Wanderfound

I'd second Kerbal Flight Indicators. It also makes aircraft landings much, much easier.

Actually, no; interplanetary Mk3's aren't that hard to do. Basically, you want enough RAPIERs to get off the runway, enough oxidiser to lift the apoapsis, an LV-N or two and as much LF as you can carry. Do that right and you can reach Minmus; stash some ISRU gear in the cargo bay and you can reach anywhere. To demonstrate: (that's a FAR ship, but the differences from stock aren't that big these days) Really, though, if you're going for interplanetary spaceplanery, you should be stopping for a top-up in LKO to replace the fuel expended during launch. It massively increases your capabilities, and an orbital fuel depot can be established for virtually zero cost if you lift the fuel via spaceplane tanker.

You might want to look upthread a bit. Lifting bulk payloads (orange Rockomax scale) to LKO is not difficult; neither is interplanetary range.

Speaking of orbital fuel depots... Lifting a loaded orange tank costs about √6,000 in FAR and not much more in stock. Once you can do that, everything else is easy. Big stuff is simple to launch when it can arrive in orbit with empty tanks, and interplanetary gets a lot easier when you can replace the 3,500m/s spent on reaching LKO.

It's troubling; the bug is bad enough that it is significantly impacting my design choices, but I don't know if it's frequently-occuring enough in stock for Squad to bother fixing it. I've yet to be able to generate a reliable reproduction scenario. If anyone else can do so, it would be useful to post it.

It's fairly simple to build a 2xRAPIER/1xLV-N ship that can manage a KSC to Munar orbit trip without a refuel. Add an orbital top-up and you can take the same ship to Jool and back. Two-seater, with some cargo capacity, well below √100,000 and about the size of a Learjet. (that's a FAR ship, but the capability gap between stock and FAR isn't much these days) Shave it down to a Mk1 fighter-sized ship, and you'll reach LKO but not much farther. Scale up to a Mk3 with some ISRU gear, and you've got a self-sufficient grand tourer with effectively infinite range.

A longer runway would certainly be useful. Skylon and the Silbervogel weren't intended to launch from normal runways. In the meantime... An RT-10 will burn out in about the time it takes to travel the length of the runway, and it doesn't hurt if they're mounted a little below CoM. Structural pylons make good mounts; no marks on the wing after they detach. Drop 'em in the water when you're done.

I'm coming in way late to this thread, mostly just to add: I love the title. We've all been there. But, like motorcycling, abseiling, and most things in KSP, once you get the hang of it you realise that it really isn't that big a deal. Just hang in there and eventually it'll click. In the meantime, make it easy on yourself by building not-too-big ships with well-balanced RCS. Walk before you run.

Unfortunately, while it has the size of a fighter jet, it also has the cost of a fighter jet. Big dumb rockets are cheaper by a hefty margin.

1) Because it was there. 2) How else are you going to get ~9,000m/s ÃŽâ€V and tolerable TWR out of a crewed reentry-capable craft not much bigger than an F-16? But, yeah, there isn't a whole lot of practical application for it in standard career KSP. All the complexity of an SSTO minus the financial efficiency. Disposable rockets are cheaper than disposable jets.

To be honest, that one could probably manage without the RATO. But it is a handy trick for bigger things, and easier than you'd think. Monoprop landers are heavy, but very compact. They're a good choice for weight-tolerant but space-limited applications like this.

Alternately: it's on the equator, about a third of the way up the east coast of the continent that looks a bit like Africa, east of some mountains and west of some islands.

You don't have to do anything you don't want to; it's Kerbal. But if you want to, planes are good for survey contracts, test contracts and exploration contracts (see the Anomaly Surveyor contract pack...) on Kerbin, Duna and Laythe. None of those require SSTO building abilities; interplanetary aircraft can be lifted via rocket if necessary. But if you can do SSTOs, they also allow delivery of low-bulk cargo (Kerbals, fuel, satellites, lightweight probes) to LKO for virtually no cost. And once you can lift fuel easily, using an orbital depot to top up your SSTOs in LKO gives them the range to head off interplanetary.

Kerbodyne Dragoon. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/zskoxm5c8mja9n0/Kerbodyne%20Dragoon.craft?dl=0

Eh? 1) Accept "test hammer" contract. 2) Use the hammers to send as many tourists as you like on suborbital hops. Or, alternately: 1) Put a crew capsule plus goo pod on the launchpad. Do crew report, goo observation, EVA report. Recover vessel. 2) Do the same thing on the runway. 3) Unlock the first few nodes of the tech tree, which gives you enough tech for an LF rocket which can reach orbit.

Minibus II. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/t8jctt60ftiah4i/Kerbodyne%20Minibus%20II.craft?dl=0

Kerbodyne Minibus. Crew transfer on the cheap. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtna3pgqzepmkwd/Kerbodyne%20Minibus.craft?dl=0

I've been messing around with some heavy rocketry... Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/mx3nn9yinb2t1vk/Kerbodyne%20Anylander.craft?dl=0

Previously, I would have gone with a pointy cockpit and smaller intake. But with the new intake flow-through drag reduction...

Alpha: got a new racetoy for you. Kerboracer D. Fast, easy to fly, tight turner. Very good on Dundard's. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1nbc8t04ak5m7i/Kerboracer%20D.craft?dl=0

Kerbinside has a new track... - - - Updated - - - Kerboracer D. Fast, easy to fly, tight turner. Just the thing for your racing needs. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1nbc8t04ak5m7i/Kerboracer%20D.craft?dl=0

One of the flaws of stock aero vs FAR is that stock tends to demand lift a bit further forwards than it should, resulting in hunch-shouldered planes or an overabundance of canards. However, there's also the point that (in stock or FAR) your CoL does not need to be that close to your CoM. It can be if you want it to be, but it doesn't have to be. The design guides insisting that the markers should always overlap are based on old stock aero; they're outdated.

If you want the cheap and cheerful option: reenter over the ocean, get as slow and low as you can, bail out. Kerbals are remarkably splash-resistant these days.

A slightly different one: Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/li9jzb03lsl1hnl/Kerbodyne%20Lancer.craft?dl=0

Kerbodyne Lancer. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/li9jzb03lsl1hnl/Kerbodyne%20Lancer.craft?dl=0