SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Yakuzi]

I finished a stock SSTO spaceplane (1.0.5) loosely based on the SU-30SM with a custom cockpit inspired by Mareczex's and Soulreaver's designs. Grab your copy here now, and get a free state of the art RTG neck warmer to keep your pilot nice and toasty during those cold dark side orbits.
Flight profile and action groups are in the craft and KerbalX description.

 

Edited April 6, 2016 by Yakuzi

[Sledge]

My first decent Mk3 spaceplane.  10 rapiers, 2 ramjets, 4 nukes, a full-size ISRU and 2 drills.  200 tons of insanity sitting on Minmus

It's going through a minor redesign as I didn't like the rough landing.  I'll probably switch to a tail landing then let the nose tip forward offset by reaction wheels and several Vernors under the nose.

 

[TAL]

Я просто это здесь оставлю

 

[Castille7]

1 hour ago, TAL said:

Я просто это здесь оставлю

 

Kerbal Solar System..........DONE! So impressive, hats off, thumbs up and a hand shake, sorry I am not authorized to hand out metals but if I were you would be given one! 

Edited April 5, 2016 by castille7

[Yakuzi]

I completed a family of stock 2-seater SSTO spaceplanes in 1.0.5, involving a standard (Nova) and extended size airframe (Super Nova). Both sizes come in cargo (at least 6t), passenger and fuel variants, so you can tailor your craft for whichever Mk2 LKO (~100x100 km) mission you have in mind*.

Nova (left) vs Super Nova (right)

 

Nova (download here)

 

Super Nova (download here)

 

When preparing for takeoff, make sure the craft is controlled from the "Mk2 Drone Core". Change variants in the SPH by detaching the docking port, deleting the cargo bay and inserting the preferred modules before re-attaching the docking port (make sure the struts from the tail connector B are attached properly). The action groups and flight profiles are described in the craft and KerbalX descriptions.
A couple of NBs:
1. If you have trouble with balance during descent, transfer some fuel forward.
2. Pitch up to negate craft banking after landing should it occur.
3. If you find the Nova a bit twitchy, try the Super Nova as it's more balanced.

Nova (left) and Super Nova (right) variants

* Ok, not all missions, cause, let's be honest, there are some whacky creative minds on this forum...

Edited April 7, 2016 by Yakuzi

[Raptor9]

54 minutes ago, Yakuzi said:

That screenshot is desktop wallpaper material there.  Awesome! 

[Empress Neptune]

On 4/6/2016 at 6:38 PM, Raptor9 said:

That screenshot is desktop wallpaper material there.  Awesome! 

Yeah, that's a great image and the ship itself is very nice. I'm going to have to give it a try.

 

I've also finished the smaller version of my SSTO, the S-640.

A less excessive Orange tank lifter, though it can still shrink a bit more. I managed 45 tons to orbit. It's comfortable with a 36 ton tank, but more weight than that makes it a little lazy on the runway.

 

https://kerbalx.com/EmpressNeptune/S-640-HSSTO

Edited April 7, 2016 by Empress Neptune

[soulreaver1981]

On 31-3-2016 at 2:01 AM, Yakuzi said:

I finished a stock SSTO spaceplane (1.0.5) loosely based on the SU-30SM with a custom cockpit inspired by Mareczex's and Soulreaver's designs. Grab your copy here now, and get a free state of the art RTG neck warmer to keep your pilot nice and toasty during those cold dark side orbits.
Flight profile and action groups are in the craft and KerbalX description.

 

Do you have a ejection seat?

Cool looking craft

[Yakuzi]

11 minutes ago, soulreaver1981 said:

Do you have a ejection seat?

Cool looking craft

Thanks!

No ejection seat in this version, but I'm working on one for an IAR-111 inspired spaceplane I hope to release soon

[soulreaver1981]

29 minutes ago, Yakuzi said:

Thanks!

No ejection seat in this version, but I'm working on one for an IAR-111 inspired spaceplane I hope to release soon

Tip start build from the seat.

Than you can get the trust correct easer

[Montag]

On 3/17/2016 at 5:56 AM, Korsakovski said:

Tried my hand at a 77 tons to orbit design and this is what I ended up with

12 Rapiers, 2 Whiplashes, 218 tons and 113 parts.

Also, rather beastly at the climb

Rest of the album

http://imgur.com/a/m0brT

How well does this work on the return trip, once the fuel is unloaded from the orange tanks?  Can you provide a link to the craft file?

I am looking for a reusable fuel lifter to resupply a massive ship for the Jool 5 challenge.

[Empress Neptune]

6 hours ago, Montag said:

How well does this work on the return trip, once the fuel is unloaded from the orange tanks?  Can you provide a link to the craft file?

