Exothermos

I like the simple look of it, but it definitely needs a better texture on the nozzle.

I like the "stupidity" tag. I think it sets the right tone, and helps keep people from becoming too serious about a cartoon simulation of a simulator.

I have an old Saitek EVO (which I love love love.. don't ever fail me) and yeah it is a 3 axis stick. Pitch and roll on the main axis, yaw on twist, and separate throttle. I use it pretty much exclusively for atmospheric flight and for the last stages of a lander's decent. Otherwise I use the Keyboard, such as with simple rocket launches, docking mode, orbital maneuvers, etc. That said, i realize now that I am thinking about it that when I transition between Translation mode and Rotation mode in the Docking panel, I tend to transition between the keyboard and the Joystick too... IDK, two decades of flight simulators have made a joystick just like a third hand to me. Grabbing the cheapest 3 axis joystick you can find will greatly enhance your atmospheric flight experience at the very least.

Apparently there is a mod for exactly these problems, so it's certainly doable. I enjoy the technical challenge of designing craft with CoM in mind, but the design opportunities that an autoballancer would open up would make up for any "difficulty" lost, IMO.

Bigger wings Mk 3 cargo bay More fuselage and adapter options Tweaked Air intake model / more intakes then obviously Aerodynamic model tweaks. But mostly just to Frontal Area, and air intake stuff and I would be happy.

Aw, shucks, thanks! Really glad you got it working and I love the jettisonable bay door! That first SSTO with a payload is the biggest satisfaction I've got out of building SSTOs. You have to know all the little SSTO construction tricks to even make it work. I learned by tearing-apart the master's stuff, pa1983. Wanna lift two orange tanks to orbit? No problem. Wanna take off in a cargo SSTO, fly a huge mobile base to Laythe, land, drive it out, and then fly BACK to Kerban? No problem. Incredible. And since this is a sharing thread here is content. Just a couple of my spaceplanes docked at my station. Nothing fancy, it just gives me satsifaction.

NEW STUFF HAS BEEN ADDED! CHECK THE ORIGINAL POST. Here is the patch anticipation post for posterity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's the Malaise Days Giveaways! So we are all waiting for 0.21 to go live and no one really wants to put the effort into building cool stuff. Except for sickos like me (and a few others, you know who you are). If you want to play with something fun and not particularly challenging, then this is the post for you! First up is a couple of SSTOs based on the same weird looking core with slightly different configurations. The Agilus A is a small, agile (get it...hurr) Airhogging, Nuclear-engined one man SSTO. It is pretty easy to fly as far as these things go, especially above 14k where the power curve of the single Turbojet kicks in and it really shines. Below 10k it is a little under-powered, but stick with it. The Agilus B is a more conventional plan-form, and is fun because it looks like a Mig-25. Well, it's fun if you are into that sort of thing. Otherwise, performance is identical to the A model Agilus A SSTO DOWNLOAD Agilus B SSTO DOWNLOAD Next up is my first non SSTO submission. Holy moly, breathlessly set off the klaxons and fireworks, because I've finally posted something different! It's a space junk De-orbiter...thing. Do you feel like ending the flights of your ill-planned space junk in the Tracking Center is pretty cheaterriffic? I do. So i made a grabby thing. I call it the HYDRA Deorbiter Claw 2. It works really well, actually. Well, most of the time at least. Sometimes you break everything off down one side of the vehicle as that piece of space junk you are decelerating suddenly rotates out of the claw and slaps against the side of the vehicle. But that was a HYDRA Deorbiter Claw 1 problem. It's all been accounted for now i hope, so use with confidence! To use simply rendezvous with the piece of space junk that is menacing your space station, or whatever. RCS over to it and get directly in front of it (Your Target icon and Retrograde pip should be overlayed), grab it with the gear legs if you feel it is beneficial, and gently burn until your periapsis enters the atmosphere. Now turn prograde and burn your self back to orbit. Rinse, repeat. If it all goes terribly wrong you have an escape plan! It also runs double duty for me as a space station tug. The simple booster I use to get it to orbit is included in the .craft file. HYDRA Deorbiter Claw (No Longer Available due to Patch Changes.) Lastly I want to share To the MUN! an Apollo-style rocket. Yes, yes it's another one, and yes I can hear the groaning all the way through the internet tubes. It works great, but is only "generally" authentic because some of the maneuvers needed in the real mission are omitted with this design as they are just not needed in the game. Specifically the TD&E maneuver is omitted, and the lander is capable of performing an authentic-style separation or simply flying off the surface and rendezvousing with the Command Module all in one piece. Also, I did things the way I want, heavily borrowed from certain submitters here on this site, and went without worrying about trying to model the Saturn 5 exactly. So basically it sacrifices Authenticity for Usablility and I had a blast with it. To the MUN! DOWNLOAD Ok I lied, there is one more. It's a stupid ugly biplane. And it is a lot of fun. R&J Special DOWNLOAD

