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There was a recent mod to make a sort of Rombus from June, and an older thread that I didn't want to necro since the author disappeared a couple months after his post ( @NathanKell responded a few times in that one, we share a similar interest in that particular retro-future, I think). Anyway, has anyone worked on plug engines of the type that Bono was considering? Is regenerative cooling a thing as far as reentry goes in KSP? (This image if from William Black's deviantart page. Wow. Great stuff to look at: http://william-black.deviantart.com )

Hi all, the silly craft of this week is a classical Batwing 1992 style. It has been a while since I've seen one around here. It is not exactly a proper replica, but Mr. Wayne had so many he might just say it is a brand new one. This one can reach orbit too, so I think this could be an improvement for Wayne enterprises. It maneuvers like a rusty gate, but hey mr. Wayne, it is a Batwing. It is a little bit short on range, you can barely reach LKO and dock somewhere (full docking capabilities of a common craft) or just get back home. Room for Robin too. It takes off at 50 m/s, going faster than 75m/s on the runway can result in an unplanned stunt. Climb above 7000m ASAP and build your speed at least to 1300m/s before 24000m (pitch between 1° and 5°). Then switch your rapiers to closed cycle and reach your favorite Ap. ACTION BUTTONS: 1) toggle rapiers 2) switch mode/toggle intakes IMGUR album Get your Batwing >>>HERE<<< (official craft name is "Bcoz Im Batman")

Where should my next SSTO go?

For a long time i've been trying to build a working SSTO. Once again i tried, not with much hope (if i couldn't build one out of Mk I parts why would i be able to build one out of Mk IV parts?). But i actually did succeed. The plane is going to be used to transport Kerbals and small pieces of cargo between Laythe and a ship thats gonna fly them out to my Jool spacestation. But since i've never been good at building spaceplanes, i've got a problem. If you drain the planes fuel completely its CoM will be in the back of the CoL, if you keep the two front parts filled, it'll still be in front, but that is not the purpose. I´m sure that most of my problem is all the engines in the back of the plane. I'm asking all the pro SSTO builders (Mark Thrimm looking at you) to help me, either by giving me suggestions about what to do, or even better if somebody would download the craft and then re build the wings and engines. The only that i dont want to change is the fuselage itself. (Please move this post if its posted in the wrong place) Thank you! Craft file:https://kerbalx.com/Flamingo/MK-IV-SSTO

I know it is a shameless repost (already posted it in the generic SSTOs thread) but I had enough good feedback to give it a topic of its own. So, the craft is a flying saucer in the Grendizer style. It can just reach LKO and get back home (or dock anywhere in proximity of 85x85). Considered the huge overall drag it is a very good flyer, allowing extremely low landing speeds and the common flight envelope required for an airplane (looping/tonneaux standard aerobatics - very good stall recovery). It is indeed a little nose heavy and it suffers from a lack of power at high AoA, but hey, it is a dish surrounded by a teapot... If anybody wants to give it a try >>>HERE<<< it is the link. (and here the imgur album) 1) toggle rapiers 2) switch mode It takes off by itself, no input needed apart from full throttle. Climb above 10000m as soon as you can (not too much AoA), at 10000m level to gain speed.

A while back I posted a stock swivel jet VTOL plane (no infernal robotics mod used). It was a nice craft which failed to reach my original goal: achieve orbit with a swivel VTOL engine. The problem was my inability to dock in atmosphere to the main fuselage of a plane to gain access to more fuel. I do not know how but after many failed designs I got one model that docks fairly easily. I was unable to replicate it when trying to improve on this (my ultimate goal was a craft utilizing nothing but swivel engines). Introducing the Altamira MK4I (you can see how many iterations it took to get this working). Barely able to reach LKO, it can take off vertically and dock its VTOL engine to switch to horizontal mode and get just enough fuel to stay in orbit. This is a fairly difficult space plane to master. I only managed to reach orbit once. However with a bit of excess oxidizer left over, it can be reduced to save weight and increase the odds of success. Balanced by a single vector engine for VTOL, the craft chooses its own launch trajectory. Any attempt to wrestle the craft's yaw during the critical take off stage will result in the vector engine burning up the twin tail booms behind it. Shallow ascents are to be avoided if one does not want to burn up in atmosphere (except for when maximizing the scram jet momentum). This craft ascends steeply and quickly once it's set to horizontal mode so you can get to cruising altitude in no time. The horizontal latch can be doubled as a docking port to attach to space stations or other craft with narrow docking arms. After refuelling in orbit, it's ready to go on to other worlds (not tested yet). Despite 2 small docking bays that hold the VTOL engine & fuel, this craft doesn't do anything as it was designed for demonstration purposes only but that doesn't mean small science experiments can't be crammed inside. http://imgur.com/a/nNmOI

