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A brief background of the aircraft: The OFV-18 was the original of the governmental space planes. Its earliest mention being bacm in the 1970s, as a small, unmanned variant of the space shuttle, which was in the works at the time. After being bought by the USAF in 1973, the OFV became somewhat of a "known secret". It was known by space enthusiasts, but they had no idea what it was or looked like. After 6 years in production, an unplanned Saturn IB mission took it into launch in 1978. It returned to the KSC in 1979, making a very secretive record. Its sister, the OFV-19, was designed as a replacement for the very flawed OFV-18. After being completed in 1983, the OFV-18 was retired, as it was actually a prototype that was never designed to be used, but due to rushing of the program, and pressure by the USAF, it was pushed to become a functional orbiter. While it succeeded, it became apparent of flaws. Unbenonced to the ground control, during one of its secretive long-term flights, a payload, presumably a satellite, had collided with the solar array built into its payload. This caused the solar panel to break. While it wasnt noticed, due to the array being powerful, it became one of the most common issues with the OFV-18, as the array was built into the payload bay, and blocked some of it causing issues. The OFV-19 aimed to fix this by moving the equipment into the front of the nose, aswell as the solar array. This would mainly stop the payloada from hitting the solar array. After its first test flight in 1985, it proved successful, ultimately sealing the fate for the OFV-18. OFV-19 in orbit. OFV-18 Craft files to be released soon, hopefully! They are modded, but shouldnt be a problem

Description After years of service, the Hercules served as the superior fighter of the great Kerbal Defense Force but there were improvements that were needed and speed and power profile was the goal for the new update. The Hercules II was born. Just like its predecessor the craft is capable of traveling from most planetary surfaces in and around the Kerbol System. Unlike the previous Hercules, this seats 1 and can also be flown unmanned with the new Megara A.I. Used to fly support with Dreadnoughts, dropships, and carriers as well as carry out clandestine Missions in times of peace, keeping unseen with its cloaking technology. Craft Notes This craft is fully stocked and needs no mods. This craft does have 1 flag for the cockpit which I will link either in the comments section or at the bottom of the page. Please read below for detailed flight instructions and craft info. Weapons Systems 3 Weapon Hard Points 2 Small dock points, top, and nose equipped with the Minerva Cannon 1 Medium dock point on the belly Kraken Drive Thrust Indicators are located in the cockpit in FPV or on the back of the Craft for easy recognition. Propulsion Systems 1 main Forward Propulsion Kraken Drive 1 Anti-Gravity Kraken Drive 1 Emergency nose down Kraken Drive. Flight Instructions - Based on Kerbin but will work pretty much everywhere ATMOSPHERIC FLIGHT The main throttle controls the Forward Propulsion Kraken Drive. This is a very powerful drive recommended to do incremental increase by pressing the shift key. At half throttle, this will be placed in a sustained flight mode. When a tick over half throttle at lower sea level your nominal flight speed will be around. 140 - 145 m/s The higher you go the faster you fly. Full throttle your speed will steadily increase based on your height. For instance, at around 12k you will be at supersonic speeds. Drop to half throttle to maintain whatever speed you want to be at._____________________________________________________________________________________ NOTE if for some reason you stall and cant raise the nose use the anti-gravity drive as well and it will auto-correct you for normal flight again. These are my fail safes for absolute 0 issues flying. SPACE MODE Once you are past the 12k range this is where you will start increasing speed exponentially this will send you flying into orbit in a short time. Make sure to practice normal flight procedures that you would do with any SSTO except you have no fuel so you can play around and not be scared. Once in space make sure to only use RCS when getting ready to either dock or not using anti-gravity drive. Remember you can turn that drive off by pressing ACTION Group 3 RCS is used to docking or high-speed maneuvering in space combat. Press the Trim keys I and K for the anti-gravity drive,. It is recommended that you hit Action Group 2 and then press Radial out and trim slowly. Since trim keys do not have a visible UI I created one with a KALl1000 and lights. This will be visible on the back as well. Anti Gravity lights UI - Cockpit - Left Light- Back - Top Light Forward Propulsion Kraken Drive - Cockpit - Right Light- Back - Bottom Light Blue lights - OFF Yellow light - Half Power Green Light - Full Power ACTION GROUP 1 will set flight controls from the cockpit for normal flight procedures. ACTION GROUP 2 will set flight controls from the AI operator. This is great if you want to radial out to hover better in anti-gravity mode. this is set by default. ACTION GROUP 3 will turn off the Forward Propulsion Kraken Drive ACTION GROUP 4 Will turn off the Anti Gravity Drive ACTION GROUP 5 Will Open Cockpit Canopy ACTION GROUP 6 Emergency nose down Kraken Drive ACTION GROUP 7 Turn on and off Fuel Cell Charger on by default ABORT will turn off all KAL1000s when docked at a station or other craft SPACE BAR will fire the Minerva Cannon In conclusion, this craft can pretty much fly anywhere you want it, save for the sun, and will serve as your main battle force for air and space superiority. A stock aircraft called KDF Hercules II. Built with 837 of the finest parts, its root part is strutCube. Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.12.5. Details Type: SPH Class: spaceplane Part Count: 837 Pure Stock KSP: 1.12.5 CRAFT DOWNLOAD https://kerbalx.com/InterstellarKev/KDF-Hercules-II https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3012435900 FLAG DOWNLOAD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uABZtM2AFGTBiIr-ql92xhERC49ZZW88/view?usp=drive_link https://www.dropbox.com/s/qcr3ttwgrul5jun/canopy.png?dl=0

