Looking for a good Simple Jet Design

[Waxing_Kibbous]

Like most Rocket People (I assume), my tech tree is all grey right up the middle- but after some testing rocket powered local travel is a bit like using a sledgehammer to hammer in brads, so I broke down and unlocked the first level of plane tech.  And now I have parts that make no sense and don't seem to fit together in an intuitive manner. I'm just looking to build a plane to hunt nearby anomalies, nothing special. The Juno engine needs an intake, but the intake needs to go somewhere... I have quite a bit of other tech unlocked, most 300pt stuff.

 

*as a side note I put together a passable plane in 1.04 but the parts seemed a bit more idiot proof at the early stages.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Waxing_Kibbous

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Have you tried loading a sandbox game and taking a look at some of the pre-built jet planes for inspiration?

Plenty of good guides floating around here about building jets correctly if you do a search.

Best of luck!

[Snark]

Best place to mount a Juno is to the side of the cockpit, or under the wing.  Picture this simple assembly:  Mk0 liquid-fuel tank.  Tiny intake on front.  Juno on back.  That's a handy assembly that is surface-attachable.  Put a pair of those on the left and right side of the fuselage, or one under each wing, and you're good to go.

A very simple rocket plane that's good for those "go to <place near KSC> and <do thing> in flight <at about 20ish km altitude>" contracts:  Mk1 cockpit, 2-ton LFO tank behind it, Terrier behind that.  Junos on left and right as described above.  Wings & control surfaces to taste.  Junos are the first stage, Terrier's the second.  The Junos fly you to the location, then point your nose at the sky and use the Terrier to blip you up to altitude & contract completion.  Then glide back down to ~10 km and fly home on the Junos.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Snark

[Wanderfound]

This is a FAR build, but something similar should work in stock. Don't forget to switch the elevators to pitch only, ailerons to roll only and rudder to yaw only (right-click on the control surfaces).

 

 

Craft at https://www.dropbox.com/s/xlh3xh4hy197xx5/Kerbodyne%20Demo%201.craft?dl=0

The major early pointers for stock aircraft are:

* CoL just behind CoM. Think about how CoM will move as fuel drains.

* Rear landing gear just behind CoM if it's tricycle gear (i.e. not a Spitfire-style taildragger). Beware tailstrike.

 

Edited January 5, 2016 by Wanderfound

[Waxing_Kibbous]

Thanks for the good tips everybody- I slapped something together and did a bit of flying around, as well as looked into the stock craft which helped. Now I may have to spend 90 precious science on the next level

One more question- can certain parts transfer fuel to other parts? Eg can fuel travel through wings or other structures?

Edited January 5, 2016 by Waxing_Kibbous

[Wanderfound]

Jet engines (including RAPIERs in closed cycle mode) draw evenly from all unlocked tanks, regardless of placement. Other engines will need fuel hoses to draw from wingtip tanks etc. Creative use of the offset tools makes it possible to hide fuel lines within wings.