UA Industries UnusuAl Payload Solutions (FAR SSTOs and other ships)

[UnusualAttitude]

Developing a series of SSTO FAR stock part space planes designed to lift any type of payload and maximize profits when performing contract missions.

First offering, the Totale, coming soon...

[Guest]

Cool! Looking forward to see what's in there

[UnusualAttitude]

A Mk3 space plane with a KR-2L main engine!

Specifications:

Max Recommended Take Off Weight: 230 tonnes

30.2m x 36.3 m

16 turbojets

1 KR-2L rocket

Part count: 185 with orange tank payload.

Sample payloads:

One full orange tank to LKO

Standard Contract Station (Cupola, Hitchhiker, Science Lab)

Design Notes:

After many exasperating fails with combinations of overheating multi-RAPIER and -Aerospike clusters, I decided to go with a bunch of turbojets and... one big rocket. The KR-2L has a good enough in-vacuum ISP and an awesome TWR (nerf coming, I assume? make the most of it while you can...).

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, one of Ferram's excellent mods was a necessity from the start. Actually, I did build the first version without, but it collapsed on loading. You're welcome to strut it to death if you can afford the part count...

The jets and lateral tanks would have to be mounted away from the fuselage to avoid the cargo bay doors glitching through the top of the tanks when opening (harmless I know, but unsightly; wouldn't it be nice if we could adjust their travel?), hence some huge inertia that was dealt with by means of many large SAS units.

The location of CoM, close to the rear of the cargo bay, is FAR from ideal but it was the only way I found to make it reasonably stable at high altitude (with Vernors taking care of the rest), and at the same time get around the massive tail-strike potential of that monstrosity sticking out from the rear. But it turns out that even with the heaviest thing you can stuff in there (an orange tank), by reducing the fuel load of the plane, the CoM offset is acceptable. With lighter payloads, it is trivial. I will definitely review the design once we get longer landing gear and larger wing sections, however.

Required Mods:

FAR 0.14.6 http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/20451-0-90-Ferram-Aerospace-Research-v0-14-6-12-27-14

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55657-0-90-Kerbal-Joint-Reinforcement-v3-1-1-1-15-15

Recommended Mods:

Pilot Assistant (highly recommended), KER, TAC Fuel Balancer.

Action Groups:

1)Toggle KR-2L 2)Toggle inboard jets 3)Toggle outboard jets 4)Toggle inboard intakes 5)Toggle outboard intakes 7)Lower flaps 8)Raise flaps 9)Toggle solar panels 10)Bay doors

RCS toggles Vernors.

Pilot's Notes:

Use flaps and main engine to assist take off. Rotate gently: tail strike is still a risk! Use inboard intakes only up to 15k.

Climb as steeply as possible to 10k then shallow out to gain speed. Time acceleration is fine, although she may pitch up when coming out of time acceleration: be ready to catch her.

You want to get as close as possible to Mach 4 at 25k. Vernors on and no time acceleration above 22k. Keep angle of attack below 20 degrees. She may pitch back down, but will recover eventually. Deploy the flaps if the sink rate is too high.

Kill outboard jets then inboard jets as air runs thin, then close intakes. Light main engine as soon as airspeed drops. Hold 20 degrees AoA until time to apoapsis reaches 2 minutes, then burn prograde until you reach your desired apoapsis.

Re-entry: shift all remaining oxidizer back but keep some LF in the orange tanks for the jets. From 100k orbit, put 32k periapsis well east of target. Use Hold Prograde down to 25k then pull up gently whilst kicking in the jets to recover to level flight at about 12k. Flaps may help.

Now you've read the Fine Print:

Totale with Station Module

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w34lqrav8hjlzfq/Stock%20Totale%20w_%20SSU.craft?dl=0

Totale with Fuel Unit

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n32sn8dpokvhkig/Stock%20Totale%20w_%20Standard%20Fuel%20Unit.craft?dl=0

Here's my shakedown, in pictures, with a nasty surprise at the end...

imgur.com/a/n5iYM/embed

Edited February 16, 2015 by UnusualAttitude

[THE NARWHAL]

what kind of sorcery is this!? are you a madman? that plane will kill us all! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

but nice plane, reminiscent of a 747 in its size. well a 747 on the beefiest 'roids ever conceived anyway.

[UnusualAttitude]

what kind of sorcery is this!? are you a madman? that plane will kill us all! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

but nice plane, reminiscent of a 747 in its size. well a 747 on the beefiest 'roids ever conceived anyway.

Yeah, a Mach 4 B747

Thanks for looking in, your feedback is welcome.

I'm working on something smaller and sweeter to fly, but nonetheless useful, for my next ship...

[UnusualAttitude]

​

[UnusualAttitude]

The ExAtmos LR was designed after the eco-kippie lobby succeeded on Year 2 Day 23 in banning the use of nuclear rockets within Kerbin's atmosphere. KSC appealed, citing Ferram's recent thickening of Kerbin's upper atmosphere as a justification of their use of nuclear power, but their attempts at explaining the meaning of Renold's Number fell on deaf ears. Who the hell is this Renold guy anyway? KSC however still wanted a spaceplane with range enough to perform most of their requested contracts within the Kerbin system without the hassle of orbital refueling, and the ability to go beyond Kerbin's sphere of influence if refueled in LKO. Following the ban, KSC refused to comment on the situation although Jebediah Kerman was quoted as saying "Awesome, Aerospikes are back!"

Specifications:

Take-off weight (max range variant): 61 tonnes

Four RAPIERS, two Aerospikes.

dV fully refueled in orbit: more than 3,800m/s

dV from LKO: more than 2,000m/s

ExAtmos LR comes with a long versatile cargo bay that can be used to carry all sorts of contract satellites, Science equipment, or extra fuel tanks. The version provided comes with RCS and Vernors for low-gravity landings.

Sample Missions:

Return flight to surface of Minmus, no refueling required.

Design notes:

Well, I don't like using nukes on spaceplanes. But I like going places with spaceplanes. And I don't like rendezvous and docking a spaceplane to a big laggy orbital refueling station. Maybe you will understand...

Required Mods:

FAR 0.14.6 http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/...-14-6-12-27-14

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/...v3-1-1-1-15-15

Recommended Mods:

Pilot Assistant (highly recommended), KER, TAC Fuel Balancer.

Action Groups:

1) Toggle Aerospikes 2) Toggle RAPIERS 3) Switch RAPIER mode 4) Intakes 5) Toggle Vernors 7) Flaps down 8) Flaps Up 9) Solar panels 0) Cargo bay

Pilot's Notes:

Usual spaceplane stuff... try not to stall, flip out or crash, and hit Mach 4 above 25k before lighting the Aerospikes and switching the RAPIERS. Watch out for pitch-up when switching to rockets: the high wing does wonders for stability above 20k, but the price is a slight pitch-up moment when under power. Open up gently. Climb steep until time to Apoapsis is close to 2 min, then cut out the RAPIERS and continue on Aerospikes. I managed to get up to 2,100 m/s of dV from a low Kerbin orbit.

Now you've read the Fine Print:

ExAtmosLR with additional fuel tank: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pt8328wqnapnnhc/ExAtmosLR.craft?dl=0

Test flight to Minmus:

​http://imgur.com/a/u3PXL

Edited February 28, 2015 by UnusualAttitude