Umm so I recently encountered a new bug where if your wings rip off with an occluded fuselage it doesn’t crash into the water but it collides with a surface. Idk what is happening here. the original plane

I'm trying to build a large scale cargo SSTO at the moment but my struts keep on getting sent to the cornfield. While I'm waiting for the game to unbreak itself, It'd be cool to see what everyone else has been able to throw together on the large side of things. What's the biggest thing you've managed to get off the runway and in to space? What's the heaviest payload it's carried? Single Stage, or assisted in some way? Have you build anything cool in orbit with it, space shuttle style? I'd love to see what cool designs are out there.

warping in a specific vehicle causes you to go 600 meters below ground and your screen to flash getting glimpses of the rocket(spaceplane). the kerbal looks sick

KASA Kerbal Aeronautics and Space Administration K-38 CRV [1.12.x][WIP] -This mod aims to add parts from the NASA concept and tested X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), that was proposed as a crew return vehicle from the ISS. This mod adds stock-alike X-38 parts with compatibility with several popular mods such as Habtech, SOCK, Knes, and others. This vehicle was designed to fulfill the role of an emergency crew return vehicle, supporting 7 kerbals on their journey back home. Huge thanks to @UCTech for their help with producing this mod with me! Image credit: @brickmack This mod will have Waterfall support planned for RCS and engines. The K-38 will be updated regularly, so check back often for updates.

THE SSTO BASE There's a pretty hard mission for whoever likes sstos and bases, that could look very simple, but surely it isn't: make a spaceplane that also functions as a base, it has to be pretty big and totally retractible, to complete it I simply advice you to use all of your creativity. Enjoy the mission and if you want share your footage.

THE GRAND TOUR Story: The KSC is out of money and the flat kerbiners are becoming more and more popular, make a spaceplane and land (with EVA) on every planet and moon (Jool excluded), returning to Kerbin to prove they're wrong. Make a spaceplane (SSTO) to spend less. Rules: -No cracken drives -No mods (if not told in the difficulty) -No cheats -No part detachment Difficulties: Easy -KSP set on Easy -All the engines allowed -Landing on every planet (except for EVE) -Docking allowed -at least 3 kerbals on board Normal -KSP set on normal -only Mk1 (or smaller) or radial angines -No docking -EVA on every planet -at least 5 kerbals on board Hard -KSP on full difficulty -No ion engines -EVA and science on every planet -No engineers on board -Return to the KSC runway -at least 15 kerbals on board Crazy -No nuclear engines -No Mk3 or rocket fuselage - At least 20 kerbals on board Insane - No landing gears (only legs) - No autostruct - At least 30 kerbals on board Impossible - Engineers allowed -Following mods installed: 1- Kerbalism (or TAC life support) 2- Real Fuels 3- External Solar System (more planets to land on, except for the gas giants) 4- Dang It! Interstellar - Mod Galaxies Unbound Nova Kirbani to install -mods "near future..." allowed -mod trajectory allowed. If you want, write down here you achievements and, if you want, some footage. Obviously all the difficulty is more and more difficult, so if in normal mode docking isn't allowed, it isn't allowed for all the difficulties that are harder, I just forgot that docking IS allowed for Interstellar travel (I don't know if it's possible otherwise), but if someone of you can do it without docking write it here

Like the stock Mk2 parts, but are round instead of streamlined. A lot of the time the stock Mk2 parts don’t really have enough capacity in the cargo bays or fit the aesthetic that I’m going for. They could also open up new opportunities for aircraft recreations. And for people who say that I could just use Mk3 parts, a lot of the time they are just way to big, hard to work with and difficult to get off the ground. These Mk2 parts IMO would make a nice alternative for when you don’t want to engineer a giant shuttle but still need some space. To make sure that they aren’t overpowered they would be heavier and less aerodynamic that the stock Mk2 parts. What do you think?

Yes. Today i made a spaceplane that looked very fine to me. One flaw it had was due to the annoying kraken made it spin sideways. Even using RCS or even SAS doesn't fix the sideway-spinning kraken. Even restarting multiple times doesn't fix the annoying kraken. edit: I realized it was that tiny little annoying dragging @ssh0le basically why does even atmospheric drags exist?

Yes. Today i made a spaceplane that looked very fine to me. One flaw it had was due to the annoying kraken made it spin sideways. Even using RCS or even SAS doesn't fix the sideway-spinning kraken. Even restarting multiple times doesn't fix the annoying kraken.

