Engine fairings / engine mount plate

[maro]

If you now place an engine below a tank and then a decoupler below the engine - you get automatic a fairing around the engine. This works well as long as the diameter of the tank above and the diameter of the decoupler below are the same and the engine is centerline. More complex engine placements like multi engine stages or a small diameter engine below a big tank are not supported.

If you look at the picture

1) below the capsule and the x-200-8 is a poddle - looks/works perfect

2) below that is a 909 and i use the space below the tank for adding RCS and bats - 909 engine has fairing but wrong diameter

3) below is a 3 engine layout - would work well - but the engine mounting has more diameter then the nozle. Would fit well if the engines mountig is not so wide and there are no engines fairings at all

Now my suggestions

1) To enable the use of the area around the engine mount like shown above (2) every engine should be connected to the tank only with a thin mounting - just a small frame and tubes. This would allow to use this area for additional things like RCS tanks as shown.

2) To enable a automatic engine(s) fairing between stages with every configuration there should be new parts - lets call it "engine mount plate". It has to be placed between the tank and the engine(s)+add. parts below and its diameter is the "target" for the automatic engine fairing - and not the diameter of the engine as now - as alos the target for the structural stability. Because right now the engine itself is a structural part in the stack and that is not realistic. Bcause if one now builds such a stack one has to add a lot of struts to enable stability.

This way the decoupler below and the "engine mount plate" will work together, building a automated strut/fairing around everything between them.

Edited July 26, 2013 by maro

[stupid_chris]

Adding procedural fairings that adapt to what's under and above is planned, someone suggested this a while ago, and IIRC, Nova replied that it was somewhere down the development line.