Beginners Guide To Spaceplane Flight In Kerbal Space Program 0.18

[@scottmanley]

I haven't experimented with the release, but with the early experimental builds it was possible to get airbreathers to continue working at 40km and hit orbital velocities.

[@scottmanley]

The problem is your center of lift is too far forwards, if you can, keep fuel pumped forwards, and possibly redesign your aircraft to move the center of mass forwards, or the center of lift back.

[@SheppySage]

I'm loving it. Intakes feel overpowered now. I actually managed to get a plane up high enough that it spun out (~22 km), not from a burn-out, but because the atmosphere got too thin. Wonderful.

[@MSpacer]

Around 9:00 "Flip out and die repeatedly" What happened to Aldby?

[@TonyK317]

Thank you Scott Manley you never fail to provide me with solutions to all my ksp problems.

[@startdale5547]

Just managed a new height record of 57,000m with a prototype spaceplane in .25 using a turbojet and rocket combo. Could have got higher if i had waited longer between 15,000/20,000m been a bit braver and pushed the turbojets to max. Your video helped a lot to reach this new height. Going to have another go again and see if i can best it. Been playing KSP mainly for a year + but focusing on rockets and space stufff. Finally got into planes. Reached a brick wall but your video helped a lot. Thanks.

[@DistracticusPrime]

It helps to pull up early, while rolling down the runway. This transfers weight from the nosewheel to the two mainwheels, so that it stays straight. Even though nothing appears to have changed, the forces are more favorable, and it just works.

[@TiberiusMaximus]

Dude I have been watching a lot of your tutorials and find myself doing voice impressions of you all the time! Its hilarious listening to you describe some of the mistakes you have made in the game, thanks for the laugh! and I am learning a lot.

[@lltoon]

Planes appear to run sideways on the runway at the KSC because the runway itself isn't actually straight. It is bent at a slight 91/92 degree angle from the equatorial 90 degrees. There probably isn't anything wrong with your plane, and if you can land it on flat ground other than the KSC runway, you should be okay. It also helps switching on the ASAS as soon as you land so that it keeps the plane level and steady, and don't forget to apply the brakes immediately after you engage the ASAS.

[@longshot789]

Damn! Thanks for this, got this sucker into orbit on the second try after watching your vid! Similar leftover fuel too, feels so badass. Thanks again Scott!

[@EZCarnivore]

It's possible to close those air ducts at higher altitudes, which helps quite a bit with the drag. It's just a matter of needing them at lower altitudes or not, some designs will need them and some won't.

[@ZeroDecibal]

You have to set control groups when building the plane to do it the way he does. You could also right click each engine and disable from the menu if you have the time to do it that way.

[@OnTreader]

if it's pretty stable when it's in the air then you don't really wanna mess with the control surfaces. but you could try putting the front wheels on the fuselage and the back wheels on the wings. that way, the plane is tilted back slightly and you'll generate lift on the runway.

[@countlessCritters]

"Less likely to get smashed against the runway" sounds like the opposite of my plans before I started watching your videos. "Ooh! That mountain looks like a wonderful place to crash. Bye bye Bob Kerman!" was my thoughts before I watched you.

[@spartacus3111]

Apparently, Nova said the nodes calculate the trajectory assuming you've finished your burn as you hit the node. Basically the game goes off the final velocity as you hit the node when its drawing the new line so you should aim to finish your burn at T=0

[@Leonick91]

Half before and half after the node as Elmach2MN2 recommended works. Another alternative is to burn at t - burntime, that is, if you have a 30 second burntime you start burning 30 seconds before you hit the node (it's what Damion, KPS Community managers, used and recommended in a recent tutorial livestream).

[@Helge129]

A brake is a mechanism that reduces the speed of a vehicle. In the case of KSP, it slows you down once you have touched down with the landing gears.

[@rehabshahid6952]

Dude i never was able to fly a plane on earth you took it out and brought it back Wow

[@DunkdaHunk]

Finally built a working space plane, though I'm quite short fueled now I'm in orbit. I think personal preference comes into it slightly with the stability of your plane, I like a small amount of front end lift, helps me make small adjustments in that axis.

[@1stSpyGuy]

Going into orbit is actually a Kerbal rite of passage. Note how Aldby, after reaching a stable orbit relinquishes his boy name at 6:20 and adopts Johnhat as his new adult title. What a remarkable look into the lives of these intrepid creatures!

[@oborojin]

Your landing was the most exciting thing I saw all day!

