Airplane

An airplane is an airborne robot built for speed and accuracy. They are quite prevalent in-game. While they are the most manuverable robot type (sometimes too manuverable, a player who mostly uses tanks or mechs will have a hard time with them), they are quite vulnerable because losing even a single wing will send most designs crashing down.

Design[]

An airplane utilizes Wings and Rudders in order to achieve lift. An airplane is one of the more challenging robot designs. In order to remain airborne (not crashing or behaving erratically), the plane must meet the following conditions:

It must be Airworthy: The plane must generate adequate lift in order to get off the ground. wings, Thrusters, and rudders are the cubes mainly used for achieving lift. Skis are often used for the purpose of reducing friction so the plane can take off more easily.

It must be Balanced: In order for an airplane to fly straight, the Center of Lift and Center of Mass must be distributed evenly throughout the vehicle. Your plane pitching up means you have either too much lift in the front and/or too much weight in the back.

It must be Stable: A stable plane flies perfectly straight without pitching up or down, rolling left or right, or yawing left or right. To achieve stability, make sure your Center of Lift and Center of Mass are correct while in the garage. The aircraft must also be symmetrical. Then, you may put thrusters in front of or behind your Center of Mass. Having the Center of Thrust ahead of the Center of Mass will make the plane less agile and more stable while having it behind the Center of Mass will make it more agile and less stable.

It is recommended that builders new to making aircraft start with their Center of Thrust at the nose of the vehicle.

It is important to note that, while other types of robots have a rather simple controls, planes are trickier to control as they move around their roll axis instead of turning on the horizontal plane. To turn, you must bank left or right, then allow the robot to turn (pulling up while banking will make you turn faster). Altitude is controlled by pulling up or pushing down.

Some common designs are:

Airworthiness[]

RC Airplane — A simple plane design. Note that the limited amount of armor makes it very vulnerable to AA fire.

In order to generate lift, a player can utilize wings, rudders and Armored Helium (or a combination thereof) to generate lift (Note that Helium block in an airplane may affect manoeuvrability in odd ways). Wing must be placed together with thrusters, as wings alone will not generate the thrust necessary to move the robot forward and lift it off the ground. Helium blocks generate upward lift on their own and are generally used to balance the aircraft, though care should be taken when placing them as the drag they generate can limit forward speed.

Balance[]

This is vitally important. The mass should be equally distributed throughout the aircraft, otherwise it will lead to an unbalanced vehicle and make flying quite difficult. If your robot is rolling left/right without your input, your aircraft is unbalanced. Check your weight distribution and make sure your plane has even weight from one side to another, the easiest way to do this is to make sure that the aircraft is symmetrical. Make small changes between tests in Practice Mode. It is also possible to use helium to balance and change the pitch of your aircraft, but this can make it slower. Using different shapes of Chassis Cubes is one way of keeping your plane balanced, however it can also work against by creating weak points. Note that weapons also have mass and factor into the balance.

The front/back balance is a slightly different issue. Ideally, you'll want the airplane to glide straight. This takes precise balancing and positioning of the wings, rudders and every other cube on your craft. If your plane is nosediving, it is nose heavy. This can be solved by reducing weight in the nose, moving your forward wings noseward, or bringing some weight to the back. If your plane is rising or rocking/uncontrollable, your forward wings are too far forward and need to be moved tailward or your nose is too light. The simple and dirty solution is to add two more wings/rudders on either side of the plane until balance is reached.

You can also fine-tune the balancing of your plane by using thrusters. If you place them on the bottom of the plane, the nose will tend to rise. Vice-versa, placing them on the top of the plane makes the nose go down. This can be very useful for correcting small unbalances, though it will only work while the plane is thrusting forward: when you let go of the thrust, the plane will be just as unbalanced as before.

All of these points are especially important due to the mechanic of Overclocking which would make slightly unbalanced plane completely unusable at higher overclock levels. The reason being that thrusters and wings become more powerful as the overclock level increases, causing a plane that pitches slightly upward at overclock level 1 to pitch much more strongly upward at overclock level 15.

Maneuverability[]

Wings are good for generating lift, but in order to be really manoeuvrable, you need at least one vertically mounted rudder or wing. Without it, the bot turn more slowly and be less agile in general while also running the risk of "side slipping" which can rapidly send you sliding out of control. This means the bot will become an easier target without a vertical rudder than with one. rudders generate less lift than wings, but manoeuvre much better. You can even forgo wings and use rudders exclusively if your aircraft is small. Using thrusters can also work, but changes balance and makes for trickier manoeuvring.

