Ground Effect Vehicles?

[hidude398]

Do the KSP aerodynamics simulations accurately represent ground effect at this point in time, or am I going to need to rely on lift alone for now?

[softweir]

No, KSP does not represent the wing-in-ground effect. Nor, for that matter, does FAR - though Ferram has at times burnt his brains trying to work out a way to achieve that!

[Matuchkin]

1 hour ago, softweir said:

No, KSP does not represent the wing-in-ground effect. Nor, for that matter, does FAR - though Ferram has at times burnt his brains trying to work out a way to achieve that!

But how, though? @ferram4, how does FAR work? Is it a fluid model, a combination of pressures acting on your plane, or what? I know next to nothing about computer programming, so please excuse the question if it turns out to be absurd.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Matuchkin said:

But how, though? @ferram4, how does FAR work? Is it a fluid model, a combination of pressures acting on your plane, or what? I know next to nothing about computer programming, so please excuse the question if it turns out to be absurd.

Something about using voxels and creating an "aerodynamic" model for the plane.

[Sharpy]

*shrug* it would be nice, and I don't quite get what's so hard about simulating a simple variant of it. You have the relative altitude at all times. If it's, say, less than 10m, ramp up the components of lift and thrust perpendicular to the ground by how much less than the 10m it is, exponentially, up to, say, 50% at 0.

[Mahnarch]

OH, man. I float in flair forever, now.

Can't image how long it would go on with ground effect.