[@GlowyFen]

It's really up to you, but it's generally a good idea to try to balance your burn on either end. Though as long as you keep yourself from missing your burn, either by timewarp or switching engines, you'd generally be alright.

[@dahorn100011]

mine did that...just make sure you are using engine with thrust vectoring enabled. And make sure all of your gear wheels are touching the ground as it tends to turn to the right if the right wheel is down and the left if the left is down.

[@McVeal]

Quick tip: if you want to change your angle, press up/down and then TOGGLE the asas. Default: button F Just press F, F, F, F, F. your plane will be less likely to spin out of control due to oversteering.

[@scottmanley]

Do you have control surfaces which are back to front?

[@russellmullins8633]

hello it's Scott Manley here.. lol never get tired of that

[@Simski110]

Check if all your wheels are oriented the same way. I had my front wheel 180° reversed from the rest and that caused the plane to do a sharp turn off the runway.

[@jetara4493]

I feel your Pain! The cemetery where all the Kerbals that died in Spaceplane testing are buried is the size of Australia.

[@OnTreader]

it's like the best feeling in the entire game, when those wheels touch down

[@roblamb4848]

yes, if you want your aircraft to be more efficient at lower altitudes, close some to decrease the drag, just make sure you can run safely on the remaining ones

[@Steorric]

Right click one fuel tank, then alt and right click another tank. You can now click in/out to pump fuel between them.

[@odracir0323]

Apoaps is a shortened version of apoapsis. the difference between asas and sas is i believe the regular sas just controls reaction wheels while the asas can control the rcs and flight surfaces (not 100%) sure though.

[@jtroopa]

That's RIIIIGHT! I forgot about horizontal velocity in my spaceplane. I'm so used to making most of the horizontal acceleration in space.

[@ThatWhiteGuy]

as of .23, I managed to get into a orbit only using jet engines. I made a tiny, tiny plane and stacked a ton of B9 Sabre S intakes on the front and stuck one turbo jet at the back. I got into about a 70 by 45 km orbit and made it around the planet twice.

[@Brendan2097]

I think the most important thing KSP aerospace needs is a system for drawing fuel equally from all tanks. It seems so basic but is never included... Everyone has built a great plane, nicely blanched, which turns to crud halfway through the flight because a fuel tank emptied and the craft's balance/ mass has shifted by several tons.

[@SinPistones]

I've found that puting the undercarriage more perpendicular to the ground helps a lot with that. At a bigger angle it looks cool but it doesn't work as good.

[@mikegamerguy4776]

Good job landing. However you will will have more luck setting up a proper glide slope. It's much easier to land if you are slightly nose up and your flight path is just below the horizon. You can make adjustments and come in as slow as your plane will allow stable flight and will find that its much like landing a flight sim plane except for the wonky controls. :D Thank you so much for all your videos. They really made the game more accessible to me.

[@BrunoSF1986]

Thaanks Scott, was having problems with getting altittude with the jet engines, now I know why.

[@MotivationExMe]

Thanks for this, Scott!!! I've been having a few problems with the new air intake system and this helped heaps. (p.s. - Cheers also for being a good sport about my slightly rude joke I told in your livestream the other week :) )

[@B20C0]

This was so awesome... I just managed to land a spaceplane on land but I totally missed the runway. Well at least I didn't crash. They gotta work on those plane controls though...

[@PsychoticusRex]

And the croud goes WILD!

[@austinlawhorn8615]

LOL, love this guy! Also would like to see a .90 version of this video.

[@odracir0323]

asas is a specific module that you can put on the spacecraft, so he is correct in saying asas.

[@FireballFlame]

Well, the center of lift is about 3/4 towards the back of the craft and the center of mass is in front of that; they're already further apart than on any the stock aircraft, so I'm not sure what to change...

[@VHSBD]

It will give you an estimated burn time, you want to make your burn sort of 'straddle' the node, ie if the est. burn time is 20 seconds, start burning at T-10 seconds.

[@Dahoon]

I love the humour and space/flight knowledge (outside KSP too!). Fantastic. Thank you (:

[@DKinch417]

Rage rancher you can get the turbo jets upto 28,000m then point straight up and activate the rockets. Should be more stable for some craft

[@Bapih]

I've had the same issue. But not anymore. It's a matter of LANDING GEAR; First, make you they all touch the ground when you SPEED UP. They need to be at the same level. Also, check the CENTER of MASS. If it's to far behind, your plane will turn on the runway. You can put standart canards or any winglets at the end of your wings, to stabilize yourself.

