Some parts.

[Nimja]

I have a few questions about some parts:

How do air intakes work? The "IntakeAir" statistic do not seem to show the actual amout of air drawn.

How do the antennas work? It seems to me the starting antenna is more efficient and faster.

[Taki117]

Air intakes collect air for jet engines. If you are looking at the resource panel it wont actually start changing until you get into the thinner atmosphere. Your second question confuses me. Antennas work by transmitting data back to KSC. The packet size is how much data can be transferred at once and the other stat is how fast it transfers. Generally the bigger dishes transfer more data faster, but if you are not that worried about it, the small antenna is the way to go since there is not a range restriciton. (Unless you get a mod)

[RSwordsman]

Generally the bigger dishes transfer more data faster

The trade-off there is that they require a lot more power. I don't see the need to use any but the first antenna except for looks, personally. Either way you still get your transmission at the same efficiency rate.

[Vanamonde]

Many of the parts in this still-developing game are first-drafts or placeholders, so you're right, there really is no advantage to using the two later antenna types.

[Nimja]

What I meant by the questions were:

what is the mathematical way of finding out how MUCH the intakes take in, because they have the same IntakAir stat, but the fan says it tkaes in twice the amout than the vaccum intake.

With the antenna question, I meant to ask why the first antenna seems better than the other in all aspects, but youve answered the question anyway on that one.

[Raven.]

Most air intakes with take in .20 units of air at sea level per air intake. So if you have 6 intakes on your SSTO, it will take in about 1.20 units of air. The amount of air drawn in decreases as you gain altitude. For the most part, you're going to get 60% to 90% air for most altitudes below 10,000 meters. for 10 to 20 km, the amount of air drops rather quickly. Anything above 20 km, and you will not get enough air to drive your jets (it takes at least .10 units of air to drive a jet regardless of how many jet engines you have on the plane), provided that you're traveling at sub-sonic speeds. At super sonic and hyper sonic speeds, you might get away with .09 units, or .08 units.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Raven.

[capi3101]

My observation is that at speeds greater than 1000 m/s, you can still get descent performance out of a jet with as little as 0.05 to 0.07 units of IntakeAir. That's one reason why folks around here will tell you to load up on the intakes; the more you have, the more air you can collect at higher altitudes, and the higher the operational ceiling of the jets. I've had several designs make orbital velocity with the jets remaining at full throttle as high up as 30,000 meters, and its because I've got one intake per tonne of aircraft. It's nuts but it works.