General Flight on planets with an atmosphere

You might find https://canonn.science/codex/research-notes/aerodynamics-of-spacecraft/ interesting

(Summary of the ones they've simulated so far: the bricks are as bad as you'd expect if not worse, but a lot of the more winged-style ships would likely also have really poor performance in one way or another in atmospheric flight - being impossible to control, generating supersonic shockwaves which melt the pilot or slice off the engine, etc.)
 
We have shields which can block kinetic energy so the hull form would have minimal impact all ships have a very similar aerodynamic profile that of an egg.
 
We scoop plasma from the surface of stars, you really think we will get hull damage from the heat of atmospheric entry?
We scoop that plasma only while phased into [science talk]... we don't when the FSD is inactive. Also importantly, we can overheat and start taking damage while scooping.
 
We scoop that plasma only while phased into [science talk]... we don't when the FSD is inactive. Also importantly, we can overheat and start taking damage while scooping.

Yeah, we enter the planets atmosphere and glide down in SC at 2.5kps until we exit SC a couple k's above the surface where we are slowed down to normal speeds depending on your ship, we aren't hitting atmosphere at hundreds of kps in normal space, the FSD is active from orbital cruise to the end of the glide phase, now what was that about overheating just above a stars surface? Do you know how hot it gets that close? I'll answer that, around 5,500 Celsius. Do you know how hot ships get entering earths atmosphere? Again I'll answer that, around 2,700 Celsius. This is a non-starter, we aren't going to overheat entering the atmosphere!
 
Yeah, we enter the planets atmosphere and glide down in SC at 2.5kps until we exit SC a couple k's above the surface where we are slowed down to normal speeds depending on your ship, we aren't hitting atmosphere at hundreds of kps in normal space, the FSD is active from orbital cruise to the end of the glide phase, now what was that about overheating just above a stars surface? Do you know how hot it gets that close? I'll answer that, around 5,500 Celsius. Do you know how hot ships get entering earths atmosphere? Again I'll answer that, around 2,700 Celsius. This is a non-starter, we aren't going to overheat entering the atmosphere!
Though we do overheat close to the surface of a Y-class brown dwarf which even ignoring ones in the semi-handcrafted systems can have temperatures down to 238K (-35C)

So if we don't overheat because of the external temperature, it's entirely possible that Frontier could decide that atmospheric flight (like inverted non-atmospheric flight) in some way interferes with our ship's cooling systems and causes the ship to overheat itself.
 
So if we don't overheat because of the external temperature,

Yeah, it's possible the ship is overheating from internal buildup of heat due to the FSD operating so close to a large gravity well, I mean every ship heats when fire up the FSD to do a jump, so this could be gravity well related and not star radiation related. Some effects are there just to make stuff look and feel exciting I suspect, and not for any logical reason.
 
We have glide mode. That's sufficient for me. It would be real pain in the rear end to land on the same planet manually every time (proper approach angle, speed, wings configuration) without autopilot and I'm sure we have near zero chances to get functional one when we are not even allowed to have something better than supercruise assist- be careful what You wish for:)
I would rather have ability to dive into gas giant atmosphere 1st or see lakes of nitrogen, ammonia etc. which I would be able to explore in special ship too (for example by using proper ship engineering).
 
I always get so hopeful and sad seeing threads about atmospherics.
I wonder how hard it would be to just get another small team to do make a proof of concept or something and get their own game made jist like ED. Like I appreciate that FDev seems to have woken up this year, but still, idk why we have been this patient with them. Theres so many talented devs out there.
 
You might find https://canonn.science/codex/research-notes/aerodynamics-of-spacecraft/ interesting

(Summary of the ones they've simulated so far: the bricks are as bad as you'd expect if not worse, but a lot of the more winged-style ships would likely also have really poor performance in one way or another in atmospheric flight - being impossible to control, generating supersonic shockwaves which melt the pilot or slice off the engine, etc.)
Yeah, even the F-104 starfighter handels like a dream compared to how the ships in ED would do.
 
Yeah, even the F-104 starfighter handels like a dream compared to how the ships in ED would do.
We should keep in mind that just because the ships are operating in an atmosphere they don’t need to be in aerodynamic flight.
They have thrusters all over the place to control roll pitch and yaw and plenty of power so like a Harrier in hover can ignore traditional handling.

The jet fighter example I had been thinking about while reading this thread was the F4 Phantom about which it has been said that with enough thrust you can make anything fly.
 
We should keep in mind that just because the ships are operating in an atmosphere they don’t need to be in aerodynamic flight.
They have thrusters all over the place to control roll pitch and yaw and plenty of power so like a Harrier in hover can ignore traditional handling.

The jet fighter example I had been thinking about while reading this thread was the F4 Phantom about which it has been said that with enough thrust you can make anything fly.
I agree with all of that. But the OP wants ship with wings to fly better in atmospheres than ships without wings, so you can't ignore aerodynamics when countering him. But yes, with how ships work in this game, gravity is a more relevant factor than atmosphere.
 
I agree with all of that. But the OP wants ship with wings to fly better in atmospheres than ships without wings, so you can't ignore aerodynamics when countering him. But yes, with how ships work in this game, gravity is a more relevant factor than atmosphere.
I wasn’t thinking about gravity, in the example of the Harrier it can roll, pitch and yaw in hover because it has thrusters in the nose, tail and wing tips so no aerodynamic effects needed. Our ships can also roll, pitch and yaw without aerodynamics so drag is about the only obstacle and with the amount of power our ships have I don’t see that being a significant issue. After all we know they work in breathable atmospheres already.

I can see the attraction of the idea but to me it seems like a bad idea.
 
Back
Top Bottom