Wanderfound

If you land elsewhere, the lost recovery percentage is included in your costs (so you'd need to do it in a career save instead of sandbox, to get the recovery cost numbers). It'd be hard to get a competitive ticket price without landing at least close to KSC.

About 1,000 ÃŽâ€V to get there, a few hundred to get down, not much to get back up and return. Make sure you've got some excess LF; judging the aerobrake to put yourself near KSC is quite tricky. 1,700 might do it, 2,000 would be a lot more comfortable.

Cool, competition. Ten Kerbals onboard and the fuel bill was: LF: 1159.63 at √0.8/unit equals √927.704 O: 1117.13 at √0.18/unit equals √201.0834 MP: 0 at √1.2/unit equals √0 Total fuel bill equals √1128.7874, for a ticket price of √112.87874 per Kerbal. Almost, but not quite there; I think I need to be a bit more conservative with the flying...

A low-tech long-range specialist: Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/wv1ipuj4c523hsa/Kerbodyne%20Beagle.craft?dl=0

If I was going to try and max out the range on a pre-RAPIER ship, I'd probably go for four turbos plus a central LV-T45 (the gimballing is useful enough to usually outweigh the efficiency cost, IMO; if going with an LV-T30 instead, be very careful with thrust alignment or you'll be doing backflips in space). Mk2 core fuselage, plus at least an FL-T800 in front of each turbo. Just enough wing to take off and land and you're set. It'd probably still need refuelling in LKO, but it should manage Mun/Minmus and back without taking any extra supplies with you.

Kerbodyne Simplex. Speaks for itself. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/vkgqpileq1b7ae2/Kerbodyne%20Simplex.craft?dl=0

Okay, another build/fly challenge, inspired by ye olde Laythe Capitalism thread. The challenge: fly some Kerbals to Minmus, then back to KSC. Lowest cost per Kerbal wins. All stock parts, no obvious hacks or cheats, if in doubt about a mod, ask. Rockets, spaceplanes, staged or SSTO; your choice. Stock aero and FAR/NEAR both okay. The demo run: Twenty Kerbals onboard and the fuel bill was: LF: 3264 at √0.8/unit equals √2611.2 O: 3370 at √0.18/unit equals √606.6 MP: 34.43 at √1.2/unit equals √41.316 Total fuel bill equals √3259.116, for a ticket price of √162.9558 per Kerbal. Ticket Prices (per Kerbal) Stock Aero Juzeris, 6 passengers, √21 Starhawk, 26 passengers, √44.52 FlipNascar, 14 passengers, √63.93 Speeding Mullet, 10 passengers, √97.3072 Foxster, 4 passengers, √122.5 FAR/NEAR Wanderfound, 10 passengers, √99.06704 Wanderfound, 10 passengers, √112.87874 Wanderfound, 20 passengers, √162.9558 UnusualAttitude, 52 passengers, √203.1

The only criteria I use is intended mission. LKO stuff gets smaller tanks, interplanetary stuff gets larger tanks. Most of the longer-ranged things are designed to land and return on Duna or similar. To LKO, one FL-T800 is usually plenty for a Mk1 ship, two do just fine for a Mk2. And if you push the limits, you really don't need much oxidiser at all...

Demo: Kerbodyne Wasp Lotek. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cmsvqy88y9qcrn/Kerbodyne%20Wasp%20Lotek.craft?dl=0

It's going to be much, much simpler to just do this conventionally with docking ports and RCS.

Yes yes yes. KSP is not friendly to those of us with less than perfect eyes.

Pretty much all of the three engine designs will work in any of three configurations: RAPIER/Nuke/RAPIER, RAPIER/Turbo/RAPIER or Turbo/LV-T45/Turbo. Option 1 for best range, option 2 for sporty performance, option 3 if 1 & 2 aren't available. Option 3 is the least efficient of the lot, so aim for something with a bit of fuel margin. And the late-tier control surfaces can be replaced by earlier ones with no significant harm except to the aesthetics, ditto for shock cones to ramscoops. Even an LV-T45 ship can do Munar missions, but not without refuelling. Send a fuel tank to Munar orbit along with the ship; refuel before landing. If you'd rather keep the nuke, just build a nuclear missile with a cargo bay and parachutes and strap some SRBs to it. A small tank on top of the SRBs can feed the nuke during launch.

