This ensures that your aircraft will go up once it achieves a high enough speed, and also helps with placing ailerons. One idea I haven't noticed here yet: "wire up" the landing gear, with strut connectors. It provides a wider, more stable wheel base while keeping the wheels straight up and down (no camber). Go on, and take the plane capsule which looks like a converted fuel storage device Contents 1 Making a fuselage 2 Understanding Lift 3 Control Surfaces 3.1 Elevator 3.2 Aileron 3.3 Rudder 4 Landing gear Making a fuselage Any plane needs speed - so you need thrust (usually). For heavy rockets, it might be required to use structure to space the gears away from the body to allow more pitch. With initial passes, you start off with a periapsis at 50-60 km and gradually lower your apoapsis until you're in an almost circularized low orbit and then transition to your usual re-entry approach. The SSTO I took to Laythe recently has only one minor flaw using this design, I have to raise the landing gear and pull back slightly to take off. These have an ISP of 800 in a vacuum which is significantly better than all other rocket motors except the very weak IX-6315 ion rocket. As such, you will need various control surfaces. If you're tired of big rockets that use tons of fuel and disintegrate in the atmosphere when coming back to Kerbin, this tutorial is perfect for you! I was attaining high speeds on the runway without getting off the ground, which made the plane yaw back and forth. If you can give a craft file and a mod list I could take a look. Hello, I am having a small problem with a plane I have built. As long as you're in space, your spaceplane won't differ from any spacecraft: you will probably want to add batteries and generators to prevent the command pod from running out of power. Geometric shape of the body you attach the landing gear to. In vanilla KSP, wings have a predefined lift factor. If you use an Advanced SAS, and raise your front landing wheel so that it is higher than the rear wheels, by just turning the SAS on and going full throttle, due to the 10 degree angle of the plane, it should eventually take off by itself. The Whiplash's ridiculous fuel efficiency allows a spaceplane to climb high into the atmosphere and gain a lot of speed while barely using any fuel at all. 2 will usually do nicely, but 3 or 4 are usually better (but of course heavier, and this tutorial assumes you use 2). Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. First, I'm sure this is WAY overengineered, but I haven't gotten to the point of caring about that yet. * Unlock steering and disable brakes on front gear. You main problem is your landing gear. Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts. EDIT: So, I set the front landing gear spring and damper to 0.5, and also set the tail gear spring and damper to 2, and the problem was fixed! LV-N engines also have the advantage of using the same liquid for propellant that jet engines use for fuel. KSP Quick Guides: Takeoff Troubleshooting Stock v.22 - YouTube This is all right if their high efficiency saves enough fuel, but that may not be the case in small spaceplanes with limited fuel capacity. If you keep all of the fuel in the front, you may find that your center of mass drifts backwards as your fuel drains. How wide is the base. Here's a quick installment in to the. I have created planes that have landing gears place right under the wing tips but they still won't work. Then you want to put something called a "Small Circular Intake" on the front of the tank, and a "J-20 Juno" engine on the back of the tank. After externsive testing and bloodpressure rise, results: it doesnt matter where you place the wheels, as long as they are not angled on the X (nose-tail) axis. The centre of mass was between the 2 landing gears. Basic structure Firstly you're going to want to make a short fuselage. (Idea is moot, if you haven't unlocked them yet.) It is also said that a good landing is one you can walk away from. You can post now and register later. Not sure why you would want that stability for speeds in excess of 200 m/s though, as most planes will take off and land at far slower speeds. I had this one plane, very fast, It would go to 170 m/s on the runway then drop of the end and soar very nicely. This helps to keep the performance of your spaceplane stable with any amount of fuel. Aim to get your speed below 50m/s, and have plenty of water ahead of you; keep the plane level, and pitch up to shed velocity. KSP v.22 Takeoff Troubleshooting Guide/Tutorial Lots of info to help get your plane off the runway! Such flight involves lift-induced drag, but reduces the total thrust required to traverse a distance at a given speed. You can resolve the emergency by transferring fuel from rear fuel tanks to forward fuel tanks, but you should alter your design to bring your wings further back to prevent such incidents in the future. However, they are extremely heavy for their power, weighing as much as a conventional rocket nearly 11 times more powerful. Necessary for heavy/long spaceplane. When I use it for spaceplane guidance it keeps me on the correct heading, but the flight is very busy sine wave of a path. My plane usually take off at a little over 120m/s. ), Stable aircraft: "Untitled" (lost the file upon loading after aircraft), Stable jet car: "Untitled" (Lost the file), Speed over land > 350 m/s before veering off the runway, Sometimes Stable Spaceplane: "Hypersonic Experimental". That will align with the craft axis. Tutorial: Spaceplane basics - Kerbal Space Program Wiki 2022 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/13851-The-woes-of-building-a-space-plane?highlight=woes+spaceplane. Description: "Originally called the Cockpit-plus-two, the 5 seat "Cockatoo" is a second-generation command pod that provides both