Wanderfound

Standard Clamp-a-trons and splitting the lander into two dockable sections appears to work. The magnet idea is worth looking into, though. The other option would be to just run a Module Manager script that beefed up the rigidity of Clamp-a-trons. Make the strutting assumed.

There will inevitably be an element of personal taste involved in any advice given. I find flaps very handy on large or slow cargo stuff, but I don't like planes pitching unless I tell them to. I find that having a pitch set by flaps or spoilers gets troublesome when you want to suddenly change that pitch. If I want a set pitch on approach, I'll trim up and counter the climb with spoilers. For slow climb, level and flaps; slow descent, level and spoilers; very slow descent, level and flaps and spoilers. I wish you could easily set spoiler level in flight like you do with flaps, but you can approximate it by counter-flaps. I always try to keep my flaps and spoilers balanced; those combinations get too messy if they aren't. It helps that I'm building more mid-wing than delta stuff lately; no need to balance canards vs elevators.

Yup, just caught that; leaderboard fixed. Sorry 'bout that. The designed-for-FAR version will probably be a touch quicker if anything. The CoL on the version you used is a bit further back than it should be. How'd you get it back up to Mach 7? A bit of oxidiser left? FAR-nerfed air breathers top out around Mach 6.

BTW, it looks like you're actually using the alternate designed-for-stock-aero Benchmark. The FAR version had advanced canards on the nose and a pair of AV-R8's behind them.

BTW, those of you having fun with the Benchmark, keep in mind that it's the test ship for these as well: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/91544-Spaceplane-economy-challenge http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90354-Spaceplane-speed-challenge-shortest-elapsed-time-from-runway-to-orbit?p=1346130#post1346130 http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/91511-Spaceplane-Speed-Challenge-2-Fastest-time-from-orbit-to-runway I'd be particularly keen to see some competition on the economy challenge. That could finally settle all of the "which is the best way to fly to orbit" arguments.

That actually wouldn't look too bad if you bronzed it...

A new time for the Benchmark! Off we go. Up. And away. Rocket time. Done. Back. Down. Turn, turn, turn. Just about. Done. Zoom. Get some approach room. And slow back down. Lined up? Nah. 24 minutes, 16 seconds. Obviously still room for improvement.

Strut-free extended-range compact-lander version of the Ranger at https://www.dropbox.com/s/nhq8hw5dcrhewqa/Kerbodyne%20Ranger%20XR.craft?dl=0 EDIT: nope, that one needs struts too. Unavoidable. I wonder if there's some sort of auto-clamp mod part out there?

Cool. However, one of the few rules: only one entry per category. So, which one is the entry?

Cool. It's been the turning around that's the hard part so far.

Normally, I would collect all of the science into an action group. You could easily do that by adding them to the door opening group. The problem with an unstrutted lander is that it sags through the bottom of the cargo bay on reentry. A Materials Bay doesn't weigh much; that's why it's on top. You could probably lose the small fuel tank and change from a Jr to a regular clamp-a-tron. Still risky, though.

Nuke planes are a bit of a special case. Start with a normal shallow climb, 5-25° depending on preference. Once you've maxed out your air-breathing height and speed, let the RAPIERs flick to oxidising and engage the nuke. Flatten out to about 5-10°. Watch your "time to apoapsis". As soon as it gets to a minute or so, kill the RAPIERs and fly on the nuke. Keep watching the T2A; flick the RAPIERs back on if it looks like it's going to hit zero, but shut them off again as soon as it stabilises. Aim to get your periapsis to at least 40 Km before the apoapsis cracks 70. Have a look at the fuel figures visible in the screenshots. I haven't tested Ranger beyond LKO, but I'd expect it to do the Mun/Minmus easily without a refuel, and just about anywhere else with an orbital top-up. Do remember that it needs KAS strutting to work on reentry after a mission.

EDIT: Answer moved to post #3

Science could definitely use some work. Harvesting resources from space is daft, but harvesting knowledge is not. I'd like to see a much longer tech tree, with items unlocked individually rather than as groups, and science rewards for taking particular equipment to particular places at particular times. The price mechanism is already in place to unlock items individually; why group them? Science rewards that were biased towards investment in a particular direction of the tech tree wouldn't be bad, either. Launching comms satellites boosts antenna research, landing in new places boosts leg/wheel research, etc. Plus generalisable science rewards for the player to allocate however they want. Adds variety to science hunting, keeps an interest in science beyond the early game, channels specialisation but allows redirecting or avoiding it.

