keptin

I was original planning to include something on empennage, but thought it would guide players into more traditional tail assemblies rather than coming up with their own [possibly insane, but functional] designs and learning through experimentation. So instead, I drew a variety of control surface arrangements on aircraft throughout the tut to start with some ideas. It's enough to get players off the ground, but it's up to them to perform some trial & error testing. The other reason that an empennage section wasn't included is that the advantages and disadvantages of different arrangements aren't well represented in KSP due to the simplistic fluid model. For example, lifting surfaces aren't any less effective in KSP if they're interacting with turbulent air from a forward wing or engine, so a T-tail is more aesthetic than functional. We also can't recreate a deep-stall associated with T-tails in KSP.

Thanks! An update is definitely overdue.

Ha, no. Some are close to stuff I've tried in the past, others are guesswork. Go Go Taco Supreme!@!! It's an SSTE. Single Stage To Explosion.

@colmo, I might add a sentence on Asymmetric drag, but I think the Asymmetric Thrust section got the point across that asymmetric forces must be countered else there be undesired consequences. @Ratata, I'd love to add sections on engine types and their intricacies, but it's out of the scope of KSP. I want to keep the information trim so it's digestible by players. Hell, engines could double its length.

Big thanks r4m0n and Yargnit! Really looking forward to the tech tree being more modder accessible and this is a great start. Keeping my fingers crossed for TreeEdit.

Oops. Those are the Unity defaults, I forgot to manually edit the animation names. If that fix works, let's stick with it for now.

Maybe, but not for the same reason that winglets are used on commercial aircraft. On commercial swept-wing aircraft, winglets reduce drag-inducing vortexes forming off the wing by kind of straitening the air as it reaches the tip of the wing. The game can't simulate any of that stuff, but winglets can act as vertical stabilizers if the main wing is further away from the CoM-CoL pivot point. Simple answer: In most cases, no.

Stock parts Going for the non-existent "biggest/heaviest aircraft" category. Reactor-III Built using knowledge obtained from the smaller Reactor-I and Reactor-II demonstrator craft. .craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/Reactor-III.craft Reactor-IVA Several changes were made after further experimentation with the Reactor-III. The tail was removed in place of guide vanes, the wingspan was increased and the upward cranked wings were replaced with gradually swept wings, plus a tail wheel was added for easy takeoff and landing. She is now effectively a flying wing, and given her wing area, this paves the road for a very heavy cargo variant. .craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/Reactor-IVA.craft Reactor-VIB Inspired by the success of the Reactor-IVA, I introduce the Reactor-VIB, the superheavy variant. It's almost a totally new craft, but uses the same principles for control. Consists of a 3-man pod, three lander cans, and much more fuel for a total mass of 27.81 tons. .craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/Reactor-VIB.craft Was that a DeLorean? +88 Greased lightning +60 Seat of your pants +30 Nailed it +30 Jumbo jet +45 =253 points. I didn't win in points, but everyone knows bigger is better

She ain't pretty (ain't too ugly neither, judging by Sirine's poor bastard), but she flies.

I'm hoping that in a future update players are given the ability to assign control surfaces, like you can in FAR. It'd add another step, but would be a ton better than the stupid auto-control. Maybe they can do both, have an auto default or something. Anyhoo, I left out that stuff because explaining it might confuse new players when they could more easily learn it for themselves. I think KSP favors canards over conventional tail assemblies since it doesn't take into account many of the disadvantages they have; in-flight CoM issues with further back wings (fuel in wings), can enter irrecoverable deep stalls, turbulent air over main wing, difficult to design for, etc. Another advantage of canards in KSP is that they don't tend to snap craft in half. Unlike conventional elevators that put downforce on the tail to lift the front of the craft, stressing the parts in between, canards simply lift the weight of the front of the craft and let the tail get pulled down by gravity. This all being said, you can make high performing conventional craft. The big advantage that canard designs bring to the table in their difficulty to stall is also one of their biggest performance drawbacks. They can't take advantage of main wing's critical AoA (maximum lift coefficient). When it comes to the cutting edge, I think conventional tail assemblies are the way to go. In the last atmospheric "no-intake hackery" circumnavigate the world challenge that I submitted to, this design beat out the other contenders by a decent margin: This was the ultimate mix/max of that design: http://i.imgur.com/8LbfLa0.jpg So there's still hope.

I touched on angle of attack and its relation to the way the aircraft sits on the runway in the update just now. I want to keep the tut basic, but I'd be happy to answer any specific questions to the best of my ability. I admit, I haven't built many planes with tilted wings...maybe I should. I think early on I learned not to do that since tilted wings produce different amounts of lift relative to the elevator as the speed and air density change and it makes it more difficult to control, as opposed to building basically a controllable arrow that you simply point in the direction you want to go, but again, I haven't tried it recently. If I was building a KSP jet plane with realistic limitations, say 12,000m alt and 250 m/s max airspeed, than it would really open up what I could slap together and still manage to control, but I often find myself building planes that have to perform well in a very wide range of conditions; 0-2500 m/s, 0-50,000m, in flight fuel ballast control, etc.

