How do you like to make your aircraft maneuverable?

[Souper]

I've recently become addicted to optimizing aerodynamics in KSP, both for aircraft and for launch vehicles. I have found the best way to do this is to combine one set of control surfaces as far from the CoM as possible for maximum leverage while also providing smaller ones closer to the front (canards) to keep the CoL close to the CoM for turnability. By doing this with some fine-tuning I've made rockets that are ridiculously easy to turn AND stable at the same time, eliminating those super annoying cases when my rocket doesn't want to gravity turn!

I tried this with one of my own aircraft in combination with SAS and it was a thing of beauty. I could literally spin 180 at Mach 2.5 with zero issues!

Edited July 29, 2022 by Souper

[Richmountain112]

Cool! Usually I use engine gimbal plus extra reaction wheels. I also have some aerodynamic surfaces on my SSTOs to prevent them from flipping over during takeoff.

[Pds314]

Aircraft in stock are excessively maneuverable. I would say there's really not much point in optimizing turn performance in the stock aero. It's far too forgiving.

 

FAR turn performance for a BDA fighter, however..

Edited November 5, 2022 by Pds314