Template talk:Stats Table Jet Engines

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Revision as of 12:30, 28 May 2015 by VariousMetals (talk | contribs) (info on thrust curves)
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I've seen also what is written in the game, but they are "fake" values - the thrust drops to 0 at that speed values in contradistinction with the given values... NWM (talk) 02:40, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

The thrust of jet engines is defined in a way that makes it difficult to display in the stats table. The thrust at a given velocity and altitude is derived from two pre-defined curves in the .cfg files (specific impulse is constant regardless of thrust, unlike rocket engines). The turbojet, for example, has a maximum thrust of 1044 kN, but that's only achieved when traveling at exactly Mach 3 and exactly at sea level, which is a rare scenario in practice. A more complete way to define the thrust than what I put in the table is to list the thrust while stationary at sea level, the optimal velocity, the thrust at that velocity, and the maximum velocity. I couldn't figure out a nice-looking way to display that in the table, but if someone else wants to try, here's the values:
Engine ASL stationary thrust optimal velocity thrust at optimal velocity maximum velocity
Basic jet engine 115 Mach 1.67 1.46x Mach 2.5
Turbojet engine 180 Mach 3 4.9x Mach 5.5
Rapier engine 140 Mach 3.7 8.5 Mach 6
The rapier engine will probably switch to rocket mode well before it hits Mach 6
VariousMetals (talk) 12:30, 28 May 2015 (UTC)