Centre of Mass / Centre of lift / Centre of Thrust

[jlcolam]

A system similar to ksp would be neat, allowing to acc know where these points are would rly help with making some more wacky ideas, dont know if thats just me or anyone else had that thought

[Reaverbait]

I agree. I was surprised to see centre of mass without centre of lift. Having only the one makes designing the plane much more a matter of guess work. I am thinking though that the tail planes don't seem to change centre of lift, at least I was able to get a stable plane by putting the wings on such that about 1/4 of the wing was in front of the CoM and 3/4 was behind it. I think the physics model is fairly basic and forgiving.

[CowCompressor]

Remember it's not a simulator.
CoM only matters a bit for the landing gear from what I noticed. You don't even need to have a 3 point landing gear, 2 is good enough.

[Reaverbait]

Originally posted by CowCompressor:

Remember it's not a simulator.
CoM only matters a bit for the landing gear from what I noticed. You don't even need to have a 3 point landing gear, 2 is good enough.

Agreed, wings can be way in front of CoM, so it's not a concern for flying. I like this as an arcade-y style, fun game, but I think having Centre of Mass, Centre of Lift and the net drag shown, and having them effect the plane's flight characteristics to some degree would make the design process a bit more challenging, but also more fun. And it would be a learning experience for kids and people not familiar with plane design.

[Cinnabot_421]

i think physics would be a grwat addition