SSTO Planes For Beginners

[armor22222]

So you may have seen a video from (you-tubers name here) and thought 'Wow I wish I could do that. But you failed and thought WHY DON'T YOU WORK???

well I'm going to help you with that.

Here's a few basic rules to help you:

1. It must fly like a plane and be able to turn and pitch easily.

2. The center of mass must be a TINY bit in front of the center of lift. This will help with stability in sub-orbital flight.

3. the center of Thrust must line up with the center of mass.

4. the less fuel tanks the better. when the fuel burns the CoM shifts around and will make you flip out.

5.AIR INTAKES let you run the jet higher up. also one turbo engine is easier to work with when you flame-out.

6. For first flyers Mechjeb is also very helpful because it will help you to not flame-out (engine runs out of air)

7. RCS may help to control in higher altitudes when flaps and winglets wont work as well.

Engines:

For your jet engines ALWAYS use the turbojet engines. They have more thrust and a better ISP where you will be needing it, in high atmosphere.

For your rocket engines you can use most engines, but my favorite is the aerospike because it has good thrust and good ISP even in the low atmosphere. Using nuclear engines is not recommended because they have bad thrust and most of the time wont be able to lift you out of the atmosphere. If you want to use them make sure you have AT LEAST 1.7 km/s of speed in the atmosphere.

Here is one of my creations (stock). http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/the-dragonfly/

for fuel line help: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/45304-Fuel-flow-from-outside-to-center-tutorial-%28COM-solution%29

good video help:http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/39141-Tutorial-How-to-make-your-first-SSTO

post more tips to improve help!

Edited August 22, 2013 by armor22222

[buzz66boy]

I was looking at this and thought, "wow, that is one familiar design". Just by chance, did you watch my video? You might want to look at my final design (which is identical to yours except the cockpit and mj). I'm not saying you copied it, but it does seem like a crazy coincidence.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/39141-Tutorial-How-to-make-your-first-SSTO

Edited August 17, 2013 by buzz66boy

[armor22222]

Oh ya... I can put in ur name if you want. I just thought I might try to help the other newbies on the forum. ill put one in I made

Edited August 17, 2013 by armor22222

[Aqua667]

I thought that the CoL was supposed to be slightly behind the CoM? Nice tutorial, but seems a little simple.

[buzz66boy]

Oh, it wasn't that big a deal. You didn't have to swap the images. I was just pointing out the similarity.

[armor22222]

No worry's. I just didn't want to be stepping on someone else's feet.