Ideally, the wings should be tilted upward at an angle about 3-5 from the fuselage for optimal lift-to-drag ratio.[1]. Congratulations! Obviously jet engines are air-breathing, so you need to include air intakes in your spaceplane. Tutorial: Your First Plane - Kerbal Space Program Wiki Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. and our Need to move them up. Enable mirror symmetry to save yourself some alignment effort. Privacy Policy. Your plane is almost finished. You want to get up to get the gear tucked away and reduce drag. * Unlock steering and disable brakes on front gear. If you can't slow down in time, you can simply flick your engines back on to take off and turn around for another try as you pass over the coast. First of all, since the launch happens horizontally, you will have to include landing gears, and you will most likely want to include jet engines for the first stage for excellent fuel and cost efficiency. I took off and at 60 m/s I was in the air! You may also want to deploy your landing gears to increase your drag, as well as airbrakes if you have them. You main problem is your landing gear. Just like with rockets, get some courageous Kerbal in the cockpit and let's get started! All rights reserved. Powered by Invision Community. This thread is archived . 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. https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?title=Tutorial:_Your_First_Plane&oldid=103052. FAA investigating 'close call' between planes at Boston airport Edit: I made a simple easy plane in career mode that is both stable and cheap: A trick i've used before is to put modular girders on the sides of the fuselage and putting the gear on the bottom of the girders. If your rear wheels are too far back the aircraft will not be able to pivot on the wheels and lift its nose up. 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. This would indicate two problems. 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. 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. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Also pay attention to your fuel balance, especially if you're using several tanks placed in parallel to each other. I've had stability issues in planes where I'd have proper gear setup, balanced weight and lift. If your spaceplane is difficult to land when full of fuel but easy to land when empty, then it may be helpful to burn off or transfer out most of the excess fuel before landing to make the aircraft lighter.