Maximizing Air Intake!?

[Arugela]

Is there(or separately will their be) a way to use all of that empty air intake space you have left over?

Why do they build air intakes to have more room than they could every take in if their is no way to ever fill it? I have big planes. I have to put on hundreds of air in takes to use the small amount of air it can to get high altitude flight on jets. this is very wasteful(although kind of aesthetically pleasing) and could by bypassed if I could force more air into the existing intakes... Is this some unfinished part of the game to be added later, something not considered, or something I'm missing that can be done now?

Edited January 20, 2015 by Arugela

[LordFjord]

The question is rather what you want to do with the stored air resource.

Do you want to fly higher on the edge of space or some other fancy stuff like using jets in space with canned air?

In case of spaceplanes, its not about the number of air intakes or the stored amount of air resource but about the total intake area and your speed.

There was a thread somewhere in the depths of this forum that did some more research on intakes, end of line was basically that the ram intakes are the most effective ones regarding intake area per mass.

If you want to optimize your plane for as late airbreather engine flameouts as possible, give my mod a try, see sig for the link and a description why and how it works.

Good luck with the plane. Big ones are hard. I have yet managed to put together anything working beyond the 200ton mark in 0.90 as I did in 0.25.

[Arugela]

For instance, what is the difference between the "Engine Nacelle," "Radial Engine Body," and "MK1 Fuselage Intake?" Are these just redundant as far as the first two go or do they work together somehow like reactors and generators and other parts in some of the mods work together to pull more air in or something? Are there any invisible dynamics involved in air intake parts?

Maybe I should reword this. What are they supposed to do. Is there a way to make them fill to max for instance?

Edited January 20, 2015 by Arugela

[LordFjord]

The answer is here. A bit complicated at first sight, but easy once you figure out how it works. To sum it up: the more intake area you have for a jet, the higher it will be able to fly until it flames out. In case of several engines, the placement order defines which intake feeds air to which engine primarily. Excess air fuels the next engine each.

Intake build aid saves you the hassle of building the intakes and engines in the optimal order. No dark magic or cheating, just reordering the parts of your vessel. The look will remain the same withexactly the same parts. Look it up if you are interested.

Ah and those 3 intakes you mentioned are very similar, the two with fuel are in fact identical stat wise.

[Arugela]

So, there is no way to make the air intakes fill to max? Why is all of that excess air intake capacity their if it can't be used?

[Claw]

So, there is no way to make the air intakes fill to max? Why is all of that excess air intake capacity their if it can't be used?

No, there is no way to fill them to capacity as "storage." There is excess capacity simply because that is how the game is mechanized. It isn't like batteries where you can store up resources. You can store some, but not quite to do what you are asking.

Cheers,

-Claw

[numerobis]

The intakes empty out each frame, then collect up air, purely for programming reasons -- not because it's how intakes work IRL.

You can bottle up air, but it's tedious, unphysical, and less efficient than just using rockets.