evader

VS I wanted to rival the Pelican dropship form Halo and after many iterations, got a SSTO dropship working with a rear cargo bay door & ramp. It can't match the Pelican's lifting power but I believe it's got it beat in in-atmosphere speed, it has a smaller cross section, it has interplanetary travel capability like the Pelican if refuelling, and has overhead cargo bay doors for greater internal cargo loading and unloading flexibility. It's capable of 100x100km LKO if using VTOL briefly.Vehicles can load through the rear ramp & door though it's difficult & ship must kneel backwards (rover flipped in this case):Rear cargo bay closed:Internal superstructure that initially docks the rover and has a docking port for refuelling (older version shown below):

I have tried making a ramp for my Frog jump ship version B using airbrakes but the pistons got in the way so only Kerbals could pass through. For version C, I abandoned the ramp for a bunch of retractable ladders where the craft would have to kneel to load & unload. That resulted in a look of an unpressurized cargo bay with the rear cargo doors being invisible to anything that passes through. Finally, in version D, I went for a combination of retractable door & ramp using the DTS-M1 transmitters bound to an action group. Unlike the ladders, the antennas block stuff trying to pass through it until opened. The door is considered stowed so the MK3 cargo bay must be opened to use it. The ramp can be used at any time. This method allows stowed rovers to exit. Entering requires the craft to kneel though. The down side is that the antenna housings stick out and look ugly. Below is the craft kneeling but the rover drone flipped after entering (what appears to be the left antenna casing is really the rover's shattered 2x3 solar panel). Aerial para drop of rover (only without the parachute):

Move over Halo Pelican! There's a new anti-squidface response dropship: the Frog Jump Ship. Comes complete with a stock cargo ramp (air brake pistons get in the way so only Kerbals can pass through). Alright, so it can't make it to space (I'll have to concede to the Pelican in that regard) but it's nothing a few boosters can't fix. Cockpit faces upwards so must look down at feet to look forward. For this reason control is set to a probe in the cargo bay to correct the nav ball. I still don't have rover tech in science sandbox so I'm waiting until then to replace the probe and it will double up as the docking port for refuelling (and correct the nav ball orientation issue as well) and will come up through the roof somehow because of those pesky air brakes pistons block the way out through the rear ramp.

2 "WIP" craft (but really dead end designs that aren't practical): B-3 Soul (inspired by & spiritual successor to the B-2 Spirit). Found earlier versions made by others but thought I'd update their designs for V. 1.04. Don't point any lower that 25 degrees after take-off or will melt. Don't move in any way either while in atmosphere or will flip. RCS only rocket from Kerbin to orbit. Stages empty out so fast that it feels like driving a semi-trailer truck where you have to shift through 12 gears in rapid succession. Was accomplished by others in earlier versions but then RCS was nerfed so thought I'd give it a try for V. 1.04.

As promised, here are the SPH pics of my super biplane (but don't watch them until you've seen the video):

My 1st SSTO space plane to reach another planet. No mods of any kind, no refuelling, all stock, straight from Kerbin to Duna. Carried all science in my current tech tree (my highest tech is 2 hot thermometer in science sand box). Looks like biplanes are making a comeback. Sadly the kerbals will be stuck on Duna after a crash landing (not that I had any fuel left for the return trip anyways). Will post sph pics later.

There was this thread a while back of a SSTO with unlimited range using an ISRU in a small cargo bay.

Wanted to go on to a bigger MK3 cockpit VTOL design at any cost. Ended up with a design with no aesthetics or aerodynamic efficiency and uses brute force instead to reach orbit. Unfortunately I did not manage to get the hovering to work longer than 20 seconds but as a side effect, the backwards tilting allowed for the main engine to power it like a rocket. Technically it takes off vertically but is totally impractical (maybe for reducing speed for atmosphere re-entry).

Stock SSTO MK2 VTOL in game version 1.04 with no mods. Had a lighter version that had more dV left over while in orbit but decided I wanted a higher vertical take-off altitude limit so added an extra VTOL engine up front. Has a learning curve to it. It can deploy a small satellite and dock for refuelling. slightly older version: internal plumbing: satellite released: satellite in position:

After unlocking RAPIER engines, adding oxidizer to both MK2 bicouplers, shock cones, precompressors, and big-S wing parts, I did several test flights to see how it would handle in patch 1.03. To my kerbal's horror amazement, the space plane just kept going & going without stopping over or refueling in space. It came to a hair's length from Eve's orbit. I think it's the smallest space plane I've seen to reach that far, if not counting fuel manufacturing or refuelling (though I did not look around the forums that much). On the downside, it's much harder to take off since it became heavier and much less stable. Fuel transfer between parts must now be micromanaged while exiting the upper atmosphere so it doesn't flip over.

So an idea came up for one of the Kerbal engineers: why store oxidizer onboard when the space can be used for liquid fuel instead. After mounting twin turbojets on the back of 2 nuclear thrusters, an all liquid fuel space plane was born. It was extended to have a small cargo bay and MK2 docking bay. Despite its ugly look, it managed to reach slightly beyond mun range and (crash) land back on kerbin. Without needing oxidizer, the size was able to be kept down to that of a leer jet. Note that this was created with about 50% of the tech tree researched in science sandbox mode. Front View Back View Mun Range Cargo Bay Com Device in Cargo Bay

My 1st space plane to stay in orbit in v1.02 using stock parts (no mods at all) while taking off horizontally. Has a bit of spare fuel to get home. Looks plain but this was built while having less than 1/2 of the tech tree available. Unfortunately it's not single stage since it has to jettison its jet engine. Click on thumbnails for full resolution. "] http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/531769445569547431/CCA1E4C836E523C40ABC5D521324FE41C011EC45/' alt='a>'> http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/531769445569547493/7348950CD70CC324BCA6F7334C39D741DE25FCFD/]

Image captions: close-up special care must be taken not to hit runway with the tail cone handles like a sled but takes off after using entire runway gaining altitude to reach upper atmosphere to reach cruising speed reached orbit after bouncing off upper atmosphere at 2000 m/s and activating rocket that's disguised as fuselage showing sustained Kerbin orbit What started out as an F-14 replica morphed into a SSO re-usable aircraft. Getting the twin jet bodies to attach to the rocket while keeping balance was the hardest part. Once I found out this craft can reach orbit I added 2 basic solar panels, 1 RCS nozzle using the cockpit's built-in RCS fuel, thermometer, 2 z-100 batteries, and Comms DTS-M1 antenna. I didn't reach tier 7 in career mode yet, except for high altitude flight, so it turned out looking stubby. Do not point this craft's nose down more than 25 degrees or you'll send it into a death dive.

Image captions: close-up special care must be taken not to hit runway with the tail cone handles like a sled but takes off after using entire runway gaining altitude to reach upper atmosphere to reach cruising speed reached orbit after bouncing off upper atmosphere at 2000 m/s and activating rocket that's disguised as fuselage showing sustained Kerbin orbit What started out as an F-14 replica morphed into a SSO re-usable aircraft. Getting the twin jet bodies to attach to the rocket while keeping balance was the hardest part. Once I found out this craft can reach orbit I added 2 basic solar panels, 1 RCS nozzle using the cockpit's built-in RCS fuel, thermometer, 2 z-100 batteries, and Comms DTS-M1 antenna. I didn't reach tier 7 in career mode yet, except for high altitude flight, so it turned out looking stubby. Do not point this craft's nose down more than 25 degrees or you'll send it into a death dive.