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How does one stabilize an aircraft without using a vertical stabilizer?

2,517 Aldriech  4.3 years ago

I am going to make an aircraft that doesn't use a vertical stabilizer in the future but I do not know how to make it stable yaw-wise. Please give me any techniques on what you use to make your yawless planes don't flat spin. :(

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    @Aldriech just look at my plane here. u can download it and then remove the vertical stabilizers and leave the plane with only the wings and front elevrons and some how it still seems to be stable at the yaw axis. click here

    2.7 years ago
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    1,586 Whatseatoya

    Here's mine Panzer Boy
    Whatseatoya#1840

    +1 3.4 years ago
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    6,867 Diver

    @Whatseatoya RandomEntity1111#4946

    3.4 years ago
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    1,586 Whatseatoya

    @Diver I already did but so u got discord?

    3.4 years ago
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    6,867 Diver

    @Whatseatoya Gib me link, I'll try and fix it tommorrow.... hopefully i can...

    3.4 years ago
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    1,586 Whatseatoya

    @Diver well I did it already..
    But it's unstable when I make a Pitch + Roll move

    3.4 years ago
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    6,867 Diver

    @Whatseatoya Well, the other option is to hide vertical stabs LIKE THIS

    +1 3.4 years ago
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    1,586 Whatseatoya

    @Diver uhmm I did but it horribly made the plane unstable during take off

    3.4 years ago
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    6,867 Diver

    To prevent slip, just make the plane twice as wide as it is long. Visualize the result and you realize it's impossible to yaw slip left or right.

    4.3 years ago
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    33.0k SyntheticL

    irl B-2's gear bay door does a bit vertical stablize.

    4.3 years ago
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    Don't use roll and pitch at the same time, you do that the plane gonna destabilize

    +2 4.3 years ago
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    2,517 Aldriech

    Thanks, guys. :)

    +1 4.3 years ago
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    exactly what deathtrap said, well the second bit anyway, have a look at some of my flying wings, you can nick the shrunk parts if you want.

    4.3 years ago
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    There are two main roads you can take here: the real life method (which I do not recommend) or the cheaty method (which is easier).

    The real life method is that you learn funkytrees, and use a sophisticated set of input instructions to control a carefully positioned array of control surfaces including elevons, air brakes and spoilers. For fighter aircraft you would also need to use thrust vectoring.

    The cheaty way is to build a pair of large vertical tails, xml mod them to be tiny and then hide them inside the fuselage of the craft. A powerful gyroscope could be another way of simulating the complicated fly-by-wire system used by modern tailless aircraft.

    +6 4.3 years ago
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    1,733 xiaofootball

    If you're unwilling to fiddle with outboard spoilers to control the slip of the plane, then hidden stabilizer maybe your best option. Northrop's older flying wing designs used pusher prop engine nacelle as impromptu stabilizer. Those would be great references on how to hide your stabilizers (Note that fuselage pieces don't offer any type of stability in SP).

    4.3 years ago
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    2,517 Aldriech

    @jamesPLANESii Yeah :( I may have to use a hidden rudder or something else.

    4.3 years ago
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    I think how irl tailless flying wings work is something to do with when the plane slips, the wingtip vortices on the inside wing get higher than those on the outside wing and it kinda makes it fly straight. I’m not sure though, correct me if I’m wrong lol.
    But however it works, SP doesn’t simulate it so you have to compromise.

    4.3 years ago
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    Air brakes on the wing tips set to some sort of funky tree code that has angle of slip with a bit of rate of angle of slip so there’s dampening

    +1 4.3 years ago
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    27.8k Strucker

    I somehow made a plane of mine work without one. I don’t know what exactly makes a plane work like so, however, you can always look into other builds that are similar to what you’re planning. Either that or you look into how to stabilise it without one by the design itself somehow. A simple fuselage can in fact work as a vertical stabiliser so having a design choice that’d mimic it in a way without being too obvious could theoretically work.

    +1 4.3 years ago
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    2,517 Aldriech

    @Xenotriver I have read some stuff that doesn't use yaw as stabilization like airbrakes, thrust differential, etc., I am not an experienced Funky tree user so those are out of my league.

    4.3 years ago
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    10.5k Xenotriver

    @Aldriech you might need to research what actually stabilises a plane like that in real life and apply it here. Maybe a YouTube video? I recall seeing one but can't remember what channel it was from.

    4.3 years ago
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    2,517 Aldriech

    @AustralianBoi I guess that would work but I want to make my aircraft to have no tricks like that.

    4.3 years ago
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    2,517 Aldriech

    @PilotRoazille I tried that but it looks unnatural when the plane was flying.

    +2 4.3 years ago
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    2,188 1gecko

    Make a big stabiliser/or as big as u want then use XML to make it tiny and put it in the plane

    +2 4.3 years ago