Fairing nose cones allow insane speeds

[KarateF22]

As the title says, fairing nosecones allow much higher than normal speeds when compared to a regular nosecone before things start getting explodey. If i use a standard nosecone I am usually just able to get my aircraft to 1300-1400 m/s on RAPIERs, but with a fairing in front the cockpit seems much more heat resistant.

If I use a very small Fairing nosecone? a face-melting 1550 m/s at 10k, or 1625 at 20k (sadly much faster is impossible as even RAPIERs lose thrust at such high speeds). Things do get QUITE warm, but no explosions. This seems a tad unintended.

Proof:

What do you guys think, intended or no? I'm leaning towards not, but would be interesting to know what others think.

[Venusgate]

I'd say not intended, but a specialized heat-deflecting nose cone IS probably needed. So unintentionally filling a unintentional gap

[Teilnehmer]

Thanks, KarateF22, valuable info!

[Foxster]

It might be worth trying this too with air intakes or a shielded docking port. Almost anything is better as a nosecone than the parts designed to be nosecones. 

Edited December 9, 2015 by Foxster

[KarateF22]

I know it doesn't work with intakes, haven't tried the shielded docking port yet.

[Randox]

Good to know that other nose cones aren't so heat resistant. Everything big I've launched recently used fairings anyway, though I did discover that my primary cargo lifter + 40 tonne payload has some issues. I find that the overheat warning for the fairing likes to activate about 5 seconds before you explode, 10 if you're lucky, which usually isn't enough time to recover, even if you cut throttle instantly. Heavier/bigger payloads keep that particular rockets speed in check so that it never blows the fairing on ascent (apparently, accelerating past "white hot" is bad).

[Enorats]

KER let you see all sorts of thermal info. It'll tell you things like hottest part, closest to critical..

[KarateF22]

Can now confirm the shield docking port works too. It really does seem that the only number that matters is max temperature; at 2600 the shielded docking port and fairings have such a larger advantage over nose-cones which are limited to 2400.

[moogoob]

What's the shielded port like aerodynamically? IIRC it's pretty draggy, or at least was when I tried using it on a tiny shuttle. The fairings might have a benefit there if you make them nice and pointy.

[Pecan]

On 12/9/2015, 7:44:15, Foxster said:

It might be worth trying this too with air intakes or a shielded docking port. Almost anything is better as a nosecone than the parts designed to be nosecones. 

On the other hand, nosecones have been found very effective when placed backwards on the engines (which they don't block) and other trailing nodes.

[Majorjim!]

Has anyone submitted a bug report? The aero now is so unintuitive what with all these stupid cheaty exploits available.