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3 Kerbal variant.

The reason I started a new re-design was because I recently read about how 0.24 will soon include contracts and money, and I hate to say it, but my LV-N ssto's were SUPER expensive to make. I decided to be more cost effective as well as weight effective, and designed these craft. They are HALF as expensive as my LV-N craft and they do the exact same thing, minus the extra (un-needed) delta v.

My philosophy is if you are going to build a space craft, then BUILD a spacecraft. If you're gonna build an airplane, build an airplane. If you are gonna build something in between, it's gonna be good at neither so make it cheap.

Basically, if u wanna visit Mun or Eeloo don't build an ssto, it's a waste of money. It needs to be optimized in the environment it's going to travel through. SSTO's need to be decent in both environments, not great in BOTH.

Edited by TeeGee
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I designed this SSTO to be small and compact. I need a good performing light weight SSTO for my upcoming interplanetary mission. This design weighs 9.1 tons and reached 95km Kerbin orbit with 800 m/s of delta V left.

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However, it was beaten by this little fellow in all aspects... it weighs 8.1 tons and reached a 100 km Kerbin orbit with 1.5 km/s of delta V left... flight abilities are also better as you have to do nothing but to point its nose upwards to 30°, watch it climb to 32 km and then level for circularization. If flown more carefully i guess the delta V left in orbit can be optimized by a fair amount.

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I designed this SSTO to be small and compact. I need a good performing light weight SSTO for my upcoming interplanetary mission. This design weighs 9.1 tons and reached 95km Kerbin orbit with 800 m/s of delta V left.

http://i.imgur.com/yPBV66Y.png

However, it was beaten by this little fellow in all aspects... it weighs 8.1 tons and reached a 100 km Kerbin orbit with 1.5 km/s of delta V left... flight abilities are also better as you have to do nothing but to point its nose upwards to 30°, watch it climb to 32 km and then level for circularization. If flown more carefully i guess the delta V left in orbit can be optimized by a fair amount.

http://i.imgur.com/i9ke5ts.png

While initially, I was in love with the new R.A.P.I.E.R. engines, I think that like me, you will find that a turbojet engine and a pair of Rockomax 48-7s engines will grant you much more Delta-V in space, not to mention your ship will get to orbit way faster because the turbojet puts out twice the amount of thrust that the R.A.P.I.E.R. engine does.

You should refer to Vaos3712's Youtube channel for a side by side comparison of the Turbojet and rockets vs. the R.A.P.I.E.R. engine.

Edited by speedboiae86
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While initially, I was in love with the new R.A.P.I.E.R. engines, I think that like me, you will find that a turbojet engine and a pair of Rockomax 48-7s engines will grant you much more Delta-V in space, not to mention your ship will get to orbit way faster because the turbojet puts out twice the amount of thrust that the R.A.P.I.E.R. engine does.

You should refer to Vaos3712's Youtube channel for a side by side comparison of the Turbojet and rockets vs. the R.A.P.I.E.R. engine.

When the RAPIERs first came out, I actually did some data testing on them. Granted, I was flying manually, so variance is to be expected but what I found is that for what Frank_G is trying to accomplish and given the semi-brute force nature of his ascent profile, the RAPIER is an excellent choice. Now, countering my own argument here, you are correct that some OMS engines would be highly beneficial to in-space dV. I do not believe switching to a turbojet would make a world of difference, especially given the ascent profile he describes, but adding a pair of 24-77s or 48-7Ss would be huge as far as helping out overall dV once in orbit.

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When the RAPIERs first came out, I actually did some data testing on them. Granted, I was flying manually, so variance is to be expected but what I found is that for what Frank_G is trying to accomplish and given the semi-brute force nature of his ascent profile, the RAPIER is an excellent choice. Now, countering my own argument here, you are correct that some OMS engines would be highly beneficial to in-space dV. I do not believe switching to a turbojet would make a world of difference, especially given the ascent profile he describes, but adding a pair of 24-77s or 48-7Ss would be huge as far as helping out overall dV once in orbit.

My standard ascent profile is generally climb initially at 45, level off at 12,500 to 15-20 degrees depending on the plane, cruise to gain speed to at least 1,500 m/s, and then climb out of the atmosphere at 35-45 degrees, build ap to 80km, coast, and circularize.

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my new medium port transport spaceplane... 5 kerbals to LKO... but it's pretty technical to fly... have a strictly flight procedure to reach orbit and reentry... but have an exellent performance at low altitudes... so I made a jet version of it... to transport kerbals to bases arround kerbin... :P

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Here is new Kerbal design Ku-47 ssto,fully original made in kerbin;

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It was kinda painful to reach until 20k altitude,but after everything was great,around 200-250lt fuel left,which is enough to make dock,or even mun flyby I guess.

(it has one hidden jet engine inside)

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Stupid me...

While knowing that these things really kill my comp, I just can't resist to build big stuff:

First, a medium sized Cargo SSTO, payload of ~20 tons in a rather big cargobay. Well suited for bigger probes / landers / rovers.

It can do a powered landing on its tail.

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And then, the current pinnacle of my heavy SSTO construction skills, a yet unnamed behemoth that hauled 4*18 tons to orbit. The front is detachable and serves as a tug. ~240tons on the runway, 72tons cargo. Rather difficult to fly, it crawls to space on 6 nukes but it gets there eventually.

600 parts makes a 30 minute ascend take over 2 hours real time on my comp. Basically all stock + KER for SHP/inflight info.

It needs some fuel tweaking, had too much oxy left when reaching orbit. I underestimated the long highaltitude flight time it needed to accelerate.

I am rather happy how the design turned out, looks great and is suited for reusability.

The reason for 4 smaller cargo bays is that a single docking port sr can't really hold the weight of an orange tank on its own without wobbling and clipping through other parts of the plane. With 4 smaller payloads, this is not an issue.

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Fjord

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This is the sunrise SSTO. I developed it as an affordable way to lift crew and small objects to space for my ongoing mission report The Sunrise Manifest. Considering I really didn't think too hard about COM/L/T it's incredibly versatile and handles like a dream. Highest orbit achieved so far is 200 clicks, but it's capable of so much more.

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EDIT: I HATE the poor lift these swept wing craft have when flying unpowered, it makes gliding landings very difficult. I corrected this issue in my latest design using bigger wings. Now she glides in for landings UNPOWERED all the way. Beautiful.

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In case anyone was wondering why I have the docking port in that position behind the front most cockpit:

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Edited by TeeGee
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I don't like using part mods because I think they change the core game too much BUT I think this mod is pretty balanced with the stock game and I only use stock engine parts anyways (even though I'm probably gonna uninstall it).

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