Orbit Portal Showroom [Show me your OPT Spaceplanes!]

[flyguybc]

So would anyone mind giving me some guidelines for the engines in this pack.  I've tried making a few different designs.  My first vision is a J type body, with a large docking connector 2 cargo bays and then a fuel section followed by engine mount.  I've had trouble finding a good balance because I don't seem to be understanding the engines.

Question, there are only 4 engines right?  Dark Goo, Circular Scramjet, big inline scramjet and the smaller liquid fuel/ox one?  I keep seeing this small inline scramjet in pictures but I don't see it in the mod. (sorry for not knowing their names don't have it in front of me).

I've been building space planes in stock with the Rapier NERV combo.  Rapiers to get to orbit, then kick in Nervs.  I haven't figured out a similar combo in this mod.  It seems to me the little liquid/ox engine is the closest efficiency to the nerv in space.  (I'm trying to not use the dark goo mostly because while its REALLY COOL I feel its a little OP.  I may use it for fun or on a station at some point later)

Now I've successfully made it to orbit using the little liq/ox engine and the circular scramjet.  (Love the effect on the scramjet as you speed up btw!)  However, I have very little fuel left when I get to orbit because the little engines eat up a lot.

My end goal is an SSTO that I can take to minmus or the mun with decent cargo.

 

*note I've also go the Mark4 pack with the scimitar engines if those would be better choices.

[degenerate]

Been LOVING this mod since the 1.9 update, can't live without it....

Tiny SSTO for transfering a pilot and 5 passengers to LKO with ~~5k+ dV left.
Minimalistic approach based around a J-81 engine, designed to get kerbals to (and back from) moon/minmus mining stations.

Spoiler

 

J-class SSTO for getting kerbals to and from anywhere!

2400 monoprop assures you can dock while you're proper drunk, you got reaction wheels for all movement besides docking, perfect for my needs!

Based around the impeccable design of x2 J-81 paired with x2 J-92 engines, seriously this will push any SSTO into orbit as long as it's less than 200t, with a peak power of 6KkN.

This baby hits a 75x75km orbit with nearly 11km/s left, all you need to do is point this baby to 15 degrees up after take off and sit back, this excrements is so good it might even complete assignments for you, nobody knows!
 

Spoiler

 

 

Will upload either of them if asked, I use KSP Interstellar for the RCS thrusters (they're GREAT)  though (still waiting for OPT ones) but can remove those parts for the upload.

Edited November 4, 2016 by degenerate

[JadeOfMaar]

@flyguybc There are actually 7 (3 in the main mod and 4 in legacy which must be installed since you're seeing Mk2 engines). If you type J- into the search bar you'll see nearly all of OPT's engines.

Respectively the engines you're calling out should be Dark Drive, J-92 (the 2.5m air-breather), J-60 ScreamJet (air-breathing Mk2 with built-in tank) and either the ARI-7x (1.25m LFO engine) or J-81 S3B1ZzR Nacelle (Mk2-ish LF & LFO engine).

 

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The J-92 is equivalent to the J-61 (both shown here) performance-wise, but its defining difference is form factor. Aside from a little more weight, and lower Isp. (4000s vs 7000s) which may seem like a lot of loss it reaches peak performance just a little quicker and will go places that Mk2 engines can't (especially when mk2 to 2.5m adapters ...and Rapier clusters...aren't welcome).

   

 

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The official cover image for OPT has an ARI-7x engine cluster.

The ARI-73 and ARI-75 are amazing to have in any atmosphere (and make up for lack of Oxygen for normal air engines) as their Isp climb to over 900s ASL, but in space it falls back to 340s. You don't want to do in-vac landings with these... But you do want to try Eve ascent with these.

 

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A bunch of J-81s on the first craft and J-60s on the second craft in spoiler.

The J-81 Nacelles are nearly as OP as Dark Drive (which is actually very OP but it's very good that it is...what great parts mod doesn't have an ultimate engine in it somewhere?). The J-81 are both air engines with amazing power and LFO engines with Isp of 2000s and will replace Rapier-Nuke clusters by themselves.

J-60 ScreamJets expand and become larger than Mk2 at the business end whereas the J81 can fit inside a Mk2 fuselage and nobody would ever know it's there. They're as wonderful as any other OPT air engine but they have built-in tankage so you don't have to dig for and add as many (or any) separate tanks for them but just add a Mk2 intake on the forward end.

Spoiler

 

---

I think you're using the term inline incorrectly. There are no inline engines. There are many radial and surface attachable engines.

4 hours ago, flyguybc said:

this small inline scramjet

http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/478488screenshot710.png

This one? That's the J-61 Starwaster TurboRamjet. This one is possibly the 3rd most OP engine. Since its very light and very small on top of being no less powerful, it will get you a date with the kraken if the ship it's attached to is also really small. I have two Mk2 planes (shown in OP of this thread) whose TWR can pass 10 because they have two of this engine and are not meant to reach the Mun.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[flyguybc]

Sorry I mean to say linear. Like this.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospike_engine

So I need to download the legacy pack, got it.

