can be found in which things ranging in size from bolts to baggage cars were pulled into engine intakes.

Imho the intake side of engines should be just as dangerous as the exhaust. Perhaps even things sucked into the inlet should be able to damage the engine.

What do you guys think?

Edited October 3, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139
AUTOCORRECT

[Wjolcz]

That would be nice, but sometimes probably also annoying. Not sure how that would affect part clipping and the physics involved.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

@VeeltchHow would it affect part clipping? Do people often put stuff inside their intakes?

Edit also I would assume this effect would be throttled along with engine power. I figure to make it more fun and less of a nuisance in ksp, at idle you'd have to almost already be in the intake for it to do anything.

Edited October 3, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Wjolcz]

5 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

@VeeltchHow would it affect part clipping? Do people often put stuff inside their intakes?

 

Yup. I often do to make my planes look sleeker. Especially in wings. Just a bit, but I can imagine having a problem with that.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

1 minute ago, Veeltch said:

Yup. I often do to make my planes look sleeker. Especially in wings. Just a bit, but I can imagine having a problem with that.

Ah well I wouldn't know how the devs would work it if they did implement it but I imagine the damage thing would work kind of like solar panels do today, in that they can deal with parts of the same ship clipping through them perfectly well, but when something else hits them they get damaged.

[pandaman]

Interesting idea, I suppose it could possibly work a bit like the exhaust, but in reverse with a bit less power. 

[AlexisBV]

Intake airflow has much less damage potential because it's coming from the whole 180+ degree hemisphere in front of the intake (assuming a circular intake). The exhaust on the other hand is much more concentrated (and hot!) and therefore dangerous, limited to pretty much the diameter of the nozzle when immediately behind the engine (though the danger area expands as you get further away, as the jet expands through mixing with ambient air).

I doubt there would be much realistic danger to anything firmly attached to the craft near the inlet (save for maybe a flimsy extendable antenna). However loose objects/debris are another story.

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by AlexisBV

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Yah I wasn't thinking it would be much of a problem for things firmly attached to the craft, but rather for rovers or other objects close in front of the intake.

[Justicier]

1 hour ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Yah I wasn't thinking it would be much of a problem for things firmly attached to the craft, but rather for rovers or other objects close in front of the intake.

Hehe, you were thinking of a poor hapless Kerbal getting sucked in weren't you? Be honest now

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

10 minutes ago, Justicier said:

Hehe, you were thinking of a poor hapless Kerbal getting sucked in weren't you? Be honest now

Sort of actually. A while back when playing on a DMP server it turned out someone had lined the little buggers up across the island runway. I didn't notice this and came in for a landing with a large cargo plane which had 6 Goliath's hanging just above the ground. I didn't see the kerbals until I was right on top of them.  *WHAM!* One of my Goliath turbofans slammed into one of them, and it got blown up. Not just the Kerbal, but the engine too.L uckily I had engine out capability, but it made me think about really how much more often things like that should have have happened to me, considering all the junk there often was hanging around near my planes.

[Rath]

Maybe it could be done as an engine with negative thrust?

[StahnAileron]

This is an aspect I am fine with throwing out for the sake of gameplay and simplicity. I mean, it might be amusing one or two times (more if you enjoy torturing Kerbals), but either it'd be irritating to deal with or the effect would be inconsequential (so why bother implementing it?). Foreign Object Damage (FOD) is not something I've seen any simulators implement, much less something like KSP. Maybe if it was a carrier flight ops simulator...