Plane design

[achelon]

I'm trying to build my own plane with parts that i have unlocked. I've tried few designs and everyone flip over instantly I've tried different configuration of mass and lift centres. The stock ones fly just fine. What I'm doing wrong?

Edited April 28, 2015 by achelon

[JimTheDog]

Long story short, in general, the center of lift winds up behind the center of mass in flight, so if you have it like you do in your picture, your plane wants to go backwards, but your engines are pushing it forwards, and... that's not good.

Long story long, there's a good illustrated guide here, though it's talking about KSP's old aerodynamics model. The new aerodynamics model is more like the improved FAR one talked about in the guide: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52080-Basic-Aircraft-Design-Explained-Simply-With-Pictures

[mitko]

Your Center-of-Lift is in front of your Center-of-Mass. It has to be slightly behind.

[achelon]

Oh! Thank you. I've always though the other way around.