I am looking for a reusable fuel lifter to resupply a massive ship for the Jool 5 challenge.

I don't have anything that can fit two Orange tanks in a cargo bay, but my S-840 can lift an equivalent amount of fuel. You just need to use the forward fuel tank as a cargo hold and disable the tanks while carrying a Jumbo-64 + X200-16 in the bay. There is no docking port on the SSTO but the nose cone can be changed into the shielded port. If Korsakovski doesn't get back to you, you can try this

https://kerbalx.com/EmpressNeptune/S-840-HSSTO-PLUS

 

[Korsakovski]

16 hours ago, Montag said:

How well does this work on the return trip, once the fuel is unloaded from the orange tanks?  Can you provide a link to the craft file?

I am looking for a reusable fuel lifter to resupply a massive ship for the Jool 5 challenge.

Well, haven't actually tried landing that behemoth, so I don't really know how well it would work. To begin with it was just a sandbox mode prototype I slapped together to break my personal record. Also don't remember if I checked the com/col without payload. It does have some fuel left so there should be a little room to tweak it.

Still, I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out and if you think you have a use for such an absurd contraption then feel free to put it to use.

It does have mechjeb though, but the data readouts are just too handy.

https://kerbalx.com/Korsakovski/Odin

[Castille7]

7 hours ago, Korsakovski said:

Well, haven't actually tried landing that behemoth, so I don't really know how well it would work. To begin with it was just a sandbox mode prototype I slapped together to break my personal record. Also don't remember if I checked the com/col without payload. It does have some fuel left so there should be a little room to tweak it.

Still, I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out and if you think you have a use for such an absurd contraption then feel free to put it to use.

It does have mechjeb though, but the data readouts are just too handy.

https://kerbalx.com/Korsakovski/Odin

Welcome to the forums Korsakovski, really nice looking design, I like the slope coming up to the engines.

Edited April 8, 2016 by castille7

[Kryten 2X4B 523P]

I'm pretty new to spaceplanes, managed one or two previously but nothing remotely usable. Im also a lousy pilot. Decided to have a stab in 1.1 and came up with these (bear in mind this is a career game with the tech tree only about 3/4 open):

SSTO X4

X1-3 either didnt make orbit, or were testbeds with a single pilot that did. Used that info, refined it a bit and ended up with the X4 - 2 passengers and a pilot, can make 150km and back again with a little fuel left over. Makes orbit with about 600m/s of Dv in the tanks.

 

SSTO X5

Using the info from that craft, the X5 was developed. 4 passengers, 2 crew or swap out for a small cargo bay. Slightly heavier but can still make a 150km orbit, and get back safely with some fuel left over. Makes a 75lm orbit with about 900 m/s Dv left in the tanks. Much more usable overall.

SSTO X6

This was just a quick testbed to see if I could make a small SSTO using the same ratios as above. Its a little cheaty with the NERV clipped into the whiplash, and some hidden flaps for roll control, but otherwise - single pilot, makes 75km with about 900 Dv in the tanks.

Ratios:

From the X4 I worked out that roughly the following will allow something usable to be built

1 Whiplash for every 12 tons

1 NERV for every 12 tons

850 Liquid Fuel for every 12 tons, or 68 LF / Ton

7 Lift (not inc control surfaces / fins) for every 12 tons, or 0.6 lift / Ton

 

Ascent:

For each, 45 degrees until 9000m, level out to about 5 - 10 degrees nose up and open up the throttles all the way. At around 20km when the intake starts dropping off, fire up the Nervs, then just ride it out till orbit, keeping the nose no further than 20 degrees. Can probably improve things by throttling down at high alt and working the jets a bit more, but as I said, Im a lousy pilot :-)

Reentry:

Using a 75 / 30 km AP/PE , pretty easy -  60 degrees until about 45km - 50km, drop the nose to 30 degrees and keep it there until the speed drops below 1000ms, then drop to 20 degrees, and ease it down into a glide from there. Fire up the jets if you need to.

[AeroGav]

After this MK 2 - 

Spoiler

 

I started a career game with Kerbal Construction Time.     I'd just unlocked the Panther, so set about building my first Panther/Terrier ship.  Now,  I can just barely get a Juno/Terrier in orbit, if I drop all 14 Juno engines when they flame out.   Trouble is , you can build a rocket for that sort of money, with more delta v margin.     My previous Panther offerings can get to orbit without shedding parts, and more delta v margin, but still not enough to go anywhere.

So I got thinking.

Launch mass 14 T.

