Basic airplane acts as though air is made of solid concrete.

[guildnavigator]

Seriously.

Am I missing something really stupid? Brakes aren't on, engines are throttled to full, but after maybe 20 seconds I haven't reached 1m/s.

There's more! If I press w or s I take off like a shot, but as soon as I stop angling up or down it's like the air turns solid again and Jeb dies a horrible exploding death.

Bug? Some other issue? I'm stumped!

Edit: question answered by people who know more than me

Edited December 31, 2013 by guildnavigator

[Peppe]

Engine thrust obstructed?

[Skorpychan]

Engine thrust obstructed?

Tailplanes are in the way of engine thrust, and radial intakes are extremely draggy.

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

Tailplanes are in the way of engine thrust, and radial intakes are extremely draggy.

I know but this shouldn't happen though.

[Psycix]

Blocking the exhaust of an engine can nullify thrust completely.

[Murph]

I know but this shouldn't happen though.

You're right in terms of real physics, but wrong in terms of current KSP physics. It could certainly be improved on in the future, probably will be improved when we get better aerodynamics. For now, it's an all or nothing thing. Any obstruction, and it treats it as completely blocked.

[Smidge204]

Tailplanes are in the way of engine thrust, and radial intakes are extremely draggy.

Radial intakes have no drag if the craft isn't moving... but the engines being blocked is almost certainly the problem here.

I've also had an issue with the wheels getting stuck to the runway if I throttle up with the brakes on to rev the engines, though. If correcting the blockage doesn't work, that's possibility #2.

=Smidge=

[BlackBicycle]

I'd like a shot from the rear, but I am really leaning towards an "obstructed engine" theory.

GuildNav, have you tried the saved planes that come with the game? Those, while basic, can give you a decent idea of how things fly in this game.

Edited December 30, 2013 by BlackBicycle

[Dust]

I've had this happen, but with nothing blocking the exhaust. I assumed it was something to do with the brakes, or the wheels getting somewhat stuck to the ground. When throttling up the plane won't move until near max thrust. I made sure the brakes were disengaged, and tapped the B button several times to try to "un-stick" them, but eventually it always gets going at some high amount of thrust. Only happens on the runway.

[guildnavigator]

Wow, thanks for the replies! Turns out having the tailplane behind the engines was indeed the culprit, I moved those and it worked normally. I've made several aircraft but this was the first with that problem, so you can imagine my confusion.