So I made a TSTO tourist spaceplane that works really well, but up until this point, I have been landing it in random fields because I always miss a runway, but I finally managed to get this thing to the dessert (that wasn't a typo) airfield! You will not believe how excited I was when I realized I could make it. This is a screenshot I took after landing (yes it is conventional geared, it was more stable than tricycle gear believe it or not)

So there I was, sitting and having a bad day. How do I build a Spaceplane!? I can't build SSTOs, Those are too hard. I can't put it on top of a rocket, because it just flips...or can I? I wonder... (some weird engineering later...) And this is the result. I took a rocket, flipped it on it's side and strapped wings, wheels and jets to it. Here it is sitting on the pad-Wait, this isn't a launch pad. 147 Parts, 61.021 Tons, 4.3 Meters tall,, 12 Meters wide, and 25.5 Meters long. 2 Panther Engines on each side using Wet Mode provide power for the early ascent. Main Engine is a Skipper. Second Stage is powered by a Cheetah Engine, and the Spaceplane itself is powered by 4 Sparks, 2 below each wing. You can't see them now, but you'll notice later. The Spaceplane has taken flight! Ascending to the skies above...Soon we'll be above the skies! Jet Engines are starting to lose power, so the main engine fires to keep us accelerating! The Jet Engines are no longer effective, So they are jettisoned. A few seconds after seperation. The Second Stage activates as Stage 1 falls away. Maybe someday I'll be able to reuse it... Second Stage is at full power. Second Stage is seperated and Spaceplane is almost in orbit. Orbit Achieved! And there's the payload, a probe bound for...uhh...I never picked a destination. Is there anything I can improve on? This is my first actually useful Spaceplane and I'd like to build more like these!

F-NAD is an aerospace division run by the finest nuggets. Check out Adans Workshop for my previous spaceflight adventures and new ones to come. Look on this forum for sneak peaks of my next kerbal vids and for giving help and getting shoutouts for and from me, respectively.

Hello once again! Today I bring you, My latest attempt at an interplanetary VTOL SSTO. When launched fully fueled, it can reach LKO with ~2,200 m/s of delta-V remaining. From there, it can be flown non-stop to Laythe and back, using ISRU to refuel on Laythe's surface. The design is oxidizer-free, and the fuel tank layout preserves the C.O.M. position regardless of fuel levels. The engine layout includes two forward-fixed Nervas, four R.A.P.I.E.R. engines (two forward-fixed and two pivotable), and two pivotable Panther engines. When flying in VTOL mode, it's easiest to set the throttle to allow for a TWR<1 while the Panthers are running dry, and a TWR>1 while running wet. This will allow some fine throttle control by switching the afterburners on and off during landing. When flying to orbit: 1) Once off the ground (via either VTOL or STOL to save some fuel), set the pivotable engines forward (AG1) with the Panther afterburners off (AG2). 2) Activate the fixed R.A.P.I.E.R. engines (AG4). 3) Cruise up to ~10 km before turning on the Nervas (AG5). While this is normally a tad too low to be using Nervas, the ISP should already be 700+ and we'll need as much thrust as we can manage. 4) Once all jet engines flame out, shut them down (AG3 + AG4) and continue to push to orbit on the Nervas. The TWR will be fairly low once you're running on the Nervas alone, so pitch up slightly to keep your time to AP around a minute. Eventually, when your orbital velocity reaches ~2,300 m/s you'll be safe to cruise to AP and circularize. Action Groups: AG1: Toggle VTOL engine pivots AG2: Toggle Panther afterburners AG3: Toggle VTOL engines AG4: Toggle fixed R.A.P.I.E.R.engines AG5: Toggle Nervas Gallery: I really hope y'all liked it, and if you want to try your hand at flying it, you can download the craft here: https://kerbalx.com/Jamie_Logan/Fenghuang-H-77 Also, check out my last build!

KerbalX link: https://kerbalx.com/OlMuskiBoi/Stock-Dreamchaser Not perfect but I'm happy with how it turned out. Launch vehicle isn't anything special, feel free to throw it out for a proper Atlas / Vulcan replica if you want

