Air intake

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Revision as of 04:41, 25 August 2014 by Brendan (talk | contribs) (General rewrite. +Usage section.)
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An air intake (or simply an “intake”) is a part which supplies intake air, a resource required by jet engines. To do so they must be in their “Open” state and inside an oxygenated atmosphere.

Usage

Intakes induce more drag while open, but can be toggled closed or opened; this can be done manually but action groups is recommended to avoid asymmetric drag.

Intake air collected varies proportionally with speed and inversely with altitude. Optimal performance requires minimizing drag by closing intakes while leaving open the minimum number required at the given speed and altitude to supply the active jet engines and avoid asymmetric flame-outs. Also, when an aircraft is using only rocket engines, all intakes should be closed to reduce drag to the minimum.

Seaplanes and boats have also been made with unorthodox use specifically of the XM-G50 Radial Air Intake.

List of air intakes

Image Part Radial size Cost
(Funds)
Mass
(t)
Max. Temp.
(K)
Tolerance
(m/s)
Tolerance
(g)
Intake Air (Air unit)
(Initial/Max)
Intake Area
(m2)
SmallCircularIntake.png
Small Circular Intake Tiny 250 0.007 1 200 7 50 0.5 / 0.5 0.10
Circular Intake.png
Circular Intake Small 680 0.04 1 900 7 50 2.0 / 2.0 0.60
RamIntakePJ.png
Adjustable Ramp Intake Small 2 680 0.06 2 400 7 50 2.0 / 2.0 0.74
Shock Cone Intake.png
Shock Cone Intake Small 3 050 0.12 2 400 7 50 2.0 / 2.0 0.75
Mk1 Driverterless Supersonic Intake.png
Mk1 Diverterless Supersonic Intake

[Note 1]

Small 720
(560)
1.17
(0.17)
2 000 10 50 2.0 / 2.0 0.61
Engine Nacelle.png
Engine Nacelle[Note 1] Small 600
(480)
0.90
(0.15)
2 000 10 50 5.0 / 5.0 0.50
Engine Pre-cooler.png
Engine Pre-cooler[Note 1] Small 1 650
(1 618)
0.35
(0.15)
2 000 10 50 5.0 / 5.0 0.50
XMG50RadialAirIntake.png
XM-G50 Radial Air Intake Radial mounted 250 0.02 2 000 10 50 2.0 / 2.0 0.31
Structural Intake.png
Adjustable Ramp Intake (Radial) Radial mounted 900 0.01 2 400 7 50 0.5 / 0.5 0.10

The values of masses in the table don't consist the mass of the intake air (5 kg/Air unit), as you can see in the SPH/VAB.

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Mk1 Diverterless Supersonic Intake, the Engine Nacelle and Engine Pre-cooler are a combination of air intake and liquid fuel tank of 200, 160 and 40 units. Only the air intake properties are shown.