safety and comfort It is rumored to have enough room to pack several days of emergency snack rations and board games" Useful stats: As the description states this large command pod holds 5 kerbals Alternatively, if you're returning from a high orbit or from an interplanetary trip, you can try repeated shallow passes through the atmosphere. mods used are OPT for most of the body and the front canards and tail plane, B9 procedural wings for the wings, and mk4 . You can either go with four "LY-O1 Fixed" or a tricycle of two LY-01 near the back and one "LY-05 Steerable" at the front; either is fine for now. If, instead, all goes well, then once your jet engines have shut down you will need to start the second part of your space mission by switching to rockets. Heavy transport seaplane inspired to the Soviet Beriev A-40 Albatros which also appears in Evangelion 2.0! Plane wobble during takeoff - Kerbal Space Program Forums They are able to operate at higher altitudes and can even continue operating in a vacuum by switching to a rocket mode. All of them had one thing in common though. Your very own tutorial.). I have built lots of spaceplanes. As such, don't use control surfaces as substitutes for wings, and don't use more control surfaces than you need. I have built lots of spaceplanes. If the front landing gear touches down first and has its brakes on, it's going to make the rest of your aircraft pivot around it as it's pressed into the ground. 2022 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/99660-0-25-Adjustable-Landing-Gear-v1-0-4%28doors-fixed%29-Nov-14. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. While having the same stock parts as in the VAB, spaceplane design is obviously quite different from pure rocket design. Enable mirror symmetry to save yourself some alignment effort. Be warned that if you do not provide sufficient air intakes for the engines you've placed, you may find that some of your engines shut down before others. An altitude set to 18,000 meters tops off at 19,000 meters and drops to 15,700 meters . Ideally, you ought to test landing the spaceplane with full fuel tanks and with nearly empty fuel tanks prior to taking your spaceplane to orbit. Having landing gears near the front and back of your aircraft can also help to ensure that you won't break your engines or smash your cockpit into the runway. And above all: have fun! Unstable Aircraft: "FAR Firehound" (Stock). T-1 "Dart" engines are unique amongst conventionally-fuelled rocket engines: They have close to the highest efficiency in both vacuum and low atmosphere. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Sometimes taking things off and re-attaching them does it, or you may have to go so far as to scrap the design and rebuild. Angled landing gear create rotational force for whatever reason. As you approach 35-50 km, your aircraft will most likely level itself out, at which point you can try aiming about five degrees above the horizon line. I made this aircraft based on real life commercial jet design. I also used Intake build aid to balance the intakes. See the tutorial below. Just like with rockets, get some courageous Kerbal in the cockpit and let's get started! The issue is my plane rolls very sharply to the left any time I pitch up. But, likely guess is your craft is not producing enough lift. This allows you to takeoff at lower speeds and on shorter runways, and likewise for landing. Saves a lot of headache in wheels placement. Such as not producing lift, which is not what you want with a plane. I worked through the tutorials and I think my problem was most often a lack of lift, or perhaps more accurately sufficient control surfaces. Similar principles apply when finding suitable landing sites away from the KSC. Try not to place your gears to wings, especially wingtips - if they wobble even slightly, your plane lose the balance. Tips aplenty in this thread: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/13851-The-woes-of-building-a-space-plane?highlight=woes+spaceplane It taught me everything I know, except for the stuff I learned elsewhere. If you use an Advanced SAS, and raise your front landing wheel so that it is higher than the rear wheels, by just turning the SAS on and going full throttle, due to the 10 degree angle of the plane, it should eventually take off by itself. The only drawback to the reduced friction is reduced steering control, so this setting may need to be adjusted when taxiing to/from a runway, but should otherwise be kept minimal for takeoff and landing. 4. EDIT: It was the b9 procedural wings. Note that no wings will tolerate more than 2400K, so the difference in temperature tolerance between Mk2 and Mk3 fuselages isn't terribly significant. Cure: Draw a mental axis from the nose to the tail of the plane and use the rotate tool (summetry on), on one of the wheels. (Yes, you personally, you lucky thing! Planes and Ships - Shareables - Kerbal Space Program - CurseForge Does your plane never pull up taking off? I have been building - reddit All you need to do is add landing gear (one right before the cockpit, and two on the tips or middle of the wings), and you're done! Note that canards are somewhat more efficient than horizontal tail fins since canards provide an upward force with upward rotation, and downward force with downward rotation. Note: Some high-efficiency rocket engines lose most of their power and efficiency in low atmosphere. Landing can be trickier for spaceplanes since they are designed for higher speeds than other aircraft and may not be able to fly level at speeds low enough for an easy landing (<50 m/s). Upload or insert images from URL. If the problem has to do with lift then travelling very slowly, possibly even slower than that, should counteract the effects of lift and you won't drift nearly as much.