How do you make plane wings solid?

[Veldez]

Title pretty much sums up my question. I have been trying (largely unsuccessfully) to make a large enough space-plane to resupply fuel in LKO. Among my many issues, the wings I build always seem to be in multiple pieces, such that strips actually flop around independently. That REALLY doesn't help with getting a heavy plane into the air. I see on the couple of planes I downloaded that the wings are all nice and solid, even when composed of many separate wing pieces. How is this achieved in stock KSP?

Edited April 12, 2015 by Veldez

[Landge]

Kerbal Duct Tape. Use struts by attaching them to the floppy parts.

[TheXRuler]

If you are looking for a stock option, struts are pretty much the only way to go.

If however you are prepared to use mods you might want to look into either the classic [thread=29862]Procedural Wings Mod[/thread] or the imho far superior and more customizable [thread=104966]Procedural Wing Mod by bac9[/thread].

For larger SSTO's I also strongly recommend using FAR, since it vastly improves on Stock Aerodynamics.

[Wanderfound]

Build the wings as a single unit, i.e. only one piece connects to the fuselage, the rest is connected to the wing. This also makes it much easier to adjust wing position during building.

[Alshain]

This is where Wanderfound and I disagree (a rare occurrence). Thought it makes slight bit of maintenance work, I build modular wings in rows leading away from the fuselage and then strut in columns. The reason is it makes it easier to build without accidentally missing a strut and seems to hold together better without as much flexing. Neither way is wrong, just preference. Plus, with the new offset tool, it's really easy to shift the wings forward and back to adjust CoM/CoL relationship. You just have to do it several times (3 in this picture, but this was a long time ago, my planes are much more efficient now and use far less wing)

Edited April 11, 2015 by Alshain

[Veldez]

Thanks for the replies. I made modular strips in rows and tied them together. The wings are now more or less solid. And I managed to get a small plane with a 2x800 fuel tank payload on it to about 20km altitude..... and then it goes tail-to-prograde flipping, and I lose all control of it lol. Apparently I need to work on it more.

[Red Iron Crown]

Build the wings as a single unit, i.e. only one piece connects to the fuselage, the rest is connected to the wing. This also makes it much easier to adjust wing position during building.

Be careful doing that in stock aero, wing parts are sensitive to orientation. If the wing part's attach node is ahead of or behind the part it will generate no lift. I use Alshain's strip method; if I need more than a couple of strips I attach them to an I-beam which is attached to the fuselage to facilitate easier CoL adjustment.

[Chaos_Klaus]

Build the wings as a single unit, i.e. only one piece connects to the fuselage, the rest is connected to the wing. This also makes it much easier to adjust wing position during building.

That is incredibly difficult ... for a reason that many do not know:

In KSP stock aero wings only create lift in one direction. If you attach a wing to the leading edge of another wing, it is hit by the airstream at a 90 degree angle and will not produce any lift!

Edit: ok ... I don't know why I did not read the post above.

[A_name]

Be careful doing that in stock aero, wing parts are sensitive to orientation. If the wing part's attach node is ahead of or behind the part it will generate no lift. I use Alshain's strip method; if I need more than a couple of strips I attach them to an I-beam which is attached to the fuselage to facilitate easier CoL adjustment.

I didn't quite grasp this, could you please elaborate?

[A_name]

That is incredibly difficult ... for a reason that many do not know:

In KSP stock aero wings only create lift in one direction. If you attach a wing to the leading edge of another wing, it is hit by the airstream at a 90 degree angle and will not produce any lift!

Edit: ok ... I don't know why I did not read the post above.

How can you know if a particular piece of wing will generate lift?

- - - Updated - - -

Title pretty much sums up my question. I have been trying (largely unsuccessfully) to make a large enough space-plane to resupply fuel in LKO. Among my many issues, the wings I build always seem to be in multiple pieces, such that strips actually flop around independently. That REALLY doesn't help with getting a heavy plane into the air. I see on the couple of planes I downloaded that the wings are all nice and solid, even when composed of many separate wing pieces. How is this achieved in stock KSP?

If you're willing to install mods, I greatly recommend Kerbal Joint Reinforcement. It eliminates the need to strut wings even on larger designs. I have a Mk3 SSTO weighing 110t and able to lift about 45t into LKO. Naturally, its wings are huge, and without a single strut they hold together perfectly.

This mod also greatly reduces the need for struts in all yur designs, including rockets. Give it a try.

[Red Iron Crown]

I didn't quite grasp this, could you please elaborate?

Here's the thread in which I learned of the effect: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/99278

[A_name]

Here's the thread in which I learned of the effect: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/99278

Thanks!