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How to make a plane agile...

49.1k Flightsonic  8.7 years ago

So I know I probably should know this by now, but I still struggle with it... I know few drag points, light-weight, and have the CoM close to the CoL. But it there anything else I'm missing?

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    49.1k Flightsonic

    @iFalco nah I got it all settled out

    8.7 years ago
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    @Skua Sorry it seemed like that but I'm not acctually advertising, I was just giving advise to check CoM, CoL and CoT placement. Sorry it wont happen again if it seemed like advertising.

    8.7 years ago
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    26.3k Skua

    @Garuda1ITalisman loaded weight divided by wing area

    8.7 years ago
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    @Skua What exactly is wing loading? How is it calculated?

    8.7 years ago
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    26.3k Skua

    @FatNinja it shouldn't, no. I had a quick look at your planes, though; you've already got some wing loadings that are easily low enough to top-notch manoeuvrability. This one in particular has the potential to handle fantastically. Moving the CoM back a bit does this. Note that I haven't spent the time to balance this one properly, so it noses down a bit, but it should definitely demonstrate to handling potential in that plane.

    8.7 years ago
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    3,446 FatNinja

    @Skua but too much wing area will cause the plane to spiral out of control while pulling rite?

    8.7 years ago
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    26.3k Skua

    @FatNinja use less weight and/or more wing area

    8.7 years ago
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    3,446 FatNinja

    @Meawk @Skua

    8.7 years ago
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    3,446 FatNinja

    how do i reduce wing loading?

    +1 8.7 years ago
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    30.6k Warbrine

    Wings wings and more works horizontal stabilizers a distance back from main wings and in a elevate position above or below

    8.7 years ago
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    8,797 Meawk

    try to minimize wing loading. that works wonders.

    8.7 years ago
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    49.1k Flightsonic

    @Skua oh cool!

    8.7 years ago
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    26.3k Skua

    @Flightsonic yeah, that should work fine. Up to 30 or 40 can still work pretty nicely

    8.7 years ago
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    49.1k Flightsonic

    @Skua Make that18.6lbs/ft2

    8.7 years ago
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    49.1k Flightsonic

    @Skua What would low wing loading be considered... is 23 lbs/ft2 good?

    8.7 years ago
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    43.9k PlanesOfOld

    Use thrust vectoring

    8.7 years ago
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    8,104 LofiTurtle

    An ideal plane would have all the weight centered around the main wings, and the elevators as far away from the CoM as possible, as well as all the other tips people have said. But if you're asking for the tourney, don't have the CoM too close to the CoL or it will have more agility than the AI can control. Also, because the AI prefer pitching up rather than down when going around turns, using airfoils to give your plane a nose-up tendency can help with pitch rates too

    8.7 years ago
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    15.0k Gravatar

    No I wasn't I was just trying to help him !@Skua

    8.7 years ago
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    26.3k Skua

    @Thefalloutplayr @Engineer69 come on guys, both of you are just trying to advertise your planes. Please don't do that.

    8.7 years ago
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    @Flightsonic If you want some inspiration in the feild of of CoM, CoL and CoT placement, then check this out.

    8.7 years ago
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    15.0k Gravatar

    Take some inspiration from This

    8.7 years ago
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    49.1k Flightsonic

    @Frant24 so kinda have it pivot around the main wings?

    8.7 years ago
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    26.3k Skua

    The other responses here have a lot of good suggestions - CoL/CoM positioning and low wing loading being the most important ones - but there's one other thing that's worth adding. A lot of the time when people want to move the CoM, they add thousands of pounds of dead weight to one end of the plane. Besides making it heavier overall, this also concentrates a huge amount of weight a long way from the CoM, meaning that it has a very large moment of inertia when the plane tries to turn. Basically, find any way to move the CoM/CoL except dead weight, if you can

    +1 8.7 years ago
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    37.7k Decrepit

    Low wing loading let's you have bigger control surfaces

    8.7 years ago
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    3,446 FatNinja

    Wing design is also important

    8.7 years ago
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