The Kerbodyne Ranger, your all-in-one let's-explore-the-universe package. Combined air-breathing nuclear propulsion allows extreme fuel efficiency in both orbit and atmosphere. This efficiency is put to good use in delivering a custom-fitted planetary science lander, ready to biome-hop its way across Minmus or the Mun. Jump in and go; the solar system awaits. Not slow. Large cargo bay custom-fitted to one Kerbodyne Microlander Pro. Capable of a land-and-return on any of the low-grav moons. More stable than it looks. Use KAS struts to re-secure cargo after initial deployment. Takeoff. Low speed aerobatic. High-speed high-altitude. Full speed range. Action Groups 1: Toggle nuclear rocket. 2: Toggle RAPIERs. 3: Switch RAPIER mode. 4: Toggle intakes. 5: Set trim to input (only if Enhanced Trim is installed). 6: Reduce flap deflection. 7: Increase flap deflection. 8: Open cargo bay and deploy solar panels. 9: Trigger spoilers. 0: Toggle Vernors. Craft file available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/woyrc5azsf4y12y/Kerbodyne%20Ranger.craft?dl=0 Designed for FAR. Requires Spaceplane Plus. Kerbal Attachment System or some other strutting solution highly recommended if cargo is to be returned to atmosphere.

A new time! One Kerbodyne Goblin XR ready to go. Upsy-daisy. Whoosh. Supersonic climbing. Circularise. Flip and hit the brakes. Out of gas. Dive in. Get it turned. And gas it back up. Chase the sun. Icarus! Ooh, pretty. Engines off for some hypersonic gliding. Time to bring it in. Drop and roll. Level off. Slowing... Slow. Bit too low. Line it up, throttle up a touch. Gear down. In we come. And down. Stopped, 19 minutes 11 seconds. Well done, Anald and Tombal. Still plenty of time to be cut, though; I took it very conservatively on the turn.

Interstellar means SF which means mod. Change it to "set up a desperate last-ditch colony on Laythe" and it might work in stock.

I'm fine with the leaderboards as they are; it'll be interesting to see who can Hyperedit or alt-F12 their way up fastest. Still keen to see what some folks do when they actually fly, though.

Last of the classics! Get it now before "all-stock" spaceplane completely changes in meaning! We bring you the pinnacle of the Kerbodyne flight trainer line: the Invector. Same polished aerodynamics as the Evangelist, now with space-going capability and enough fuel to reach escape velocity and beyond. Download at https://www.dropbox.com/s/07ahgji6q4v3y6q/Kerbodyne%20Invector.craft?dl=0 All stock parts, no mods required. Designed for FAR. Optional paintjob requires Kerbpaint. - Kerbodyne Invector Exceptional speed and stability. Able to be flown hands-off at high levels of time acceleration all the way from runway to orbit. High-visibility cockpit. IVA cameras optional. All-points landing gear greatly simplify touchdowns. Wing mounted spoilers further assist in descent control. Single-engine design reduces weight and complexity while preventing asymmetric flameouts. Mode-switching of the RAPIER set to manual by default. Change modes when you want to, not when the machine decides to. Perfectly stable behaviour at takeoff speed. Equally flawless in extreme altitude hypersonic regimes. Smooth across the speed range. Perfect control for subsonic aerobatics. Tolerates extreme AoA at low speeds. Action Groups 1: Toggle RAPIER 2: Switch RAPIER mode 3: Toggle intakes 5: Set trim to input (only if Enhanced Trim is installed) 6: Clear trim (only if Enhanced Trim is installed) 0: Toggle spoilers Fuel balance maintained via Goodspeed by design; if flying without a fuel-pump mod, manually transfer fuel from rear to forward tanks prior to reentry to enhance stability. The plane is stable wet or dry, and flyable even with a rear-biased half load, but keeping the weight centred will allow more margin for piloting error.

See my response on the Kerbpaint thread; it's a known symmetry bug. Kerbpaint is unmaintained zombieware, unfortunately.

Sorry if this is a standard FAQ, but as usual, 100 pages, dodgy search function, etc. Is there a simple way to exempt a part from reentry heating? All of my RPM cameras keep popping off like externally-mounted fireworks at remarkably low temperatures and it's getting a touch irritating.

To demonstrate:

It's a symmetry bug, related to the thing that messes up action groups. If you colour parts placed with symmetry, then move those parts, sometimes the colour "falls off" one of the parts. But it doesn't show until you leave the SPH unless you go to re-colour that part. The only solutions are to (a) leave the painting for the end of the design process, ( hover your mouse over a part and hit "P" to check it, © visually inspect once you're on the runway to make sure you haven't missed a small part somewhere.

1) It's up to the voters, not up to me. If the majority of the voters think that your ship fits the category, then it does. That's all there is to it. 2) The worst ship here beats the best ship never entered. Chuck it in for Best Mk3, then get to work on making a better one. You can always update the entry later if you choose. (I find Photobucket easier to deal with than Imgur, BTW)

That, or coming up with something that has enough DV to bring its orbit to a complete stop. Get that done, and I can point my reentry glide in whatever direction I like. I was hoping that I'd be able to use a spiral descent, but there just isn't enough air grip to turn in the stratosphere. I've got plenty of designs that can come to an orbital stop, but not in combination with a hyper-steep rapid ascent (the "straight up and down"option). I can manage straight up or straight down, but not both in one flight. I may have to settle for "fly 500km away while ascending, stop and turn, glide 500km back". The distance isn't too big a deal if you're doing Mach 6; it's the combination of distant plus slow at the bottom of the descent that's getting me.