Wanderfound

If it's on the runway and the pilots are alive I'll take it, but again: asterisk on the leaderboard noting the messy landing. And it needs to be an attempt at a good conventional landing; no deliberate crashes. This ain't the egg-drop challenge. A clean fast landing isn't too hard; you can keep it supersonic until very close to the runway if you use some sharp S-turns to wash off speed just prior to landing.

New entry from me; quicker, but not quick enough. 16:57 Full album at http://imgur.com/a/I7i1M Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/5mu18zdorn350yr/Kerbodragster II.craft?dl=0

Use it if you must, but there'll be an asterisk on the leaderboard noting it.

Shouldn't be needed; RAPIERs draw evenly from all tanks. Wanted to make sure it was a jetplane race rather than a contest of winged rockets.

Not quite a winner (1,743.8m/s), but up in the running and doing it with style: Album at http://imgur.com/a/H3z2y Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/s7l2m9vkgcxot4f/Kerbodyne Fireball.craft?dl=0

You can make a NASA-style vertical launch reentry glider if you want, but they aren't good for much. If you just want to go interplanetary SSTO flying, see: & Basic tricks: * Wings and airbreathers to get up to 30,000m/1,500m/s. * Just enough oxidiser to lift the apoapsis over 70km. * One or two LV-N's and as much LF tankage as you can carry. * Either an ISRU rig or a docking port and orbital refuelling. * Stable enough to handle rough-field landings.

Yup. Get up, circularise, get back down. You can go around an orbit if you want, but that'll give you a very slow time.

* Unkerballed probes to absolutely everywhere, whenever a transfer window comes up. Sample returns if you can, one-way missions if you can't. * Establish a large fuel depot / crew transfer station in orbit. It's much easier to explore the system when you can refuel after launch. I'd recommend using the large docking ports to join sections; wobbles are no fun. Put a Poodle or some nukes on one end so you can reposition it. * Build yourself a decent reusable SSTO tanker to keep the fuel depot filled for minimum cost. * Jool has lots of variety. Moho is an interesting high-ΔV challenge. Eeloo takes ages to get to. Eve is pretty but a deathtrap. Dres is a sad and lonely space potato.

This is a dead simple challenge: * Build an SSTO spaceplane. Must be purely RAPIER powered, although you can use as many or as few as you want. Must be a winged, HOTOL conventional spaceplane. * Take off from KSC runway, get to an orbit of at least 70x70, return to KSC runway. Simple. * No parachutes or other against-the-spirit trickery. Fly to space on wings, establish an orbit, fly back to KSC as fast you can. Wheaton's law applies; if in doubt, ask. * No mod parts, no performance-altering mods (except for optionally FAR). Informational mods are fine, but fly it yourself; no Smart A.S.S. or other autopilots. * Separate leaderboards for stock aero and FAR. * Prove your time with a screenshot showing you in orbit and another showing you stopped on the KSC runway. Extra shots detailing the whole flight are welcome. * Post your craft file as well. * Fly in the morning if you want a well-illuminated ship. Demo Run Orbital return time of 20:07. I know that I can do better than that. Can you? Full album at http://imgur.com/gallery/yGcVO Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/wt8jqrlps5kjbir/Kerbodragster.craft?dl=0 LEADERBOARD STOCK Obi_Juan, 11:09 Nefrums, 11:17 Wanderfound, 16:57 NightshineRecorallis, 19:17 FAR

Learjet style aft outriggers? A screenshot of your ship would help.

You shouldn't need anything big and complicated for this. Try something similar to this, but with the LF/O tanks swapped for pure LF and the RAPIER swapped for a Whiplash. Note the slight wing incidence; to minimise fuselage drag, you want to set it so that your nose is pointed prograde when you're flying at speed. A few degrees is usually enough.

I normally use one of the offset tail mounts with Mk3's, in order to get sufficient ground clearance on takeoff and landing: Tail engines just above CoM, wing engines just below CoM, overall CoT all nicely balanced to be in line with CoM.

