Do airbrakes work upside down?

[Arugela]

I have vehicle that may potentially fly both nose first into atmospheres and go tail first to land. Will airbrakes work at the same efficiency in both of those situations if they are only facing towards the nose? Or do you need ones that are facing up and down respectively?

[Red Iron Crown]

Airbrakes work in any direction, the orientation is just aesthetic.

[Arugela]

Any idea how much you need in airbrakes or parachutes per ton to land safely?

[Foxster]

Depends on the planetary body, the drag of the rest of the craft, re-entry angle, etc. Best to use hyperedit to 'simulate' the re-entry and see just what it needs.

[magnemoe]

Airbrakes are very nice to adjust the trajectory to land the correct location, also the aerobraking into an orbit.

You can pulse them to get rid of heat.

They are not really for landing, recommend to use parachutes+ engines for this rather than having tons of parachutes on a large ship its better to get speed down to 20 m/s or something and engines a few seconds to get down to 4-5

[Snark]

They are not really for landing, recommend to use parachutes+ engines for this rather than having tons of parachutes on a large ship its better to get speed down to 20 m/s or something and engines a few seconds to get down to 4-5

Not for vertical landing, though they're great for getting your speed down to where you can activate your chutes without ripping them off.

Airbrakes are also really handy for landing planes.