[Basic airplane in career mod]

36 minutes ago, regex said:

Carry less fuel.  Remove unused monoprop.  Reduce mass in as many ways as you can, instead of using fuselage use girders, etc...  Get the most from your engine and existing wing lift.

Thanks, haven't noticed I can do that. So far it didn't help, but we will see

36 minutes ago, zarakon said:

Here are a few planes that I built using only the first tier of aircraft parts:

The biplane is the easiest to use by far

 

One trick is to drain some or even most of the fuel.  With jet engines you can go pretty far without much, and reducing the weight makes it a lot easier to fly, especially at liftoff and landing

I tried the biplane, but it doesn't seem to accelerate at all even with the central tank completely empty. Suspension seems to be OK, so I don't know what the problem might be. Interesting is that I can't seen any elevons on it. Is that correct?

[Basic airplane in career mod]

Hi, although I've been playing on and off KSP for a long time before release, I never really used airplanes.

Now I would like to start with the basic one. I unlocked the initial parts and I tried to take off for two days.

I understand the basics (drag, thrust, weight, lift), but I just can't make one from the basic parts. I'd say the basic problems are:

- Very weak engines. Even four of the basic jet engines give very little thrust

- Lack of lift. With the parts limit and weak engines, I can't make wings big enough

- Wheels. The two available ones are hell to attach and balance

 

Whenever I build something, I hit a spot around 50 m/s, when the plane starts wobbling during take off and crashes. I think it mainly because it takes too long to accelerate to that speed and the wheels is not up the task.

Still even getting to 100 m/s speed is usually not enough to take off

 

I tried high wing (hell to attach wheels), mid wings (same problem), low wings (better wheel attachement, but harder to take off without crashing) and even gull wing (easiest wheel attachement, but hell to take off)

 

TL; DR: I know the basics of airplane design, but can't build one from basic parts. Any design available that uses only these parts?