Perfecting my airplane

[Daniel K. Eagle]

Hi, this is my first plane that i'm sharing with the world, the W.H.A.L.E. .

It's a small, easy to fly, fuel efficient jet which you can use to fly around, explore or just do crash tests with.

PLEASE DO NOT SAY THAT THIS IS YOURS!

I'm open for tips that improve this plane!

If you want to try it out for yourself:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wbki4i0yiheeuiv/AAAa42vPd0WmltSMhUIXB93Ka?dl=0

Thanks!

-Dean

PS: I haven't got KSP for a very long time, i'm pretty new to the mechanics so don't judge me;.;

Edited November 29, 2014 by Daniel K. Eagle

[sal_vager]

It's beautiful....

Can we have the craft file please, er for testing, yeah that's right, testing

[Tex_NL]

CoM/CoL placement is near perfect. CoL just behind CoM.

To make it fly a bit better I'd suggest you make the wings bigger, move them forward and give the plane some tailplanes.

[worir4]

I think it doesn't take off because the rear landing gear are too far back, try to move them forwards.

[sal_vager]

It will be hard to take off with those elevators so close to the center of mass and lift, it really needs a small tail/horizontal stabiliser.

Mounting the tail wheel higher so the nose is higher will help get enough angle of attack to take off (part clipping).

The pose? No idea, the wheels are probably not quite perfectly straight.

[Tex_NL]

I think it doesn't take off because the rear landing gear are too far back, try to move them forwards.

In a taildragger design the tail wheel is not the fulcrum. It is supposed to sit as far back as possible.

When speeding down the runway the tail wheel is lifting off first. Then after pushing the tail back to the ground the main gear lifts.

[Fiddlestyx]

Some people may disagree with me, but move the wings a little forward so the CoL (blue) is almost completely inside the CoM (yellow).

[Daniel K. Eagle]

As stated in my post, i'm really new to KSP, could you tell me how it works, those craft files?

[Daniel K. Eagle]

i'll see what happends :3

[sal_vager]

Okay, the craft file will be in the "Kerbal Space Program\Saves\Yoursave\Ships\SPH" folder

You can put the contents on most text paste sites, or the whole file on dropbox.

[Daniel K. Eagle]

I tried; it makes the plane do backflips after it takes off, it doesn't improve the late take off problem either...

Thanks for replying though...

[Daniel K. Eagle]

Found them, sooo.. i can just copy paste them in a reply or..

- - - Updated - - -

I tried, but the plane does backflips after take off, and it still takes off when it cleared the runway...

[Tex_NL]

Okay, the craft file will be in the "Kerbal Space Program\Saves\Yoursave\Ships\SPH" folder

You can put the contents on most text paste sites, or the whole file on dropbox.

You could, if you really have no other options, paste the file directly to the forum. Simply open the .craft file with your text editor of choice and copy/paste the text here. But PLEASE put the text between [noparse]

[/noparse] tags to avoid an insanely long post.

[sal_vager]

There's a 1000 word limit though, it might not fit.

[Tex_NL]

I was not aware of that limit. On the other hand, his plane is pretty simple. I can't imagine the file being extremely long.

[Daniel K. Eagle]

I can't copy paste the KRAFT file on a post, i guess i got to get dropbox..

[sal_vager]

Filedropper works too, or mediafire, or Mega, lots of options if you look

[Daniel K. Eagle]

I have a dropbox with the file, can i have your Email? If you have to keep it anonymous, jsut PM me, if that's possible (i'm not a real forum user)

[ratchet freak]

there's also pastebin.com

[sal_vager]

You should be able to share the dropbox link publicly.

[Franklin]

larger wings would help a fair bit, and you'll want to fix that forward-leaning CoL, it'll cause the plane to tuck. tilting the wings up a smidge (like this) might help both with that forward-leaning CoL and your problems taking off.

Edited November 28, 2014 by Franklin

[Hodo]

Hi, i need help. I jsut completed a jet, it's my second jet but the first one that actually got airborne .

Anyways, it has some major faults that have to be rectified to make this an acceptable jet.

Firstly, it doesn't take off very well, at least, it takes of as soon as it has cleared the runway. I have been able to land normaly before, but i changed one little thing after i had a succesful take-off, although i can't remember what it was..

Secondly, it steers like a concrete fridge; it doesn't steer very well. And when i stop steering, i'm in this diagonal pose, does anyone know how to get out of that post? I really want this jet to be a good one...

Thanks!

-Dean

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/332/b/b/w_h_a_l_e_by_travers55-d87zpa2.pngPS: I haven't got KSP for a very long time, i'm pretty new to the mechanics so don't judge me;.;

Ok first thing I see without ever flying the craft is you don't have any real pitch authority with the craft, your control surfaces are to close to the CoM, this means they will do next to nothing in helping the aircraft point up or down. The other problem is the tail dragger design is never going to be that good for take off or landing expecially on a jet. Last problem I see is the Center of Thrust (CoT) is below your Center of Mass (CoM) this is going to cause the craft to pitch up, without any real pitch control this means the craft will just flip end over end without any way of stopping it when at full throttle.

[Daniel K. Eagle]

Thanks for the appraisal Hodo, what do you recommend changing on it? A lot of people recommended to get larger wings, that way i can put the control surfaces a little more to the side.. And the trouble about the CoT being below the CoM can maybe be fixed by just putting the engines higher?

Edited November 28, 2014 by Daniel K. Eagle
not intended to change

[Hodo]

Thanks for the appraisal Hodo, what do you recommend changing on it? A lot of people recommended to get larger wings, that way i can put the control surfaces a little more to the side.. And the trouble about the CoT being below the CoM can maybe be fixed by just putting the engines higher?

I am not at home so unfortunately I can't recreate your design and show you what I mean. But I can walk you through it.

I would raise the engines to be inline with the CoM so the CoT drives through the CoM. Then for the wings, you really don't need bigger wings but they will help. The stock KSP atmosphere dynamics is like soup so it isn't going to fly like a real plane anyway.

The last thing to move the control surfaces is I would add small elevator winglets to the tail of the craft, this would move your CoL back a bit but it will also give you some much needed pitch control. To counter the CoL moving back I when you move the engines up, you can shift them back just a hair this would move the CoM back to about where it is at now.

Lastly the landing gear, it would be best if you went to a traditional tricycle gear setup, where you have a nose gear and then main gear set just behind your CoM, this will be your rotation point for when you rotate the craft on take off. If they are to far back you will be pushing them into the ground when you try and take off making it impossible for you to do it before the end of the runway, and if they are to far forward then the back of the plane will just tilt back and sit on the ground as soon as you load in.

[sal_vager]

I think you need this, Keptins basic aircraft design, with pics!

You can find a lot more info to help you here on the drawing board.

Those and many more can be found in the tutorials section