Space planes

[Australian Sloth]

I decided that my friday post geting all exam marks and passing reward would be to do some proper spaceplane making.

Here\'s the final product:

I\'ve noticed a few thing also:

1: I can\'t build space planes

2: Wings go to C.O.G for best handling

3: Delta wing craft stall at around 70ms^-1 and they don\'t spin.

The stalling characteristics are similar to that of an astir glider, with a moderate sink rate with the nose tending to drop as speed decreases (Might have something to do with my aerofoil configuration.

Has enyone else noticed the stalling characteristics of their (space)planes?

Anyone managed to spin an aircraft (In the stalling sense)

[Talisman]

Well done, that second one looks sexy.

I find Space Planes very hard to make but what you mentioned does help, I only have a few successful ones.

Here are my three working ones, only top two can get into orbit:

[dogon11]

I have one spaceplane that takes off onboard a rocket, and on reentry is very finicky. You can tilt completely sideways and spin to lose airspeed, but you have to kick in the atmospheric engine at 15,000 meters, or else it slows down, and flips backwards, falling tail first. It can glide in for a landing, but up until the last minute, you have to dive to keep up the airspeed. And yes, I have gotten into a couple un-recoverable flat spins.

[sal_vager]

Very impressive craft, both of you, I especially like your third pic Sloth.

All I can handle on my pc is small ones though, like this:

I have made a few planes that can stall badly, especially after the first few tanks had been drained, with the cg so far rearwards the planes want to fly back to front, and is unrecoverable.

[Aerzee]

Here\'s the one i built for the K Prize challenge. It might take abit of practice or luck to take off...

It flies!!!

Gentlemen, I present to you Kerman Aircraft\'s newest model.

Joe III Mk4

Separated jet and rocket fuel, state of the art stability system, all made from top quality rocket scrap. It is separated into to stages to control the engines, and best of all! 100% reusable except part lost on take off/descent/landing.

Mostly stable except partial control lose during take off, may not land in one piece, may temporarily lose all control during descent, no chance of survival is stability system is taken off line in the atmosphere(for the most part). Or it may just be my piloting...

Don\'t belive my testimony or lack of screenshots (i\'m lazy). Download and test it yourself!

100% fuel = 24.5 Mass Units

0% fuel = 12.1 Mass Units

Lift = 13.6 Lift Units

Parts = 37

Parent complaining why the damn tv doesn\'t have a connection... CAUSE WE HAVE DISH NETWORK!!!! Misguided the slope and came in at the wrong angle... Clipped the right wing off. Pretty good, no slope or people annoying me, perfect landing... 3/4 a tank of fuel left for each jet engine even after the landing.

Kerman Aircraft & Roadside Junk Incorporated, is not responsible and/or accountable for any loses of life,buildings,munoliths,runways,planes,rockets,robots,solar panels,crafts,debris, landers,orbiters,ALL THE BOOSTERS,and ducks.... Especially ducks...

[Australian Sloth]

I found a good work around solution to C.O.G changes due to tank drainage, use drop tanks and remove them after they are empty. Another work around solution is to thrust balance. The 4 external rocket fuel tanks actually feed both their engine and the aerospike engine, I could do it with two but the top two are there to balance the torque caused byt the bottom two which cause it to enter unrecoverable spins when the first tank drains.

My final solution is to add more canards, winglets and wings to the rear of the aircraft to counter the fuel drain

.

The re-entry problem is easier to solve. Upon re-entry I tilt the craft about 45 degrees from the flight path and keep it there until about 10k\'s. I prefer not to glide in on landings, while it is possible it leaves little room for error. Also the power allows a greater choice in landing site.

[Talisman]

Anyone have any additional tips? I want to make a giant space plane that can get into orbit, and keep on going (Using the torodial spike or what ever).

Every giant plane I make either doesn\'t work, falls apart, or can\'t get above 12000 meters or a combination.

[Australian Sloth]

Hmm,

I would personally tackle your problem by removing all air breathing engines, then run your aerospike on drop tanks or feed them from booster rockets until about 15ks, making sure to pitch up to around 70 degrees.

As for giant planes; I have heaps of problems with them, maybe modify your design to minimise weight or try again making smaller aircraft.

Larger ones really don\'t have the same efficiency or flexibility for me

[Talisman]

I\'ve changed to using the aerospike now since it\'s treated as a rocket and can work in space and I\'ve been having slightly more success, I\'ve tried using regular rocket engines but the fuel is gone so much faster, I want to make a giant one so I can carry an extreme amount of fuel for deep space missions and such while also being able to do long distance in-atmosphere missions. All my giant planes end up breaking or flipping backwards or never taking off.

[Australian Sloth]

My solution to planes breaking is to use HEAPS of struts, and to stop them flipping I add canards to either the back or front

[Talisman]

After messing around in the hanger and then getting angry and closing the game and then messing around some more, I\'ve finally gotten somewhat of a stable plane that can get into orbit.

Here:

It looks funky but it\'s nice, now I just have to improve it with out breaking it...

EDIT: For some reason I\'m having almost NO success with planes that are longer then they are wide, but planes that are wider then they are long end up doing so much better, shouldn\'t it be the other way around?