Building planes is one of the more fun things to do in Kerbal Space Program, and also leads to more science on kerbin and eventually SSTO spaceplanes. The BAK Karmilla. on the same axis as engines. Tutorial: Your First Plane - Kerbal Space Program Wiki Upload or insert images from URL. This is always my strategy for building planes (although sometimes things go horribly wrong for a different reason.) Valentina would really appreciate if I could get my airplane off the ground, but it keeps exploding on the runway by the exact same failure mode: The plane veers to one side or another, either I or SAS correct it, which starts a left/right wobble, which builds until one of the wings hits pavement, at which point the craft quickly brings Valentina to her untimely end. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. I didn't try for 20000m as it probably wouldn't do well. Your link has been automatically embedded. Of course the cargo capacity is less than with a HTOL since you're using some of it to haul those vertical thrusters. Set the thrust limiter on your main engines to zero. The Cyclone uses Aerospikes for propulsion. It flames out at 25,000. Control your vector primarily with pitch, and your descent rate with throttle. You are simply running out of atmosphere (i.e. To fly a VTOL craft, you need to be able to perform the following actions, which must be bound to a an action group: If you have full RCS control, you will additionally need control for that, and if your hoverjets are inside pods, you will want a control for toggling them too. Can you check what happens if you swap in larger gear? I only very recently got into planes. You want to keep the CoL slightly behind the CoM, but not too much to not create torque. Then go into the move part thing with the "2" key in the editor, remove the degree setting, and then drag them apart manually and position parts with fine tuning that way. Ok, the panther engine is still not good enough. the vertical stabilizer only handles yaw? The further along in plane-building experience and flying you go, the more designing them becomes more natural(and the more this guide becomes irrelevant :( ). You arent doing anything wrong. What version is the Kerbal Space Program demo? Try not to make your first airplanes longer than 3 MK1 fuselages. i dont know what kind of range youre looking for but i would make a significantly smaller plane. But it should most definitely be in front of it, and preferably NEVER move behind it, even with empty fuel tanks. Eventually you either crash, or you reach a high enough speed that SAS wiggling can't cause a significant enough difference in engine speeds. What are the arguments for/against anonymous authorship of the Gospels. How to keep an airplane stable on the runway in Kerbal Space - Arqade It also depends on whether you're using FAR or another aerodynamic rewrite mod that would change the way your aircraft behave. Best way to get down into thicker air and land is to perform what dogfighters called a 'Split-S'. Hopefully this gets you your first aircraft that can take off and land, which is the biggest hurdle to being able to make KSP aircraft. I didn't try for 20000m as it probably wouldn't do well. My 'plane science' is more advanced than my 'rocket science' (career mode) because I got tired of seeing all the high-altitude missions I had on the books and wanted to finish them. Making a fuselage. Yes, although they have only been flown with nearly full tanks. You want those tires facing straight to the ground! Your plane will be slow and have limited range, or you'll have to make it a lot bigger to brute-force your way around that limitation. She has a horrible turn rate and oscillates a couple of thousand meters at cruise, but it's flyable. Except for the parts regarding drag and number of intakes, everything else is still very valid. Light craft have a single engine at the rear of the fuselage. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. But be careful and don't crash it! Simply changing the intakes made it fly completely out of control and impossible to land. Now right click each elevon and the tail fin and set what movement each controls; the ones on the large wings control roll only, the ones on the back wings control pitch only, and the tail fin controls yaw only. Flying planes will be much simpler, with much reduced cross-control issues. Hit the launch button and watch your magnificent bird fly! Not so with VTOLs: if the CoM shifts, you're not going to be able to land vertically anymore. Also as others have pointed out, keeping the COM/COL/COT alignments proper is essential for aircraft. [Stock] Brikoleur's Guide to VTOL Aircraft - Kerbal Space Program Forums Right click on the control surfaces and knock down the control authority of each item. The more intakes added, the higher a plane can go before a flame-out, which makes multiple intakes a