My SSTO obsession continues. This big 19 kerbal space bus is almost there! Just a few minor bugs to iron-out before it is released. It flies like a bus too, which is why I wanted to make a fire-breathing hotrod to have some fun. This thing has a weird layout but it allows it to rocket to orbit nearly as fast as a... rocket. Since it is nuclear, it has a bunch of DV left for manuvers once in orbit. I'll probably make a lifter based on it's nacelle pod design.

Just by eyeballing it, I would say you have too much weight in rocket fuel. Once you get down to four -800s you could probably lose a set of jets, further saving your self some weight. If you are flaming out at less than 25k meters, add Moar Intakes! That should give you what you need to get her up to orbit. Good luck!

-F1 is the screen shot button -there are some excellent tutorial videos on youtube regarding achieving orbit, and how to rendezvous with other things in orbit (the hard part about docking). You should watch them, because getting those two maneuvers down pat really opens up so many awesome options in the game.

Well some of us play stock, Mr. Fancy pants. They are new to us.

THAT'S why you do that! I noticed the venetian blind effect for elevators on all your ships since I think the falcon 9. What a huge help. Thanks. I had noticed the coupled yaw/roll problem but didn't know if was fixable. I think I am going to wait and see if the 0.21 ASAS fixes these issues before doing a complete overhaul. If not be prepared to see some heavy cloning of your solutions.

Here is the posting that was removed from the front page for posterity. Check out the OP for new stuff! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've been fooling around with a bunch of SSTOs and they all came to completion at the same time, essentially. So here they are! First up is the Antilles SSTO Drone. Actually, it's two ships as they have different styles of docking apparatus for different preferences: They don't really DO much, I suppose, but they do perform well. Also, the intake design makes them look like that Batmobile from that really bad Batman Movie... we all know the one. So that's a plus? Antilles Drone A DOWNLOAD Antilles Drone B DOWNLOAD Next up is a manned SSTO based on the design of the Antilles Drone; The Accipiter. Really, it started out life as a testbed to mess with maximum intake spam, but came out pretty cool looking, so I figured I'd share it. It's finicky during ascent and will need fuel pumping. Specifically it needs the last fuselage adapter in Locked mode so that it doesn't drain first, so do that on the runway. It also needs fuel pumped from the forward section to the side tanks to balance it out during it's acceleration plateau at 25k meters or so. If you don't do this, you will still be successful, but it will fight you the whole time. Accipiter SSTO DOWNLOAD The last thing I'm presenting is The Ardent, a funny little 6-kerbal Space Bus. Look how cute it is! The more surprising thing is that it works like a charm too. It came into being during development of a 10 man bus that just wasn't working. During an aggressive rotation I had a tail strike and the whole rear end broke off leaving the forward section flying away like it was excited to be relieved of this burden. So we're going with it! Now you can shuttle crew to and from your Space Station or Interplanetary ship in style (?). Ardent Space Bus DOWNLOAD

jeez, pa1983... When are you going to build something impressive? Gosh. Seriously though, that thing is incredible. And I thought the last one was incredible. I like your engine nacelle idea with the thinner wings, and it was a joy watching you struggle with the geometry of skinning the craft. I picked up a bunch of ideas. Here is one of my biggest so far. A 19 man space bus! It has some bugs I have to hunt down (specifically with the ASAS pushing the nose down for some reason), and some more refining to do because the skinning is a bit of a mess, but it is coming along.

Cinocal's SSTO reminds me of a couple I'm playing with now. Kinda similar design elements. And here is Foxbat-looking derivative. They are light airhogging nuclear jobs, so they are ridiculously efficient.

Increasing wing surface is one of the best solutions. Assuming the rear gear are just behind the COM, and there is enough moment arm on the control surfaces (canards way up front or tail surfaces out back) most viable designs should rotate and gently lift off at around 100 m/s. This is true of even extremely heavy designs ( check out pa1983's stuff for proof). Having lots of wing also gets you to acceleration altitude faster. This means you use less liquid fuel to get there, and the flight up is more controllable. For now, with KSP not calculating frontal area, the benefits of more wing out weigh the negatives of drag and weight (within reason).

I've been messing with an Apollo-style mission, and here is the lander. It has worked wonderfully. It has way too much fuel (even with those inefficient engines), but that saved my butt on the latest mission when I made a tiny change to the lander and a part (a battery) kept the upper stage from separating correctly. So I just flew the whole contraption up to rendezvous!

