Some needed Spaceplane parts

[SofusRud]

These are some specific parts that I think would improve our options in spaceplane (and normal plane) designs

- Mk-1, Mk-2, and Mk-3 fuselage parts that are a quarter and half lengths of what we have now

- Mk-2 and Mk-3 fuselage parts that have the standard mix of Liquid fuel and Oxidizer (and all the adapters with fuel)

- A Mk-3 to Mk-1 adapter (either with fuel or without)

-The avionics package with an actual function. Basically this part should have an aircraft related function that the new SAS doesn't. I suggest the ability to pin it to a point on the NavBall, rather than whatever reference frame the standard SAS uses. This way we might, for example, pin it to the horizon so that the aircraft doesn't nose-up as it moves across the globe as it will with the current system. Of course, this should be separately toggelable (either action group, context menu, or as a separate key) , as needs might change when, say, your SSTO reaches orbit.

[Sean Mirrsen]

All or most SSTO parts have been said to be scheduled for a complete overhaul at some future point, so nobody is likely to work on the existing ones much. And the custom-length fuselages and varied fuel mixes are best fixed with customizeable parts, such as the tweakables system that's coming up sometime in the next few updates (I think), and dynamic parts like the dynamic wings and dynamic fairings in the Mods section.

The issue here is the combinatorial explosion - say you have three fuselages. Mk1, Mk2, Mk3. You also have transitions between them. And they all hold only fuel. That's five parts. Now you add custom-length parts, tripling the count of the standards - eleven parts total. Now add the standard fuel mix variant - twenty-two parts. A standard component page being four wide (I think), that's anywhere from a whole page to two-thirds of one, devoted just to fuselage parts. And then there's parts that hold no fuel.

If you get tweakable dynamic parts instead, you just keep the adapters, and have the three fuselages, like before, that you can adjust to any length, and fill with whichever fuel mix you want. Five parts.

[MacDuckenstein]

They are going to give them a complete overhaul; so there is no point add more of those "old" parts.

And now when we have Bac9 (Artoym) on the team its interesting to see what hes gonna do with them

[Themohawkninja]

Spaceplanes in general could use a lot of TLC, and what you suggest would be great.

I've found that a Mk. III to 2.5 meter part adapter would be nice as well.

[Tw1]

I like that idea for the avionics package.

If you're interested in mods, have a look at TT's fusalages.

[Pulstar]

The one thing we could really use that is already available as a mod, other than reworked spaceplane parts (B9 Aerospace has lots of good structural parts, cockpits and even intakes), are procedural wings. Honestly the stock "fixed" wings create all kinds of issues with designing a craft around them, same goes to intakes (radial ramjet intakes would be great, the b9 pack has them as well). Being able to shape wings as you see fit is simply much, much better that I can't imagine how I managed to make planes without them.

But yes, I think sooner or later we'll see Artyom or C7 working on some new cockpits and spaceplane parts, also tweakables would help a lot for the oxidizer issue. Probably not before the aerodynamics model get reworked though, my guess is that implementing that would also be done around the same time as re-entry heat, as both systems would probably share some of the framework.

[Comrade Jenkens]

The spaceplane parts will probably have a complete overhaul in the near future. With each update they seem more and more dated.

When they were introduced though they were amazing.