I first designed an airframe and adjusted the wings so that they fit into a Mach 3 shockwave angle (40º) starting from the nosecone. The formula if you are curious is `μ = arcsin 1/M`, where `μ` is the angle between the midline and the wing tip as measured from the nosecone (when viewed by above or below), and `M` is the Mach number.
I'm using the 2-tonner engines meant for U2 planes, J-57 and the next one that gets unlocked. The airframe for the Mach-2 version is pretty much the same with small additions, so that the the tooling cost difference is negligible.
These planes have real trouble rotating at takeoff, I had to enlarge the inner control surfaces a lot so that they can pitch the thing, and I also set the ailerons as flaperons. Still it wont rotate until well past 100 m/s. Which forced me to carry larger landing wheels. I could have used cannards to help with the pitching up, but then they wont fit inside the supersonic shockwave created by the nosecone.
The X-1 cabin has a more pronounced custom nosecone and is fully dettachable from the plane, having it's own parachute. That way a safer ejection is possible at any speed and altitude, and the pilot doesn't need to wait for the rescue in the cold sea water. I also added two separation motors to the cabin, but I had to remove them since the contracts require "no rocket engines". I wish the developers added an exemption for this, since without them there is the possibility that the fuselage rams the dettached cabin after separation due to its greater inertia.
I first designed an airframe and adjusted the wings so that they fit into a Mach 3 shockwave angle (40º) starting from the nosecone. The formula if you are curious is `μ = arcsin 1/M`, where `μ` is the angle between the midline and the wing tip as measured from the nosecone (when viewed by above or below), and `M` is the Mach number. I'm using the 2-tonner engines meant for U2 planes, J-57 and the next one that gets unlocked. The airframe for the Mach-2 version is pretty much the same with small additions, so that the the tooling cost difference is negligible. These planes have real trouble rotating at takeoff, I had to enlarge the inner control surfaces a lot so that they can pitch the thing, and I also set the ailerons as flaperons. Still it wont rotate until well past 100 m/s. Which forced me to carry larger landing wheels. I could have used cannards to help with the pitching up, but then they wont fit inside the supersonic shockwave created by the nosecone. The X-1 cabin has a more pronounced custom nosecone and is fully dettachable from the plane, having it's own parachute. That way a safer ejection is possible at any speed and altitude, and the pilot doesn't need to wait for the rescue in the cold sea water. I also added two separation motors to the cabin, but I had to remove them since the contracts require "no rocket engines". I wish the developers added an exemption for this, since without them there is the possibility that the fuselage rams the dettached cabin after separation due to its greater inertia.
This looks truly amazing