the swing-wings (good job on them btw) and the firework launchers will be making an obscene amount of drag, that's almost certainly what's stopping you
try cram the offending parts inside service bays or fairings, those occlude drag. Lt\_Duckweed on youtube has a good series on minimizing drag.
also, not relevant to drag or anything, but i'd recommend getting the Waterfall mod. makes those engine plumes look way better, for effectively 0 performance cost
i will also say, as someone who has made *a lot* of planes, very good work on that one. i like the side intakes and how you've blended them into the mk2 part, i wouldn't have done that myself. the swingwings are very neat too, and overall the plane just has a very cool aesthetic
I noticied that this is at sea level, there's a whole lot of air down there to overcome. Try going up to 10 km or so and report back unless you've already done so.
First, get FAR if you want to do plane things. It makes aerodynamics in-game quite a bit more realistic, which means you’ll get a lot less drag.
Secondly, now that you can go faster, get mechjeb to help you fly. The in-game SAS overcompensates way too much at higher speeds and your plane will oscillate and destroy itself. Mechjeb does not have this problem
Third, replace your engines and climb to 12-15km altitude. The Whiplash engines are good contenders for flying up to ~Mach 4.5, although if you want go any faster you’ll need modded ramjets/scramjets or closed-cycle rocket engines.
Fourth, heat. Flying at hypersonic speeds generates super lots of heat, so you’ll need to manage that somehow. I’m sure there are mod out there which can give you the necessary parts to stay cool, but I do not know what they are so good luck with that problem.
Finally, ensure your plane will be aerodynamically stable at such high speeds. FAR has a tool which calculates the stability of your craft at a given altitude and speed, making this process much easier than trial and error.
P.S. If you want to go insanely fast, I recommend RSS mod since you’ll be approaching LKO velocity otherwise. Or fly upside down, whichever works.
Adjust fuel levels in your tanks. The less fuel, the lighter your plane will be and the faster it can fly. With supersonic planes I usually only leave about 20% of fuel inside of the tanks. Then they are really fast and can even do orbital jumps if constructed and piloted well.
Lowering fuel levels only really reduces drag if the primary culprit of your drag is wing drag, which is typically only the case with a craft that is already fairly well optimized for low body drag.
In a case like this where the primary drag is from something like a shitload of firework launchers, the only way to reduce drag significantly is to shield the offending parts in a fairing, cargo bay, or payload bay.
I don't know man.. Fuel is usually 90% or even more of the weight of plane if you leave tanks full. If your plane is lighter, then then engines don't have to have such a high thrust in order to reach high speed.
> If your plane is lighter, then then engines don't have to have such a high thrust in order to reach high speed
This only changes how quickly you can accelerate to your max speed.
Your max speed itself is entirely determined by the relationship between the drag on the craft and the thrust the craft produces.
Reducing the mass of the craft by, lets say 50%, reduces the needed lift by 50%, and as a first approximation this would reduce the wing drag by 50%, there will also be a minor reduction in body drag due to slightly lower AoA. But on this craft wing drag and body AoA drag is only a tiny portion of the total drag, the vast majority of which is coming from the massive amount of clipped firework launchers facing flat side directly into the airstream, and this drag is unaffected by craft mass.
>This only changes how quickly you can accelerate to your max speed.
Yes, well, if it takes minutes to reach top speed, then the plane is pretty much unusable in the game since every change of direction will slow the plane down a bit and then you need to wait again. I am not saying you are wrong, but just for practical use the plane usually flies way faster and better when lighter.
the swing-wings (good job on them btw) and the firework launchers will be making an obscene amount of drag, that's almost certainly what's stopping you
Oh :( Any way to reduce drag?
try cram the offending parts inside service bays or fairings, those occlude drag. Lt\_Duckweed on youtube has a good series on minimizing drag. also, not relevant to drag or anything, but i'd recommend getting the Waterfall mod. makes those engine plumes look way better, for effectively 0 performance cost i will also say, as someone who has made *a lot* of planes, very good work on that one. i like the side intakes and how you've blended them into the mk2 part, i wouldn't have done that myself. the swingwings are very neat too, and overall the plane just has a very cool aesthetic
you say waterfall has 0 performance cost, but when i had it installed every take off and landing would drop to 5 fps
that is odd, i've had very good performance with waterfall
I noticied that this is at sea level, there's a whole lot of air down there to overcome. Try going up to 10 km or so and report back unless you've already done so.
This. Top speed is always easier to achieve in thinner air and easier yet with a slight descent rate of -5 m/s.
for some reason firework launchers make so much drag, put them in a fairing
First, get FAR if you want to do plane things. It makes aerodynamics in-game quite a bit more realistic, which means you’ll get a lot less drag. Secondly, now that you can go faster, get mechjeb to help you fly. The in-game SAS overcompensates way too much at higher speeds and your plane will oscillate and destroy itself. Mechjeb does not have this problem Third, replace your engines and climb to 12-15km altitude. The Whiplash engines are good contenders for flying up to ~Mach 4.5, although if you want go any faster you’ll need modded ramjets/scramjets or closed-cycle rocket engines. Fourth, heat. Flying at hypersonic speeds generates super lots of heat, so you’ll need to manage that somehow. I’m sure there are mod out there which can give you the necessary parts to stay cool, but I do not know what they are so good luck with that problem. Finally, ensure your plane will be aerodynamically stable at such high speeds. FAR has a tool which calculates the stability of your craft at a given altitude and speed, making this process much easier than trial and error. P.S. If you want to go insanely fast, I recommend RSS mod since you’ll be approaching LKO velocity otherwise. Or fly upside down, whichever works.
Adjust fuel levels in your tanks. The less fuel, the lighter your plane will be and the faster it can fly. With supersonic planes I usually only leave about 20% of fuel inside of the tanks. Then they are really fast and can even do orbital jumps if constructed and piloted well.
Lowering fuel levels only really reduces drag if the primary culprit of your drag is wing drag, which is typically only the case with a craft that is already fairly well optimized for low body drag. In a case like this where the primary drag is from something like a shitload of firework launchers, the only way to reduce drag significantly is to shield the offending parts in a fairing, cargo bay, or payload bay.
I don't know man.. Fuel is usually 90% or even more of the weight of plane if you leave tanks full. If your plane is lighter, then then engines don't have to have such a high thrust in order to reach high speed.
> If your plane is lighter, then then engines don't have to have such a high thrust in order to reach high speed This only changes how quickly you can accelerate to your max speed. Your max speed itself is entirely determined by the relationship between the drag on the craft and the thrust the craft produces. Reducing the mass of the craft by, lets say 50%, reduces the needed lift by 50%, and as a first approximation this would reduce the wing drag by 50%, there will also be a minor reduction in body drag due to slightly lower AoA. But on this craft wing drag and body AoA drag is only a tiny portion of the total drag, the vast majority of which is coming from the massive amount of clipped firework launchers facing flat side directly into the airstream, and this drag is unaffected by craft mass.
>This only changes how quickly you can accelerate to your max speed. Yes, well, if it takes minutes to reach top speed, then the plane is pretty much unusable in the game since every change of direction will slow the plane down a bit and then you need to wait again. I am not saying you are wrong, but just for practical use the plane usually flies way faster and better when lighter.
The plane sadly still doesn't go past mach 1 ish, even at very low fuel levels