Examples of how inexplicably heavy the NCS Adapter is.

[DundraL]

That nosecone at that weight will be a major issue for payload SSTOs that use all their fuel to get to orbit. Once you're into Kerbin, your plane suddenly becomes top heavy and you have no control authority over it.

Indeed. My guess is that part is so heavy for the purpose of offsetting the high mass at the back end of most planes.

Most other plane parts have very low mass relative to the engines, causing CoM to be so far back that it becomes a problem to have the CoL behind the CoM (for stability). This is further compounded by the fact that the new plane parts (body sections, cockpits) have built-in lift. Putting a heavy nosecone at the nose of the plane reduces the problem.

I think that's good that it's heavy.

Putting 2 engines at rear of craft will pull center of mass very much to the rear. Nosecone balance craft enough.

It is important to have center of mass at front of center of craft. If your craft will caught stall, then you will able to recover.

What would you do if the center of mass would be behind of center of craft? You would clip dump fuel tanks into cockpit to balance it.

That's my opinion

IMO the reason they make aircraft cockpits, nosecones etc so heavy is as you guys say: to provide a bit of (permanent) weight for the front of an aircraft. Even more so for aircraft high ratio of temporary mass (fuel and cargo). The ones that look good on aircraft are indeed the heavy ones.

More about it in this thread. Give it a bump if you agree, as you seem to agree that there is an issue of permanent VS temporary weight. My solution however involves something (almost) every aircraft has: air intakes. It solves the balancing issue without adding additional mass.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/92819-An-arguement-for-a-quickfix-in-the-spaceplane-patch

This was my idea for a fix for this issue, preventing the need for heavy nosecones, cockpits, clipping etc. It is IMO, just another balancing issue. Pun intended. But from what I understand with KSP moving into beta, Squad will by focusing more on tweaks and balance more in the (near?) future.

Edited December 17, 2014 by DundraL