After some real hard trial and error sessions I finally managed to build a pure stock SSTO-Spaceplane with VTOL capabilities without any moving parts (aka no fancy docking port action): The BRI-Arrowhead! Action groups: 1: RAPIER-engines toggle 2: RAPIER-engines mode toggle 3: Supersonic intakes toggle 4: VTOL-engines toggle 5: Whiplash engine toggle 6: Subsonic intakes toggle Flight profile: activate SAS (T) and go to full throttle activate VTOL-engines (4) it takes some time for the engines to spin up, be patient activate the main engines (1 + 5) climb at an angle of ~15° (prograde marker) once you reach 400m/s speed, shut down the VTOL engines (4) and close the subsonic intakes (6) once you reach 10000m, change your angle to ~5° and gain speed. Once you reach 1200+ m/s, climb again at ~15° (prograde marker) switch to closed cycle after you reach 22000+ m deactivate Whiplash engines (5) and close supersonic intakes (3) once you reach 31 km, set autopilot to prograde marker cut engines once your apoapsis is above 100km at apoapsis, circularize your orbit More Images (sorry about that, couldn't imbed the album here, so I just post a link:) Arrowhead - Imgur Craft-File: BRI-ArrowheadVTOL.craft

Contract: Place a station in solar orbit. The station must be a new station and have an antenna, a docking clamp, and room for 5 Kerbals. The station must have a viewing cupola. (Incomplete) Notes: Next run. Contract: Ferry a tourist to solar orbit. (Incomplete). Notes: Next run. Contract: Land a tourist on Minmus (Complete). Bring them home safe (Incomplete). Contract: Land a tourist on Minmus (Complete). Bring them home safe (Incomplete). Contract: Put a tourist in Minmus orbit (Complete). Bring them home safe (Incomplete). Contract: Plant a flag on Minmus (Complete). Contract: Transmit or recover science data from around Minmus. (Complete) This is a single-stage-to-everywhere craft I recently developed on its maiden run, bringing a pilot, 2 scientists and 4 tourists to Minmus. I would have liked to swing by solar orbit on the way home, but even with a Munar assist on the way to Minmus I was running on fumes. This will be a dead stick re-entry.

Planet Express SSTO Download her now! Click here for more images and a GIF The Planet Express Ship runs into a familiar ship in low Kerbin orbit! Planet Express SSTO, aesthetics, functionality, utility. Open the bay doors to reveal a tiny satelite, or load your own! Sadly, the Dark Matter Engine has been replaced with 4 Rapiers and a backup monoprop system (Kerbal Technology). You can drive her as long as The Professor is taking his nap! Have fun! **Flight Note** The main cockpit is angled slightly down, control from probe core inside cargo bay for accurate heading. **/end flight note**

Hello there! I've been playing KSP for a while, but I mostly use rockets, since I like them most. I've built some planes but never a SSTO. At least a working one. So I started to learn a lot about this things. I've seen in many videos that they close intakes at certain altitude, near atmosphere limit, and the engines keep running (RAPIER). Also, they angle the craft almost horizontally once in atmosphere, and they fire the NERV really late. I would like to get some guidelines about this matter. Thanks!