must on SSTO spaceplanes. You can horse hundreds of tonnes, up and down both, with the standard canard pieces. You might still be able to turn very quickly, but if you don't have enough wing you won't drag your velocity vector with you, which means you force your wings into a stall and bleed energy in a hurry (and can also lose control, depending). This makes one engine generate more thrust than the other, exacerbating the turn. The CoL should be in the center or just behind the CoM. Now, imagine it forward, it will stall like a REAL plane and will go forward, Front is on the left, and back is on the right. You can post now and register later. It's a flatbed freighter suitable for shuttling base modules to and from the surface. These tend to handle best. (However, it must be noted that it is bad practice to use ailerons as elevators since it makes it hard to control the aircraft), The rudder moves the tip of the plane left and right; it is rarely used, since it is hard to put it both up and down due to the possibility of hitting the ground. Next you need landing gear. Some general pointers to make more stable aircraft, one is to set your COL just behind your COM, another is that your centre of drag should be as far back as possible - there's no way to visually show this as far as I know but a light but aerodynamically bulky rear to an aircraft generally makes it more stable. The downside is that it isn't as pretty, but it *does* top out at mach 1.8 with a humble wheesly. Have you noticed this or do you think I might just need more vertical engines when using horizontal intakes only? In addition to the tips others have suggested, try locking steering on all your wheels. The CoL (Center of Lift) is a blue ball. Would I be better unlocking more parts and leaving this contract for later? Take the large delta wings and place them on the aircraft. For more information, please see our You will need more jets at the nose and tail than on the wingtips, as there will be more forces on pitch when transitioning to or from level flight. Have fun with your S/VTOL craft and don't forget there are more ways to do them as well, including helicopter-like things that don't fly aerodynamically at all. That SAS can hold a craft stable doesn't mean it's a stable craft. You may need to add several on bigger craft. Now to try it on one of those high altitude missions. The buttons show you CoM (Center of Mass, The anvil button), CoL (Center of, Lift, the canard button), and finally CoT (Center of Thrust, the thruster button). Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one. Another possibility to add to the existing answers (it's a bit hard to diagnose without seeing the plane) is that your landing gear might be insufficient for your plane's mass. Center of Mass - The average of all weight on the plane, this tool will show where gravity will pull . Throttle up to full, activate SAS, stage to start the engine (you'll only have one stage here), and start rolling (or sliding) down the runway! How to Make a Perfect Space Plane - KSP1 Tutorials - Kerbal Space Before building planes though, there are some inportant things to know. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. After the drag was sorted out, it wasn't very hard to create a dockable SSTO version. When your airspeed is low enough that aerodynamic control is getting sluggish. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Try not to make your first airplanes longer than 3 MK1 fuselages. Thank you for posting this. They optimize use of oxidizer in SSTOs. I have a simple Vtol SSTO that can take off with junos, hit LKO with rapiers, maybe with 100 m/s left on the rocket side, then return to spaceport and have sufficient liquid fuel for vertical landing. Hi all so I accepted a contract to do temp scans on Kerbin and guessed a plane was the right way to do it so I made this. In vanilla KSP, wings have a predefined lift factor. And above all: have fun! there aren't any aerodynamics when you are a kraken scientist like me. The hoverjets are housed in the big wing-mounted pods. All rights reserved. So this guide is about atmospheric craft designed to fly by makinguse of lift generated by wings, which can take off and land vertically by use of downward-pointing jets or rockets. Hi @Brikoleur, nice work! I wrote a post that covers similar topics. To land a VTOL aircraft, approach the landing zone as you would with a regular HTOL craft, until on final approach. Go on, and take the plane capsule which looks like a converted fuel storage device. Always look at your aircraft from a 90* angle on the side. You cannot paste images directly. In particular, there's one constraint that needs special attention: centre of mass, and the invariance thereof, as you burn fuel. Pasted as rich text. When off the ground at a sufficient altitude to clear obstacles, main jets ON, When at sufficient speed for aerodynamic flight, hoverjets OFF, pods CLOSED, gear UP. One of the most finicky problems with VTOL craft is managing centre of mass. At this point you'll probably need to go back to the plane design you started with, because air intakes are dry mass and will shift the CoM as you add them. Kerbal Space Program max Surface Sample storage? Improving the copy in the close modal and post notices - 2023 edition, New blog post from our CEO Prashanth: Community is the future of AI, Screenshot of the Week #89 [Submissions Closed, Vote Now!]