How do i make a plane that can maneuver/stabilize very well?

[AXCN_K.S.P]

Hi, i you haven't seen my previous thread in this sub-forum, I'm not very skilled at making planes stable/maneuver, and in fact i'm pretty much a beginner at making planes. Though, this isn't a basic thread about how to make a plane, I'm more asking about how to make planes that can fly around the KSC with a great deal of agility. I know that torque is required but i don't know how much torque is necessary. Also when i right-click my engines it says "Gimbal: Free" what does that mean? And finally, would it be necessary to place control surfaces all around my plane or only on a designated spot? Thanks for Helping!

[Evanitis]

I'd start with Keptin's thread. Mind you it's like two years old, so not everything is applicable to the current version (eg: you don't need FAR mod these days to get drag on darggy parts, etc), but most of your questions are answered and well illustrated in it.

I think the only thing he doesn't cover is gimbal: it means that the engine can do slight torque direction adjustments, thus it helps you to steer. Or it helps you to destabilize the craft, as a plane is better steered with control surfaces. If you face stability problems on manuvering, you can try limiting or disabling the gimbal on the engines - or just on a few of them. Though generally drag, lift, CoM-CoL balance causes more trouble.

EDIT: another thing he doesn't cover: By default, all control surfaces are used for roll, pitch and yaw. That's pretty silly, but you can right click them in the hangar to designate what surfaces should be used for what kind of adjustment.

Edited June 25, 2015 by Evanitis

[*Aqua*]

Gimbal in this context is the ability of an engine to change the direction of the exhaust flame.

Gimbaling starts at about 0:40.

The Space Shuttles engines could do this too. I think they have the highest gimbal range of all rocket engines.

There are several factors which affect the agility of a plane:

- having engines with high gimbal to increase control authority

- medium to high TWR to get you out of stalls fast

- lots of control surfaces to increase control authority

- high wing area stabilizes flight, provides lift at low speeds (= less stalling)

- low weight to improve effectiveness of control surfaces and increase TWR

- CoL should be right behind the CoM or your control surfaces have to fight the plane's mass too much

Control surfaces should be placed where they make sense. In most cases this only means to not place them near the CoM because there they'll be less effective.

Edited June 25, 2015 by *Aqua*

[BlueCanary]

With control surfaces it's not so much amount as amount x distance from CoM that affects maneuvarability (the further a control surface is from the CoM, the more leverage it has and so the more maneuverability it adds). So if you have delta wings where the CoM is near to the elevons, they won't have as much effect as, say canards at the front of the same aircraft.

Having more wing area per tonne of aircraft decreases wing loading and gives you much more maneuverability, especially at low speed. However, they also add drag and decrease top speed.

The CoL should be really close behind the CoM (probably about halfway inside the little yellow sphere). Alternatively, having a CoL actually in front of the CoM will give you a craft that, although unstable and probably not suited to high-speed flight or flying without SAS, will be extremely maneuverable.

EDIT: Just realized Aqua said pretty much everything I said before me