Best Glider

[cardgame]

This topic is for all gliding discussions and to determine meaningful data about gliding, as well as comparisons to the designs of others.

Post your craft and information about its gliding ability!

My Delta II can glide stably (without pulling up/stalling) at approximately 40 m/s relative to the surface, with a vertical airspeed of approximately -1m/s. This test was done at 1800-1400 meters altitude.

I did some more extensive and scientific testing. Set FRAPS to take a screenie every ten seconds; the result of a solid minute of gliding indicates a vertical airspeed of -1.033 m/s. The average airspeed of this minute of gliding, from 1740 to 1678 meters altitude, was 38 m/s. Any slight variations in the screenshots are undoubtedly due to the turbulence which caused the Delta II to drift slightly off course and the corrective action taken to keep the craft straight.

For a more practical application of these numbers, imagine this hypothetical: I am coming down from reentry, completely out of fuel. I regain control of my plane 5 km above the ocean, dozens of kilometers away from shore. If these numbers held up at 5 kilometers altitude (I\'m sure they don\'t, but roll with me for a second) then I could glide 183,930 meters, roughly. That should make it to any beach. Since the numbers will not hold up at that high altitude, however, let\'s just cut it out of the equation. From two kilometers altitude I could still fly 73 kilometers distance. That\'s pretty damned impressive!

[Tim_Barrett]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=5126.0

The Pheonix-42 has great gliding capabilties, yet for the best results you should drop all of the bombs first.

[NovaSilisko]

The Vanguard is the best glider!

[Tim_Barrett]

The Vanguard is the best glider!

Actually, no. It\'s designed to fly through the air on a certain perfect angle (great job on the balancing btw) known as where the angle of attack breaks, causing drag, and making it slow down enough to land.

[NovaSilisko]

Actually, no. It\'s designed to fly through the air on a certain perfect angle (great job on the balancing btw) known as where the angle of attack breaks, causing drag, and making it slow down enough to land.

I was referring to how you can tilt it a certain way and it\'ll float nearly forever.

[White Owl]

I was referring to how you can tilt it a certain way and it\'ll float nearly forever.

Yeah, I\'m very hesitant to get too involved in figuring out gliding in this game right now, because of the infinite gliding bug. Let\'s wait until stalls are at least partially modeled.

[razgriz86er]

i recreated a f-22 using the c-7 pack. i know i get 0 points for creativity. i put those huge flaps in the center of the fixed wings with crazy results. gliding bug is an understatement. il be going 60ms under 5000m and pull up hard and end up at 300+ms by the end of a non thrusted loop. rinse and repeat for unlimited flight within the atmosphere.

do i think i won best glider, nah. just a shame about the bug really. if they fix this bug id be more than happy to give you a run for your money.