spaceplanes?

[Hunne]

I tried to build a spaceplane (first try ever!). If I had not reverted to the hangar after each failure I would not have any men left by now.

Is there a guide/tutorial somewhere about these things?

Obviously I have no clue how to build them for proper flight.

thx in advance^^

[Wampa842]

It's all about the center points and aerodynamic controls. Ideally, center of mass and center of lift should be as close as possible, and center of thrust should be lined up with the other two viewed nose-to-tail.

If the wings don't have control surfaces, you have to add them manually. Most don't.

Also add vertical and horizontal stabilizers; winglets have control surfaces of their own.

I highly recommend getting FAR and B9. They tremendously enhance atmospherical experience.

[700NitroXpress]

Here you go:

[arq]

Scott Manley did a guide recently.

[Cruzan]

If you visit the Tutorial section of this forum there is a link to The Drawing Board which has tons of listing for tutorials that you might find useful. There are a couple videos about SSTOs that might help

[Hodo]

SSTOs are easy....

Once you get the hang of them.

The tutorials listed above and everyone who has answered I couldn't agree with more. Trust us we know SSTOs.

[700NitroXpress]

Also, if you visit the SSTO sections of the space craft exchange threads, there's lots in there that will give you ideas or explain what they did for their designs, check em out.

[Seret]

Ideally, center of mass and center of lift should be as close as possible

You want to have CoL slightly behind CoM, but not actually right on top of it.

This post is the best guide I've seen for some basic concepts of aircraft design. Read. Digest. Replicate.

[celem]

Exactly where you want your CoM/CoL relative to each other can vary by design actually. Remembering that a stack of tanks deplete top to bottom, even if horizontally assembled, your CoM will drift as you burn fuel. For most people its going to drift backwards and com just ahead of col is correct, as in late flight they will be pretty much aligned. But some designs may use layout/pump tricks to centralise the fuel-load which may require readjustment of the centre points.

[Hunne]

sweet!

gotta check this out later on

I really like Scotts Videos but for me a written guide is better...btw., where can I get that MechJeb-Implant that Scott seems to have?^^ Kudos for fancy rocketeering!

[sibrit]

Even knowing COM and COL, and making sure they were correctly placed, most of my spaceplane designs wouldn't get off the ground by themselves. They only flew because the runway dropped out from beneath them. And then I had to keep them level with only minor attitude adjustments or they just flipped and went into a spin. Certainly I haven't been able to fly one as I would a normal flight simulator, even with SAS turned off. The controls are not fine enough and using the rudder would turn it a little way, then it would stop, then continue turning. I believe some of this is due to incomplete aerodynamics modelling in KSP.

[700NitroXpress]

Post pictures and then people can tell you what's wrong.

[Cruzan]

Even knowing COM and COL, and making sure they were correctly placed, most of my spaceplane designs wouldn't get off the ground by themselves. They only flew because the runway dropped out from beneath them. And then I had to keep them level with only minor attitude adjustments or they just flipped and went into a spin. Certainly I haven't been able to fly one as I would a normal flight simulator, even with SAS turned off. The controls are not fine enough and using the rudder would turn it a little way, then it would stop, then continue turning. I believe some of this is due to incomplete aerodynamics modelling in KSP.

This sounds 100% like poor plane design. Feel free to check out my videos on basic airplane design if you want some advice on building and flying them

[Hodo]

Even knowing COM and COL, and making sure they were correctly placed, most of my spaceplane designs wouldn't get off the ground by themselves. They only flew because the runway dropped out from beneath them. And then I had to keep them level with only minor attitude adjustments or they just flipped and went into a spin. Certainly I haven't been able to fly one as I would a normal flight simulator, even with SAS turned off. The controls are not fine enough and using the rudder would turn it a little way, then it would stop, then continue turning. I believe some of this is due to incomplete aerodynamics modelling in KSP.

The FAR mod helps a fair bit with the aerodynamics problems. And I admit all of my SSTO/Spaceplanes are built with it in mind. At this point I am a bit elitist and refuse to build a plane or space plane without it.

[codepants]

SSTOs are easy....

Once you get the hang of them.

What he said.

Keep trying. Just like getting into orbit, your first 100 tries are really rather hard, but after that it's easy.

Okay, "easy."