How to get parts to connect radially? (forcing small fuel tanks onto a spaceplane)

[PTNLemay]

I'm trying to build a spaceplane that will be able to land on it's belly (like a Harrier). Both because it's cool, and it will be useful for landing on worlds where you can't slow down or land with the wings.

http://i.imgur.com/vtP76w8.png

I got it to work with the FL-T100 tanks connected to the body of the plane (those are the larger tanks you can see behind the wing) but they're still too big... It ruins the plane's sleek figure. So I went and got the Oscar B tanks (the tiny ones in front of the wing) but for some reason that one won't connect radially! It would be perfect, but it won't snap into place. They're both fuel tanks, why would one connect and the other not?

This is what I'm aiming for, only with the ventral engines being less visible. http://i.imgur.com/qfyGKUS.png

Edited December 20, 2014 by PTNLemay

[sal_vager]

The cheaty way is to set radial attach to true in the part.cfg but this is not very good with some parts as they don't attach collider to collider (but the offset tool fixes that).

Another way is to use other parts that do attach radially such as the cubic strut.

[PTNLemay]

Yeah... it's just frustrating that some parts do get to attach but others don't, even though they are quite similar aside for scale. The trick with the cubic struts does work, but so far all I've unlocked is the big one, and that one ruins the smoothness even more than the FL-T100s do. Plus it's heavy for nothing.

On the plus side, the current prototype flies like a dream. http://i.imgur.com/eZqsmgx.png

[Anquietas314]

An alternative solution for VTOL craft is to use the Vernor engines and linear RCS controls, though of course you have considerably less control over thrust

[Vashts]

set them on the ends of beams and then make liberal use of the gizmos