Just updated the tutorial to version 25, adding several sections and revising others. That's 17,574 pixels of knowledge!

Ha, I typed the whole thing without spellcheck (in Photoshop). I think I did pretty well all things considered, but thanks for the catch. Can you point out exactly where the error is? I have no way to quickly search through the text.

Awesome, thanks, that was exactly the rundown I needed. I think I'll expand on drag a bit in the tut and differentiate between those values.

The way drag is calculated in KSP still confuses me and I feel I need an Explain Like I'm Ten on this so I can ELI5 in the tut. Ok, for the sake of an example, say our craft consists of nothing but 2 fuel tanks, each with 0.2 drag. How will this compare to a craft made of 4 fuel tanks, drag wise? Now, what if we have a craft with 2 fuel tanks, one with 0.2 drag and the other with 0.1 drag? What is the relationship between the drag value, mass, and number of parts, and how does that affect actual performance?

Thanks ferram, I'll clarify that in the next update by differentiating "CoL too far behind CoM" and "CoL too far in front of CoM" as having two separate behaviors. I like the lawn dart analogy.

Hmm, I just changed hosts, it should work now. I added some mirror links at the bottom of the OP if it doesn't. *10/9 Edit* - Updated the tutorial with 100% more knowledge!

Hey KSP folks! The Space Plane Hangar remains a conundrum for quite a few, and since it's one of my favorite parts of KSP, I wanted to shed some light on concepts that might help others build their own successful aircraft. In retrospect, this is something between a design and basic concepts of flight tut, but whatever, here goes! Basic Aircraft Design .craft pack - Here is a basic .craft pack I've put together with some stupid-simple designs taking different approaches. And the easiest plane to fly ever, the EZ Trainer Mk7 "Just hold the S-key" Edition. Note: These crafts were built on KSP v0.21.1. ~The tut is an embedded image, you should see it below this text. It may take some time to download. Alternate Mirror: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ksvqjX8FzRU6-Vqs2qDNbtpOxYJnhNj0 Translations: French guide, by Varsass - Basic Aircraft Design - Français, Mirror Chinese guide, by Baozidai - Basic Aircraft Design - 简体中文版, Mirror Translation Permissions: You have my permission to translate this guide into other languages if one does not already exist. Please be respectful to the original content by maintaining its indented meaning if possible. The font used for the guide is Humor Sans and can be downloaded here. You may use different fonts for your translation as needed. Please include a link to this thread in your post for your translated version. In addition, please private message me a link to your translation so I may include it here. Thanks! v28.1 2/12/20 - Updated thread links; reuploaded .craft files and image mirror link. v28.1 - Added section for Angle of Incidence, asymmetric thrust compensation, landing gear positioning, minor fixes v25.1 - Minor fixes and rephrasing, spelling corrections v25 - Expanded drag force, landing gear, CoL relative to CoM, Added section on AoA, several other fixes v20 - Clarified the relationship of CoL to CoM, neutral stability v19 - With an additional 50% material; center of thrust, center of lift, edit fixes on existing articles v11 - Turbo infused with 100% more knowledge! v7 - Initial Release For a more realistic drag model get Ferram Aerospace Research. If you're looking for more aircraft parts, check out my own mod, Kerbal Aircraft Expansion (KAX) .

Hey folks, I'm releasing Brickmod with a Creative Commons by-nc-sa license and officially giving Roboto permission to take up the Brickmod torch and carry on for all of brickkind! Godspeed!

More updated parts on the way.

The new Radial Drill, coming soonâ„¢.

We're planning an art pass on some of the old Kethane legacy parts and looking into a method to make the art update non-intrusive for save files containing legacy parts.

@ASnogarD, we used to have a debugger tool for that and there may still be a way, though I'm not sure. As we move forward, we're being mindful of player accessibility; in-game Kethane tutorials are one aspect of this that we're discussing.

We're setting the bar high, papa Dani-Sang. Orbital construction may or may not be in the cards for Kethane, but it's a cool thought for the long term. Some ideas we're tossing around, like orbital construction and a Kethane campaign, we'd ideally like to see developed and maintained by other modders so we can stay focused on core features and build out Kethane as a mining element for KSP.

I'm back baby. Here are some concept ideas for the future route of Kethane. Older concepts: http://u.cubeupload.com/hori/05SensorFunction.jpg http://u.cubeupload.com/hori/largeDrillConcept1.jpg http://u.cubeupload.com/hori/tankConcept2.jpg http://u.cubeupload.com/hori/sensorConceptDetaile.jpg http://u.cubeupload.com/hori/detectorConcept1.jpg http://u.cubeupload.com/hori/fuelPumpConcept1.jpg http://u.cubeupload.com/hori/2MconverterConcept.jpg