Different kinds of fuel for a space plane (and air intakes)

[PTNLemay]

I'm trying out a large space plane type of thing based on a conventional jet I made that's worked quite well so far. I replace one of the fuel-stacks with rocket fuel and placed aerospikes at the end. I'm just wondering if I should leave the intake at the front on, or if it's not going to actually contribute to the remaining jets (only adding unnecessary weight and drag).

Edited October 16, 2013 by PTNLemay

[Francesco]

Nah, you can place air intakes anywhere, they don't need some kind of crossfeed to the jet engines. think RCS.

[Awass]

I'm trying out a large space plane type of thing based on a conventional jet I made that's worked quite well so far. I replace one of the fuel-stacks with rocket fuel and placed aerospikes at the end. I'm just wondering if I should leave the intake at the front on, or if it's not going to actually contribute to the remaining jets (only adding unnecessary weight and drag).

I thought the aerospike counted as a type of jet engine? I didn't know it could use rocket fuel. Can it also use jet fuel, and does it actually need no intake air?

[PTNLemay]

@ Francesco

Yeah I tested it for myself, the air does indeed reach the air-breathing engines.

@ Awass

I don't think so. Unless I was doing something blatantly wrong when my aerospikes stopped working when I ran out of liquid oxidizer. Regular air won't cut it it seems. I wonder if anyone has made a SABRE engine part... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SABRE_(rocket_engine) Now that would be cool.

EDIT:

Ho damn! Turns out B9 Aerospace parts pack does indeed have a Sabre engine. That's damned interesting.

Edited October 16, 2013 by PTNLemay

[Nurph]

As long as an intake can get airflow, any engines on the plane can use that air.

Aerospikes are not jet engines. They are high effiecency rockets and there is no 'jet fuel' in the game, only the 'Liquid Fuel' resouce which both jets and rockets use.

EDIT: The B9 pack has SABRE engines.

[numerobis]

Your center of mass is going to shift a lot in that configuration; careful of cartwheels.

[arq]

This design will not make it to space on its own. If you're trying to SSTO, you should table this for awhile and learn with simpler designs.

[PTNLemay]

This design will not make it to space on its own. If you're trying to SSTO, you should table this for awhile and learn with simpler designs.

I know... I peaked at ~60 km up before the rockets ran out and I fell back down. What bothers me is that I've seen people create massive space-plane SSTOs that could haul entire orange tanks up into orbit. It was in a weekly reddit challenge of some sort. I'm not even doing that! I just want a plane that will take 3 guys up to my space station.

When not reaching for space though, the design is pretty decent. I was able to fly across the Eastern sea, land, take off again, and come back to base with fuel to spare. I was also able to hit 1200 meters per second, before I replaced some of the turbojets with aerospikes that is.

[numerobis]

What you need is MOAR INTAKES.

[Awass]

As long as an intake can get airflow, any engines on the plane can use that air.

Aerospikes are not jet engines. They are high effiecency rockets and there is no 'jet fuel' in the game, only the 'Liquid Fuel' resouce which both jets and rockets use.

EDIT: The B9 pack has SABRE engines.

Oh yeah. I thought that my turbojet wasn't working because I was using "rocket fuel", but the problem was that there was a decoupler in the way, and apparently vertical decouplers aren't crossfeed capable.