I am clearly too stupid to be long range, high altidude plane engineer. Any tips?

[Duke Leto]

I'm not so sure, I think it may be inadequate total lift...

But whenever you can get a chance, the original design was awesome and really helpful.

[Sharpy]

For the brake torque: it is set by default to "no-flip" level, not "efficient braking" level. Generally, leave the wheels which are in front of center of mass at 12 (or even nix it entirely), and maximize braking on the wheels which are behind the center of mass. In standard "tricycle" setup that means front wheel doesn't brake, hind ones do.

If you build rovers for low-gravity moons, you'll find the concept absolutely essential. Front wheels - no brakes. Rear wheels - motor off. Wheelies and stoppies are the bane of the rovers. And of course flipping over on turns - but a reaction wheel and/or decent off-center up/down RCS helps against that.

[Wanderfound]

I'm not so sure, I think it may be inadequate total lift...

But whenever you can get a chance, the original design was awesome and really helpful.

Yup, just had a poke; the thrust and lift nerfs have really hurt it. It works if you do what I suggested re: wings and wheels, but not as well as it used to. It now needs a good length runway to take off, and struggles to reach any decent altitude.

You could add some more wing; it could also benefit from changing to a two jet / one rocket design (basic jets in wingroot pods and an LV-T45 on the back; Mk1 LF tanks for the pods and an FL-T800 or equivalent for the main fuselage).

My quick poke was enough to remind me of why I don't fly in stock, though, so I'm afraid you'll have to revise the design yourself for now.

[Janos1986]

When the normal jet engine doesn't cut it, just add BOOSTERS!

Or in this case, make a rocket-assisted jet. I usually just add 2 MK55s to give it the extra -oomph I need to get to the requested altitude, then just disable them and fly back normally.

[gulegule]

I was using a similar design to get 'high altitude' reports at kerbin. It could cruise at 9-10k pretty easily and then use 'Thuds' to ascend to 20k+ (never hit 70k like that screenshot, probably too much science mass). Post 1.0.3 it can barely reach 5k, and certainly can't cruise there.

I tried swiching to a 2 jet design, and that did improve things, but not quite enough. Cruising altitude is maybe 8k, but the rocket ascent only hit's about 16k since it starts off too low and too slow. Some more tweaks may get it over the threshold, but I'm taking a moment to pour one out for my little 30 part science planes

As a side note, does anyone know what the Wheesley's thrust on the runway was in 1.0.2? In the latest version it seems to top out at 75kN.

[Nich]

88-92 on the runway depending on the config. topping out at 110 at 300 m/s and 1000m altitude