How I Make Fast Crafts/How I Speedrun Simpleplanes

I got simpleplanes about 6-7 years ago when I saw somebody make an F1 car in it. I’ve basically been doing that ever since. Here are some of the things I've learned and how I speedrun this game. 

Step 1 - ‘Simplify and add Lightness’ 

I like to make my crafts simple, elegant, minimal and economic. I only add what I need, and try to adhere to the basic principles of aerodynamics and plane/car design in general. Anything that adds extra weight will adversely affect all areas of performance. As will extra drag. Minimise those. I seek to do the most with the least. You can use a giant inefficient wing at a ludicrous angle to provide turning force, or you can use a gyroscope. The craft below was one of my first ever attempts at a ‘speed car’ and it should be fairly obvious why it was not very good.

![](/static/blob/dz4kwwe6.png)



Pay great attention to crafts COM, COL and COT which can be found here in the image below. There’s no one size fits all solution, but 99% of the time if your craft doesn’t work, the answer lies here. 

![](/static/blob/wzxwjrnr.jpg)

Step 2 - ‘Rules are for the obedience of fools’ 

An essential tool for doing anything in this game is XML editing. Which is basically editing the text file that stores all the crafts parameters on. The in game options are severely limited in what they allow you to do. Every single object in the game can be fine tuned this way. From something as mundane as setting a spring's stiffness to a more precise increment, to making engines have 99999 horsepower. Here is how you do this. 

https://www.simpleplanes.com/Forums/View/596548/The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Editing-XML

There are varying opinions on what is ‘legal’ and what isn’t. But that’s a different discussion. 

I recommend you play around! Experiment, try ridiculous ideas that surely would never work, try to break the game, do things that go against every idea of what you have ‘works’ and go backwards from there. Its easier to make a fast craft stable than a stable craft fast. Some of my biggest discoveries came from making the most ridiculous craft i could muster and then thinking ‘but if i did this then it would work’ 

The game isn’t 1-1 realistic either. Many things that would outright be slower or less efficient IRL might be faster in the game. Find the limits. 

Step 3 - ‘No replacement for displacement’

Want to go faster? Improve your propulsion. Most of my crafts are ‘kinetic powered’ which in short means I use the adjustable cannon from the ‘weapons’ tab. When I heard that the A-10 Thunderbolt II cannon throws so much mass down range when fired, it actually slows the plane down considerably, it gave me an idea. I stuck a cannon on a plane, pointed it backwards and fired, and it propelled the craft forward. Refining that you can get crafts capable of near infinite speed. Newton's third law in motion. 

![](/static/blob/rz21v8n0.jpg)

The game's other propulsion methods are also all capable of interesting and fast results when applied correctly. Propellers don’t really exceed the speed of sound. Car engines require contact with the ground, and jet engines/VTOL are less adjustable, require fuel, and have slow start up times. 

Step 4 - ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’

Every craft i use is a either available for download here, or is an evolution thereof: 

Help yourself. 

https://www.simpleplanes.com/u/flatearthmom

Jundroo used to run official tournaments several years ago which were user submitted crafts raced by AI. Its worth having a look here, seeing the general philosophy of what worked, what the rules were, and how the winning crafts did so. 

https://www.simpleplanes.com/Tournaments



 






flatearthmom

Simple Planes

Hi everyone! Hope you're having an amazing day!

I added 4 new categories (Suggested by flatearthmom):

-Riding Dirty
-Airstrip Drag
-Snow Crawl
-Motor Mirage

Have fun speedrunning these categories!