Degenerate I would definitely love a copy of your craft files, sans the RCS if that's ok (I've got enough mods running as is lol)  They look great!

So the J-92 is good atmosphere engine.  The ARI have amazing thrust but eat fuel, not as good in space.  

Dark Drive and J81 (linear) are the OP air and space engines. J61 is the small linear also very powerful.

J60 seems to be in between them all if I'm reading right?

 

Love the information guys!! I'm gonna have fun building this weekend!  

 

 

[JadeOfMaar]

@flyguybc While looking through the files to see all the engines I did realize the J Linear Aerospike is missing. Strange... I rarely use it but its absence matters to me. There is more than one release within v1.9. The changelog mentions updates to that engine plus an alt of the JQS cockpit without intakes so we must be out of date.

The J81 and J61 are not "linear" engines. They are respectively simply rocket/hybrid and air engines. There are mk2 linear aerospikes around but not in OPT.

You're good to go, though.

I'll add what I know of other engines to the post.

Edited November 4, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Flashblade]

@JadeOfMaar You reminded me of something here. The J Linear Aerospike is indeed not missing, but it ended up in a wrong build category. I need to report this to K.Yeon.

Yup it is in the Aerospace manufacturer tab and not in the propulsion science manufacturer tab.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Flashblade

[Ohm Machre]

Well, I managed to snag this screenshot before the Aero Overlay utterly crashed my game. (Hint: do not hit F12 in this version of KSP, it crashes your game inevitably.)

 

I call this an Estale Class ship, mostly a play on Stail.

It's completely successful making it to Kerbin orbit largely in part to the four hybrid rocket J-81s. Those things are SERIOUSLY powerful, I hope we get a revised version in the main pack eventually. They kick butt.

The other three engines are two J-61 Starwasters and a J-92.

 

 

If anyone's wondering, I used the Stail drone core at the front, used a Stail-to-2.5m adapter, then a OPT-J-to-2.5m adapter and sunk the J adapter towards the front to get that ultra-sleek curve.

[JadeOfMaar]

Ohhhh. I see what you did there. @Ohm Machre For a bit I kept reading Estate. Looks and sounds like a commercial airliner.

I've only begun to use those things (J81). They ought to have a more obvious indication that they're nearly as epic as Dark Drive and maybe just a little less Isp. I don't play Career so I don't know if they're comfortably very high on the tech tree.

Edited November 5, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Ohm Machre]

Estate isn't a bad name for it either, but I felt like being somewhat original lol.

 

[Ohm Machre]

In what I'm dubbing the Whale Class Cargo Transport, I have made a very nice flying ship. I haven't tested it under load, but it uses the Humpback Legacy parts for cargo bays, and I'm likely to make ones using the J and K forms as well. Powered by two J-60s, four J-61s, and four J-81s, it's as simple as point at the 15, and fly. I prefer to put it at 50% throttle until ~300m/s, then 2/3s throttle thereafter. I also need to do some fuel balancing, as it's still rather light on just LiqFuel for how many engines are being powered.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Ohm Machre

[JadeOfMaar]

@Ohm Machre I was going to point out the fuel balance pretty quickly. I hope the optimal weight turns out to be very generous. I rather like the cockpit's position. Quite boat-like and fairly appropriate.

Edited November 8, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[degenerate]

Girlfriend went away for the week to work, I can finally get some time in on KSP again...

My kerbal expanse is in full fledge and I had a need for a new larger way of transporting crew.
I don't use rockets unless it's to haul up rocket parts to build stuff in orbit, so SSTO was the only way to go for me.
I've not made up a name for this one yet, but it's a Juno class SSTO that can carry 6 kerbals in the cockpit and 40 more in passenger modules.
It has 9k dV if refueled in LKO, honestly can't remember the dV left if you fly it there because my OPT crafts have a habit of dancing tango if you try to change direction with them and I couldn't be arsed to get a proper reading in again, but 6k dV+ sounds more than fair.

Powered by 2 J-92 and 4 J-81 engines.

 

 

 

Watched Avatar the other night and couldn't let go of how awesome big dropships look when their wings start at the top of the fuselage.
No clue of how it would affect the aerodynamic model of my craft I set out to create a dropship that could get my rovers/modules to mun/minmus while looking somewhat Avatar-ish.
I think I did rather well actually, the 10 vernor RCS thrusters at the CoM (ish) makes landing on moons very easy.
I use the retractable RCS thrusters from KSP-Interstellar (please implement similar ones into OPT, they are amazing) for orbital movements, although all my crafts can have the monoprop tanks swapped with liquid/ox and use vernors instead, but then again those wouldn't look as sleek as the KSP-I ones do when you active them, hhhhhnnnnnnggggghhhhh
The fuel tank in the bay is just for testing how much I can pull into orbit, that's an 18t tank and I got to my destination of Minmus surface just fine, landing and taking off vertically is no problem, and neither is getting back to and landing on Kerbin without refueling.
Only flown this plane like 3 times and I already love it. It's amazing. Maybe it's maybelline
Oh, and there's a cargo ramp on this, so you can get your rovers and what not transported to your bases in style!
But honestly, the real gamebreaker on this one for me was using the wing pylons on the "wrong" way to offset the CoL further up, I've played with this mod for over half a year and it never even occured to me..
Powered by 2 J-61 and 2 J-81 engines.