Here's the story. I decided to build an SSTO that can carry a three-person spaceplane into LKO and leave it before landing at the KSC. That way, the spaceplane itself will be ready for its interplanetary burn with all its liquid fuel tanks full and I won't have to drop any debris on the surface. For an aerodynamic design concept, I viewed Matt Lowne's air-launched spaceplane video. Though I followed the video while building my plane, I made sure to add my own parts in my version (e.g. rapiers instead of airliner engines, reaction wheels, NERVs, more oxidizer for the rapiers, etc). I plan to get BOTH craft in orbit instead of sacrificing one for the other. Below is the image of my prototype (spaceplane included). I do not plan to change the spaceplane, so it's the carrier I need help on. STAGING SEQUENCE: 5: Carrier rapiers 4: Carrier NERVs 3: Detach spaceplane from carrier Attached via docking port 2: Spaceplane NERVs Should be separate from carrier by then. 1: Spaceplane rapiers 0: Spaceplane rear parachutes Spaceplane has ~4,952 m/s of delta-V with its oxidizer tanks (99%) depleted, so there's the reason why I want this to work so badly. Craft file: https://mega.nz/#!iSglSAKT!iyaMk3pM_rt1HMWtCXu4ROxektOhf-tsHE4Y5OqtBig While the appeal of this design seems awesome, the test results are anything but. For instance: My aircraft keeps sliding on the runway, even at maximum friction control. I can't achieve LKO. I did once, but I could not repeat it. More details on what happened later. Honestly, I forgot if it was this prototype or another one. Either way, I was lucky. The other times, I failed to achieve an apoapsis above 70 km before I got below 39 km (or whatever altitude you can't bounce back up from). When I did reach Ap=70 km, I couldn't get my periapsis up in time to avoid getting recaptured in the atmosphere. (IN THE ONE TEST RUN THAT I ACHIEVED LKO IN) My carrier plane lost control after re-entry, and I spun uncontrollably in the air. In fact, my tailfins snapped right off. I had a bit of trouble keeping this plane straight when the carrier's rapiers activated. More specifically, it wanted to pitch way up for a bit until its oxidizer supply was depleted. I then tried Matt's Stratolauncher design concept, but that prototype turned out even worse. When the rapiers switched to rocket mode, I rapidly pitched downward. The picture below shows the prototype in question. If I had to guess why, it's because of the three rapiers on the top being so close together What should I do for my carrier to work? What kind of design is necessary to function both with and without the spaceplane? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. If you want to try it out for yourself, feel free to ask for the craft file (aside from the one I posted here) One more time: the spaceplane shall not do anything until it is released from the carrier in stable LKO.

Hi All! I've been trying a little more with SSTO spaceplanes recently. I've done some in the past, mostly small ones with stock parts, but in this heavily modded career game I wanted to try big, so I built this one using moslty OPT parts, which I wanted to use for a space camp mission (bring 15 tourists to orbit). It actually has a pretty decent TWR, not a lot of DeltaV probably, but I haven't tuned it yet...mostly because I can't get it past 370 m/s or so. In the picture attached you can even see that I'm pitching down, but even pitching down, my speed was DECREASING... So. I'm showing the aero overlay, by doing some googling, I saw people seem to suggest drag from clipping parts might be a thing. I can't honestly think of anything else, given the large wingspan and high TWR. Is drag what I'm looking at? If so, how do I fix it? Thanks in advance!

TL;DR: is this generally considered a "don't do this" type of thing for spaceplanes, or just a tradeoff? Hi, I've been refining a Mk3 "do-everything" spaceplane for a while now (all science, ISRU, amphibious, etc.) and I'm wondering if I'm making a mistake with the balance. The default CoM is very stable and just a tiny tiny bit forward of the CoL, but I understand that although these being very close makes the plane more maneuverable, it also makes it more vulnerable to loss of control. My question is: is this generally considered a "don't do this" type of thing for spaceplanes, or just a tradeoff? —Liftoff/landing: CoM and CoL being on top of each other is good here, right? —Ascent: CoM being somewhat ahead of CoL makes the plane more stable. But if it seems pretty controllable then is there a reason to worry? —Reentry: CoM being somewhat ahead of CoL makes the plane recover from aggressive reentry profiles. Is it reasonable to say "I expect to have some fuel left to create this condition for reentry" or is that considered a bad design? (It needs 10% fuel to ensure recovery from radial out position) Basically, I like the idea of maximum agility (for a Mk3 spaceplane) but I don't want to overlook a fatal flaw.