Good news everyone! Farnsworth Rocket Surgery and rubber toast delivery is not out of business! The new craft are all 1.1.3. compliant some are stock others have, well not-stock stuff. First up is the Lemur SSTO. Capable of crew transport or cargo delivery up a 150k orbit and returning without needing to refuel at an orbital station. The Lemur was designed to facilitate crew transport duty for my orbiting station around Kerbin and it works like a charm. Flight profile: After rotation off the runway, bring the speed up to about 300 m/s and slowly bring the nose up to about 45 deg. Hold that position until you get to about 8k altitude then bring the nose down to 10 deg. Hold that attitude until you explode or your out of air and need to change to closed cycle on your rapiers. If you fly it perfectly you can hit 1500 m/s before the engines start starving for air. Action Groups: 1. Toggle engine mode (closed/Open cycle) 2. Toggle elevator deploy (helps hold the nose up on reentry). 3. Toggle docking port open and toggle engine on/off (it sucks to poke the wrong button and move your station out of circular orbit. So turn off the engine). 4. Toggle fuel cell Abort: Toggle cabin lights. Rentry: Move fuel to the rear of the craft and hit action group 2 to deploy the elevators. Enter the atmosphere pointing straight up to present as much of the surface area of the craft as you can to assist in slowing down. Once you have dropped to about 1400 m/s, transfer all the fuel you can to the front of the craft. The craft will become unstable and is not capable of flight If you don't move the fuel or you are attempting to glide in without at least 80 units of liquid fuel in the nose cone. Currently there is a bug that will cause sections of the craft to load out of alignment if the landing gear are retracted. This only happens when the game re-loads the craft with the wheels stowed. An example: When you release the docking port from the station you are attached to it will happen when the craft re-loads. The workaround is to un-dock with the landing gear deployed. Just retract them once you have detached from the station. Some pics: The Lemur can be easily changed from a crew transport to cargo by simply changing out the center section! Download Here: https://kerbalx.com/Dr_Farnsworth/Lemur Farnsworth Mongoose SSTO Being a sister to the Lemur, I decided to include it in the same post instead of making a new one. The Mongoose enjoys the same operational envelope as the Lemur and shares similar design cues. With both crafts you need to be careful of tail strikes on take off and landing. They rotate at about 100 m/s and need to land around 150 m/s. The Mongoose is a much more stable craft in flight and reentry due to the mid fuselage mounted engines. Reentry follows the same technique as it's sister. Move fuel to the aft of the spaceplane. Enter the atmosphere perpendicular. Once the air thickens up you will level out to about 45 deg attitude. Good enough to keep everyone from burning to a crisp. When to slow to 900 or so m/s, move the fuel back to the forward tanks, un-deploy the elevators and head for the runway! Removing the crew cabin and replacing it with a cargo bay makes it a dual function spaceplane. Download here : https://kerbalx.com/Dr_Farnsworth/Mongoose

UP FOR A CHALLENGE,EH? Try this :ssto to moho and eloo easy mode:ssto to moho with refuelling normal mode :without refuelling and 20 kerbals hard mode:without refuelling,20 kerbals from moho to eloooooo! matt lowne mode:impress me

BATWING FOREVER SSTO Download her now! Click here for more pictures! This SSTO would make The Bat himself proud. Pulling directly from the WayneTech blueprint archives (google search), I present to you my working movie replica. Don't do anything Bats wouldn't do in it.

With the same 5150 delta-V you've come to expect, here is the Cyclone Heavy. Capable of reaching Duna directly with some clever aerobraking, the C-H can lift payloads of up to 20 tons to a 100 km orbit and return. It is fully reusable, except for the possible exception of the in-fairing docking port. It is reasonably forgiving, but don't do anything stupid with it. Do not open the fairing at altitudes lower than 55000 meters. Doing so will void your warranty. The C-H can be fitted with a hitchhiker container for crew storage (By default it is unmanned). It has no action groups or solar panels to worry about; the Cyclone Heavy is powered by 4 Radiothermal Isotope Generators and thus does not require external power input. It weighs an astounding 773 tons in the default configuration, with a sea level TWR of 1.58. If you so desire, there is more info is in the KerbalX page. Fly with care, or with mechjeb. It's stable at 3x time warp, and does not fall apart at 4x, but I advise you to stick to low timewarp speeds. (From left to right: Misttrailer SSTO, Cloudstream SSTO, Cyclone Heavy SSTO) https://kerbalx.com/WorkaroundIndustries/Workaround-Industries-MK3-SSTO-Cyclone

