barrenwaste

I love this thing. I think I'm going to have to make an attempt at a helicopter now....

Nice looking from what I can see.

This is one of my first forays into successful vtol sstos. The runabout is compact, fuel efficient, and capable of extended lko maneuvers. It is a bit finicky at around 15k to 20k meters, but it stabalizes fairly quickly and can easily reach an apoapsis of more than 130k without ever using it's rocket. during re-entry, when the chutes deploy, you may find yourself bum to the sky. If this happens tap w and s repeatedly until the nose rights itself. Also, this craft is meant to fly using SAS but not using RCS. It does come with RCS, however, this is intended for docking maneuvers rather than stability. If you choose to download and fly the Runabout, the handling instructions are in the ship description in your SPH, enjoy! You can pick up your KC-T3 Runabout here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/kc-t3-runabout/ Some pics for your viewing pleasure....

If you want to stay stock, like I do, use clipping to keep your sats and landers compact and streamlined. Then, you just need a decoupler to pop them out and go.

guess I don't understand the bias some have against clipping. You don't need the cheat console to do it and it provides you with more options in more steamlined packages.

hmm...is this being updated anymore?

Ok, that's a nice piece of kit...

dunno, doesn't happen to me...maybe something got futzed while you updated...

Maybe I got a bad download or something, but my rapiers use far more fuel while using canned oxygen than what your's just showed.

Well, haven't tried it, but then wouldn't attaching the wings at a slight angle achieve your purpose?

Yup, read your charts. I think they are wrong. I think you failed to take into account the changes in values that occur during flight and pilot error. Maybe I'm wrong on that, myself. What I do know is that when I fly with the atomic I get a much larger operational envelope than with the smaller, lighter rockets. I also know that I build small sstos. Those two things tell me that either your math is off or you didn't take into account some of the things the game does. Edit: Edited because previous version was to confrontational and I want a discussion not an argument or miffed people.

Ok, I like that it's a portable game like that. Wonder if it would play on some of the newer nooks?

The atomic weighs in at about 2 and 1/4 but has double the thrust and more than double the ISP of the 48-7s. Yeah, the 48-7s weighs only .1, but it doesn't provide enough thrust and uses far to much fuel in comparison with the Atomic. If you are going small, then a single LV909 is a much better choice than a 48-7s. Either way, two 8-7's or a single 909, you aren't going to get the performance range that you do from the atomic.

Ok, guys, I'm noticing some things here. First, most of these designs are having trouble because of similar problems. You don't need a ton of wing and fuel to make it to space. In the case of SSTOs, at least light ones, less is moar! One turbojet engine with an atomic engine or aerospike clipped in will get you into space easily on half the fuel from an FL-t400 fuel tank, and that's including the weight from rcs and a clampotron. Each part you add also adds drag, which means more fuel used to achieve orbit. Keep your part counts as low as possible, including wings. With the above build all you need are a couple of structural wings, a delta deluxe winglet, and a few small control surfaces. A lot of the really smooth looking ssto designs funtion entirely because they are smooth, with few added parts and only as much fuel as is truly needed. You can always refuel in orbit for longer trips.

The turbojet and the atomic rocket are by far the two best engines for small sstos. You can clip the atomic rocket into a fuel tank so that it doesn't stick out horribly from the back of your space plane. Also, if you clip the ram air intakes inside the fuel tanks you can airhog like crazy without making your space plane look all whacked out. Also, don't worry about different fuel types, you can't use jet fuel in space so just pack lots of rocket fuel. That makes designing your space plane easier and allows a greater range of travel. During flight keep an eye on your intakes, if you are still at full throttle when it goes below .20 then there is a great chance of flame out. The key is NOT to go directly to 20,000 unless you have an insane amount of intakes. Instead, level off a bit before that so that you can start building speed. The faster you go the more the intakes will draw and the easier it will be to break orbit. I would suggest something that goes at least 1800 m/s as a minimum. That isn't that hard to attain because when you get above 25,000 feet you can throttle down to almost nothing and still gain speed and altitude. You are going to be spending time at altitude, more than anywhere else in the flight, because you have to keep your ascent slow to gain the speed you need to escape orbit easily.

You can endlessly clip small struts into each other so that you can have a 3000 part count on what looks like a single small strut.

Could we get some more screenies? I'd like to see more of this thing.

eh, cntrl z is buggy. I prefer the old gaming adage, "save first, save often." Then just reload the sucker after a catastrophic click and ya good to go.

Well, it's a plane, cause I do planes and stuff...but well, fairly whackjobish, I believe.

Well, Jeb prefers to offroad in style, so my kerbals have designed this little bad boy for him, the Mun Buggy...

Well, my first choice would be a hinge, but since so many are all ready talking that and because I think we'll get it soon enough I'll say a small turbojet. Make it half the weight, thrust, and size, and with an equal or better fuel consumption. It would be awesome for ssto platforms and for quick maneuverable vtol and stol platforms.

You can easily balance a nuke and a turbojet if you use a couple of small struts inside a single long tank. First, connect the tank to the cockpit. Then zoom in until you are seeing inside the tank. Connect a small strut to the center back of the cockpit. Continue connecting small struts towards the rear of the tank without allowing them to snap together, manually place them all. Now connect your turbojet to the back of the tank. Next you want to connect your nuke to the small strut that allows the tail of the engine to stick out a bit through the turbojet. You may have to experiment a bit as if you get it wrong it will either be to tail heavy or explode on ignition. Finally, after balancing the nuke, you should use the rest of the struts to attach ramair intakes. You now have a ssto with two engines and the air intakes all included in the fuel tank and without cheats or mod.

Dunno if another entry is acceptable or not, but it beats the pants of my old record so thought I'd try. Still can't seem to keep the plane in atmo but was able to kick up a decent turn of speed over land, 2326m/s. I'm pretty sure that's hair on fire and boiling eyeballs fast. Oh, it doesn't have a name in the pics, this was it's test run, heh, but I'm a name it the KC-53 Hedgehog if it's accepted as an entry. It's stock, manned, and no cheats were used for clipping and suchlike. If it makes any difference this was done in .23 unlike my last entry.

It also helps if you use your mouse to zoom in closer. Zoom in close, use WASDQE to rotate, and use small struts to attach parts in places without attachment points. This is also how you use clipping without cheating, which allows you to pack more into your designs, keeping them compact and much better looking.

Dumb Ways to Die: Another One Bites the Dust: No Leaf Clover: Danger Zone: Spin Me Right Round: When Worlds Collide: These guys don't get much play, check em out if yer into industrial, nothing inspired just decent lyrics with driving music. Also check Nobodies Real and Super Villain by these guys.Leaving on a Jet Plane: