Hi, I am new, and can I have help?

[Kerbonautics]

Hi, I'm Kerbonautics, or you can call me Kerby.

I'm new, as I said, and I am having some issues with space planes.

Can someone explain how to build a SSTO?

Your fellow Kerbal,

Kerby

[Captain Sierra]

Oh dude, little early to be going for SSTOs.

A Single-Stage-To-Orbit craft is about the most complex piece of engineering you will build for Kerbin.

The basic tips I can offer is:

1. To build an SSTO spaceplane, you need to cruise up at 20,000m altitude and reach 4-digit speeds, at least.

2. Bring higher efficiency rockets like the aerospikes or the LV-T45.

3. The RAPIER is not as great as it may seem and I'd recommend the use of a turbojet+LV-T45 combo instead.

4. Take a look at the stock Aeris 4A. Its a rather poor design by itself, but it can be good reference material.

Are you having trouble with planes in general or just spaceplanes? Because there is an entirely separate series of tips I should be giving you if you can't build a normal non-spacefaring jet.

Either way, good luck with it man.

[iFlyAllTheTime]

Welcome to the forums!

These are from the wiki:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Basic_Plane_Design

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Basic_SSTO_Design

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Spaceplane_basics

I highly recommend these:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52080-Basic-Aircraft-Design-Explained-Simply-With-Pictures

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/65638-Basic-Airplane-Space-Plane-Aero-Tutorial

Although, as Sierra said, there's a ton of other things you can do before starting to make things harder for yourself.

Either way, Enjoy!!

[Pecan]

For your first SSTO:

Stayputnik probe core

Inline Reaction Wheel

FL-T200 fuel tank

48-7S engine

For your first spaceplane - nick one of the ones from the tutorial in my signature and wait until you've got used to all the building tools and flight-characteristics of KSP before designing your own.

(SSTO rockets are very easy to build and fly. Spaceplanes are hard to build and fly.)

[Cirocco]

Hello, welcome to the forums and yes, you can have help

I'm a pretty big SSTO spaceplane nut myself. The guides and tutorials that iFlyAllTheTime linked you are very solid and should definitely help you get to orbit. It all depends on what exactly you want out of your SSTO's though. Do you want a cargo hauler or a crew transport? Maybe an exploration vehicle with a lot of science equipment? Do you want to go to LKO (Low Kerbin Orbit) or do you want to go interplanetary?

The guides should help you get to orbit. One more tip for your flight profile with SSTO spaceplanes (this assumes you are using the stock aerodynamics):

start with a steep (45 to 60°) climb to about 15km.

once you are at 15km, level out to a shallow (20° or so) climb, keep climbing and gaining speed to roughly 20-23km. At this point your speed should be above 1000m/s

once you start noticing a difference in the way your engine sounds(always use turbojets for airbreathing engines by the way, basic jet engines don't function well at high altitude) or if you notice your plane suddenly starting to bank left or right, immediately cut your airbreathing engines and switch to rocket engines.

At this point you are basically flying a rocket. Angle up to 60-80° and burn upwards until you get out of the atmosphere. Circularize on your apoapsis and you have orbit.

This is not the most efficient way of getting to orbit with an SSTO, but it's the best way to go about it for the first few tries in order to get a feel for SSTO spaceplane flight.

[Kerbonautics]

Wow, thanks guys. I built one with your help and it is pretty bad a**. Thanks!