X-4 Super Arrow (fixed)

Hypersonic & high altitude drone.

As i found out it does not matter, where to place inlets, i startet hiding them backwards behind nosecones. This leads to much better performance because of lower drag.

This is my test bed, with highly optimised drag, but still a pretty simple drone in a stock game. It is even easy to fly at subsonic speeds at low altitudes and easy to land without engine power.

But be careful:
- lot of thrust & low drag causes heat issues up to 42km altitude
- 100% thrust could melt this thing in under 2mins from runway
- hard turns at low altitudes with supersonic speeds will break this thing into pieces

The only 'special' thing is activation group 5. Just start on Droo Space Center Eastward Runway an hit the 5 button. This will start the craft for a "performance demonstration".

• engines to 80% & start.
• after reaching 100m/s pitch up to 35° and raise gear
• at 13000m lowering pitch to 20° and engines to 90%
• at 22000m engines to 100%
• at 30000m pitch to 10°
• vizzy keeps now just running for temperature warnings for both wings, but you can still lean back and watch.

After 20 mins is the time, when you should start looking for overheating of both wings. When one of the wing starts to overheat(725-730°C) reduce thrust to 97% or less. No panic! Just careful adjust thrust with +1% and -1%, the X-4 will still gain altitude and speed... slowly, but steady.
X-4 will gently gain speed and altitude over time. After 40mins of ingame flight time it should be close to 40km ASL and Mach 5 ... and already half way around Droo.

In all of my flights i flew again over Droo Space Center after 1 hour and 28 mins, with an altitude of 42000m, somewhere around Mach 5.2 and 33-36% fuel remainig. So there is still the chance of flying a second round.

As far as i tested now 100% thrust works when getting 42500m ASL/Mach 5.26.
Best so far 44000m ASL and Mach 5.31 or 1811m/s (surface)

If you want TP for Flying Distance in career, X-4 is a good option. ;)

Performance Data @ASL 0 & Mach 0
Delta V: 12.7km/s
Burn Time: 5 mins
Starting TWR: 3.57x
Thrust: 1467kn

Performance Data @ASL 35km & Mach 3 (calculated)
Delta V: 10.5km/s
Burn Time: 1.94 hours
Starting TWR: 0.13x
Thrust: 52.3kn
65% thrust is enough to do this for 3 hours