 

Will put up links to crafts without RCS thrusters if someone wants to try them, apart from those these crafts are stock apart from OPT.
 

Edited November 8, 2016 by degenerate

[JadeOfMaar]

@degenerate Yes, dihedral wings (if that long-bus has them) are not my friend. I guess they're also not yours. I've done very little with the pylons/wing roots myself. I tend not to build big enough or other such things to need them and I've cleanly avoided using Tweakscale on OPT parts...for no specific reason but it turned out to be a very good idea at one point.

Edited November 9, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[JadeOfMaar]

The NOX Crown rev.4, first release-ready craft made in v1.9 parts. It still contains and requires engines from another mod to hold its title as a speed king but there are less of them (only 2 versus 8 total) and more OPT all around. Now featuring a deployment bay and science lab it's good for more than just delivering crew to Minmus and back...However, I'm clearly not on Kerbin so I can't say it still goes as far as rev.3 can go. If OPT had a true scramjet engine (rather than or among all these hybrid ones) I could consider making this a purely OPT-filled vessel.

Without those engines, and more use of the NERVs, it can make 2100m/s with apoapsis of over 100km before the air engines die. As NOX means No Oxidizer there is no place for a J-81 or any other über LFO engine.

     

The previous and still winning model. Not retiring anytime soon.

 

[Heckspress]

On 11/4/2016 at 3:33 PM, degenerate said:

Been LOVING this mod since the 1.9 update, can't live without it....

Tiny SSTO for transfering a pilot and 5 passengers to LKO with ~~5k+ dV left.
Minimalistic approach based around a J-81 engine, designed to get kerbals to (and back from) moon/minmus mining stations.

  Hide contents

 

J-class SSTO for getting kerbals to and from anywhere!

2400 monoprop assures you can dock while you're proper drunk, you got reaction wheels for all movement besides docking, perfect for my needs!

Based around the impeccable design of x2 J-81 paired with x2 J-92 engines, seriously this will push any SSTO into orbit as long as it's less than 200t, with a peak power of 6KkN.

This baby hits a 75x75km orbit with nearly 11km/s left, all you need to do is point this baby to 15 degrees up after take off and sit back, this excrements is so good it might even complete assignments for you, nobody knows!
 

  Hide contents

 

 

Will upload either of them if asked, I use KSP Interstellar for the RCS thrusters (they're GREAT)  though (still waiting for OPT ones) but can remove those parts for the upload.

I'd love both of em, with RCS removed, and replaced with stock, of course

[degenerate]

19 hours ago, Heckspress said:

I'd love both of em, with RCS removed, and replaced with stock, of course

Here they are without RCS so you can use whichever you like

Juno https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx-awuyHxsTFOVVxeEZNTE9ESHM

Tiny SSTO https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx-awuyHxsTFYlRfLTNPVmlRTDg

[degenerate]

On 2016-11-09 at 6:59 PM, JadeOfMaar said:

@degenerate Yes, dihedral wings (if that long-bus has them) are not my friend. I guess they're also not yours. I've done very little with the pylons/wing roots myself. I tend not to build big enough or other such things to need them and I've cleanly avoided using Tweakscale on OPT parts...for no specific reason but it turned out to be a very good idea at one point.

 

I really like the look of them, but unfortunately they make my planes incredibly sensitive so not much of a  fan besides how they look

[Ohm Machre]

@JadeOfMaar, what mod are you using for those pictures? Is it an alternate planet pack, or a "relocate KSC" mod?

[JadeOfMaar]

I'm on Galileo's Planet Pack, yeah. There are no stock planets, not even Kerbin (and the sun is different too). @Ohm Machre

[Ohm Machre]

Huh. I might try it out. I've been using the (slightly outdated) New_Horizons pack by KillAshley.

[JadeOfMaar]

That sounds a little depressing.

[Ohm Machre]

lol? How so, I'm confused. It works fine (enough) in 1.2.1 with Kopernicus, despite being a 1.1.2 mod. Its only problem is that the KSC is not visible in the post-start screen; it just points to the sky.

[JadeOfMaar]

@Ohm Machre The part about New Horizons is the depressing part... It would be nice to see the game version bumped up on the really popular ones, maybe especially with fun little things added to them, or fixes like for Titanus and Ete? But I won't be installing them myself. I'm helping build GPP so there lies all the extra planets I'll ever need.

[Ohm Machre]

Ah, good point. I installed GPP, and I'm rather enjoying it so far.

 

Unfortunately, I upgraded my Legacy OPT pack and lost the Whale Class. WELP. Gonna have to start that one over.

[Heckspress]

18 hours ago, degenerate said:

Here they are without RCS so you can use whichever you like

Juno https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx-awuyHxsTFOVVxeEZNTE9ESHM

Tiny SSTO https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx-awuyHxsTFYlRfLTNPVmlRTDg

The tiny SSTO doesn't work even with the legacy pack