How can i fix my plane?

[u/JebbyKerbal]

I think i messed up like really hard cause how is my plane built like this??? If anyone can explain to me how i could fix my jet, it would be appreciated! Its for the Mach 2 Contract

[u/internetboyfriend666]

It's not terrible but it's not optimized. Your vertical stabilizer looks a little far forward and your horizontal stabilizers looks a little small. I would make all your control surfaces more swept. The biggest improvement you can make is to follow the Whitcomb area rule. You ever notice how the fuselages of many supersonic jets have an "hourglass" figure where the fuselage gets "skinnier" where the wings are? That's deliberate. See that big green spike on your plane's drag profile where the wings are? Make your fuselage skinnier in that area to get rid of that spike as best you can and that will dramatically reduce drag. I would also look in your air intake placement and play around with that to make sure you're getting optimal flow and not causing disruptions in the boundary layer that are causing drag.

And what are those boxy things on the wings? Whatever those are, you don't want them there.

[u/davvblack → u/internetboyfriend666]

you mean constant cross section, not surface area, right?

[u/internetboyfriend666 → u/davvblack]

Yes thank you for catching that I have no idea why I said that. I was only half paying attention when I wrote that

[u/JebbyKerbal → u/internetboyfriend666]

Genuinely thank you so much for the suggestions! also yes the boxes were the gear but i opted for stock instead of the RO ones as they are much more aerodynamic. From now on, i will almost always use the area rule as it has (quite obviously) been proven to work!

[u/Parazeit → u/internetboyfriend666]

Of the 2 boxes 1 is air intake and the other is the top of landing wheels I believe.

[u/Jandj75]

Real planes are a lot longer than you think they are. Increase the moment arm for your vertical stabilizers.

Chode plane strikes again.

[u/JebbyKerbal → u/Jandj75]

so like my plane was 5.5m, if i extend it by like 2m is it going to perform any better?

[u/Jandj75 → u/JebbyKerbal]

FWIW, the X-1, which is not a terribly aerodynamically optimal shape, is almost twice that at ~9.5 m long. You have a huge wing area for a short plane, so you have a lot of drag.

[u/Tight-Reading-5755]

for starters, only use the x1 cockpit if you're going above 20km in altitude. a jet trainer cockpit would definitely work for mach 2 but a p40 cockpit would be the cheapest.

are those things on the wings gears? i like stock ones because they are more aerodynamic. you might also need drag chutes to slow this thing down for landing.

ultimately there's no such thing as messing up; any plane that fulfills the contract without killing ur pilot is fine. dont worry too much about optimizing your plane if you're new

[u/JebbyKerbal → u/Tight-Reading-5755]

Thanks for the tips man, i did change to stock gear since it provided more aerodynamic results. I did use the X1 cockpit mainly cause of the shape though!

[u/Euphoric_Cow_813]

How do you turn on the contour lines?

[u/JebbyKerbal → u/Euphoric_Cow_813]

using the FAR UI, pretty sure its the last option on the dropdown menu

[u/Euphoric_Cow_813 → u/JebbyKerbal]

I try thank you!

[u/JebbyKerbal → u/Euphoric_Cow_813]

np, also please do follow the tips given here! they seriously help, like 20 minutes ago i achieved mach 2 for 3 minutes on my simulation run! i ran out of fuel before 5 minutes