I like this design so much I immediately built a copy. There's some pretty ingenious building going on here. I said "didn't know I could do that" a couple of times in the process. Also, it looks like the center of mass should be way ahead of the CoL, but the imbedded delta wings over the -800 tanks pull it forward nicely. Elegant, uncluttered design so far. Well done.

More stuff added to the thread! Check the O.P.! Here is the now-removed Ajax Posting for posterity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today I present the "Ajax", my first payload capable SSTO! It shares a similar design aesthetic with my previous "Arrow" models, but is very different under the skin. Now you can deliver a little over 4.5 tons (one FL-T800) to LKO in style! Perfect for small satellite and probe launches, and light refueling duty. The .craft file comes with the generic probe shown in the pics. Build your own payload for your specific needs! Simply "grab" the Structural Beam in the SPH and set aside the lid. Constructing your payload directly on to the docking port is easiest, but you can import if you have the mod, of course. Flying the Ajax is similar to my Arrow line in that pumping fuel forward once during ascent is a really good idea. The RCS can handle it if you don't want to bother, but why waste monopropellant? The Ajax is a standard "Air Hogging" design with lots of intakes so it will need to be flown in such a manner. Acceleration plateau should start at 24k with engines at 80%. At 30k meters, and 1600 to 1700 m/s, shut down action group 1 and fire up the Aerospikes for the climb to space. Run your remaining turbojets for as long as you dare! To dock, pump Liquid Fuel for and aft to balance the craft. Reentry and landing are simple and straight forward. It's best to use ASAS for most of the decent as the lightened craft has a ton of control authority, and is twitchy (but ballanced.) As always, make sure to check out the Action Groups for the most efficient flight. DOWNLOAD Enjoy!

I like some of the ideas I've seen here. A big mission to Duna is my next goal, so this is helping lots. It seams most people go with a modular tug design for the interplanetary ship, but what I needed an idea of was how to arrange the mission profile once in orbit around Duna. This has helped!

Thanks! It was accidental; it's basically a result of trying to close off the Payload Bay in a tidy way, move my COL aft, and still keep a resemblance to my previous "Arrow" design (which seems to be a SSTO name that is de rigueur) . Once I noticed the results I certainly didn't shy away from it though. In white like this i think it looks like the Russian Blackjack. This is what I have been doing lately: Just something I'm playing with to test the limits of Air Hogging. It works so well that I end up with over 3/4 oxidizer left in those two little tanks. Which is fun, but this ship isn't really useful for anything. It looks cool though! I have since reduced the number of intakes (from something large ?? to around 20 per engine) in a bid to lower drag and get to 30k+ faster. It also looks better, is lighter, and I have noticed no appreciable performance change. There is definitely some point of diminishing returns there, but I'm not enough of an engineer to crunch the numbers. I'm sure you've come across the answer building your amazing behemoths. I've also been trying to get a 10 man Shuttle working. Right now it's.. well it's pretty terrible! haha But I've learned a ton doing it.

Yeah, I've been messing with the fuel problem for a bit, and Actually I think I have it sorted, for the most part. I'm just trying to avoid external fuel lines and fuel line mazes, and it is really no big deal for me to pump fuel forward once during the long acceleration process. Others may disagree, I'm sure. As far as the Engines go, you are totally right from an efficiency standpoint. Really, nothing beats the Airhogging/Nuke combo for SSTOs, but I'm really impatient I guess. I've tested them, but I don't want to spend so much time chasing my apoapsis. Anyone who wants to use that combo can simply slap those nukes in instead of the Aerospikes and it works fine: The other rocket engines work fine too, being lighter and having more thrust, but in testing I didn't notice an appreciable difference in fuel useage do to their Lower ISP. I don't use Mechjeb, however, so that kind of precision in flight replication would probably show me I'm wrong. p.s. i've been playing with your Razor, and it is awesome.

Ajax SSTO added to Original Post!

Cool! A space vacuum. I like the Box design. I've been using this with great success: My Squid Deorbiter Claw. Pretty neat to see two different takes on the same problem. I am so messy... we won't talk about how many pieces of Junk I can see in the Tracking Center.

I've been busy with this lately: Intake Abuse Police should be alerted immediately! It does this: Baby's First Payload Capable SSTO. 4+ kerbal tons with ease. Also a fun but pointless Drone SSTO series: And a fat, 3 person development of my previous "Arrow" All coming soon. They all work, but need some wrinkles Ironed out. PS: Dayum KSP, you purdy.