Frank_G

These things are creepy... Feels like watching a weightless two legged spider... But very well done! From the motion i like version 2 best. It moves smooth and the motion appears more round than those of the 3rd design series. I will keep an eye on this thread. Its really fun and interesting. Keep going!

Thanks! I think, i will try that flight profile. I usually use between 1.5 to 2.5 Intakes per engine.

I think spaceplanes are great and fun to fly. Some tipps i can offer are: Construction: - Keep your first designs light and small. Dont concentrate on payload... first bring a plane into orbit, then think about upgrading the design to fulfill some purpose. - Take a look at the R.A.P.I.E.R engine. Its your friend. - With FerramAeroSpace installed, as mentioned above, aim for about 4k of delta V. That brings you into almost any desired circular orbit, even to the mun and back. - Dont fall for the Air Hogging trick... it is not necessary. In fact it increases drag by a large amount, making your plane very inefficient. - Keep the center of lift slightly behind and slightly above the center of mass. (see picture) - Keep the center of thrust in a horizontal line with the center of mass. (see picture) Flight: - Ascend as fast as possible to about 10000 m, at best at a high angle like 50 - 60°. - Reduce angle to something between 10 - 20°, make sure you continue to climb. - The plane will start to build up speed now. Reduce throttle as your plane starts to accelerate faster, this will reduce the amount of intake air needed. - Watch your intake air, either by right clicking one of your planes intakes or through the resource panel, when it gets close to 0 switch to rockets and close your intakes to reduce the drag. - When reaching the point where you have to switch engine modes, you should have a flight altitude of about 32.000m and a speed of at least 1.500 m/s. - Increase the flight angle to 45°, then continue like circularizing orbit with a rocket. I hope this will help you.

I really like the new Kerbodyne parts, but actually the mission and the needed thrust decides which part is used best. I don´t like to go overpowered. Flying efficient is much more satisfying and demands sticking to the mission plan... so if something goes wrong there is instantly a challenge. Many think the new parts are overpowered. I say, they are just more evolved. Just like the NASAs planned SLS compared to older launch systems.

This is an excellent looking and compact design. I love the way you integrated those cockpits on the side. Well done!

I just did a redesign of my latest SSTO to make it lighter and come up with increased range. On the first test launch it reached LKO with almost 2k of delta V left, but it lacks the excellent flight capabilities of the original design. However, when not attempting fancy maneuvers it flies very stable. I hope to get rid off at least two intakes in the next design stage to reduce drag during orbital flight and get more atmosphere speed and better acceleration. Maybe it even works to lose one jet engine and replace the aerospike for 2 smaller thrusters. Regardless of the points i want to change on the next design, i am really satisfied with the looks of this craft. I especially like the way, the inline clamp-o-tron integrates into the form. I will experiment further with that design. The reduced wing span feels much more elegant in my opinion. And a mood shot i could not resist to take. And äh next time i will add some RCS thrusters, so the RCS tanks would have actual use... I hope you like it. [edit]: I forgot to say, all stock parts, no part clipping for those who are interested

I just did a redesign of my latest SSTO and did a little testflight around the Mun.

I used to design my stations prior to the mission, but after some months of gaming, all my stations looked somewhat the same. I then returned to just launching a predesigned station core or main truss and add stuff according to the current needs. The results are more satisfying and unpredictable and it creates more interesting gameplay as you sometimes need to rearrange the modules before being able to attach new parts.

Nice retro style. I found it very helpful to create small SSTOs to test and understand the physics. 3 months ago i was fighting to reach orbit with all my SSTO design attempts. Now almost every design makes it into orbit after only a few testflights and tweaks.

Assimilation confirmed. You are one of us. And yes, the KSP community is really special. Thats why i like it here best.

I installed the little KerbQuake Mod and did an IVA HKO flight with RasterPropMonitors and lotsa cams installed on my craft... sometimes the little things do all the tricks. And all it adds are shaky cams... makes IVA flight feel so much more alive. Awesome. I cant wait to see, what SQUAD will come up with visual candy, when they get to polish the game.

I love to look at space pictures and movies of rocket launches and regularly search the web for such stuff... and in the last months of 2013 i discovered more and more KSP pictures during my searches until it got my interest... i went over to the KSP Page, watched the movies, checked on youTube for some lets plays and instantly fell in love... bought it... and it eliminated all other wishes to play different games in the blink of an eye...

My heart nearly stopped... in the first moment i thought the picture was showing an already finished piece... Well, i wish you good luck! I´d like to see you succeed with your bold plan

I tried a side mounted twin rotor design with IR mod myself about six weeks ago... but the forces ripped of the blades all the time... seems i have to get back to the drawing boards. Thanks for proving the concept

Yes! And besides being an occult way of meta gaming in some way, it is dangerous to play with the forces of the kraken. I myself go the conventional way, using engines only. As far as i know, the kraken drive has already made it into the ksp wiki.

My latest SSTO with excellent flight abilities and enough dV to manage a roundtrip from runway around the mun and back to the KSC. My most complex craft so far... a complete base consisting of lander, habitat, kethane drill and converter, power system, science system and floodlight tower. It also carried 2 rovers wich could be connected to form a construction vehicle. 4 kerbals landed with the base. And after finishing the mission, the middle section of the ship was separated from the rest of the base via decouplers and served as ascension vehicle. My best SSTO-VTOL, built for the Duna mission. It is not able to reach orbit on kerbin due to the lack of jet engines, but it can make a descent from duna orbit and get back up without refueling. It carries 6 kerbals and 4 big KAS containers.

Thanks for sharing this cool craft. I´ll give it a try tomorrow.

I find that mechjeb is a real helpful and versatile mod, but i switched over to VOID, because i only used mechjeb for information purposes. And i always try to keep mods that add new parts and different gameplay to a minimum. Most mods i have installed are audio / visual enhancements.

I have some memory issues in the VAB from time to time, but no clearly identified kraken attacks during the last 5 months. Before that time i wasnt aware of KSP and knew attacking kraken only from 1920s Horror Stories written by some H.P.L. guy and this Jules Verne dude...

My new Delta-Wing SSTO Prototype. Made it to orbit, to the Mun and safe back home. Stock parts only, no part clipping, no intake hogging.

I built and tested this little science rover today.

Thats a nice idea. Powered by ASAS? And will it be able to transport kerbals?

Well, today Bill and Jeb drove the new science rover through all kind of tests While enjoying the testdrive, Jeb wasn´t aware, that on return, Bob would have a little surprise ready for him... ...the all new Delta-Wing SSTO Prototype, ready to be taken for a testflight Jeb just couldnt wait, so he jumped into the cockpit right away... Climbs like an elevator... 65° upwards, hitting mach 1 just under 4000 m... Ferram Aerospace 13.2 installed. Orbit was just a little hop for the new Delta-Wing... so much dV left... can it go to the Mun? Departing Kerbin. And a nice little turn round the Mun. Approaching Kerbin. And safe back home. By far, the best SSTO i ever built... Stock parts only, no part clipping, no intake hogging... That was a nice day with KSP.

This update really adds some spice to flying and de-orbiting, especially space planes... Seeing the whole vessels structure getting äh more compact when hitting the lower atmosphere... ouch - Thanks a lot for the update!

I watched your video and i encountered the same problem with the inline clamp-o-tron. I had tweakable everything installed... after removing the mod, the issue was gone.