Stock inline fairings are here! Did you know?

[xtoro]

Discovered this yesterday and I haven't seen it before. I built a probe with a fairing. Below that was a transfer stage with a 2.5m tank and nuke engine. My launch vehicle was 3.75m, so it looked ugly. Just out of curiosity I put another fairing below that, and when I built the fairing and put my mouse on the fairing base for the probe, the "Close fairing" text turned blue! Clicking closed it onto the other fairing base, making a straight inline fairing with no part clipping! When deployed, it breaks away like a sliced up cylinder.

Again, never saw this anywhere else in the forum or announcements. Did I just miss it? Does anyone else know or is his just a feature that was forgotten in release notes?

Either way, if you didn't know, now you do! Hooray for nice looking rockets!

[CalculusWarrior]

Yeah, I'm really loving the stock fairings for their flexibility. They do have some weird issues where they don't want to connect at times, but I really like the method for attaching them.

[Arsonik]

I wasn't aware this works. Although I never tried either... Which is kind of silly considering that procedural fairings involved a similar method of using 2 fairing bases. D'oh!

[clivman]

@CalculusWarrior- they can only connect to a smaller diameter

[SorryDave]

I use them all the time for this. I use the fairing then a decoupler before the next stage engine. My only grief is that the engine won't fire from the same action group as the fairing and decoupler.

I use this a lot to have a mainsail engine attached to the large tanks.

[katateochi]

I think quite a few folk expressed worries that the stock system wouldn't allow inline fairings so they made a point of ensuring that they were possible (thanks Squad!).

They are a bit awkward to setup sometimes. If there is any part anywhere near where the fairing needs to go it won't allow it to be created (even if it doesn't look like it would be a problem). And sometimes they just won't create at all, what I've found in these cases is that saving the craft and then re-opening it quite often enables you to then create the inline fairing.

Also, you don't need two fairing bases to create them, they'll join up to other parts.

[Arsonik]

Also, you don't need two fairing bases to create them, they'll join up to other parts.

http://i.imgur.com/Jh8wEUil.jpg

I was getting the impression from the OP that if you use 2 fairing bases you can have a smooth fairing wall without any curvature. I haven't actually checked yet. Maybe I'm just not following correctly. I was aware you could already do inter-stage without 2 fairings, but due to the finicky-ness of this I have gone back to Procedural Fairings.

[Vicomt]

I've never been able to get interstage fairing to connect. never tried this trick though. thanks.

[CommanderSpock]

I just wish that the fairings would keep the inside creation inside, and not let it go through like there isn't anything.

[Endersmens]

Yes, it does not require another fairing base. It will attach to any (round) object in front of it, providing there is nothing in the way.

Works really well for making an apollo lander look smooth until separation.

[Red Iron Crown]

This feature was mentioned in a devnote before 1.0's release IIRC. Pretty neat for hiding cluster of engines or situations like the OP's where the engine is a different diameter than the tanks. I also use it for partially faired payloads, like so:

The Mk1 Capsule at the top is part of a 1.25m lander hidden in the 2.5m fairing.

Now if only we could turn off automatic engine fairings for engines inside bigger fairings...

[Alshain]

Yeah this has been in there since fairings were added. The problem is not that it can't be done, the problem is that you are required to separate them making them inferior to Procedural Fairings. You can't do an Apollo-style TD&E