Basic Aircraft Design - Explained Simply, With Pictures

[keptin]

Keptin, are you actually working on an update for your tutorial?

I will be when I have some time to spare and after I've become more familiar with the new aero system. I've been using what little time I have this week to update KAX.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I will be when I have some time to spare and after I've become more familiar with the new aero system. I've been using what little time I have this week to update KAX.

Thank you for all the effort you put into your KSP-Projects

[Miravlix]

Take a real airplane, roll it, what happens? It turns... Start the engine of a plane on a flat ground and let it roll without touching any controls and it takes off, because planes is naturally creating uplift.

Yes, you're trying to counter the unlimited uplift design of the game, but all you do is creating weird version of flying bricks. For a more enjoyable experience, you might want to enable SAS and create planes with lift before mass.

The Stock Aero plane is fantastic to fly, it has lift slightly infront of mass, so without SAS it will flip, but except for that game design physics anomaly, it feels fantastic in the air.

[Specialist290]

I will be when I have some time to spare and after I've become more familiar with the new aero system. I've been using what little time I have this week to update KAX.

Awesome I'll be keeping an eye on this, since I'm trying to keep the listings on the Drawing Board up-to-date. Drop me a line when you've got the latest version up!

[Lopez de la Osa]

Thanks for this tutorial.

I have a plane, and it fly. But, What can I do in order to get up the max altitude that this plane can research?

The plane has just only one jet basic engine; it is very similar to that one in Scot Manley 'Carrier for Beginers'.

[keptin]

Thanks for this tutorial.

I have a plane, and it fly. But, What can I do in order to get up the max altitude that this plane can research?

The plane has just only one jet basic engine; it is very similar to that one in Scot Manley 'Carrier for Beginers'.

Depends on what's limiting your plane. If it's engines flaming out, then you need greater intake area or speed to ram more air--though eventually you'll hit a limit where there's just no more atmosphere. If it's stalling in thin air, then you need more speed or more wing area. Or both. Though it's a tricky balance. Intake area slows you down. Wings are draggy and heavy. So what's the craft's purpose? If it's high altitude research, maybe slow is the way to go. Then you design something like the U-2. If it's fast, maybe something more like the F-104.

[Eskandare]

Hey Keptin, I just stumbled across this. Perfect and straight to the point. I had to write a wall of text explaining basic aerodynamics on reddit. Kinda wish I had seen this page sooner, so I could just say, do what Keptin says.

oh and... Exploding wheel borrow!

Edited June 10, 2015 by Eskandare

[ibanix]

Are the details about KSP's drag model still accurate for 1.0.x?

[ibanix]

By the way, the "EZ Glider" seems to no longer have the correct parts, perhaps due to a change along the line? When testing I am using 1.0.4 with no mods.

[kcs123]

Are the details about KSP's drag model still accurate for 1.0.x?

Depends. From 1.0.x stock aero system is improved, so it no longer calculates drag based on part mass. Nosecones have influence in drag and cargo bay protects your payload from airstream.

Stock parts also contains fairings to help you protecting sensitive cargo too.

If you using FAR, details for it are pretty much valid, althoug FAR has been improved a lot too, there is new stuff you need to attend to when building craft.

[Xgkkp]

Regarding Canards; Why do they stall before the main wing? I can see why if they are at a steeper angle of incidence, but the text and image doesn't show this?

Also, how do I tell (especially, with FAR, but even without) what the swept wing "Better at high speeds" actually means - supersonic? Less? how can I quantify whether I'll need to sweep the wings or not?

Edited July 15, 2015 by Xgkkp

[ratchet freak]

Regarding Canards; Why do they stall before the main wing? I can see why if they are at a steeper angle of incidence, but the text and image doesn't show this?

they should stall before the main wing so the new CoL (after stalling the canards) is further back and will drop the nose so normal flight can be resumed

[Xgkkp]

One other thing that really keeps bothering me; The reference to a Lawn Dart - I assume that this means "Hard to turn" but not entirely sure - the cultural reference is lost on me (either we never had them in the UK, or I just never encountered them as a fashion).

