Did they remove intake air display?

[OSUNightfall]

Question in title. This is very puzzling if true, intake air was something I used on basically every SSTO spaceplane design. If they removed it, is there a way to get it back?

[Jarin]

There's a "fuel supply" percentage that I think serves the purpose?

[HebaruSan]

Yup, that was removed in 1.0.5. I believe it was made more or less irrelevant by other changes to the way jets work at the time (airhogging is no longer a thing).

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/1.0.5#Part_Class_and_Modules

Quote

• IntakeAir is no longer displayed, since it was confusing, instead engines show whether their current requirements are being met.
• Resources now have an isVisible flag, which determines whether the resource is visible on the right-click menu. Applied it (as false) to IntakeAir.
• IntakeAir resource is now fully hidden in Resources App.

 

[Octa]

12 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

Yup, that was removed in 1.0.5. I believe it was made more or less irrelevant by other changes to the way jets work at the time (airhogging is no longer a thing).

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/1.0.5#Part_Class_and_Modules

 

Bummer...

I remember my first tests with SSTOs, where the ressource app did help me to see if i run out of air. I adjusted pitch and thrust to keep some vertical and horicontal acceleration on my SSTO until i reached the max speed/height of my jets using IntakeAir as a reference, which ran at 0.3-1 Units before i switched to rockets.

Is there a way to see if i will get a flame-out and adjust my flight accordingly before the jets actually turn off?

[AbacusWizard]

These days I generally just keep a jet engine's right-click menu open and keep watch on its current thrust (while at full throttle). When it dwindles to around 10 kN, it's about to flame out.

[BeeGeenie]

KER still has an intake air readout in the Vessel window.

Don't know about MechJeb, but it seems likely.

[LameLefty]

2 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

These days I generally just keep a jet engine's right-click menu open and keep watch on its current thrust (while at full throttle). When it dwindles to around 10 kN, it's about to flame out.

You can also do it more pragmatically - most basic SSTO spaceplanes will top out with a ceiling in level flight of about 22km - 23km. That means it's the highest altitude at which your wings can produce adequate lift to balance the weight and you jets produce enough thrust to balance the drag. During my ascent when I get to about 20km, I nose over to about 10º AOA.  When I stop climbing, and then begin decelerating by a couple meters per second, I switch to rockets, nose back up until I reach my target Ap, then coast and circularize. Works like a charm for both the stock Aeris and Dove designs, with no need to worry over-much about specifics of intake air or thrust numbers. 

Edited April 27, 2016 by LameLefty

[OSUNightfall]

Ah, well as long as KER shows it that's fine I suppose. I generally used it to adjust pitch near the engines' ceiling in order to maximize the amount of horizontal velocity I could get before burnout. Also you needed to be careful and monitor it to avoid an asymmetric flameout, though that might not matter anymore.

[AbacusWizard]

I think they fixed asymmetric flameout a couple of versions ago; I haven't had any issues with it in a long time.

[NathanKell]

4 hours ago, OSUNightfall said:

Ah, well as long as KER shows it that's fine I suppose. I generally used it to adjust pitch near the engines' ceiling in order to maximize the amount of horizontal velocity I could get before burnout. Also you needed to be careful and monitor it to avoid an asymmetric flameout, though that might not matter anymore.

Yeah, see, this is why we removed it, because people get confused into thinking jets still work this way. They don't.

[Alshain]

4 hours ago, OSUNightfall said:

Ah, well as long as KER shows it that's fine I suppose. I generally used it to adjust pitch near the engines' ceiling in order to maximize the amount of horizontal velocity I could get before burnout. Also you needed to be careful and monitor it to avoid an asymmetric flameout, though that might not matter anymore.

The same KER functionality is obsolete and irrelevant.  Engines now have proper altitude limits, it's not about intake air anymore.  Intake air still matters of course, but now it's not about the altitude at which there isn't enough, it is about the intakes you are using for subsonic or supersonic and how effective those intakes are.

Take a look at this thread here

However, that thread covers performace, but not drag.  Some intakes cause excess drag which is probably not good for Supersonic speeds.  In general the bigger the opening, the more drag.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Alshain

[OSUNightfall]

1 hour ago, NathanKell said:

Yeah, see, this is why we removed it, because people get confused into thinking jets still work this way. They don't.

Ah, I guess I didn't get the memo on that one. Well, it's probably for the best. I never airhogged, but it was silly and this would prevent that.