Air intakes

[Atanar]

They confuse me. The compairison between ram and cicular seems obvious to me, ram is better because more intake area. But what about the radial one? It has more mass, less intake area, but more maximum intake. So which is good for what?`And why should I even use the radial or the nacelle, are they purely for asthetics?

[HoY]

The radial ones store more air than the other ones if I recall correctly. Storing it is useless however! If it doesn't ruin your plane completely always use the ram intakes. Best ones by far.

[numerobis]

The higher capacity only matters at low altitude, and even then it doesn't compensate for the lower area. So the only real reason to choose radial over ram is aesthetic. The nacelle can be used as an air brake by opening/closing the intake; when closed it doubles as a lighter structural fuselage.

My old "jets compendium" thread is gone, but all the information is encoded in my KSP-scripts.

[EndlessWaves]

Anything other than the ram intake is currently worse than useless, I'm sure proper stats will be added as development progresses.

[CalculusWarrior]

If you're designing a spaceplane, only use the ram intakes. If you're designing a low-altitude aircraft, it doesn't matter what type of intakes you use, just as long as there is at least one on your plane. Just choose whichever looks the coolest in that case