Hello guys I didn't found any topics on Spaceplane in RSS mode, so I create this one I am playing RSS (Real solar system) on KSP 1.7.3, but not R . It is yet a big challenge to send a rocket or a spaceplane in orbit as you have to reach Mach 25 or more than 7500m/s to be free from gravity. Stock engines stock are not an option to send a rocket or a spaceplane in orbit and I use Real Scale booster engines and OPT mod engines. SSTO is impossible. What I decided is to create a Stratolauncher, then have a spaceplane on the top to launch it at the Stratolauncher ceiling at the quickest speed to achieve orbit. For planes OPT engines are very powerful and we can reach 48kms as ceiling. Then launching speed depends on the StratolauncherTWR and 5000m/s are reachable . To achieve orbit climb you can't rely on gravity turn, and you must use the PrimerVector method that Mechjeb is using in RSS/RO which is to adapt your speed vector to be as near as possible from your apogee (less than 15s is great) to achieve your orbit in only one burn......That allows to save a lot of DV. Atmospheric autopilot mod is a good mod to fine tune your speed vector while piloting your spaceplane to orbit. My first spaceplane is designed to reach the moon orbit. I built a ascent and a descent stage behind the cockpit to make this stuff detachable from the spaceplane core. So, the cockpit will land on the moon, then leaving the descent stage on the moon, it will climb back to orbit and dock to the spaceplane core. The shorter spaceplane will fly back to earth Meanwhile, using FMRS, the Stratolauncher will land to base. The base is Kourou. Here is my trip to Moon in RSS with The Stratolauncher, renamed StratoRaptor and the Spaceplane Raptor whose cockpit will undock and descent on the moon. We need to reach 25, around 7500m/s to leave Earth, which is impossible with an SSTO, even with OPT engines That's why I create the Startoraptor launching the Raptor Spaceplane. Weight of the raptor in charge is around 153T The 4 hybrid engines of the Raptor leaves 13000DV range in vacuum provided you give them 50 electric units/s during engines run The cockpit with its descent and climbing stages decoupling from the Raptor core are the Moon lander. Here is the service bay with 20 NearFututreElectrical RTGs to help the Hybrid engines in close cycle mod Here is the Stratoraptor 995T bicockpit plane with 80% fuel. 12 OPT J61 engines giving a TWR >3 at the engine ceiling around 48500m. That allows More than Mach 15 at launch Take off and heading 117° to be on lunar plan Climbing 70°, acceleration around 15000m and mach 2.5 Leaving 37000m under acceleration, we try to stay a near as possible from apogee: see the MechJeb PrimerVector concept in RSS/RO in the RSS RO wiki (very interesting) 43500m; Mach 13.5 less than 5s from apogee, great acceleration, we should launch at more than M 15 Launch at more than mach 15 StratoRaptor being in sub orbital flight with engines shut that 's an awesome optimal climb for the Raptor reaching 5000m/s a 52000m Approaching orbit with more than 10000DV Lunar transfert calculation Meanwhile with FMRS,we come back to the StratoRaptor which is 1200kms far from base. The best return flight to spare fuel is the following: vertical dive engines shut, then engines relight under 30000m, inverse Immelmann to climb to orbit we begin climb on the back around 13000m Then half barrel roll and climb to suborbital A second suborbital climb is necessary to avoid fuel shortage the shortest possible approach we try the runway which is very hard with such a big aircraft. Use of Atmospheric autopilot is a great help On the ground Here in lunar orbit, undocking the lander Lander retrobreaking Gear down fine landing Crew goes out to plan a flag Climbing back to cockpit for departure The descent stage stays on the Moon climbing to a 45kms orbit Back view from tanks and climb engines Calculation of docking point approach and angular alignment on the fuselage Cockpit docked and well aligned, Raptor is now shorter as we left the descent stage on the moon 7000 DV left for earth return 2mn HD vid for cockpit separation and landing https://youtu.be/Oub2VP7PagM 2mn HD vid Cockpit docking after moon climb https://youtu.be/K45A36cMzak 815 DV for earth injection Then 1800 Dv to get 8000kms apogee with 160 perigee Then still 1500Dv to circularize at 160kms break enough for re entry South burn aligng with the launch base, it's 1300 DV more due to overheat speed brakes are destroyed lighting engines in air breathing mode long final on Kourou runway Kourou which is an island like all other bases in RSS (I think it's a bug from the mod which is not updated for KSP 1.7) Landing fascing East, too long, pull up and landing facing west long landing and stop at the very end of the runway Conclusion I am happy with Stratolauncher to launch spaceplane. It works very well with OPT engines. Maybe it could be a good idea to gat a back inflatable shield on the spaceplane to spare aerobraking fuel I am planing a bigger Stratolauncher to launch a bigger spaceplane including cargo hold for a rover and more DV

After much trial and error, I've finally managed to make my second ever functional SSTO, and the first SSTO I've ever created with a useful payload other then it's pilot! It's built to enter orbit, land on Minmus, spend about 2 and half months processing ore, then lift off to interplanetary space with 6,000 delta V to spare! Kerbal X Download Page Notes/Trivia: The crafts' front-most two fuel tanks are intentionally under-fueled! This was done to help achieve liftoff on the run way; when full, the craft was too unstable for me to fly properly X3 You might want to take this into account if you decide to refuel and take off on Kerbin. Alternatively, you can try to fly it fully fueled if you think your up to the task; I doubt I'm the best at flying :Y There's only one pilot seat and no probe control (making flying with an engineer not very ideal), and the ISRU module and drills are the smaller variants. Refueling takes awhile, even with stock speed up set to max! It does hit 4,000 delta V around halfway through refueling, so you can lift off partially empty if you know where you want to go, or need more TWR. Lift off from Minmus can be kind of tricky, as the craft doesn't have the reaction wheel strength to pitch up at full fuel, and the craft likes to curve after a while and slam one of it's wings into the ice! Simply retracting and rextending the landing gear quickly can help you ascend if you don't have a convenient ramp to use. Feel free to add your thoughts and/or suggest improvements, this is my first serious SSTO, and I'd love to keep building upon what I've learned while constructing it!

