Are Jet Engines in FAR as Overperforming as in Stock?

[Kulebron]

I used FAR and know how rockets behave, but now I have no way to test this in KSP right now. So, question to those who mastered it: how are jet engines performing in FAR or NEAR mods?

How is opened/closed air intake affecting things? What can you achieve with MechJeb utilities? (manage air intakes + prevent flameouts)

In stock, I managed to get a 40km x 80km orbit on jets alone, and needed only 30 m/s to circularize in apoapse. Fuel usage was ridiculous: 15 tons in orbit on 80 liquid jet fuel.

How is FAR compared to this?

Edited October 4, 2014 by Kulebron

[Alshain]

No. FAR/NEAR alters their thrust by half and changes the velocity curve so they shut off at lower speeds (1600m/s for TurboJets I think, 1700 for rapiers, not sure about basics but I know it's low enough they aren't going to get you to space). Your going to get to max speed in most cases without needing to use flameout prevention.

Also infinigliders are impossible. Open intakes create drag so shut them off when you switch to rockets.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Alshain

[FennexFox]

If you want to make a "real" thing, use AJE with FAR. Those make your KSP almost a flight simulator.

[juanml82]

If you want to make a "real" thing, use AJE with FAR. Those make your KSP almost a flight simulator.

If you want to make a real thing, only use Rapiers for SSTOs

[technion]

Open intakes create drag so shut them off when you switch to rockets.

I see this advice every where, but...

By the time I shut the jets down and run rockets exclusively, I tend to be at the 30km+ mark, and the air up there is thin enough to not be that significant. And after twenty seconds, it's 45km+, and even more insignificant. Intakes do have a high drag, but the rest of the spaceplane also has parts that contribute to drag. It's not like you get "no drag" after closing them. I ended up having a hard time seeing the difference between shutting down those intakes, and not doing so.

[Wanderfound]

I see this advice every where, but...

By the time I shut the jets down and run rockets exclusively, I tend to be at the 30km+ mark, and the air up there is thin enough to not be that significant. And after twenty seconds, it's 45km+, and even more insignificant. Intakes do have a high drag, but the rest of the spaceplane also has parts that contribute to drag. It's not like you get "no drag" after closing them. I ended up having a hard time seeing the difference between shutting down those intakes, and not doing so.

Same here. If I'm running out of room for action groups, "toggle intakes" is one of the first to go.

It is useful to be able to close them when gliding at low altitude, though. It can make the difference between getting back to KSC or not when you're out of fuel.

[Wanderfound]

I used FAR and know how rockets behave, but now I have no way to test this in KSP right now. So, question to those who mastered it: how are jet engines performing in FAR or NEAR mods?

How is opened/closed air intake affecting things? What can you achieve with MechJeb utilities? (manage air intakes + prevent flameouts)

In stock, I managed to get a 40km x 80km orbit on jets alone, and needed only 30 m/s to circularize in apoapse. Fuel usage was ridiculous: 15 tons in orbit on 80 liquid jet fuel.

How is FAR compared to this?

The best you'll get out of pure jets in FAR is about Mach 5.5 at 35,000m. And that only if you build and fly 'em right.

Mach 4.5 at 30,000m before rocketry is plenty high and fast enough to reach orbit with tanks half-full, though. For example:

Note the fuel remaning. That plane is running two RAPIERs and one Turbo off a single pair of ramscoops.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Wanderfound

[Empiro]

If you use B9, which I'm sure many folks who design spaceplanes do, turbojets get even more nerfed and cap out at about 1100 m/s. It's a real shame too because there's really no jet engine that fills the gap and lets you get to 1500 m/s, so you're basically stuck with RAPIER engines for spaceplanes.

Speaking of air intake closing and opening, I usually have one action group that toggles everything (jet engines + rocket + intakes) or (RAPIER switch + intakes), but I wonder if anyone has done analysis to see how much dV that actually saves you. I can't imagine it being more than a handful.

[Kulebron]

Thanks all for your help!