I was even able to do this with three pairs of Junos instead of the large jet engine pair (I don't have the technology level for that). For example, the RAPIER engine doesn't seem as the first choice as the "best" high altitude air-breathing engine but in long-distance and high-altitude challenges it is. I should perhaps start trying out NEAR to get ready of 0.90, though. Main goals: Auto-trimming. GitHub - Boris-Barboris/AtmosphereAutopilot: Plugin for Kerbal Space Once it's in the air, it's stable and easy to fly and manages to fly at altitudes between 11k 12k without problems. Thank you, I was able to reach up to 24km altitude with this design. *I use FAR these days, which basically means completely replacing every spaceplane and rocket you ever designed to account for its much more realistic aerodynamics. There's basically three ways to do that: lifting surfaces, thrust, and orbiting. Orbiting is the most fun one: the higher the orbit, the less speed you need to maintain to stay in orbit, *and* the less air there is, so that's a double-whammy in terms of reducing fuel consumption. A destructible memorial to the old Mk. Another problem is jet engines stealing fuel from the rockets' tanks - you may want to pump the fuel manually (requires an R&D centre upgrade) or add some pipes between them. Of course, this thing has very limited range, speed and acceleration because of the extra weight. As said above, the Wheesley is specifically designed as a low altitude engine. Does a plane consume more fuel if it flies at higher altitudes? 3.) Rockets aren t the only way to get to space. It has two modes: The first, Dry mode, is similar to that of the J-33 "Wheesley" Basic Jet Engine, with a bit more thrust. Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts. The ideal case for optimally efficient flight (which is what you want if you're trying to maximize cruise altitude) is when your wings are mounted to the body, pitched up just enough that when cruising in level flight, the body of the aircraft is pointing perfectly . Immediately starting rocket engines at full throttle turned out to make most of my aircrafts totally unstable, turning them up gradually worked way better. TroubleshootingMechJebPVG - KSP-RO/RP-0 GitHub Wiki Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Air Intake: Air Intake shows the amount of force your engine uses to suck air into the turbine. That will unlock: High altitude planes - Kerbal Space Program Forums You can do that by right-clicking the engine and clicking "Toggle Mode." Unfortunately I won't be able to test it today, but @SaintWacko's proposal sounds promising. I've been trying my hand at some High altitude speedy planes for a while now, but can't seem to get a hang of the altitudes that each engine likes, I know kerbal isn't earth, so looking up the crushing altitude of say the sr71, doesn't seem to apply, but I was hoping that others experiences would help me. Use the reaction wheel to hold your attitude slightly nose down as you float down and you can guide yourself like a paraglider. In KSP2, you are a rocket scientist who must build and test rockets, spaceships, and planes. Note that KSP planes get one substantial speed benefit that's much more pronounced than IRL aircraft, due to the freakishly small planet sizes: they're actually flying at a large fraction of orbital velocity. It will be expensive and time consuming. You can post now and register later. This tutorial will cover designing and flying a plane that can soar at high altitudes! That would oscillate slowly between 16000m and 17000m but was otherwise fully controllable. If too much air runs into the turbine, the excessive amount just flows out unused through side-vents (I think). Alternatively, you can assign the afterburner toggle (labelled "switch mode") to an action group if you wish to activate it with a hotkey. It seems to be based on the General Electric F-404 Afterburning Turbofan, which shares the same name and maximum thrust (85 kN dry). Your answer got me in the right direction, though I ended up with a different design (see my own answer). Content titles and body; Content titles only That will probably allow you to fly comfortably above 20-25km (or higher, depending on the overall mass of your aircraft). Not only does it conk out at high altitudes, but also it conks out at high speeds, and you need to be able to go fast to fly up high. Arqade is a question and answer site for passionate videogamers on all platforms. Have you checked out the wiki yet? The longest flight got them down to a little more than half full. 1 1: The basics 2 2: Setting it up 3 3: First flight 4 4: Finishing touches 1: The basics First of all, you're going to need an airplane. Tutorial: Making the AI fly | BDArmory Wikia | Fandom Make sure you have lots of control surfaces because at very high in the atmosphere, there's not much air for the wings to control the craft with. Any advices for building a vehicle for this task? 2022 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Make