CobaltWolf

Yes, last night we discovered that having open/missing endcaps on the parts really messed up the drag forces. I put placeholder endcaps in the missing areas and everything is behaving much better now. I never would have guessed that was the issue - I'd assumed it generated the drag cubes based on the colliders. Huge thanks to @CashnipLeaf for holding my hand through the whole process and figuring this all out! There's still a lot of work to be done, especially with that pesky ventral fin, not to mention finishing the uprated versions of the plane. I'll have to get a GitHub issue together for tracking everything.

We are working the issues with the ventral fin, and many others besides. In the meantime:

I have no idea why the ventral isn't loading. I've seen several other people playing with it in game (and not just duplicating the dorsal fin) and have no idea what the difference would be. My guess is it has something to do with drag cubes? But I don't know anything about them besides being named "drag cubes"...

Update - My copy of Hypersonic has arrived and it is INCREDIBLE. I only got to flip through it for a moment but I don't think I've ever bought a reference this dense, with this much detail and this many beautiful images. But that's not all - a friend ( @Sgt.Shutesie) was able to send a copy of the Photo Scrapbook as well and it should be here soon.

As far as I know, there's nothing different from the stock heatshield. Here's what I've managed to get in game for the X-15 so far. It looks a lot more complete than it is - this is sort of the bare minimum to get this stuff in game and snapped together. A lot of the parts don't have some or all of their functionality, the aerodynamics are a wreck, etc. What I'm saying is, don't expect a GitHub upload in the next few days. Another variant I think I'm going to do is X-15/SERJ, which is... a fascinating engine. Combine a ramjet and a rocket engine, and then a supercharging fan. It would work like a SABRE/RAPIER engine as a dual-cycle engine. Modifications to the in-game craft would essentially just be a different ventral fin combined with an air scoop, and a different engine on the back.

I don’t think I’ll need to add new experiments. A lot of these are actually tests of systems that would fly on later missions, so they can use those experiments. There are a couple stock ones, like the atmosphere experiment, that don’t currently have coverage in BDB.

I didn't really plan to make X-15, it just... came out of me one day. The thought of making an updated X-1 is kind of appealing, as is the family of cute little lifting bodies, but there's always lots I want to make and each thing takes more time than I'd like. Committing to making something means several months of dedication so I have to prioritize what I choose to work on. Once X-15 is done, I really think I owe you all a Viking. At this point my specific process feels like such a tradition I can't change it: I go to this page, type what it should say in english, and copy whatever gets put on the other side. The fact that it results in gibberish is kind of the point - for one, you don't know what kerbal writing looks like! and two, it means any text that's baked into the textures is as meaningless for English readers as it is for everyone else. I'm not sure the X-15 is really... up to that task. But I'm sure people will make it happen regardless. I'd rather not make every part have an ablator module though. Among other things that would add... many tons to the weight of the craft. If someone really wanted to make an extras patch they could.

What, like, on everything?

It's actually a tag applied to the individual collider objects in Unity, and can't be changed from cfg or in game at all. I should clarify - I'm making experiments for each location, I'm just not sure how many or specifically what. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh if I have any productive time in the near future it's going to be getting X-15 stuff in game. Which seems like it will be wayyyyy more work than I expected. That's... interesting. I'll have to take a look. Thanks for the tip - managed to snag a copy for $16. I also have a copy of The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings into Space by Michelle Evans. I tried reading a few pages in bed before I turned off the lights, next thing I knew it was 1am. It's much more focused on the people involved in the program than the technical details.

So, there's three main places for experiments: 1) The payload bay behind the cockpit. 2) The wingtip pods 3) The rear of the plane, above the engine and behind the vertical stabilizer. On X-15A-2 it's a helium tank, but a number of other experiments flew there. As for what specifically will make the cut? Hard to say quite yet.

Super belated answer, but the existing SNAP-29 wouldn't work as a standalone I think? Since it's made to fit to the 4.25m cylinder. I'd have to make a completely separate part I think. No, Invader is too busy making real rockets in real life

Yeah everything will have attach nodes for ease of assembly

Honestly? Great question, I'd love people's input on this - again, bearing in mind, that none of these parts have "standard" cross sections, so interfacing with other part families is a bit off the table unfortunately... Nose - will have the functionality from the stock Fly-by-Wire part. Also includes a switch for the early (spike) and late (Q-ball) model nose. Cockpit - not sure how to break this part up, or rather, if I should. I could see splitting it at the front of the canopy, which would leave a dedicated gear and RCS part to go between the cockpit and nose. The cockpit includes the APU generators and a small cargo bay which will have some dedicated experiments made for it Here is the current cockpit part on it's own. The question is whether this should have the front 1/3 or so split off. Alright, already gotten some significant feedback off-forum about this. I'm going to split the gear/RCS and the cockpit. So here's what the cockpit itself looks like now. Fuselage - the big kahuna. No good way to split this up IMO. It's never going to match other bulkhead profiles. Will include at least one length switch to represent the X-15A-2, but I don't think I want to add more. Engine - One of the only parts that will be normal, since it should have a 1.25m attachment ring. I think this will be a dedicated "X-15 engine" part with the early dual XLR-11 config, the XLR-99, and the XLR-99 with extension for the delta wing variant. As you said, other parts like the wings are fairly self explanatory. The only notable thing is that the control surfaces for the vertical stabilizers will be separate parts, with the bottom one having a decoupler and parachute for recovery like the real thing. Anyone have thoughts? Particularly any that aren't asking me to rip things apart and do a lot more work, which I kind of figure the reaction to this will be?

I'm doing a white version (what do you mean metallic?) and I'd like to do one in the style of the "modern" Apollo CM but I really don't want to be the one to make it.