Air resistance implemented yet?

[Mantis Toboggan]

Is it necessary to put on nose cones and wings and such on rockets yet?

[Ralathon]

Is it necessary to put on nose cones and wings and such on rockets yet?

Nope. Avoid using them, they just add weight.

Unless you play with the Ferram Aerospace mod. That implements proper (or at least passable) aerodynamics. Then you should put nosecones on your rockets to avoid very unstable behavior.

[stupid_chris]

I put them on anyway usually. It looks nicer and it usually doesn't shave off more than 50m/s of your launcher's delta V, so really, if you need that small bit you might want to check your whole thing cause you're tight on fuel.

[Kosmo-not]

Air resistance is implemented. That's what males you slow down in an atmosphere.

[stupid_chris]

Air resistance is implemented. That's what males you slow down in an atmosphere.

I think he meant proper aerodynamics and the effectiveness of nose cones.

[Motokid600]

I've been making big, ugly rockets for the longest time. I'm tired of sending up suspension bridges so I started wrapping my payloads with fairings and nosecones. I'm sure that hurts me, but damn I love the way a realistic rocket looks. That and decoupling the fairings once your in orbit to see your craft in its glory is really cool. Now id rather avoid FAR , but how much d/v would that mod save me if I used it?

Edited July 19, 2013 by Motokid600

[stupid_chris]

I've been making big, ugly rockets for the longest time. I'm tired of sending up suspension bridges so I started wrapping my payloads with fairings and nosecones. I'm sure that hurts me, but damn I love the way a realistic rocket looks. That and decoupling the fairings once your in orbit to see your craft in its glory is really cool. Now id rather avoid FAR , but how much d/v would that mod save me if I used it?

It saves mostly on drag losses if you use it correctly, but can also save a bit of gravity losses. I think you can save around 500m/s with drag worth of delta V.

[Tank Buddy]

A proper model of air resistance has not been implemented, so nose cones only add mass and drag. Now you can only use them for atheistic purposes.

[Nao]

It saves mostly on drag losses if you use it correctly, but can also save a bit of gravity losses. I think you can save around 500m/s with drag worth of delta V.

Just a quick note that using higher thrust rocket with very sleek design, you can bring Dv to LKO below 3100m/s (starting gravity turn almost from launchpad). But other than that using rockets made with stock game in mind with FAR creates very realistic launches so its definitely worth a try Motokid600

[arq]

Yes, FAR can dramatically reduce the delta-v to orbit (assuming you actually heed the aerodynamics changes). I've plugged it in a few times, but it makes planes considerably more complicated to design so I usually get frustrated and uninstall it. Maybe after 0.21 and the ASAS changes I'll give it another go.

For an optimal ascent with stock aerodynamics, you want to stay as close to terminal velocity as possible (this isn't really practical above 15km or so, as the atmo drops off very quickly). You can look up tables on the wiki, or get readouts from Kerbal Engineer (and probably Mechjeb?). In stock, about the cheapest I've ever gotten to LKO was around 4200dV (measured using Protractor's counter), but that was with a light, powerful rocket that was able to accelerate quickly during the gravity turn. Heavier rockets with slightly lower TWR tend to require closer to 4500dV.