Bottom Stack Node for Jet Engines/Aerospike

[Starwhip]

As the title says. Is there any reason why a jet engine could not be attached in line with something else? ("Could" not, not "Should" not. )

[CaptainTurbomuffin]

Yes. A long, long time ago, with a different aero, you couldn't make spaceplanes witouth an incredibly efficient rocket motor. Of course, this would be overpowered in rockets, that's why the aerospike has no attachment points, and other things such as no gimbal(despite that the real aerospike had gimbal). But it's also logical: how would you safely fix a decoupler RING on the top of a SPIKE?! (witouth using magic). Jet engines used to have attachment points, wich were removed. Maybe again, to prevent their usage with rockets. They had no fairings as well, wich looked quite weird.

[Red Iron Crown]

Yes, please. Seems like a needless restriction in assembly.

But it's also logical: how would you safely fix a decoupler RING on the top of a SPIKE?! (witouth using magic).

Upper stages don't rest on their engine bells on the stage below, they use an interstage truss, often part of a fairing, to join the stages together (like this). No reason an aerospike couldn't be enclosed in such a structure.

[VR_Dev]

I could do this for you if you wanted. I know you want it to be official but if you really want it would take like 2 seconds.

I could duplicate the parts or just alter them.

I could even make a simple little mod release.

Edited July 28, 2015 by clown_baby