SSTO Help Anyone?

[ayana]

I threw this together in half an hour or so, and it flies just great. But, it takes way too long to slow down during reentry. Any advice to help it not explode due to overheating would be great.

Edited August 1, 2015 by ayana

[Mikki]

Hi there

make a shallower reentry (half orbit, periapsis about <30km above KSC), or moa... errm more airbrakes, additional two will do the job i think...

Happy landings!

[selfish_meme]

Make sure your pitch maintains about 25 degrees during your high altitude descent, rcs or reaction wheels help, control surfaces don't do diddly squat at that height

[ayana]

Hi there

make a shallower reentry (half orbit, periapsis about <30km above KSC), or moa... errm more airbrakes, additional two will do the job i think...

Happy landings!

Guess I do have to use the airbrakes, even though they feel cheaty.

[selfish_meme]

I never use more than two airbrakes, the body of your plane is the most effective airbrake it just has to be mostly against the airflow, same as the shuttle

[ayana]

It's just so counterintuitive to do that with a plane.

[selfish_meme]

[Grumman]

It's just so counterintuitive to do that with a plane.

You want to slow down faster, so you want to put the fattest part of the plane facing the airflow. That's the bottom.

[ayana]

It worked flawlessly.

[ajburges]

It's just so counterintuitive to do that with a plane.

It stops being counter intuitive when you think about it.

A stall is where higher angles of attack produce less lift and more drag. Drag is the force that slows you down. The beauty of a Delta wing is that it's self correcting from a stall.

Funny story: early STL concepts called for subsonic wings and simply stalling at supersonic speeds. The Air Force had an aversion to stalls and vetoed the idea.

[Red Iron Crown]

The fuel lines in your design aren't necessary, Rapiers draw fuel from all tanks evenly in both modes.

[ayana]

The fuel lines in your design aren't necessary, Rapiers draw fuel from all tanks evenly in both modes.

Oh, so we have working (imaginary) built-in fuel lines now? Neat.

[Dispatcher]

Interestingly, and probably due to the design, I can alter the dV of a craft by placing fuel lines on the craft, even when all parts are cross-feedable. Usually this is detrimental as far as the dV is concerned, but sometimes it allows multiple engines or mixed engines to have full access to the shared fuel/ oxidizer throughout the flight; when otherwise it doesn't always seem so.