After refueling at Laythe, the Kerbals reached the main destination of their journey: Vallhenge. They wonder about the mysterious origins of this structure. The crew has been on the journey for more almost eight Kerbin years. (Also, it seems that 1.1.3 made Vallhenge nicer, along with the rest of the easter eggs)

Dusk is an easy to fly mk3 SSTO that was originally designed for Duna and has tons of m/s in LKO I haven't tested it yet but I got it into orbit! Yeah KER broke so it was showing me only the intake air so I have no idea how much DV it had in LKO. Yeah so I'm basically being lazy and asking more experienced SSTO builders to test it for me. (Yeah I'm an idiot) So this has kind of turned into a mixture of a challenge and a showcase... Anyway try taking it to Laythe! I'm sure it's possible if you add a little more fuel. Kerbalx download - https://kerbalx.com/Firemetal/Dusk

Hi folks, I just completed a sandbox-mode dry run to Laythe with my six-kerbal, full-science SSTO, the Sojourner II: The dry run went pretty well - I got out of Laythe orbit with about 1100 delta-v left in the tank, which should work for my eventual plan to dock in Laythe orbit with a fuel pod. It would be nice if I could get back Kerbin without refueling but I have a feeling that's not going to happen, even if I improve my maneuvering a bit. In any event, I am always looking to optimize the plane for my career-mode run, and one area I'm unsure about is intakes. One preliminary note - due to my ruthless culling of extra jet engines to save weight, this thing can barely get out of its own way in-atmosphere. It has to launch half-empty on Kerbin (I refuel in orbit), then has to do a slow climb and then dive at around 7k meters to get velocity into the Rapier sweet spot. Laythe performance was a little better, but I still had to turn on my nukes for about 5 seconds on takeoff to make sure I didn't hit the ground right away. I don't care much about Kerbin efficiency as long as the darn thing makes it to orbit, since I will be refuling in LKO anyway. I do care about saving fuel on Laythe, though. But since so much delta-v is going to be expended in space, weight may be more important than atmosphere performance. As you can see, I've currently got 2 Ram Air Intakes on each of my Mk 1 nacelles. They generated way more than enough intake air throughout the journey, and are fairly light, but I hear their drag is not the best. Other options: -The shock cones. These seem to be the go-to choice in most planes I see. I do not need the extra air at all, but I do hear they have better drag than the Ram intakes. I did a test climb with shock cones and could see maybe a minor speed improvement, but it was overshadowed by inaccuracy in my climb profile. The extra weight shaved off about 20 of my plane's 5,800 vacuum delta-v versus the Ram intakes, which does not seem like a big price if there is a decent efficiency improvement on Laythe. -The precooler, which also seems pretty popular. I like the zero-drag factor, but between the weight of the part itself and the fact I'd have to put something else in front of my nacelles (maybe NCS adapter and tiny-size nosecone), it will likely end up heavier than the shock cones. It will also add bulk, being the size of a Mk LF tank but with much less fuel capacity. -The radial adjustable ramp intakes. These are very light, which I like, but they add a new source of drag and, again would require me to put a nose cone in front of my nacelles. Air supply seemed adequate (maximum draw with 2 of these guys was about 50% according to KER), except for a weird thing where my Rapiers flamed out 1 second after initial engine startup on the runway. This was remedied by starting at half throttle for the first few seconds, then maxing out once my plane was moving. None of the other intakes seem like good options. The subsonic ones would flame out, and the divertless intakes seem like worse alternatives to the precooler. I am tempted to just go with the shock cones, but was wondering if anyone else has any thoughts on what works best for a Laythe mission. At the end of the day I doubt there's a big difference, but half the fun of KSP is agonizing over the best part choice, right? Any other thoughts on ways to optimize the plane are welcome as well. I am tempted to remove the drone core, clamp-o-tron and/or RCS, but usually end up regretting those decisions. I'm only keeping 15 monopropellant. May also reduce the oxidizer capacity as I don't need it all to escape Kerbin, and didn't need any on Laythe. Final note - part cost is not an issue. Thanks!