[@m21chepstow]

For a pilot that regularly de-values his abilities , you sure do manage to land those planes well :D

[@TenshiKatura]

thanks alot scott for the advice on the CoG.. really caused me some issues trying to make a spaceplane lol!

[@GdubG]

On the dev team's live stream I asked this, Damien said to burn so that you finish your burn at the node, but you can also but half and half. Definitely don't start at the node though.

[@Corbald]

Well, according to Nova, it's burn at T-burntime. If the estimated burn time is 30s, then burn 30s before the node. This is because the node assumes that the burn has been completed at T=0. (It also assumes that the total burn time was instantaneous, but that's beside the point.) Regardless, I, personally, have found better results with timing the burn to end at node arrival, so that's what I'm doing. ;D

[@ShaneEnochs]

Ah, didn't even realize there was a space plane hanger. Thanks so much!!

[@thehitchslap]

Awesome vid!! Congrats on getting down safely!!

[@bobbobingski]

That happened to me a bit. It seemed it was because I had too much power propelling the ship (i was using like 4 engines) and as a result I had almost no room for error. Maybe if you are not using as much power, then possibly your wheels can't handle the existing power that your engines are creating. I like having 1 more wheel then I have engines, and keep everything symmetrical

[@ThePineappleKnight932]

Wait... You can use the aerospike in space? This changes things.

[@350dryfty]

I also suggest removing the side mounted ram air ducts, at higher altitudes they are usless, with too much drag and infintecimal air brought in. Removing them gives far better performance at the higher altitudes where spaceplanes need the speed.

[@LetumComplexo]

Any chance of you making a more advanced version for the most recent KSP version? For instance: the shock cone vs the ram intake, 2-6 person space planes, cargo planes, etc.

[@theguy181099]

Plus the R.A.P.I.E.R. engine is a very viable option for spaceplanes now as it changes between jet and rocket, eliminating the need for multiple engines.

[@NobleAvatar]

you have to hold the 'down' key so that it is angling up for take off, this stops it from turning. I have no idea why it does but hope this helps

[@TheKylesauce]

I subscribed as soon as I heard him start talking.

[@TeamPotatooo]

More proffesionally refered to as the Advanced Spin Auto-Stabilizer. The SAS is Spin Accumulation Stopper.

[@Ezis9]

oh and sometimes you need to press the key a few times before you launch till It responds. Then just get it in the state you want and use it later.

[@350dryfty]

Challenge Accepted! Seems doable, just need to find the ballance between air intakes and mass.

[@EvelynNdenial]

with the whole fuel movement thing couldn't you put a small tank on your engine and a large tank farther forward on the ship and have fuel flow from outer tanks to forward tank to rear tank in order to reduce the movement of the center of gravity?

[@AutodidacticPhd]

At least you've gotten off the ground. I can't get the Aeris 4A (with these or any other tweaks I could think of) to liftoff speed without it yawing or rolling into a fireball since 0.19. Which is annoying enough, but I also can't build something I can fly AND can make it to space.

[@deady71285]

Seems to be a bug with the landing gears/tires. Use 2 on each side and it gets fairly more stable.

[@BreakItLikeItsHot]

try putting your wheels a bit more to the front and putting your centre of mass back.

[@Stealthwilde]

As far as I'm aware, it doesn't matter which way the flat part is, as long as the turbnes face forward.

[@IcanBreakCuffs]

Aeris A4 works just fine for me, landing it is really easy even on a crooked surface, but yes, modifications are in order.

[@bozkatinator]

you can use the wasd and q e to rotate the parts :).

[@harlandsanders1522]

Hey Scott, do you plan on showing us your WIP space station every now and then so we can get ideas?

[@werd225]

Try using the throttle to control the rate of descent and the attitude to control speed; It's how a real plane is flown.

[@TheStarkman123]

Thanks dude! I got 3.4 hundred thousand kilometres off Kerbal! :D

[@EZCarnivore]

Yeah, thanks for uploading this when I'm just about to go to bed at 1:30 in the morning =P

[@squidlybytes]

Adjust VERY slowly and build with less aggressive control surfaces, and watch your CoM and CoL stay together, even with partially spent fuel. Failing that, try more wing.

[@MSpacer]

The SAS is no longer as aggresive and my problem is when I lock SAS at 45 deg It immediately drops down and doesn't come back up. The SAS hates high pitches in the latest updates, and it screws up my launches.

