SSTO what to do to concerve fuel?

[endl]

OK, I've flown the plane you posted in post #41 and it has nowhere near enough air coming into it to provide enough thrust. I clipped extra shock intakes onto the current ones so there were 8 each side, (4 per engine, probably overkill for this plane), and it gets into space easily. Of course if you don't like part clipping then you'll have to find another way of mounting 16 shock intakes

BTW, you can use Mechjeb for flying space planes. Settings I used where 100km orbit and under "edit ascent path" I used 15 for turn start altitude, 35 for turn end altitude, 0 for final flight path angle and 20 for turn shape. Fly it manually up to 15 km and engage. As soon as your speed gets near 1900-2000 m/s switch to closed cycle and Mechjeb will do the rest.

Your plane is actually lighter than I thought so you probably don't need as many engines as I thought but it is really fun to fly with that much thrust. Also maybe move the rear wheels forward a bit so it is easier to get off the runway and some more tail fins as it can get a bit twitchy with the yaw. I don't think your RCS thrusters will give you side to side movement if you are planning to dock with anything.

welp i did it, thanks so much for all the help. ill be sure to +rep. im pretty sure i could have done it with even more fuel left over but my flying skills still suck.

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if anyone is interested in a 25t, 6 kerbal crew ship here is the craft file im not sure if it has enough fuel left over for a return flight but you can refuel it since it has a docking port. (it was mostly full at 130k orbit but after some translations to get it to my station at 150k i somehow managed to burn most of it)

all thats left is to give it an official name instead of mission designation, i think im going to go with Valkyrie. i named my science station odin ;p

Edited September 20, 2014 by endl

[Beachernaut]

Congrats on a successful spaceplane.

I did some experimenting while trying to maintain your core fuselage pieces and wing design. All of my experiments ended up longer. The short fighter type design requires the extra fuel tanks in the wings. No real way around that. However, I was able to come to a design that I think I may put into service. I need to rearrange the fuselage/tank parts to give better balance as fuel is burned, but it's good for a 150k orbit, and I was able to drop approximately 7 tons without the wing tanks and engines. Unfortunately, I had to go a bit away from your fighter type design.

[endl]

Congrats on a successful spaceplane.

I did some experimenting while trying to maintain your core fuselage pieces and wing design. All of my experiments ended up longer. The short fighter type design requires the extra fuel tanks in the wings. No real way around that. However, I was able to come to a design that I think I may put into service. I need to rearrange the fuselage/tank parts to give better balance as fuel is burned, but it's good for a 150k orbit, and I was able to drop approximately 7 tons without the wing tanks and engines. Unfortunately, I had to go a bit away from your fighter type design.

yea the side tanks are a must if you want to keep a short profile, from all of the aero science i read this is the only way i could figure out how to keep the high maneuverability profile of a fighter jet. since you went long i would go for more of a delta wing profile to give it a high glide aspect. i had a earlier design before this thread that was more of a "blackbird" jet type profile. i basically had 3 parallel fuselage with wings linking them and was able to hit a 110k orbit using rocket trajectory, but i deleted it a while ago since it was all out of gas by that point. im thinking about recreating it to see how well it can space if flown correctly.

Edited September 20, 2014 by endl

[endl]

here is the black bird i recreated it, the intakes still need to be balanced with 6 engines i need to figure out how many i need. also as you can see the COM and COL are really close with this set up so its easier to flip her(i could fix that by moving the wings up but its actually really fun with this balance). the benefit though is that it has the the same fuel but a bigger/empty cargo bay while only weighing 2 tons more then the fighter version

craft file

Edited September 21, 2014 by endl

[Wingblaze]

Everyone: Great thread.

endl: Listen to Wanderfound. Except for the marketing department. If you want an interesting experience/comparison, take some of his planes for a ride.

[Wanderfound]

Apart from the modified Benchmark posted upthread (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94077-SSTO-what-to-do-to-concerve-fuel?p=1425084&viewfull=1#post1425084), my stuff is all designed for FAR. It won't work in stock aero.

[Redshift OTF]

here is the black bird i recreated it, the intakes still need to be balanced with 6 engines i need to figure out how many i need. also as you can see the COM and COL are really close with this set up so its easier to flip her(i could fix that by moving the wings up but its actually really fun with this balance). the benefit though is that it has the the same fuel but a bigger/empty cargo bay while only weighing 2 tons more then the fighter version

Ah I see you are learning the art of optimisation! That's what I always liked about this game, build something you like and keep try to improve on perfection. It's also the best way to learn and when you go to build another project from scratch it is a lot easier as you have experience to draw from.

[endl]

Ah I see you are learning the art of optimisation! That's what I always liked about this game, build something you like and keep try to improve on perfection. It's also the best way to learn and when you go to build another project from scratch it is a lot easier as you have experience to draw from.

yea, i am lol. here is the finished blackbird, the finish crew ship, an alternate version of the crew ship with improved wing profile for better glide and an attempt at none sp+ version crewship still needs more thrust i think as well as some odds and ends.

craft files

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[Red Iron Crown]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but there was some discussion on the first couple of pages about difficulty using MechJeb for spaceplane ascent other than using SmartASS. In my recent experimentation with spaceplanes, I stumbled on another technique worth sharing (though it only works with planes of 1.2 or higher initial TWR):

1. Get off the runway manually and pitch straight vertical.

2. Make sure Prevent Jet Flameout and Manage Air Intakes are enabled in the Utilities window.

3. Open ascent guidance, set Orbit Altitude to 75km. Edit the ascent path.

4. In the Ascent Path Editor, change Turn End Altitude to 20km. Change Final Flight Path Angle to 10 degrees.

5. Upon reaching 20km altitude, adjust Final Flight Path Angle until the vessel is climbing slowly. (In subsequent flights of the same vessel, use this angle from the start)

6. Once apoapsis reaches 75km, MJ will start applying small bursts of thrust to counteract drag. Manually switch to your orbital engines (or engine mode if using RAPIERs) when the jets will no longer do it.

7. Let MJ circularize.

This is likely not a particularly fuel efficient way of doing the ascent, but it is much more automated than just using SmartASS. You can adjust Turn Shape and Turn Start Altitude to suit your preferences, too.

[Wanderfound]

This is likely not a particularly fuel efficient way of doing the ascent, but it is much more automated than just using SmartASS. You can adjust Turn Shape and Turn Start Altitude to suit your preferences, too.

The other way to fly to space with a lazy pilot: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94490-The-Hands-Free-Mission-Challenge?p=1433461&viewfull=1#post1433461