I give you my newest spaceplane, a self refueling SSTA (although, it most definitely won't come back from Eve). It's already done a mission to the Jool system and back stopping on Minmus, Duna, Ike, Laythe, Vall, and Pol (and then Duna and Ike again on the way back). It also includes an orbital scanner so you can choose the best landing spot for refueling. https://kerbalx.com/nestor_d/OSP-Mk31-Firebird Here's an album of the first half of the mission:

I just finished my longest mission ever. And it's actually the *first* time I've ever came back to Kerbin from another planet's sphere of influence (let alone two planets and four moons). The idea of the mission was to investigate strange anomalies on Vall which turned out to be way more mysterious than the Kerbals ever thought. For this mission KSC decided to refit an already proven SSTO with refueling capabilities so that it could complete the journey and come back. All in all, it took a little over 20 kerbal years.

Allright lads - I'm in the midst of preparing a Laythe landing (and as a consequence been preparing a Laythe landing vehicle). With time and patience I've finally managed to create an SSTO, both capable of flying into Kerbin/Laythe's atmosphere and out. Been tested so far on Kerbin - able to get into a circular orbit of around 70-80km it seems, with enough fuel to return to Kerbin (or reach the orbital vehicle/refueling station, depending on need). Here's a pic or two =) Try not to land on water - guarantees appear to be voided in that case....

Okay, so these are the guidelines for the Strange SSTO Challenge! Level 1: Build the weirdest looking SSTO craft you can Level 2: Build a strange SSTO without nuclear engines Level 3: Build a strange SSTO without jet engines Level 4: Do not use wings! (Fins are okay, though.) (EDIT) To clarify, mods that just add data and such, like Kerbal Engineer Redux, Kerbal Alarm Clock, etc., are allowed, but no modded parts, or planet mods. And also, I'm pretty sure that I won my own challenge. I don't even have a name for this thing. https://postimg.org/image/lsah0p3bl/ https://postimg.org/image/heh3sf6v5/

Hi all I'm very interested in SSTO's. something to rescue kerbals with. and general-purpose shuttle to orbit. I have looked up some videos/posts about building SSTO's, but most seem to be from before Aerodynamics changes patch, or they done in sandbox mode with a load of Rapier engines. In career mode i'm on quite low end tech, researched tier 3 and parts of tier 4. you recon an SSTO can be built with that sort of tech? I made a few attempts so far. thefirst issues was the LY-01 (matchstick) landing gears buckling under weight. got me them LY-10's. current issue now is with jet propulsion: i got the J-33 "wheesley". it doesnt seem to do well up high. will i need the J-404 "panther" ? The payload just needs to be an Mk1-cockpit + remote-control-thingy.

I was messing around in the SPH the other day and I thought I might propose an SIngle Stage To Anywhere challenge. Here are the rules: 1 - Needs to look like a plane. A rocket with an ISRU is boring. 2 - It can take off/land vertically from landing legs on planets/moons with no atmosphere, but must be able to glide and land horizontally if there is an atmosphere. 3 - Needs to be able to mine and convert (obviously). 4 - Has to carry at least 2 Kerbals. 5 - Stock only. I want to keep it a level playing field. I will score each entry up to 5 points for looks, 5 points for efficiency/range and 5 points for manuverability/takeoff and landing. Please submit pics of your craft flying on Kerbin, in orbit somewhere and landed and mining on a planet/moon outside of kerbins SOF. Craft files are even better as it means I can test them . I will upload pictures of my SSTA/fail later today. Good luck!

My latest and greatest. A nice looking, MK2 SSTO SpacePlane that has over 5K DV remaining after launch to LKO. Room for 2 crew, docking port and full RCS make this a very practical and useful ship. I flew to Minmus, then to the Mun, then back to Kerbin with no refueling. Album of mission and video of launch to LKO below. https://kerbalx.com/g00bd0g/MK2-Space-Plane-4xR-1xN