Whats the deal with Lifting Bodies ?

[Redacted]

For the life of me I don't see the point of a Lifting-Body (LB) as it's modeled within KSP. 

Case in point,  in most all SSTO builds where I've tried using MK2 /3 modules, the lift generated (fwd of CG) is so great that enormous wings aft of the CG must be used. Which if the it weren't for the LB disparity, such wings would be more then twice whats needed for a non-LB SSTO. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the point of a LB, to reduce the need for "wings"? Granted some of this can be mitigated by shifting the CG forward and the wings farther back, yet there a limit to where this is no longer practical / functional.

Whats the deal here ?

-Redacted

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Redacted

[AHHans]

I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't see or understand your question.

[Redacted]

28 minutes ago, AHHans said:

I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't see or understand your question.

MK2 / 3 LB's dont provide any benefit to an SSTO so whats the point of having them ? 

[AHHans]

1 minute ago, Redacted said:

MK2 / 3 LB's dont provide any benefit to an SSTO so whats the point of having them ?

Some people - me included - like the looks.

And it makes the game more realistic. (Check out the shape of the SR-71 wings for comparison.)

[Redacted]

1 minute ago, AHHans said:

Some people - me included - like the looks.

And it makes the game more realistic. (Check out the shape of the SR-71 wings for comparison.)

There should be some point to adding "lift" to a part other than the aesthetics.

[AHHans]

Just now, Redacted said:

There should be some point to adding "lift" to a part other than the aesthetics.

For me "makes the game more realistic" is good enough.

[Redacted]

Non-functional isnt very realistic just adds another unnecessary layer of complexity.

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, AHHans said:

Some people - me included - like the looks.

And it makes the game more realistic. (Check out the shape of the SR-71 wings for comparison.)

They are also nice for cargo bays and crew cabins obviously. 

[Redacted]

LB would be allot better if the nose / cockpit lift was reduced, while increasing the end / tail pieces.

[AeroGav]

Press ALT F12 in flight to bring up the console menu, go to physics, aero section,  then tick the box to show aero data in action menus.   The mk2 body parts have less than a 10th of the lift of a wing part and more than 10x the drag.    It's not right but i guess they can't buff it because it could break existing crafts.

 

Note that all this drag up front does actually torque the nose up, particularly at high angles of attack.   This is why you are having to use "huge wings at the back".    The stock centre of lift indicator does not take into account aero forces from nonwing parts properly, so for a lot of aircraft with a long neck and an AFT CoM,  it can be way wrong.   There is a mod called CorrectCoL which gives a more accurate indication - on the last airplane i worked on,  the stock indicator showed the blue ball well behind the yellow CoM marker,  they were only touching by their edges.   Switch to CorrectCoL and it turns out CoL and CoM were in the same place.