Why does my jet plane not move, and why is thrust backwards?

[Moonfrog]

Ok, ermm. As you can see on the image, the thrust seems to be pointing backwards. I don't know why. When I try to launch the plane, it refuses to move and crawls at 0.8 m/s at full thrust. Then if I try to tilt upwards with the wings, it will increase speed and shoot of at 100m/s. If I stop moving wings, the plane at full thrust will decelerate and crash.

Does anyone know why this is happening? I'm not great at building planes, but I am completely lost at what is going on here.

Also I have no mods installed this is stock only.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Moonfrog

[UmbralRaptor]

The thrust vector is pointing in the correct direction. The lack of apparent thrust is because the engine exhaust is hitting the horizontal tail. (KSP effectively nulls out thrust that hits the craft that produced it) Either remove the winglets, or move them out of the exhaust stream.

It's worth noting that real-life craft with engines there would use T-tails.

[Cirocco]

yeah I think Umbralraptor has it right. It seems your exhaust is hitting the horizontal winglets, causing the game to think there should be no effective thrust. Try removing the back horizontal winglets and try again.

[Moonfrog]

That worked, had me really stumped. Thx guys. Also what is a T tail? Curious since you mentioned it.

[Random Tank]

A T-tail is literally a tail-plane shaped like a T. Where you would have the vertical tail, then the horizontal winglets mounted on the tip of the vertical tail.

Nice plane by the way, looks cool

[Decent Weasel]

That worked, had me really stumped. Thx guys. Also what is a T tail? Curious since you mentioned it.

T-tail is the kind of tail you see on the F-104 starfighter and Boeing 727 - instead of the vertical and horizontal surfaces all coming out of the fuselage, the horizontal tails are mounted to sit on top of the vertical tail. If you look at it from the front or back, the fins make a T-shape.

[UmbralRaptor]

That worked, had me really stumped. Thx guys. Also what is a T tail? Curious since you mentioned it.

I'm going to assume that replying with a wikipedia link is not rude, since it has a lot of good pictures

[Random Tank]

I'm going to assume that replying with a wikipedia link is not rude, since it has a lot of good pictures

I am highly offended by this! I consider this an insult!

Ahhh, it's stabilisers... I knew tail wasn't really the word, but I had to use it for want of a better one...

[RexKramer]

The direction the thrust vector is displayed is confusing. The lift vector points in the direction the force acts. However, the thrust vector points in the opposite direction of the force. To me, an arrow pointed backwards would represent drag.

Never noticed that oddity until this thread, however. Interesting.