moleman122

So I've been designing a long series of spaceplanes and airplanes in a sandbox folder that I just have labeled "Spaceplane testing" because I love messing around with the aerodynamics of the game and coming up with new toys. I've been doing this for a few weeks now and I have 10 or so solid designs that I want to display right next to the runway as I take off, for prettiness sake. Has anyone else done something like this before that they could share or discuss? A plane graveyard or a decomissioned model museum or something along those lines?

Thanks! Adjusting oxidizer, adding winglets to rapidly stabilize flight, and messing around with the intakes and maximum operating height was all it needed. This will make things a lot easier for me from now on.

Those general rules are all new to me, so thanks for that, that might help. And yeah, the way I figure it's only working so well because of the thrust. Mass is only about 8.61 tonnes, and calculated TWR at maximum engine efficiency (which only really happens higher up in the atmosphere) was somewhere around 4.0, I lost the calculation and i'm too lazy to redo it.

Typically the I let the RAPIERs autoswitch, flying flat once I get to about .05 intake air left. At that point I just let it go as fast as it can, which usually ends up being about 14-1500 m/s. Once it's at top speed I change my angle just a little bit, slowly ascend, then they switch to rocket mode and I do standard orbital procedure from then. Maybe I just need more air intakes to allow myself for a little higher elavation and, as a result, more speed? Also, I don't know what FAR is.

So i've been designing an SSTO spaceplane for a few hours of gametime now. I just kicked up KSP yesterday for the first time in a while, looked at all the shiny new stock parts, and decided I wanted to go to space with a plane. The first design was able to get into a stable bare minimum (70,000m) orbit and retroburn back into the atmosphere, allowing it to land using monopropellant VTOL. Think the ranger interstellar, that was the initial inspiration for the first model: With this Model (Hunter I) I just slapped on wings in a way that would look smooth and make the craft not take up much more space than the main body already did, and then afterwards I put on control surfaces in a way that placed the center of lift behind the center of mass. The second design was meant to be an improvement over the Hunter I, so I took off all the wings, auxiliary functions, and started fresh with the base body to make it more effective. Eventually I came up with this thing, which was basically just a pretty rocket with RAPIER engines. Infuriatingly enough, this thing was leagues more efficient in getting into orbit and back, despite having no lift whatsoever. But when I went to add necessary functions to it (batteries, landing gear, ladders, etc.) that minute amount of weight made it unable to orbit effectively. Adding wings only made it worse, as if the weight of the wings overshadowed the lift rating. So, i'm curious, does anyone know what, exactly, lift rating actually does in game? It's been a bit wonky since it was first introduced, which was right around when I started playing, and the only thing it seems to do is allow you to change the direction of your craft with aiming, but it doesn't always do that. Essentially: Are there any equations that allow you to calculate how much lift rating you need for the mass of your craft, or for the twr AND mass of your craft? Does anyone have extensive knowledge of the way lift works that could maybe help me get this thing working again? Pre-emptive thanks to anyone who answers