Kerbodyne Grand Tourer SSTA. Full mining and science rig. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7lvjoqxm48omzc/Kerbodyne Grand Tourer.craft?dl=0

Kerbodyne Grand Tourer Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7lvjoqxm48omzc/Kerbodyne Grand Tourer.craft?dl=0

A sportscar alternative for inspiration: Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7lvjoqxm48omzc/Kerbodyne Grand Tourer.craft?dl=0

It won't build you a map, but it will tell you what you're flying over in a low orbit.

The mid-range orbital scanner is almost as good, and much more compact: Or you could just go for the ground-only scanner, and use the room for a materials bay instead. This one is using two fuel cell arrays tucked above the ISRU. The fuel consumption is irrelevant, as you only ever activate them while you're mining & refining; a pair of solar panels cover normal power usage. The fuel cell arrays also provide all the power storage needed.

Just keep the nose up as you reenter: As for a basic design idea: Two Panthers, one Twitch (for circularisation and orbital manoeuvres), two Thuds (for apoapsis lifting).

Each to their own, certainly. I do like my hotrods, though. And they've definitely got the range to get wherever they need to go. Lotsa nuke and lotsa wing vs lotsa thrust and minimal wing; alternate build philosophies. They both work; option 2 is easier to get to orbit, option 1 may be a bit easier on atmospheric landings.

My reason for liking extra thrust isn't so I can get over Mach 6; it's so I can maintain Mach 6 while in a steep climb. Flying below 25,000m is good because you can accelerate on air-breathers. Flying above 50,000m is good because negligible drag. But between 25 and 50km is dreadful; worst of both worlds. If you're in level flight when you hit 25km, you're going to lose a huge amount of energy to drag. With enough jet thrust, you can throw your plane into a ballistic trajectory that gets you through the mid-atmosphere drag zone as quickly as possible.

Built for FAR, and a bit old now, but the basic ideas should be obvious: https://kerbalx.com/Wanderfound/Kerbodyne-Panther https://kerbalx.com/Wanderfound/Kerbodyne-Panther-Twin Panther based SSTOs are very doable, but they're limited in range and capacity. Light cargo and low orbit only. Basically: low weight, low drag, get as high and fast as you can before adding the rockets. Carry a bit more oxidiser than you would on a higher tech SSTO; the rockets will be burning for longer. Thuds, Terriers and Swivels are good for the oxidising phase. Low tech parts have low heat tolerance; use a gentle reentry and keep your nose high until you level off.

Yup. Cobra-style it; you can come in easy if you do it nose-up. Less-stable ships may need to keep the pitch down a bit lower to maintain yaw stability, but the theory is the same. Just keep the nose up until your vertical speed settles down to a comfortable rate.

Kerbodyne Planet Hopper #6 Gallery at http://imgur.com/gallery/dCj99

Sufficient wings on Laythe: Switching the ISRU on and off constantly is a nightmare; you're going to have to mine for months at a time. I'd strongly recommend a couple of Fuel Cell Arrays. A single RTG might be useful if you're prone to forgetting to extend your solar, but it won't make a significant contribution to ISRU power. As I said, it will work with two jets. But it'll be a slow and painful climb to orbit, and you'll arrive with near empty tanks. If you get a bit more jet thrust, you can make a more efficient ascent that puts you in orbit with enough fuel left to reach Minmus. I usually try to make my final ascent into a bit of a zoom climb; gain speed to the edge of toasting at 15,000m, pull up just enough so that the apoapsis breaks 30,000m before the jets lose puff, add the nukes as soon as you're over 20,000m and keep the jets in open cycle until they choke at 30,000m. Pop the apoapsis over 70,000m on closed cycle, then shut down the RAPIERs and keep the nose prograde and the nukes burning until you've circularised. Two nukes gives more room for error on the final ascent, and makes interplanetary burns less tedious, but there's a big weight penalty.

First impressions: * You need way more power generation to run that ISRU * You don't need that much wing * Although it'll work with two and two, it'd be a lot easier to fly with more jet and less nuke.