My newbish spaceplane efforts: suggestions for improvement?

[Mister Spock]

Thanks. I did spend some time reading about both NEAR and FAR today. I will try one or both in due course. People in this thread have also mentioned some of the spaceplane and aerospace parts mods; those sound fun as well. And I hear ya about instrumentation. I've spent my share of time in computer flight sims (X-Plane, FSX), and I miss the instruments.

Incidentally, I just put my new spaceplane to good use: a contract to test a radial decoupler. Activated the decoupler at 20,000 meters and 400 m/s, then turn around and flew due west -- and landed right on runway 27. Even with a perfect landing, though, I got only about 95% of my parts cost back. Still made a profit on the contract, though, plus (more importantly) some science. I know money is easy to come by in stock 24.2, but I plan to try something like Better than Starting Manned soon, maybe with no quickloading/reverting, so it will be nice to have reusable spacecraft.

[Wanderfound]

And a general design tip: if you're trying to build a hypersonic spaceplane, make something that looks like a hypersonic spaceplane. Aircraft are shaped the way they are for a reason.

[GoSlash27]

And a general design tip: if you're trying to build a hypersonic spaceplane, make something that looks like a hypersonic spaceplane. Aircraft are shaped the way they are for a reason.

I strongly disagree with this. Real life aerodynamics are radically different from KSP aerodynamics. My advice is to let form follow function. Build whatever works best in KSP and don't worry about what real hypersonic spaceplanes look like.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited August 6, 2014 by GoSlash27

[Wanderfound]

I strongly disagree with this. Real life aerodynamics are radically different from KSP aerodynamics. My advice is to let form follow function. Build whatever works best in KSP and don't worry about what real hypersonic spaceplanes look like.

While it should be obvious that there's a bit of a fundamental difference in design philosophies between me and Slashy (), I should point out that my advice is based on the assumption that FAR is in play. Aesthetic design has much less influence under stock aero.

And, as always: build whatever you want. It's a game; so long as you're having fun then you're doing it "right".

[Wanderfound]

Incidentally, for an example of the prettyness made possible by the mod packs (Spaceplane Plus in this case):

[Batz_10K]

While it should be obvious that there's a bit of a fundamental difference in design philosophies between me and Slashy (), I should point out that my advice is based on the assumption that FAR is in play. Aesthetic design has much less influence under stock aero.

And, as always: build whatever you want. It's a game; so long as you're having fun then you're doing it "right".

Indeed. The stock aerodynamics can be pretty forgiving as long as you follow the rules (e.g. CoL behind CoM, etc)