Minus the airbreathing engines and fuel, we have a dry mass of just 5T.     My previous designs went with 2 Panthers and a Terrier, because it's nice and symmetrical and you can eke the last dregs out of the Panthers after firing up the rocket.   But that's an extra 2.4 tonnes of jet engines you're carrying from 20km/Mach 2.5 to 70km Mach 7.  50% more dry mass that rocket fuel load has to bring up to orbit.       Is there any way we can only bring one?

Well, that means off axis thrust/asymmetric propulsion unless you just mount the Panther behind the Terrier.  Now we could cheat and use clipping but i'll be honest and go with staging instead.  So, we're back to throwing away engines again, fortunately the Panther isn't all that expensive and it's only the one of them.  Loosing two feels careless.

However, all my previous engine droppers shed their motors from wing mounted pods exactly over the CG,  so the loss of mass does not cause her to undergo convulsions.     Surely shedding an engine from the rear of the fuselage is going to make the plane suddenly nose heavy?    Enter the Firefly -

 

 

That plank wing  generates enough lift aft of CG to exactly offset the mass of the engine.   It is shed along with the rear landing gears, engine nacelle, which serves as an intake and LF tank for the jet.    Do be mindful of the fact that in a mission abort,   this section becomes a cruise missile and should on no account be aimed at the VAB, no matter how severe inter service rivalry gets.

On rocket power.

The beta version of this craft reached orbit with 800 m/s remaining.  Good, but not enough to do much.  The residual fuel quantity was actually comparable to the rocket division's offerings, the problem was all the extra mass it would need to drag up to Minmus.    So,  I had the idea to mount an inline cockpit and one fuel tank immediately in front of the Terrier, and use docking ports to separate this from the rest of the airframe in low orbit.   

Intact airframe in low orbit.    All that dead weight means we won't go far on 100 LF

Undocking the "upper stage"  almost doubles our Delta V - unfortunately, I need to offset the tail booms a bit, they're snagging on my solar panels.

 

After finally wriggling free ...    

 

Next question - would i simply be better off designing an air launch to orbit platform?    Dropping the upper stage at 20km and mach 2.7,  I may be able to get us sub orbital before the airplane launcher crashes

Edited April 12, 2016 by AeroGav
better pix, finally

[Korsakovski]

Did a 4 rapier 2 nuke mining ssto that should be able to go anywhere short of eve and tylo. And kudos to Matt Lowne, I ripped the basic concept from one of his builds (hope he doesn't mind)

http://imgur.com/a/qKvG4

https://kerbalx.com/Korsakovski/X12A1-Thor

[Korsakovski]

Vector engine ftw

Fatlander

16 kerbal SSTO rocket.

http://imgur.com/a/2FrIL

[Hodo]

10 hours ago, Korsakovski said:

Vector engine ftw

Fatlander

16 kerbal SSTO rocket.

http://imgur.com/a/2FrIL

I want to see it return and land.... LOL

[Vaos Human]

 

[Exothermos]

Really nice video! That docking sequence was mesmerizing

[Korsakovski]

9 hours ago, Hodo said:

I want to see it return and land.... LOL

Technically this isn't a landing since this is just an earlier prototype that fell over due to not enough landing legs

[lude]

My Mun and back SSTO, needs whole runway to start tho (unless you remove dozens of tons of fuel)

http://i.imgur.com/tyVjV5P.jpg

 

this looks like active cooling of the nuclear reactor but is just a bug from the jetpacks mounted to the sides

http://i.imgur.com/bL1gLu9.jpg

 

it's pretty stable overall and after starting goes into space without doing anything or the need for autopilot if SAS is on, just point at shoot, full throttle and the wrong aim end in fiery explosions due to overheating tho.

 

-- edit -- 

I wonder why the pictures are not shown in the post as usual

Edited April 18, 2016 by lude

[Gryphorim]

Yakuzi, what mod is the mk2 drone core from? Also, your Su-style spaceplane takes me back to Ace Combat 3!

Lude, what are those greenhouse domes from?

[Castille7]

20 hours ago, lude said:

My Mun and back SSTO, needs whole runway to start tho (unless you remove dozens of tons of fuel)

http://i.imgur.com/tyVjV5P.jpg

 

this looks like active cooling of the nuclear reactor but is just a bug from the jetpacks mounted to the sides

http://i.imgur.com/bL1gLu9.jpg

 

it's pretty stable overall and after starting goes into space without doing anything or the need for autopilot if SAS is on, just point at shoot, full throttle and the wrong aim end in fiery explosions due to overheating tho.

 

-- edit -- 

I wonder why the pictures are not shown in the post as usual

SSTO looks really nice and I thought for a second 1.1 had added some steam coming from those panels.....lol  too cool