Flaps, Slats, Airbrakes for v1.0

[kookoo_gr]

Now with the remake of the aero model for v 1.0 would it be a good idea to add flaps, slats and airbrakes for our planes/shuttles?

[klgraham1013]

This idea has merit.

[Capt Snuggler]

I'm sure 99% of space plane builders would agree with this, me included.

[kookoo_gr]

Also a good idea for the placement would be if we could do it like the way we place the gear at our planes. That way we could place eg flaps/airbrakes at the top/underside of a wing or at the fuselage of the ship

[astropapi1]

And also some kind of freaking number somewhere in the Engineer's tab showing us the total Delta-V. I mean, you already show us how much we will need for maneuvers...

[Daze]

Well said, we really need this kind of aerodynamic parts, or at least some simply airbrakes

[Cakeofruit]

and fairing !

[Robotengineer]

Definitely airbrakes. If the new aero is anything like FAR, they will be pretty much required for landing spaceplanes.

[Alshain]

Add another +1 from the 99%

Without flaps at a minimum I will not even consider trying the new aero.

Edited February 4, 2015 by Alshain

[Nemrav]

Check out chad Jenkins channel (he was former KSP dev), they've had those parts in archives since 0.18 ....

Guess it might be time to dig them out, while they're digging the old resource parts....

[HagbardCeline]

I'm quite sure that flaps could have reduced my plane-crash-ratio from 90% to 30%

Suggestion supported.

[Sampa]

I suggested something similar but got shot down, so you have my support.

[sherkaner]

Yeah absolutely. I can imagine there might be some resistance on grounds of complexity. However, I might suggest that the control of these surfaces be (at least by default) be semi-automated to keep the flight controls simple. If you slow down to near stalling, the game deploys your flaps/slats for you -- and they are automatically deployed when taking off until you reach safe airspeed. Air brakes could easily be linked to the general brake key. Of course you could allow the player to turn this behavior off to control these things directly themselves.

[Tweety]

You have my vote on this one! Otherwise some of my designs may need retro rockets on for landing

Tweety

[Arugela]

Do you think you could put like 1000x air breaks and abuse the minuscule atmosphere on a moon and break the cheap way?

[Hcube]

Yeah that would be an cheap exploit of the airbrakes... Make them heavy as **** maybe ?

[cpast]

Why? With any remotely realistic drag model, you'll end up *breaking* instead of *braking* if there's negligible atmosphere.

[Wjolcz]

Aerobrakes are a must in new aero, but Im afraid PorkJet didnt have enough time to work on those : (

It was stated somewhere, but not sure where Ive seen it.

[GusTurbo]

I like the idea of flaps/airbrakes. Would it be too silly to have them work by hitting the B key, like with the wheel brakes?

[Greenfire32]

I absolutely support this.

[xptical]

Yeah absolutely. I can imagine there might be some resistance on grounds of complexity. However, I might suggest that the control of these surfaces be (at least by default) be semi-automated to keep the flight controls simple. If you slow down to near stalling, the game deploys your flaps/slats for you -- and they are automatically deployed when taking off until you reach safe airspeed. Air brakes could easily be linked to the general brake key. Of course you could allow the player to turn this behavior off to control these things directly themselves.

I'd like these parts to be able to be semi-automated. Script the flaps/slats to start deploying under specific speeds. The (real life) F-16 does this IIRC.

Some other things to bring in would be a computer flight stability system. The ability to "read" accelerometer/pitch/roll/yaw status and automagically apply input to the flight control systems. Sort of how the B-2 or F-117 are too unstable for human pilots.

I'm thinking more of quadcopter style VTOL vehicles like the mars rover lander vehicle.