[@Achanarr]

Just been following this guide and am at the moment in a lovely orbit. I may stick with space-planes and stop using rockets as they are so much more fun! ^^

[@Retbretb]

the runway number is the direction it is on on the navball

[@TheOptimumGamerz]

Well, technically we know enough to build suitable space craft as opposed to a trial and error (Which is honestly tons more fun) method used in KSP. All my arguements are/will be based on us having 'free materials' to construct with though.

[@Monkeynuts502]

Appareantly, in 0.19.1 it works better to have your center of lift in front of your center of mass, makes no sense but it works with the stock serodynamic physics.

[@tjp353]

For this kind of flight, a typical artificial horizon seems to be sufficient (with the Earth horizon being the point of reference), but what kind of attitude & orientation instruments would be used for a trip to the moon, or further into deep space?

[@UnnamedEnder]

Scott try to send a rescue/refuelling ship to the space to save a ship wich is in collision route with kerbin :D would be an epic quest :D

[@eatinbrunch]

if you press caps lock then you can make better adjustments

[@acerdavidii]

Brilliant as always! Thanks Scott.

[@FeBreeze265]

When I place my wheels my plane starts jumping and the wheels fall off and the plane explodes. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

[@zackmar4449]

If by jumping you mean going left and right,remove the front wheels and leave just one,that helped me :)

[@marcusfavonius]

I'm finding this design difficult to fly. Once mine gets going down the runway at some considerable speed it starts to list considerably rightwrd and if i try to correct it the whole craft wobbles and smashes into the ground. I'm not mashing down on the keys either.. I'm using quick momentary presses. I've tried rebuilding it a few times, but every time I fly it I can't get it to just fly straight down the runway.

[@inuit2winit]

Scott, any chance you could go to some other body and back to kerbin using a space-plane for us? You could use refuelling station or a few, anybody else think this would be awesome? no, just me? OK, back to my hole I go...

[@AzureFilms12]

You cant really turn off your engines when they are going, only throttle them down so they aren't burning any more fuel and are pretty much turned off

[@Mroboman4321]

Two questions. Difference between Apoaps and Apoapsis? Difference between ASAS and SAS? Thanks!

[@DragDenDFO]

Thanks for this tutorial! But I have a question - is there a point in disabling air intakes?

[@johnpshitek2473]

why do u need to shut the intakes in orbit? is a pigdeon gonna fly in?

[@scottmanley]

Once the engines switch to on board oxidizer the intakes only serve to add aerodynamic drag in the upper atmosphere.

[@johnpshitek2473]

yeah, drag, learned that a wee bit la'er. who are you scott? what is your story?

[@johnpshitek2473]

the aeris runs out of fuel before it even hits orbit, and im doing manley's tutorial on it, with the modifications and custom buttons fixed. the thing can HARDLY make on lap around kerbit.

[@johnpshitek2473]

***** IS IT POSSIBLE to de-orbit and land on the space center runway with this flight?

[@elizabethlloyd5426]

+john pshitek Is a pidgeon gonna fly in? Lol

[@AlexHumberstone1998]

do you use joystick/pad or keyboard? great vid!

[@weldonwin]

I don't know how to pump fuel to my forward tanks. This iritates me, as there doesn't seem to be a listed keybinding in the settings menu or a right-click function. Its bugging the hell out of me, because its causing my space planes to flip out of control on reentry and my atmospheric speed plans to flip out around Mach-4

[@639wheeler]

@kerf87 I had to turn roll and yaw sensitivity down below half to make banking snd turning manageable, and pitch is turned down to half..i hope that helps

[@callumstuart1237]

What if you're using RAPIER engines?

[@sannyf2000]

hello, like they are really good and informative, what i wonder is and see if its plausible (still testing myself) and that is to make a ssto style ship to be able to go to moon and/or eventually even further

[@wasmic5z]

Lol. My very first spaceplane actually worked. Except it had no wheels. So I put some wheels on, and, aside from being really hard to control, it actually flew quite well. Maybe because I made it a LOT less complex than this. I don't think it would be able to get into orbit, though.

[@Fortunateson69]

What's the difference between the aerospike and the *mumbles* rocket that was on there? Besides a wee weight difference I don't remember there being a huge difference.

[@OnTreader]

hah, no problem mate. i don't usually comment like this but i guess i was a bit offended that these people were talking like all spaceplanes have to be SSTO. i just got done making a very nice space shuttle and i came here to see the best way to land it from a high orbit =D

[@mrskwid1]

you should make a guide to space planes in Ferram Aerospace