There are many factors which influence how manoeuvrable a plane is, such as the number and positioning of the rudders, wings, or manoeuvring thrusters, and the relative dimensions of the plane. The Overclock level is always relevant as well.

The pitching motion of the plane (lifting its nose up or down) is most influenced by horizontally mounted Rudders or Aerofoils. The further away they are from the center of mass, the easier it is for the plane to move. You can also add vertically pointed thrusters to affect the plane's pitching motion. This is known as thrust vectoring and, unlike wings, work at low airspeeds where the latter cannot generate lift.
The rolling motion of the plane is affected by vertically mounted rudders and wings. Again, the further away they are from the plane's centre, the bigger their effect. It is possible to use sideways-pointing thrusters to augment an aircraft's roll rate. As long as they are placed away from the aircraft's rolling axis of rotation, the thrusters will impart a roll together with your wings. Bear in mind 'Front-or-Back Cube Behaviour' when building such, or your thrusters will end up slowing your roll rate.
The dimensions of the plane influence all aspects of manoeuvrability. A long plane will find it harder to pitch its nose up and down, while a wider and fatter plane will have a harder time rolling along its axis.

Controls[]

Flight controls in a plane are the same as in in the Bay (the exception being left/right movement).

Yaw (Left/Right): Although not yet able to be effectively done in Robocraft without rolling, Yaw is the left and right movement of an aircraft. This is controlled by a vertical stabilizer. "A" and "D" affect your Yaw.

Pitch (Up/Down): "Shift" makes you pitch down, "Space" makes you pitch up.

Roll (Bank Left/Bank Right): "A" Causes you to Roll Left, and "D" causes you to roll right.

Strategy[]

A common strategy is to fire a few shots at the enemy and immediately hide behind nearby terrain. Plasma launchers are especially well designed for this cause. Lasers are especially useful against both airborne bots which makes them excellent teammates for flying Plasma-based allies. An Interceptor and a Plasma bomber will often go together and pick apart any flying units, heal with the medic, and quickly kill any lone or unaware ground units. Nanos can also be used to get to wounded teammates and rapidly heal them.

Planes can often break into the enemy base's shield and fire a few rounds before anyone notices. This strategy is best used with plasma as the plasma does not require you to stick around after it is fired.

Maneuvers[]

Good against most ground units, including tanks, speeders, artillery, and snipers. The bomber is the best kind of plane against ground targets, its plasma launchers allow it to strike from relative safety, dealing massive damage with a delay just long enough to allow the plane to dive behind cover before the shots have even landed.
Good against planes and satellites if it can engage them first. The interceptor excels at this task, the laser is more suited for dogfighting than the Plasma Launcher or the Rail Cannon because it is fast and somewhat accurate even on the move. PSK's can be effective due to their lock-on feature, but you need to have multiple (more than 2 is the most effective number) to have a decent fire rate.

Lateral Roll[]

Practical - An Interceptor attacking from above and you rotate to expose your usually heavily armored belly to take the hit.
Experimental - Allows you to feel the overall manoeuvrability, Ex. time it takes to turn left or right.

Barrel Roll[]

Practical - An attacking plane behind you that you can avoid by circling vertically to place yourself behind the attacking bot.
Experimental - Testing the speed of lift and drop.

Spinning Dive[]

Practical - You are injured, your balance is thrown off from a loss of Thrusters, weapons, Electroplates whatever, there is a medic on the other side of a cliff. A spinning dive allows you to get to the medic faster and in a more linear path.
Experimental - Quick maneuvering test for both Yaw and Lift/Drop. Practical practice for in battle manoeuvering.
Visual - Tells others on your team that you were in combat and signals to medics you are injured. It also tells the opposing team you are injured so be weary.

Rotary Twist Turn[]

Practical - The fastest and safest way to preform a 180 turn, Simply flip your bot on its head via lateral roll then complete by doing a half Barrel roll placing your belly back towards the ground.
Experimental - Vultureing an injured bot, but it has fast movements, use this turn for possibly quick direction changes.

Circle strafing[]

Practical - Circle strafing is the technique of moving around an opponent in a circle while facing them. Circle strafing allows a player to fire continuously at an opponent while dodging counterattacks. By rapidly circling the opponent, the player evades the opponent's sights. Circle strafing is most useful in close-quarters combat, where the apparent motion of the attacking player is the greatest, and thus the chance of disorienting the opponent by making him lose track of the attacker is higher.
Experimental - Test both the speed and turning point of your bot.
Visual - Makes you look very fast to your target, as their shots sail through empty air.

Tutorials[]

How to build a Tier 6-7 Plasma Bomber