Syrvannia SSTO Dear Kerbonauts, This post is meant as a standalone showcase of this craft. This will be updated as this gains experience and revisions. For the K-Prize post; see bottom of this entry. I would like to submit the following for your consideration. Today i present: Syrvania SSTO Main view: The Syrvanna SSTO is named after a faction in my favourite Ravenfield Mod. It can haul 5T of payload into LKO. This vehicle is also capable of mining and processing resources. Self sufficient SSTO. Includes Space Cab. Specifications (without Spacecab): Crew capacity: 4+2 Cargo capacity: 5T Weight fueled: 87.455T Dry weight: 43.765T Part count: 118 Cost: 223.307 Length: 26.3m Width: 23.7 Height: 9.3 Launch: Hold a pitch of 20dgrs until 20km. Switch engine mode and reduce thrust 30% until 70km<Ap<100km and circulize @ Ap. Re-entry: Set Pe=50km (or below 20km), Toggle brakes and maintain pitch of 20 dgrs. Fueling: Fill Mk3 LF tank to 1500. Fill all other tanks. 1:Toggle engines 2:Ladders, ramp and cargo bay 3:Toggle scanners and antenna 4:Deploy drill 5:Mine 0:Decouple Youtube footage: Side view: Front view: Interior: Docked at LKOSS: A stripped-down cargo version, named Syrvania SSTO-C, is also available at the Steam Workshop and KerbalX. That version lacks the self sufficiency but can haul a payload of 10T to LKO. KerbalX entry: https://kerbalx.com/Robdjee/Syrvania-SSTO Cargo Version: https://kerbalx.com/Robdjee/Syrvania-SSTO-C Workshop page: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660186863 Cargo Version: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1871125619 K-Prize post: Kind regards, Robdjee

