Idea universal jet engine

[Balladeer]

Would it be possible to get a simple, generic jet engine that could be placed in the scenario editor? Something similar to Sputnik's Velcro addon that inludes the jato. That way we could use Kulch's universal cargo deck to attach the jet engine to other vehicles.

Overshooting my base with the Dyna-SOAR and having no powered flight to get me back to base got me thinking about this. It would be neat to have a universal jet engine to attach to unpowered gliders and such.

 

[Urwumpe]

If you overshoot, you likely flew a very wrong reentry. shouldn't you instead attempt to learn how to fly accurate?

 

[Balladeer]

I need to learn how to do a lot of things more accurate when it comes to Orbiter. I learn a little at a time and I have a long ways to go. I used this example as to what gave me the idea. I think it would be fun to strap a universal engine on a glider or craft with no engines for use in the atmosphere for any number of test flights and for just plain fun.

 

[Urwumpe]

I need to learn how to do a lot of things more accurate when it comes to Orbiter. I learn a little at a time and I have a long ways to go. I used this example as to what gave me the idea. I think it would be fun to strap a universal engine on a glider or craft with no engines for use in the atmosphere for any number of test flights and for just plain fun.

Well, I might be a bit conservative, but I don't think this will make you happy, as you just limit yourself with technology. Especially as you can't have a realistic model of it. Just glueing a jet engine on top of a DG will give you anything but a flight home to the next airport, if done halfway realistic (offset of thrust from CoG).

Also we have many spacecraft around which bring you jet engines or even better (for example the Starclipper), which helps you if you miss the approach a little. So the need of a universal jet engine is limited - but I have to admit, a class library for adding realistic jet engines to add-ons would make them possibly more widespread.

The question is, does it make things easier? Overshooting is not a problem of the technology, but of your approach. You either did deorbit too late or did not control your speed vs the distance to the base. Or even both. And this is no excuse... do you use reentry MFD? If not: Get and try it. It is crude and effective...

 

[Balladeer]

Urwumpe, as mentioned before, I learn a little at a time and I have much to learn. Most of what I do in Orbiter though, would not be considered realistic whatsoever, but what I do I do for fun. In the mean time I learn little by little through Orbiter tutorials and Orbiter resources. You seem to be looking too deeply into this as I've already explained myself. I do look forward to doing things more realistically, but above all, I do my best to have fun with Orbiter otherwise it would become too overwhelming.

This is the addons request thread. I'm here to make a simple request that I think could be quite fun.

 

[Eagle]

You wouldn't quite have a true jet engine, but you could create a little config based vessel with equivalent ISP and thrust to a jet engine and fuel tank and use universal cargo deck or velcro to attach it.

Now, you would have to switch between the strapped on engine and the vehicle for thrust or aerodynamic control, but it would work.

Its a simple enough exercise that you should be able to do it yourself.

 

[Linguofreak]

but I have to admit, a class library for adding realistic jet engines to add-ons would make them possibly more widespread.

Yeah, this is something I'd really like to see.

The question is, does it make things easier? Overshooting is not a problem of the technology, but of your approach. You either did deorbit too late or did not control your speed vs the distance to the base. Or even both. And this is no excuse... do you use reentry MFD? If not: Get and try it. It is crude and effective...

Where a jet engine makes things easier is that it gives you a second chance at a botched approach.

 

[Urwumpe]

Where a jet engine makes things easier is that it gives you a second chance at a botched approach.

Only for small errors. if you over shoot by 500km, even with stepping on the brakes, even a jet engine is not helping you.

And generally, and that is my personal experience: you can estimate about 1000 km before the base already, if you are too fast or too slow - and that without any MFD. If you fly something loosely DG like, just find the speed you should have if you accelerate from 300 m/s over the base at a=18 m/s² until your next range mark.

If you didn't sleep at school, you will soon see a binomic formula:

0 = t^2 + 600/a * t - 2*s/a

Solve this for a positive t and insert it into the formula:

v = 300 + a*t

Done. Now you know how fast you roughly want to be at a distance from the base. 10th year school math is enough.

For example for 18 m/s² (a upper limit for the DG class vehicles, and a good maximum speed to estimate)

50 km = 1400 m/s (Ideal:1300 m/s)
100 km = 1900 m/s (Ideal: 1800 m/s)
250 km = 3000 m/s (Ideal:2850 m/s)
500 km = 4250 m/s (Ideal: 4000 m/s)
1000 km = 6000 m/s (Ideal: 5600 m/s)

As long as you control your altitude to stay below these speeds, you should not overshoot. Of course - these speeds don't include burning up, because you return from lunar speeds. also, if you like to reduce AOA before landing to line up, etc. you should just add about 50 km to the distance gates.

EDIT: Maybe I should create some plots for OrbiterWiki with some more accurate values... anybody interested in such a project?

 

[computerex]

Hmm. Coding such a portable jet engine wouldn't be difficult at all. I might have trouble making a decent looking one though...

As a temporary "solution":

Try the following
http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3661

And the "FTMFD.zip" inside this pack:
http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3508