How to make a balanced spaceplane?

[Anomalous_Matter]

I just downloaded the .15 update, and I\'ve already made a ton of spaceplane designs. The problem, sadly, is that all of my designs end up never taking off, veering to the right and eventually blowing up. I\'m looking for any tips to make a plane able to actually fly.

Thanks,

Jeb_Kerman

[trbinsc]

You need to have most of the wings behind the center of mass.

[hebdomad]

I\'m having the same issues. The landing gear feels like they are paper thin, and the wings don\'t seem to help control roll at all...

Won\'t stop me from trying to make a shuttle... no matter how flimsy and unstable the slight dynamics are.

I\'ll still need to use a joystick if I ever want to try fly home though....

[Disturbed]

I\'ve found that putting the back landing gears on the outer edge helps a lot with the random tipping from side to side during takeoff.

[infatuatedPP]

I found that widening your wheel base as much as possible makes for dramatic improvements in take off stability. If you would like you can add 'pogos' which are wheels that you drop off after lift off.

To do this add the structural pylons to the end of your wings and attach gears to that. Then once you are off the ground detach the wheels.

[White Owl]

Here\'s a decent basic training airplane. Simple, very docile handling, easy to take off and land. Use it to practice with before you go on to more adventurous designs. It works well with keyboard controls.

I suggest before you start the engine, turn precision control on. Then hit ALT-S (that\'s trim) several times until the pitch indicator moves up to the second notch above the center point.

Start the engine, throttle up, yaw to keep the plane rolling straight down the runway. When surface speed gets to about 70 m/s, pitch back a little bit and the plane should take off.

I find it lands best at about 70 m/s again.

Also note that .15 still has a version of the old sticky pad bug. Restarting a flight will often cause the plane to load with a wheel or two embedded in the ground; I bet that\'s what\'s causing your planes to yaw around too much when you\'re trying to take off. Instead of restarting the flight, try going back to the SPH and launching again.

[Doctor Lag]

Also note that .15 still has a version of the old sticky pad bug.

Glad I\'m not the only one running into this one still...

[Anomalous_Matter]

Thanks a ton for all the tips, guys! White Owl, your plane flies like a dream; Managed to do five landings in one flight with it. I\'m a huge fan of your videos, too I did see what you meant by the sticky pad bug; on my second landing, I tried to retract the wheels to slow it down more quickly and when I extended them again, they were stuck in the ground. Didn\'t have any problems taking off, though.

[Anomalous_Matter]

So, I made my first stable aircraft, inspired by White Owl\'s basic trainer but with a few added touches. It actually handles really well and takes off quickly from the runway. I attached the .craft file, in case anyone wants to try it out.

[joyfulflyer]

Maybe this is a stupid question but how do you get your control surfaces to join with the end of your wings? Whenever I\'ve tried before they always want to be perpendicular to whatever surface I\'m trying to put them on.

[Guest]

Maybe this is a stupid question but how do you get your control surfaces to join with the end of your wings? Whenever I\'ve tried before they always want to be perpendicular to whatever surface I\'m trying to put them on.

Use W, A, S, D, Q, E to rotate them into position.

[Doctor Lag]

Specifically, when attaching a surface to a horizontal wing center the surface on the wing until it goes perpendicular and then hit A one time. Same for vertical wings (tailfins) but hit W instead.

(Hopefully these are as consistent for others as they are for me).

[Ted]

I\'ve found that putting the back landing gears on the outer edge helps a lot with the random tipping from side to side during takeoff.

For my first dozen or so takeoffs they consistently veered to the left. I think it must have been an inherent problem in the design of the planes as opposed to a bug.

It was very frustrating nevertheless. =P

[Doctor Lag]

I always assumed it was modelling gyroscopic precession (\'prop torque\'). Has anybody tried putting some SAS units on to see if they counteract the wander?

[Kryten]

I\'ve found that a major cause of wander is that it\'s possibly to attach something (e.g. landing gear or tail fin) so that it looks like it\'s on the centre of the aircraft, but actually isn\'t quite.

[antbin]

Or you have two wings overlapping and they\'re developing glitch thrust.

Or one of your landing gear sank through the surface...

Best bet is to pack ASAS / Avionics and turn it on for launch.

[Xivios]

I\'ve noticed a few large aircraft of mine spawning with the nose pointed slightly to the left. Could be a matter of KSP\'s positition on the runway,

[Twinky827]

My planes are SO unstable... But I get \'em off the ground usually, I think I was injected with Veto aerospace poison for this one:

My tip: Use falling off the runway at an advantage, this plane always falls off, and I just use the bump to get it up and away.

[cardgame]

I\'ve found that a major cause of wander is that it\'s possibly to attach something (e.g. landing gear or tail fin) so that it looks like it\'s on the centre of the aircraft, but actually isn\'t quite.

You can exclude this from the possible culprits, as I exclusively use Snap To Angle and still the completely random sway remains. It\'s either a fault of the gear\'s collision mesh (which I think is the most likely source) or the misplaced spawning of the aircraft.

[DonGonzo]

My first piece of advice would be to use a joystick if you aren\'t already using one. Control of aircraft with the keyboard is tedious at best.

Canards at the front AND the rear of the aircraft, this will seriously limit pitch and will probably annoy you at first but once you get the hang of where to place them you can still make highly maneuverable aircraft.

Also make sure all the wings have sufficient flight surfaces, this will allow for much better roll and yaw control even if it looks hilarious while using SAS to autopilot the aircraft.