This is my first craft thread, so advice would be welcome if I am in conflict with any conventions. LKO stats have been adjusted for 1.8 aero changes (improved performance for this craft). Big Plane to Anywhere (figuratively) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1875714661 (Nice try, Bill, but I don't think this is what they meant by "long range ISRU craft"...) Well, it's been a long time coming. I'm mainly a rocket guy, but when I do find myself in the Spaceplane Hangar I very easily get obsessed with fiddling with my designs, more so than with the rockets. Anyway, I think I've finally gotten this to the point where I no longer have to be ashamed to put it in view of the public. Let me know if I'm wrong! If I'm being honest, the series of planes that this is a culmination of probably began life as the concept, "like my first spaceplane, only bigger". But eventually an actual mission materialized: to carry a scientific exploration team to Laythe and (almost) anywhere else with a complete science package and ISRU that wouldn't take months to refuel with. One development I'm a bit proud of was the realization that I could attach radiator panels to the reaction wheel that was adjacent to both of the drills and the refiner, elegantly taking care of all my core heat xfer needs. This development allowed me to finally have a truly streamlined airplane, since I had formerly had medium TCSes attached to the exterior. Two panels and two small TCSes have less than the mass of one of the two medium TCSes, let alone the aerodynamic improvement! The small TCSes (middle of picture) are for actual part cooling, and aren't necessary, but having at least a little active cooling capability is handy from time to time, e.g. cooling off during a multi-orbit aerocapture. (The panels are terrible at non-ISRU cooling in general, and the ones on this vessel in particular are nearly useless at it.) The construction of this spaceplane does not use offsets at all, nor any part clipping aside from the wings tilting into the nacelles. This was a design choice. Table of Contents: Statistics: immediately below the table of contents Atmospheric flight characteristcs: Balance; Lift; Takeoff; Ascent; Reentry; Landing: approach, normal, water, parachute Vacuum flight characteristics: Takeoff; Landing Miscellaneous: Docking; Adjusting balance; Water landing; Water movement; Design choices Edit history Postscript (action groups) Statistics: —Parts: 100 —Mass: 111.35 tons (57.15 dry) —Cost: 401.29 kilocredits —Vacuum Delta-V: 4.6k to 4.7k depending on if you have oxidizer or nothing but liquid fuel. (counting ore tank, since you can refine it into fuel) —Engines: 4xRAPIER, 4xNERV (0.25 TWR on NERVs if the LF/Ox tanks are empty) —Landing gear: 2xLY-60 in rear; LY-60 and LY-35 in front. (35 for better taxiing and runway takeoff; 60 for rougher terrain and lower takeoff speed) —Mining: 2x large drills, large converter, 2x smallest ore tank, M4435 Narrow Band scanner, Surface scanner (Surface scanner can refine M4435's results) —Science: all experiments; 4 places to put science in addition to the lab (Cockpit, probe core, 2x storage unit) —Communications/Control: Communotron 88-88 (normal direct antenna); RA-2 + RC-001S (with one pilot, can control a probe that lacks direct CommNet connection) —Docking: 1.25m only; no RCS. See Miscellaneous for tips. —Airbrakes?: Yes, 4. Retract before landing. —Parachutes?: Yes, 6 plus 2 drogues; positioned to be moderately rear-heavy, but this is adjustable via fuel movement. Enables safe landing in any terrain or water. —RTGs?: Yes, 8; can permanently run lab and SAS at full strength —Fuel cells?: Yes, 3; can permanently run drills and refiner at full capacity —RCS?: Sort of; 6x Vernors under the nose to assist takeoff/landing in airless environments —How much delta-V is left after making LKO?: Even a pilot worse than me should reliably get to LKO with 24-2500m/s remaining before the +203 from refining the ore tanks. My best so far is 2667 (2870) and I seriously doubt this cannot be bested by an actually talented pilot. Test flight landed on Minmus with 1213 dV remaining. Also goes direct to Mun. —Amphibious?: Yes: can land in water on parachutes or aeronautically, and can take off from water (but only below 25% fuel). See Miscellaneous for details. Atmospheric flight characteristics: —Balance: The center of mass is almost exactly on top of the center of lift both full and empty, in the back half of the rear cargo bay. (About 16.3m from the front of the 26.8m craft, or about 61% of the way to the back.) If you want the CoM to move forward after takeoff, you can lock the tank behind the cockpit (this LF should not be needed to make orbit). This also can help counteract the already mild tendency to nose up at high speed (see below). See Miscellaneous for a tip about rebalancing the craft. —Lift: Tendency to nose up or down while SAS is off is not violent at any speed; very slight down at low speed (<200), a bit up at high speed (300-1000), and very slight up up during final speedrun. —Takeoff: Fully loaded, it can be lifted off the runway at 83m/s (lower on rough terrain due to upslopes) on main wheel (100 for smaller wheel). Consider using the small wheel on runways or flats to gain more speed before liftoff (due to lower angle of attack while on the ground). Left to its own devices it lifts off at the end of the runway at about 99m/s (112 for smaller wheel). —Ascent: After the 1.8 update, it no longer has to stop ascending to break the transonic speed hump. My flight plan, which may or may not be optimal, is: Set at 5° above horizon; it will gradually dip a bit to 2-3° but recover by itself. After going supersonic it will tend to slowly climb in attitude; stay at 5-7° until about 15km altitude, then begin dropping to 2-3° in order to extend final speed run in the 18-22km altitude range. (If you're feeling lazy, you can just let SAS do its thing all the way to 1000 m/s or so.) Activate NERVs when RAPIER thrust falls below 200kN. By the time thrust falls below 60kN you should be around 1500m/s +/-50; switch to rocket mode when jet+NERV acceleration is unacceptably low and aim for the top of the prograde circle (or a little higher or lower, to taste). When oxidizer runs out, drop to prograde lock; the NERVs should be able to maintain or increase your time to apoapsis. —Reentry: It's recommended that fuel be moved foward to the tank behind the cockpit for reentry for extra stability. For example, in testing, given a 100kmX15km LKO reentry orbit and only 500 units of fuel remaining, a neutrally balanced craft struggled to maintain a 40-45° pitch without using airbrakes, while a craft that moved that same small amount of fuel forward had no trouble. It should be noted that the balanced craft had no trouble with a 30-35° reentry profile. 