Tuning of the atmospheric engines perfromance

[shdwlrd]

After playing arounds with the atmospheric engines with different plane designs, the atmospheric engines need a way to adjust the performance of them. With some designs, there's just not enough thrust to move the plane with a reasonable number of engines. In other designs, the acceleration is abysmal compared to the real life counterpart. (Fighters specifically) I'm not suggesting anything too extreme. A slider to adjust the thrust output from the stock thrust value to 100% of that value. That way with the very limited number of stock atmospheric engines, you can have a wider variety of performance choices for the planes you design.

Let me clarify my want. I would like to tune the different parameters for each engine within their typical performance envelope.

Edited July 20, 2023 by shdwlrd
Clarifying my request.

[DoCDoC]

I would expand on this a bit that maybe there is a test stand option to create a custom tuned engine and test fire it. It would show histograms and estimations on performance at certain altitudes.

[Lyneira]

On 7/15/2023 at 8:26 AM, shdwlrd said:

After playing arounds with the atmospheric engines with different plane designs, the atmospheric engines need a way to adjust the performance of them. With some designs, there's just not enough thrust to move the plane with a reasonable number of engines. In other designs, the acceleration is abysmal compared to the real life counterpart. (Fighters specifically) I'm not suggesting anything too extreme. A slider to adjust the thrust output from the stock thrust value to 100% of that value. That way with the very limited number of stock atmospheric engines, you can have a wider variety of performance choices for the planes you design.

It should be noted that the slider to limit the thrust value already exists in the game, so this comes down to asking for a TWR buff for the jet engines. If acceleration is too low for fighters you've built, maybe the fighter is too heavy compared to its RL counterpart? When it comes to larger planes, I fully agree the game could do with a range of larger scale jet engines to reduce the need for engine spam.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Lyneira

[shdwlrd]

On 7/17/2023 at 3:48 AM, Lyneira said:

It should be noted that the slider to limit the thrust value already exists in the game, so this comes down to asking for a TWR buff for the jet engines.

Yes and no. All the jet engines needs an increase to their thrust in my opinion. My gripe comes to the Pather engine. The dry thrust is lethargic at best, the wet thrust is insane. Let's take the plane I was flying. The typical acceleration was 1-5m/s/s for cruise mode. But with the afterburner, the acceleration was around 10-15m/s/s. I can't give hard numbers, but I know the afterburner mode is too powerful. (Not that it's a bad thing.) I think that for the Pather, you should be able to tune both the dry and wet thrust separate from each other. 

Ended up getting off my point. You should be able to tune all the parameters within the operational envelope for each engine. If you want a low and slow plane, you should be able to tune the max altitude and power curve to facilitate that. If you want that huge cargo plane to have the best efficiency at high subsonic speeds and high altitude, you should be able to fine tune that. 

Edited July 20, 2023 by shdwlrd
Clarifying my request.

[Lyneira]

On 7/20/2023 at 5:48 PM, shdwlrd said:

Yes and no. All the jet engines needs an increase to their thrust in my opinion. My gripe comes to the Pather engine. The dry thrust is lethargic at best, the wet thrust is insane. Let's take the plane I was flying. The typical acceleration was 1-5m/s/s for cruise mode. But with the afterburner, the acceleration was around 10-15m/s/s. I can't give hard numbers, but I know the afterburner mode is too powerful. (Not that it's a bad thing.) I think that for the Pather, you should be able to tune both the dry and wet thrust separate from each other. 

Ended up getting off my point. You should be able to tune all the parameters within the operational envelope for each engine. If you want a low and slow plane, you should be able to tune the max altitude and power curve to facilitate that. If you want that huge cargo plane to have the best efficiency at high subsonic speeds and high altitude, you should be able to fine tune that. 

Some degree of tunability for the jet engines towards different optimal altitudes/speeds could be useful, as we get fewer models to choose from compared to rocket engines. I do also agree there is an open niche for higher thrust airbreathing engines, such as engines more suited to VTOL applications.

[shdwlrd]

On 7/23/2023 at 8:44 AM, Lyneira said:

Some degree of tunability for the jet engines towards different optimal altitudes/speeds could be useful, as we get fewer models to choose from compared to rocket engines

That was what I was thinking. But I thought up another reason to be able to tune the jet engines, exoplanets with atmospheres. After remembering that the rocket formula is a truncated form of the thrust formula, I remembered that atmospheric composition, pressure, temperature, and intake rates all affect the amount of thrust that a jet can produce. (All this after reading that it's getting hot enough in Arizona to be worried about some aircraft not being able to take-off. Hot dry weather is bad for flying.)

On 7/23/2023 at 8:44 AM, Lyneira said:

I do also agree there is an open niche for higher thrust airbreathing engines, such as engines more suited to VTOL applications.

Also super cruise without spamming engines.