When you look at it, make sure only the relevant engines are in the first stage.

Congratulations to our runaway winner, MajorJim, whose Eagle-1 is an absolute masterpiece of Kerboengineering in both form and function.

Kerbodyne Lear. To orbit in speed and comfort. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/nd4vrce09u5rcnr/Kerbodyne%20Lear.craft?dl=0

Kerbodyne Orca Tanker. Flies like a Mk2, delivers a Mk3 payload. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/5fehx8zs3moslwd/Kerbodyne%20Orca%20Tanker.craft?dl=0

Misbehaviour in space is probably due to offset CoM/CoT. Aircraft very rarely have perfectly vertically centred weight distribution. Just eyeballing it isn't enough; a tiny misalignment can cause a lot of torque. Use RCS Build Aid to check it.

Kerbodyne Mini N. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/r04bo2vmvl32bcn/Kerbodyne%20Mini%20N.craft?dl=0

Kerbodyne Mini. Even smaller, also nifty. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/14ozuzyspy4pdxs/Kerbodyne%20Mini.craft?dl=0

Kerbodyne Eyrie. Small but nifty. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/f3ij5r69ihpmrqj/Kerbodyne%20Eyrie.craft?dl=0 - - - Updated - - - Eyrie Lotek. Same airframe, different engines. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/l629wmiyec1c6sj/Kerbodyne%20Eyrie%20Lotek.craft?dl=0

Your engine thrust is hitting your tail, you don't have any pitch control surfaces, plus the short fuselage and rearwards weight bias are going to totally overwhelm your smallish vertical stabiliser. You're also probably having wingflex-induced wiggles in your landing gear during takeoff, and all those unnecessary radial intakes are causing masses of drag. See the first few posts in the Kerbodyne thread linked below for design tips.

Try swapping the aerospike for a turbojet and the lateral turbos for RAPIERs. Use the RAPIERs to drive a ram-air effect on the turbo during final ascent. Make sure that the tailplane is out of the RAPIER line of fire.

Your plane has no tail; it's not surprising that you have problems. Give it a pair of horizontal tailplane surfaces, each about half the size of the wings. Put pitch control surfaces along the rear edge. Then give it a vertical stabiliser the same size as one of the horizontal tailplanes, with rudders on its trailing edge. Put all of this as far back on the central fuselage as you can. What is that thing on the rear of the central fuselage? It's not a stock part. I'd recommend that you get the hang of building airframes in a standard FAR install before trying it in AJE.

Got an entry, but it's not the sort of thing I'd put up on the Kerbodyne thread. It flies fine, but it'll instantly explode if you touch time acceleration during the ascent, and requires a careful pilot during reentry. But it does deliver a lot of fuel... Fuel delivered:3,730 LF and 4,609 O. 9/11 ratio required, so only 4558 units of the O count. So, total effective delivery is 3,730 LF and 4,558 O, equalling 8,288 units of fuel in total. Total fuel bill including delivery: 8,443.47 units of LF and 9,397 units of O. LF costs √0.8/unit, while O costs √0.18/unit. So that's √6,755 for LF and √1,692 for O, making a total fuel bill of √8,447. Divide √8,447 by 8,288 units of fuel and we get √1.02/unit. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/hi3nwcn64yvzw94/Kerbodyne%20Titan%20Fueller.craft?dl=0

The Owl had enough engine to work, but excess TWR can cover a host of aerodynamic sins. Given enough power, a brick will fly. And there's no reason to go to orbit in a truck when you can do it in a sportscar. The general guidelines are "build something that looks like a real plane, check the FAR numbers, adjust as appropriate". Yaw problems call for more tailfin, roll wants dihedral or wingspan, down/forward means you need more lift or less weight. Get your CoM as far forwards as you can manage, and design to balance weightshift as the fuel drains. Have a look at my thread (linked in the sig). There are design tips and a few hundred example craft there. Most an of them can be flown as a drone by slipping a probe core into the cargo bay or similar. You might also get some use from my design vids (also in sig).