Are fairings broken in 1.4.2

[KerikBalm]

In my latest game, I realized that the fairings were not working properly... my aircraft that had been using fairings as nosecones were encountering a lot more drag than they should have, and I did some experimentation... I just want others to confirm this "bug", and that its not due to a mod on my install:

here we see a fairing with ZERO drag, as if it has shielded itself. Thats weird, but what is worse is that the part beneath it has major drag.

Then I compared the drag of a fairing design (with an internal, properly shielded, probe core) vs a normal nosecone and an inline 2.5m core:

Zero fairing drag, ~200kN of drag on the booster

Total drag here: 91+31+7 = 129. I'll grant that it was a several m/s slower. A quick V^2 approximation suggests it would be 136.6 kN at 436.9 m/s  

Still a lot less drag, because it seems that the stack is being treated as if it had a blunt end, and the fairing wasn't there

And, again, also showing that parts inside do get shielded:

The FL-T800 inside the fairing has no drag, as it should be. The top FL-Tx1800 tank has 116.82 kN of drag compared to the one just below it at 16.47 kN of drag. The fairings aren't properly shielding the part below them. They seem to have shielded themselves, and have a ridiculous 0 drag.

I've also tried this with a backwards facing fairing below a stack. The fairing remained dragless, and the part above it had a major drag penalty. When I dreployed the fairing, the part above the fairing had its drag reduced, while the fairing base started to produce drag

Can anyone else replicate this?

This is having a major impact on my spaceplanes

 

[blakemw]

Yah this is quite well known and is apparently being fixed in 1.4.3. In 1.4.2 Fairings are invisible to the aero model, I exploited this to put a fairing in orbit at a very low altitude (just above the ocean!), they experience no drag, no lift, and offer no streamlining to the part they are mounted to.

[Snark]

53 minutes ago, KerikBalm said:

I just want others to confirm this "bug"

Yep. 

23 hours ago, UomoCapra said:

Next week we will be releasing patch 1.4.3, which will include various bug fixes and a few improvements for both the base game and the Making History Expansion.

22 hours ago, www2 said:

a problem with the fairings having to much drag

20 hours ago, RoverDude said:

Yep - that's been sorted as well

So, yes, it's a thing, and they're fixing it in the patch being released next week.

[Hans Dorn]

So what you're saying is they're gonna put a patch on the patch for the patch?

 

 

Sounds pretty Kerbal to me.

 

 

 

[Snark]

57 minutes ago, Hans Dorn said:

So what you're saying is they're gonna put a patch on the patch for the patch?

Yep.  1.0 got up to 5 patches, wouldn't be surprised if 1.4 goes past three.  Time will tell.

[Kerbalwerks]

Thanks for Patching things up !! you guys Rock!

[Particle_Wave]

I'm still getting issues with Kerbals that are in command seats. They still cause drag as if they aren't inside a fairing. Is there a setting I can change to fix this or is it a bug?

[OHara]

Kerbals in seats inside fairings or cargo bays are still exposed.  That bug is still open.

[Particle_Wave]

I've got a PSA for everyone:

A similar bug to the one mentioned above is possible in 1.4.4 but thankfully I found the workaround as I was about to post this...

Symptom - A fairing will cause drag as if the fairing has already been deployed. Deploying the fairing doesn't change the drag amount at all.

Cause/Workaround - If the root part of your vessel is a fairing, that fairing will experience this bug 100% of the time from my experience and testing. Setting the root of your vessel to any other part will get rid of the bug.

It applies to all fairing sizes but not to cargo bays or service modules.

[eddiew]

On 4/14/2018 at 2:08 AM, Snark said:

Yep.  1.0 got up to 5 patches, wouldn't be surprised if 1.4 goes past three.  Time will tell.

Message from the future: you were right. Also, don't forget to turn off the... *message ends*