[Nytonial]

Regarding Canards; Why do they stall before the main wing? I can see why if they are at a steeper angle of incidence, but the text and image doesn't show this?

Also, how do I tell (especially, with FAR, but even without) what the swept wing "Better at high speeds" actually means - supersonic? Less? how can I quantify whether I'll need to sweep the wings or not?

Yes its because they are (assumed) to be at a steeper angle of incidence. As long as your plane is of stable design, when pitching up (to the extreme) the front cannards are at higher angles than the wing and so loose areodynamical properties first, meaning they can no longer add more pitch to the planes heading. This leaves a craft with only standard wings, considerably further back than usual, aerodynamic drag and momentum then snap your plane back to level flight.

Picture the reverse, standard elivators, while pitching up, the wings are at a higher angle than the elivators, the wing stalls first and leaves the elivators able to add more pitch. The centre of lift is also moved further back though, so there is some stability in this, only it can still be "steered" out of level flight, wheras the cannards in stall will quickly point back to level flight.

[keptin]

One other thing that really keeps bothering me; The reference to a Lawn Dart - I assume that this means "Hard to turn" but not entirely sure - the cultural reference is lost on me (either we never had them in the UK, or I just never encountered them as a fashion).

You know what a dart is, right? You have to if you're from the UK.

Picture a dart. It's got a weight at the front and "wings" at the back that serve to keep the tip pointed straight in flight. With the CoM so far forward of the CoL, it essentially follows a ballistic trajectory.

What that pictograph is saying is that if you put your CoM too far forward your aircraft is going to have the flight characteristics of a dart. A lawn dart is simply a big dart that sticks in the grass outside instead of on a dart board. Fitting, because your aircraft will also stick in the grass if you design it like a dart.

[Droideka30]

I see it's been done before, but here's my attempt at building and flying the majestic Eagle.

The Majestic "Eagle" on its Maiden Voyage

Edited August 23, 2015 by Droideka30
Formatting is hard.

[BadLeo]

Could use a nice tutorial like this on VTOL, because I'm currently being beat hard by KSP while attempting to build one.

[ProfessorT]

I'm new to the KSP forums and am looking for help with understanding aircraft design. This guide seems good but is way too fuzzy for me to make out what it's saying. Am I missing something? Is there something I can do to make the image clearer?

[Droideka30]

I'm new to the KSP forums and am looking for help with understanding aircraft design. This guide seems good but is way too fuzzy for me to make out what it's saying. Am I missing something? Is there something I can do to make the image clearer?

It looks fine to me. Maybe your browser isn't loading the page correctly/completely? You could tryright clicking on the image and selecting "open image in new tab".

[trooperMNG]

Thanks for the infographic. Made some working spaceplanes with OPT parts, wouldn't have made without your guide!

[RocketJockey]

Any chance we could get this reposted with less compression. The picture is all but illegible, which is a shame, since it looks like it's really good information.

[RocketJockey]

A few people have reported this problem. I just posted an alternate mirror link on the front page. You can also access this here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/AircraftDesign.jpg

Keptin, that jog is pretty heavily compressed. Any chance of a revision?

just reviewed the download, apparently my iPad browser has "made in Kerbal" stamped on the back. Looks fine after I downloaded the jpg.

Edited September 13, 2015 by RocketJockey

[mhoram]

A few people have reported this problem. I just posted an alternate mirror link on the front page. You can also access this here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/AircraftDesign.jpg

Usually this problem comes from browsers or internet providers, who compress the picture on the fly. So I recommend that anyone with this problem should check their settings.

[Pikachu8091]

Has there been any update to the drag model? Are there any new updates? I'm just now getting back into KSP - I haven't played for maybe a year now.

[Droideka30]

Has there been any update to the drag model? Are there any new updates? I'm just now getting back into KSP - I haven't played for maybe a year now.

1.0 included an overhaul of the aerodynamics (among various other things), which made it suck less. It's still not completely realistic, though. Changelog is here.