Small note related to magic wings

[d4s_over_dt4]

The heat shield with the most wing area to mass without ablator is the 1.875 heat shield with 5.(others have <=3.5)
Two of such heat shields are equivalent to three big S wing strakes,while only having double the mass.

(how to use heat shield wings:remove ablator,cover both sides without creating the shroud, then move the covers away,then rotate the shield so that the side you would attach onto a command pod is looking at the ground behind it,angled 45 degrees.)

(btw the big s wing strakes are the wings with the most wet mass ratio)

Edited March 27 by d4s_over_dt4

[Duke MelTdoWn]

Sadly this heat shield lift does not show up in the Center of Lift indicator in SPH. So you need to experiment where to place the heat shields to get acceptable AoA. I also found that heat shield lift at hypersonic speeds increases compared to wing lift, so the CoL will move around as you accelerate.

'Teardrop' has one heat shield in front and two at the back. I moved the aft ones around until I was happy with the AoA. This design also uses zero drag exploits for the body, so the Lift/Drag ratio is ~ 7 at Mach 5.

[d4s_over_dt4]

8 hours ago, Duke MelTdoWn said:

Sadly this heat shield lift does not show up in the Center of Lift indicator in SPH. So you need to experiment where to place the heat shields to get acceptable AoA. I also found that heat shield lift at hypersonic speeds increases compared to wing lift, so the CoL will move around as you accelerate.

'Teardrop' has one heat shield in front and two at the back. I moved the aft ones around until I was happy with the AoA. This design also uses zero drag exploits for the body, so the Lift/Drag ratio is ~ 7 at Mach 5.

Or you could install correctcol.

When making the vehicle,also remember that heat shields have a ton of lift and nearly no drag,so the center of heat shields has to be on the center of mass so the craft does not have the tendency to nose up or down too much.If you have other aero components like control surfaces,they can be behind the COM.

[swjr-swis]

On 3/27/2025 at 3:34 PM, Duke MelTdoWn said:

Sadly this heat shield lift does not show up in the Center of Lift indicator in SPH. So you need to experiment where to place the heat shields to get acceptable AoA.

Even in pure stock, you can get a good pointer (almost literally) if you enable the Aero Forces Overlay - the drag and lift arrows. If you include other lift-providing parts, you'll need to compare lift values and distances from CoM to figure out where the actual CoL is, but it's not too hard.

https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/Nanoo

The 0.625m shield I used is not the optimal choice of course, but in that old challenge limiting the size was more important than maximizing lift.