. About the landing gear, the best way to stop the weird self steering issue is to increase the spring and damper strength. 2023 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. As you reach 100m/s, hold S to pull the stick back, and you should be in the air! Level:Intermediate/Advanced:You need to be able to slap together a plane that flies reasonably well before attempting a VTOL.Background reading:Start with the fantastic Basic Aircraft Design tutorial in this very forum.Craft used to illustrate this tutorial: VTOL stands for "Vertical Take-Off and Landing." 2 will usually do nicely, but 3 or 4 are usually better (but of course heavier, and this tutorial assumes you use 2). You can park a ship into an elliptical . The two engines have been mounted every imaginable way with the same result: Over the wings, on the fuselage, on girder segments, on the wingtips, etc. Rasterpropmonitor for Kerbal Space Program, How can I cheat docking in Kerbal Space Program. Basic Plane Design - KSP Tutorials #9 - YouTube Here is your convenient solution to this problem! [1] At this speed it is possible to circumnavigate Kerbin in about 29 minutes at an altitude of 40 km. However, don't put any fuel tanks on it yet, and empty any fuel-containing parts that you are using. I've found that all my runway wiggling planes are caused by the wheels. https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?title=Tutorial:_Basic_Plane_Design&oldid=97453, In the front of the plane - In this position, the control surfaces are also known as , In the back of the plane, on the tail - The most usual position; usually, close to the rudder. @gokcet @DANKTER I usually run my front wheel override friction on 0.3 when the front gear has steering disabled, it needs lower friction. Aircraft are surprisingly difficult beasts to build and control, building a stable, flyable aircraft is surprising complicated, so this is the first of a num. by fixing the suspension issues the need to sacrifice traction, and in turn, braking power, is not needed. If it is, you'll never get the nose off the runway. This thread is quite old. 1. I might try to write a more advanced guide for spaceplane construction. Remember the, fuel flows from the front in KSP, so you might want to start off with the CoM in front of the CoL. jet engine efficiency in this game is based on built in thrust curves. Flight records. How do I build a good stable basic plane? Also, excessive use of the rudder usually causes the plane to spin out of control and crash. Now put on center of mass and center of lift view, and move the delta wings until the center of lift is slightly behind of the center of mass - not in front, otherwise your aircraft will be able to easily flip out of control. Otherwise, you can either shift your wings till it's right (though this may crowd them near the back), or you can very slightly rotate the big wings so they're slightly higher near the front of the plane. What is Wario dropping at the end of Super Mario Land 2 and why? It only takes a minute to sign up. If his problem is the plane doing backflips at a touch of 's', I wouldn't go with 'slightly'. Additionally if you have any off-center fuel tanks, double check the fuel is drawn from both at the same rate (same priority). You may be correct and that 3 engine plane is a lemon. One point I would mention is that the more wing area you have relative to your control surfaces, the less angle of attack you can generate. Similar to the fuel pump mods out there now. Whiplash is the engine you would want to use on a plane meant to go 20km. Here's how you go about building a VTOL under these constraints. To do this, take a few barrels of your jet fuel, stick them on the back of your aircraft. You would need a lot of orbits at 69 km to come down into the ground. Interesting design!! I've never found them to be practical (at least on Kerbin) for anything except short flights around the KSC and flying to the island runway and back. It can be as crazy or as normal as you want, just remember these basic tips, 1. