New to the forum and need spaceplane help

[SignalCorps]

I recently got KSP and have been having trouble with my space planes. I am have been following a basic format of a Mk1 or Mk2 cockpit, followed by a Mk2 bicoupler with a few fuel tanks, a radial intake body and either basic or advance turbines. I then slap some delta wings on it near the middle so that the center of lift is nearish the middle of the plane, and put an elevator and alerion on each wing (I assign one function to each set). Then I'll center some liquid/ox fuel tanks in the wings and add a rocket engine for space flight. Trouble is that my plane doesn't want to be a plane. It wants to be a backhoe. I'll hold down the S key on the runway and see the elevators lift up, but once I get rolling, it doesn't seem to want to pitch up. Sometimes if I make it to the end of the runway, I can manage some level flight, but not much up flight. (plenty of down flight though). What am I doing wrong?

Also one of the default planes The Stearwing D45 doesn't seem to fly well when I transition to the jet engines. If I make it out of the atmo and back, it won't fly once I hit air, just a gradual decent into terrain. (that's if I am holding the S key the entire time. If I let it do what it wants, it dirt darts. If I drop the jet engines in the air and switch to rockets, it also won't fly anymore, even if I have decent speed of 150m/s, just does the slowly drop thing.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[Specialist290]

Welcome to the forums!

Do you happen to have any screenshots of the craft in question handy? We might be able to give a somewhat more specific diagnosis if we could see how the craft is laid out.

That said, for some general principles, you may want to take a look at keptin's Basic Aircraft Design diagram and Claw's Basic Airplane / Space Plane Aero Tutorial. There are also a number of other tutorials and resources available in the Drawing Board, which is conveniently linked through my signature.

Finally, while the "Welcome Aboard" section isn't strictly the wrong place for this sort of question, I'll be moving this thread into the Gameplay Questions and Tutorials section so you'll get a little more attention from our resident experts.

Hope this helps!

[Starwhip]

By "Spaceplane" you mean "Single Stage to Orbit" plane, right? If so, here's my advice, in order from least complicated to most.

1 - Center of Lift behind Center of Mass, but not by much.

2 - More intakes, less fuel. (You can never have too many intakes )

3 - Fly lower for longer, so you get more speed.

4 - More efficient engine combinations.

Check this out, too. My Starstreaker model, a Single Stage to Minmus spaceplane. Starstreaker Release Thread

As for the Stearwing D45... it doesn't work. Period. End of story. Don't even try to get to space: you won't make it.

Put up some screenshots of the craft and I can help you much, much better. Even better, pics and a craft download.

EDIT: DARN YOU, Specialist290!

[Vanamonde]

The stock craft that come with the game are not meant to be good ships. They are meant to give you ideas, so you can build your own, better ships.