My first creation that I'm proud of!

[ECarinae]

Some background behind the craft. I put about roughly 120 hours into KSP pre-1.0 before I pretty much burned out. I'm not really a creative type of person so I mostly played along with Scott Manley, looked at ships on KerbalX, and copied a lot of designs to mess around and enjoy the game. But it really only took me so far. After I managed to send manned missions to Mun and Minmus, and an unmanned mission to Duna, I kind of lost interest. I started playing again about a week ago to see how the game was Post-1.0. I did my usual look up crafts, see what was interesting, mess with them, and become bored.

After browsing around and seeing peoples blueprints of "This is my family of rockets" I decided I wanted a creation to be proud of too. I've always liked SSTO's and spaceplanes but never had the interest in really pursuing them because everyone says they aren't really viable except for shuttling to stations. I had tried making rockets many times and just grew bored of how utilitarian and ugly they turned out, so I decided to venture into the Space Plane Hangar. After many hours of finding out how CoM, CoL, wings, control surfaces, and drag worked I finally did it! I made a Mk2 based space plane capable of reaching 90km orbit with ease.

The sense of accomplishment lasted some time, but eventually went away when I was struck with "What do I do with it?" From there I wanted to make a craft that would be able to get to orbit, refuel, and then go explore outside of Kerbin, but I knew fuel would be a problem. Some of the new things that I saw after coming back were the resource harvesting parts, which piqued my interest. I set out to try and create a harvesting system that would get me fuel once landed on a celestial body. I wanted this system to be integrated into the space plane I had just built and not a separate miner. After a few headaches and watching videos seeing how these parts worked, I finally made a mining assembly that would fit into the Mk2 Cargo Bay CRG-08. I haven't tested it out yet to see it's viability, but even if it doesn't work out too well I'm pretty happy that in theory at least I created something to self sustain my craft. I haven't taken it out to other planets yet to attempt to harvest and create fuel, but that's in the works!

TLDR: Made my first real space plane that I'm happy with, and a conceptual way to make it self sustaining for longer term use. Thanks for letting me share!

[Gojira1000]

I love it

[Randazzo]

Wow, that's a really nice looking craft you've made there! Don't forget solar panels before you try and run that fuel converter.

If you wanted to show that puppy off, you could swing by the K-Prize challenge thread.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Randazzo

[Mister Dilsby]

Nice start! Making ships you like looking at and like to fly is what this game is all about. Here's to many more!  

[Just Jim]

Looks unique and powerful... nice!

[ECarinae]

19 minutes ago, Randazzo said:

Wow, that's a really nice looking craft you've made there! Don't forget solar panels before you try and run that fuel converter.

If you wanted to show that puppy off, you could swing by the K-Prize challenge thread.

Thanks! I've actually got a pair of PB-NUK RTG's in the bay with the mining equipment. I'll have to check out the K-Prize thread some more, looks interesting! Thanks for the info 

[Vanamonde]

No action shots?

[ECarinae]

57 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

No action shots?

Funny you should mention that, I've got some of a short orbital trip right here!

 

 

[Vanamonde]

Nice-looking ship.  

[SpaceplaneAddict]

I was elated when I saw SSTO, and Spaceplane being tagged.

 

That  design. Is.

 

 

 

 

 

Gorgeous!