Plane Speed

[locustgate]

I have never had a desire to make anything that wasn't intended to leave Kerbin, but I suddenly felt a desire to make a plane, and I'm wondering what is the fastest a normal plane can reach in Kerbin atmosphere?

Edited January 9, 2015 by locustgate

[CalMacDa]

I can get planes up to 2250m/s when I'm attempting to get a spaceplane into orbit. I achieved this speed all with jet engines. With SSTOs, the main goal is to pick up as much speed as possible and then if you picked up enough speed, you can circularize with the rockets, but jet engines are key

Oh yeah, and jet engines begin losing intakes around 33km

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Planes can get going really fast when utilizing jet engines. They start to get intake air deprived at 35km

[GoSlash27]

Highest speed I've attained in-atmosphere during an SSTO launch is over 2,400 m/sec on turbojets. I was surprised I could do that, since mathematically the turbojet is supposed to have zero thrust at 2.4 km/sec.

Best,

-Slashy

[locustgate]

On a semirelated note what is the point of puting a horizontal flap above the engine?

Edited January 9, 2015 by locustgate

[Anquietas314]

Highest speed I've attained in-atmosphere during an SSTO launch is over 2,400 m/sec on turbojets. I was surprised I could do that, since mathematically the turbojet is supposed to have zero thrust at 2.4 km/sec

Was that in surface mode or orbit mode? The 2400m/s speed limit applies to surface mode - you can't go as fast on turbos going west as you can going east (in orbit mode).

[Wanderfound]

Quite fast:

Without rocketry, you're limited to about Mach 6 in stock and Mach 5 in FAR.

[Alshain]

On a semirelated note what is the point of puting a horizontal flap above the engine?

http://i.bnet.com/blogs/boeing-sugar-volt-dec2012.jpg

Are you talking about the cruciform tail? It balances the center of lift and also is a good place to put your pitch control surfaces. You want pitch control far away from the center of mass and if your wings are right over the center of mass, pitch needs to be somewhere else. (roll goes near the center of mass from front to back but should be on the outer part of the wing far from the center of mass, yaw goes vertically on the tail). Click the second link in my signature for examples (they use near though)

Here are some tail design ideas for you

Edited January 9, 2015 by Alshain

[GoSlash27]

Was that in surface mode or orbit mode? The 2400m/s speed limit applies to surface mode - you can't go as fast on turbos going west as you can going east (in orbit mode).

Bingo! That would explain it.

Thanks,

-Slashy

[pincushionman]

On a semirelated note what is the point of puting a horizontal flap above the engine?

Do you mean "why is the horizontal stabilizer at the top of the tail rather than the bottom"? It's because the wings are mounted high, and the designers wanted to keep the tailplane out of the main wing's wake for control reasons.

[1101]

Do you mean "why is the horizontal stabilizer at the top of the tail rather than the bottom"? It's because the wings are mounted high, and the designers wanted to keep the tailplane out of the main wing's wake for control reasons.

And in reality, this can give a 'deep stall' when stalled air from the main wing is all that is flowing around that T-Tail. Rare, but can be an unrecoverable situation (tends to occur if there is a T-tail and the main wings are on the bottom of the fuselage). That said, unless you want to use FAR, that won't be a problem in KSP.

[pincushionman]

And in reality, this can give a 'deep stall' when stalled air from the main wing is all that is flowing around that T-Tail. Rare, but can be an unrecoverable situation (tends to occur if there is a T-tail and the main wings are on the bottom of the fuselage). That said, unless you want to use FAR, that won't be a problem in KSP.

I was going to mention the deep stall risk, but figured that wasn't the question.