1000 units of fuel (~10%) balanced forward is enough for a radial out pitch to stabilize forward instead of flipping out. Use caution if returning from other celestial bodies; it's not recommended to dig deep into the atmosphere on the first pass without decelerating first. —Landing approach: If airbrakes were used, retract prior to landing as the bottom ones may be destroyed otherwise. Perfect balance and generous control surfaces make it relatively maneuverable for a Mk3 spaceplane. Since it takes off near empty at 53-60 m/s (on big/small front wheels) the stall speed on low fuel should be similarly low unless I'm mistaken. —Landing normally: Try not to touch down at more than 5m/s vertical speed. The fairly wide rear footprint means it should be pretty stable and modest testing has borne this out. —Landing in water: This plane is capable of a safe aeronautic landing in water, which was successfully tested at 25% fuel, but parachutes are recommended for landing in water or very rough terrain. —Landing on parachutes: Even heavily loaded with fuel, this vessel can land safely on its complement of parachutes, but use of engines to help soften the landing is encouraged. The Abort action group opens doors for the parachutes and triggers them. Vacuum flight characteristics: —Takeoff: Fully loaded and on a flat surface, the Vernors are not quite strong enough to lift the nose for vertical takeoff in Munlike gravity. Instead, get forward motion and it should be able to lift off shortly with the help of the thrust attitude, especially if the vehicle runs off the top of a hill. Use of RAPIERs is recommended unless terrain is very flat. —Landing in vacuum: dV can best be conserved by a "reverse takeoff" posture, where final approach retains some horizontal motion while vertical motion is very low, but this is not easy. It is probably more practical to descend on the engines rocket-style, and then transition to horizontal when near/on the ground (fall on the wheels). This has been tested on the Mun. Be careful to keep the plane level (don't let it roll on its side or you may lose a wing). The Vernors can slow the fall of the front end, but this should not be necessary in Munlike gravity. Miscellaneous: —Recommended docking procedure with this vessel is as follows: 1. Rendezvous; 2. Make a close approach (50 meters dock-to-dock* or less), then cancel relative motion; 3. Align to the desired docking port, and accelerate a little for final approach. This technique has been highly successful on larger versions of this vessel docking with still larger vessels. *(Bear in mind that when approaching tail-first the engines are almost 27m closer to the target than the docking port, and flipping tail-to-nose will bring the docking port of this craft when normally balanced 32 or 33 meters closer to the target due to where the vessel's pivot point is. A dock-to-dock separation of 50m would mean a real distance facing away of 23m and 17m after flipping). —When altering the balance of the craft (e.g. to put the CoM more ahead of the CoL), keep in mind that adding fuel to the rear and front LF tanks in a 2:1 ratio will be approximately neutrally balanced, i.e. will keep or return the ship to close to its starting balance. —Water landing (via parachute) was tested on Kerbin at 75% fuel. If your splashdown attitude is close to vertical, your docking port may be at risk of destruction as you rotate down, but this can be prevented by using the Vernors to slow your fall. (Presumably similar precautions should be taken if landing on Tylo.) —The top speed in water is 38.7 m/s when full. The top speed on low fuel is uncertain because during testing the plane unintentionally took off. In subsequent testing, the vessel was able to intentionally lift off when top speed in water was about 70 m/s, when fuel fell to between 20 and 25%. (Highest speeds were obtained when fuel was moved forward and SAS set to prograde.) —Why the precoolers? Although the shock cones more than meet the needs of normal flight, I like the idea of having strong static airflow for those, ahem, "off prograde" situations. They are also handsome. —Why the everything? This design was not arrived at minimalistically; I'm sure there is a lot you could cut, starting with the rear parachutes and airbrakes. But I wanted a feature-rich craft, and those are features, and it is Minmus capable, so there. Having said that, I do still welcome criticism if you think anything is too blatantly unnecessary. —Why no offset? I just didn't want to use offset; a little bit to neaten up the often messy intersections of aerodynamic parts is okay but I often see it used in a way I think of as exploitative. So in a way the only minimalistic thing about this design is the offset and part clipping, which was a design choice. —After the 1.8 atmospheric changes, this plane can actually fly on a 3R+3N configuration, but taking away two nacelles worth of LF completely negates the benefit. It's slightly less dV, significantly less TWR, and a more annoying ascent path; why bother? Well, I could probably just yank one jet off the regular design (keeping 4 NERVs) and limp to orbit, but the dV gain (112 I think) is, while noticeable, quite modest and I would be nervous about sending it to Laythe untested with that much less atmospheric performance. So, how do you like the plane? How do you like the post? Comments and questions welcome. Edit history: 1.1—9/28/19: Added vacuum landing notes. Added "Miscellaneous" section. Made major changes to vehicle (reduced RAPIERs from 6 to 4, replacing two Mk3 side pods with four Mk1 side pods). Edited text accordingly. 9/29/19: Added Minmus picture. Edits to vacuum landing notes and other things. 9/30/19: Swapped location of RAPIERs and NERVs (reducing tailstrike risk); minor text edits. 1.2—10/4/19: Minor adjustment to front wing AOI and location; small but critical adjustment to rear wheels to eliminate drift on takeoff. Added location of CoM to "Balance". Added "Takeoff"; edits to "Ascent" and "Landing Characteristics".) Finally changed top picture to reflect new version of craft. 1.3—10/5/19: Added "Communications"; added more detail to CoM location, "Lift", and "Takeoff"; added RA-2 to vehicle and replaced bottom pair of shock cones with NCS tanks. (Reduced cost by 3300, increased wet mass by 0.91, dry mass by 0.11, part count by 3) 1.4—10/10/19: Updated "Landing in vacuum" to reflect finally testing Mun capability; added "Takeoff in vacuum". Removed 1 fuel cell (3 remain) in the belief that this was enough for even maximum ore concentrations, subject to review; please let me know if this is found to be wrong. 10/11/19: Added water landing/movement/takeoff details. 10/13/19: Added postscript. 10/15/19: Added table of contents. Reorganized flight/landing characteristics. Added detail to docking. Updated photos (10/5 changes), minor text changes. 10/16/19: Added "Reentry", minor edit to "Ascent". 10/22/19: Altered commentary on small TCSes. 10/23/19: Removed Z-4K battery after finding a way to mount the drills on the reaction wheel and still fit them through the cargo doors. Added small ore tank for symmetry in new location. (Cost reduced by 4.2k, mass increased by 0.675t wet but reduced by 0.075 dry. Battery capacity reduced from 5710 to 1710.) Updated cargo hold picture. 10/26/19: updated "Ascent" to reflect 1.8 aerodynamic changes. Redid Minmus test—new photo. Postscript: the action groups: 1: RAPIER toggle (on/off) 2: NERV toggle (on/off) 3: RAPIER mode swap & air intake toggle (open/shut) 4: All cargo bay doors toggle (open/shut) & small thermal control system* toggle (deploy/retract) 5: --- (nothing) 6: Drill toggle (deploy/retract) 7: Surface harvester toggle (on/off) 8: Fuel cell toggle (on/off) 9: Obtain all possible science, including crew report 0: AIRBRAKES toggle (deploy/retract) Lights: default (all lights turn on or off) Landing gear: default (all landing gear extends or retracts—note that this is NOT a toggle) Brakes: default Abort: The top cargo doors open and all parachutes deploy. It's possible that some parachutes won't deploy if the doors aren't already open; just press the button again. *(Note: the interior thermal panels are always on by default)

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