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries. Because of that if you for example place control surfaces at the front you can make a plane that has CoL behind CoM (like in the picture) unstable because CoL will drift forward past CoM as AoA increases (contrary to your 4th point). I've had a lot of people comment that their planes veer off the runway or flip around madly even though they think they got everything right. I'm finding it quite surprising you didn't manage to get the plane to fly yet. I have some really good tips and tricks to add to your tutorial,but Im on my phone at the moment. Things that work at low altitude don't work so well up high and the plane ends up going up and down while slowly losing speed until it can't maintain altitude anymore. Before building planes though, there are some inportant things to know. Privacy Policy. SAS sees this and turns the other way, which just causes the same problem in the other direction. So if you're getting those flame-outs, add more intakes until you don't get them anymore. I've always found that best way to not crash on the take off is to take off. The CoT (Center of Thrust) is purple. I decided to look into that two intakes thing, and it turns out to make 11-12 m/s difference at 19,000m with my plane. air) that high up. I've been having some trouble lately in newer with respect to air flow. If it doesn't, he can just make the stabilizer bigger; instead of turning down control authority, just add more fixed wing. The BAK Zephyr, a rocket-powered VTOL craft designed for conducting science missions on Duna. It is only visible to you. Things get ugly!!). Because they're fun and educational and you can. I would really suggest this guide for beginners trying to get into the world of planes in Kerbal Space Program. For comparison the speed of a stable Low Kerbin Orbit at 70 km (outside the atmosphere . These tend to handle . If I'm running something with a long delta-wing layout, I'll then use canards and have the dynamic instability to allow for manouvering; if it's something without a lot of pitch inertia, I'll go tail stabilizer. If you're going for full VTOL you need to have a TWR > 1.0 at take-off weight; adding more vertical engines will make vertical landings easier and (if they're air-breathers) will make it possible to operate at higher elevations. Rockets are much less efficient than air-breathers, so it needs to be much bigger than a Kerbin-bound craft performing the same mission! From your description of your plane I would check the following: You seem to have done a lot of things right. This ensures that your aircraft will go up once it achieves a high enough speed, and also helps with placing ailerons. If you have a perturbation that gives your left engine a tiny bit more thrust, you will turn slightly right. Valve Corporation. I actually like canard layouts, but I'm going to endorse this post because it's a simple, easy way to do it. There are a few missions for which a VTOL aircraft is ideal. 19000m. Now I have a plane that will fly around the world at an altitude of the low-20s. I'm going to strongly suggest using the angle set to 90 degrees + symmetry mode to place landing gears. That should just about do it for basic planes. Now stick a jet engine on the back, and don't forget to put an . zombie2u, So the ones that go straight up and down can only be straight up and down, no angling left, right, backwards or forwards such as when you place the little wheel on the angled body of the cockpit part. If you (or SAS) turns even just a little, the engine opposite your turn will have a higher velocity than the one towards your turn. Remembering the FW TA152 and the U2 I put long wings on it and while its turn rate makes an airliner look like a fighter plane it is stable enough at 19000m. The Kerbal Space Program subreddit. The procedure for a vertical take-off is as follows: The procedure for a short take-off is the same, except that forward jets and hoverjets will both be ON from the start. Hint:The engine pre-cooler and engine nacelle are fantastic air intakes, and they can be mounted in-line or combined with other elements. This page was last edited on 19 February 2020, at 07:08. I've spent the past three hours committing a genocide of historical proportions against my Kerbals, and it's making me quite sad. Nothing bad will happen. What Trump's very stable geniuses lack in intelligence they more than make up for in confidence. Ill link it if interested. Then this tutorial is for you. Use Pilot Assistant - it's SAS is meant for aircraft rather than general ( read: rocket ) use. Imagine that first plane but with the bubble cockpit and the old style round intakes. Even though it just spawned. On the other hand, something with a wide wingspan but narrow wings (like the connector Cs) will pitch easily but need more oomph to roll. - SF. Set the thrust limiter on your main engines to zero. I had my rear wheels mounted on the tail, and it seems the taper of the tail messed up the angle of the wheels creating instability. An aircraft without control surfaces is like a rocket without RCS or reaction wheels - it will hardly turn and will be equally hard to control (perhaps even impossible!).