Subscribe to download
A-12 Flying Dorito

The McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II (nicknamed Flying Dorito) is IMO one of the most elegant aircrafts ever designed, pity that it never flew, so I tried to make it alive in stock KSP.

It’s just exciting to fly it 10m above sea level at Mach 0.75 (Low Altitude Deep Penetration, LADP) and see the crazy trail of water blown by engine exhaust behind this beauty. Very sexy indeed.

Making the thick delta wings and built-in inlets was painful but pretty rewarding, and its aerodynamic turns out surprisingly satisfying. It’s OK to fly without SAS. (NOT FAR-RATED)

Fine-tuning the inlet grids helped a lot. 3 vertical surfaces in the exhaust section provided some necessary yaw stability - this craft has no yaw control, unlike the real thing using that one-side-splitting-airbrake-technique, but it flies well nonetheless.

I tried to adopt actual elevons, spoilers, airbrakes and 2D thrust vector control panel layout, although they are partly hidden in its thick wings. The exhaust section is based on a version that is most easily implemented in KSP - there are plented of versions around there as the A-12 project is never finished.

-------------------------------------------------
Action Groups:
1 and G - Upper surface spoiler, deployed at start, helpful during takeoff and landing.
R - Afterburners
B - Splitting airbrakes
NOTICE: deployment direction of spoilers and airbrakes may vary after changes are done to the craft, leading to incorrect flight behaviours. Adjust or reload the craft if necessary. I’d say it’s a KSP bug.

------------------------------------------------
100% Stock, 67 parts. This craft has similar dimensions with the real A-12.
Take-off speed (Vr): ~45m/s
Cruise speed: 220-240m/s
Max speed: ~310m/s (with afterburners. The real A-12 has no afterburners and a max speed of ~258m/s.)
The faster the speed, the better it maneuvers (recommended >110m/s).
Sharp turns at high speed might result in funny flight behaviours, but often not deadly. It’s only a tailess flying wing attacker after all, I’m not sure how good its actual maneuverbility could have been.


Happy flying a Dorito!
I, who seldon eat snacks, bought my very first pack of Doritos while stuying this aircraft. Immerse lerning ftw.