sure we're on the same page with terminology. Privacy Policy. I don't have that other stuff yet. Because when your engine has to take in air forcefully it automatically means there isn't enough surrounding your engine and that again means that air density and therefor air resistance must be pretty low too. if you just go into the SPH, slap together some parts like Legos, and go-- is to attach them with zero AoA. Why that? In addition to the traditional giant tube of explosions that flings things up high approach, Kerbal Space Program includes a very useful piece of equipment that became quite popular in the 20th century: wings.. This thread is quite old. The returns are diminishing so eventually you will hit a ceiling. Whiplash is the engine you would want to use on a plane meant to go 20km. Powered by Invision Community. Plane - Kerbal Space Program Wiki So now to come to an end: from my experience I'd say for a medium sized aircraft it is best to fly between 12-13 km. If drag were the only concern, at any given altitude the slower you go, the less fuel you need: the work done by drag over a distance grows linearly with speed (the force grows quadratically with speed, but the time falls linearly). alternatively, combine a liquid fuel rocket into your plane. Also, while you mentioned the TJs most efficient altitude is ~ 5km (I'm not sure, but lets assume it's true), you need to realize that the drag you're getting at that altitude is going to wreck any efficiency gains. It'll probably be more efficient with more intakes, but I wouldn't increase the number of engines. Also, Valley and Theomon fly to different corners of Kerbin and three mapping satellites are launched. Subscribe - http://www.youtube.com/c/MikeAben?sub-confirmation=1 Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/MikeAbenPatreon supporters receive early, ad-free, access to videos, kOS and craft files, and more. Discord - https://discord.gg/HTvT7dZ Making Space Home Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB3Ia8aQsDKhqoFyoZ4d33MG7rS9KmDm_0:00 - Designing the Dudley Mk16:42 - Test Flights \u0026 Iterating13:45 - Col. Valley take the Seaplane to the Northern Ice Shelf19:30 - Launch \u0026 Insertion of the Maxwell Vb21:04 - Col. Theomon \u0026 Orlin Visit the Badlands in the Panther24:20 - Launch \u0026 Ejection of the Maxwell VI26:34 - Designing the SENTINEL 129:47 - Launch \u0026 Insertion of the Maxwell VIIFull List of Mods: Aviation Lights Chatterer Community Tech Tree Crew R\u0026R Croud Sourced Science Contract Configurator Contract Packs: Bases and Stations Reborn CommNet Relays Exploration Plus Field Research Kerbal Academy Tourism Plus Contracts Window+ Decoupler Shroud Easy Vessel Switch Kerbal Alarm Clock Kerbal Attachment System Kerbal Construction Time Kerbal Engineer Redux Kerbal Inventory System Kerbalism kOS KRASH Maneuver Node Evolved Navball Alignment Indicator Near Future Aeronautics Near Future Construction Near Future Electrical Near Future Propulsion Near Future Solar Near Future Spacecraft Persistent Rotation Rational Resources RCS Build Aid Continued Restock Restock+ SCANsat Scrapyard SMART Parts Stage Recovery Stockalike Station Parts Expansion Redux TAC Fuel Balancer Texture Replacer Trajectories Transfer Window Planner Universal Storage 2 Unkerballed Start Waypoint Manager Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. 600+ m/s) and low altitudes (e.g. Originally posted by lord bird: yep thats right jool has a surface. EDIT: Essentially, make like an SR-71, if an SR-71 didn't have cooling problems limiting it to Mach 3.4. - but they were talking about having two intakes/engine. You can spin around the whole world on just fumes. Dedicated to the growth and advancement of amateur rocket scientists! Thankyou all, I now reckon I have a much better understanding of the engines, hopefully that'll translate to better aircraft. Pasted as rich text. If released at a speed of 700 or more m/s and an altitude of 20 or more km, the satellite will achieve orbit with its second stage mostly full, leaving it with approximately 1600 m/s of delta-V -- enough to achieve lunar or interplanetary orbits and, on small bodies, landings. The most efficient way is, of course, to make a high altitude (or space) plane. Which is capable of high altitude, high speed flight. Rationale: If that's all a case of Too Many Words, think of it this way: Suppose you just build a plane the "default" way and don't put any AoA at all on the wings. Don't worry about Isp. It is somewhat slow but very steady in flight. Build a plane or rocket for Kerbal high altitudes - Arqade This lowers their effective "weight"-- for example, a craft flying at 1400 m/s on Kerbin is effectively flying as if gravity were only 2/3 of its actual value. Make sure you've angled your wings up slightly so that you provide enough lift for a 0 angle of attack at top speed. Because of the exponential nature of the rocket equationthe orbital rocket needs to be considerably bigger.