Zamolxes77

The launchpad got destroyed since your vehicle was too heavy. Is normal. You have to build them on the lawn, grass is tougher than concrete

Here's a caveman SSTO. Unfortunately the requirements to build it don't apply to this challenge, since you need upgraded SPH (88 parts) and runway (30.5 tons craft). But maybe someone can draw some inspiration to make a suborbital plane, to get to those darn contracts ! https://kerbalx.com/Zamolxes77/T3-SSTO-Minerva This challenge seems like a lot of fun, I think I'll try it too !

While tinkering with Junky, trying it to put it on a diet and shed some engines, as an accident, I fell upon a solution I previously discarded as being ridiculous ! Here it is, Minerva, a truly caveman SSTO, using 12 Juno engines and a reliant to take a pilot and 2 passengers in LKO ! Craft file on KerbalX : https://kerbalx.com/Zamolxes77/T3-SSTO-Minerva Is amazing but is faster, lighter and cheaper than Junky, with a slight hit in deltaV in orbit, but more than enough to perform 2 rescues. An additional science bay can be added with Goo canister, thermometer and barometer. Caveman says <ooooraaaah> "Me crush space with club !"

Careful with that. I prefer a worse take off experience than a harrowing landing. My aim was a smooth, balanced and easy aero breaking, so you can pick your landing location extremely easy :).

Nope. I tend to build my crafts as idiot proof as possible, as easy to fly as possible, with as little clipping of parts as possible. I'm curious how you will go about optimizing the wheels. I have a smaller plane SSTO into works, same tier, same parts, but aprox. half the size and cost. Unfortunately, that means also half the dV in orbit. Is closer to classic plane SSTO, having lots of air breathing engines to get it past the thicker part of the athmosphere: If flown correctly, you should have about 300m/s dV left in orbit, which is enough for 2 careful rescues and a deorbit: Cost and weight: Craft file: soon.

I finally added to KerbalX the craft file for tier 3 SSTO, called Junky. https://kerbalx.com/Zamolxes77/Junky Please let me know what you think about it and if it can be further tweaked.

Is finally done, I manage to create a synthesis of the different designs, looks sleek and flies very well. It can be flown very easily to remain with 600+ m/s dV in orbit, about 100 is needed to de-orbit, so you have 500dV left for orbital operations, including docking. Don't forget to shed the "hat" once you enter space ! As promised, here is the craft file, have fun https://kerbalx.com/Zamolxes77/T4-SSTO-mk7 If anyone needs other craft files from the planes I posted, let me know !

Mainsail is Tier 5 technology, is unlocked after Skipper.

I continued to refine my attempt at building a Tier 4 SSTO, first making it bigger: Then finally dumping the 1.825m parts and going straight to 2.50 metrs. Despite my sincerest efforts, I couldn't squeeze more dV out of the 1.825 m version, which in my opinion looks best. I also had to switch the cockpit, as a docking port on plane part looks weird: The 2.5m version has about 400-500 dV for orbit operations however it doesn't look as good. I tried to build a rocket only version, but the Skipper doesn't have enough TWR to push wings, wheels and all that into orbit and have enough dV. Gonna add the craft files to Kerbal X if anyone is interested to tweak them some more.

Off course, any suggestion where to host it ?

I continue my trend, exploring plane SSTO's on the lower end. This is my attempt for a T4 plane SSTO. Wanted to use some air breathing engines, and surprisingly, Wesley work pretty well. I also wanted to use the Skipper which is unlocked at tier 4 (5 on wiki, not counting the tier you start with, tier 0). Weighs little more than 2 reliants, but has nearly triple the thrust and more efficient, ASl and VAC. This is the first crude attempt, the thing looks mostrous, but flies like a dream, up down, atmo breaking ! Size of the Skipper makes it stick out like a sore thumb and using 2.5m fuel tanks makes it look extremely ...ODD. Naturally, I will try to tweak it some more. Ascent profile is easy: take off on Weasely's, AoA 20, at 2,000 meters try to level off, maintaining speed. At around 5,500 meters and 280 m/s, engage Skipper, go up to AoA 45-50, then fly it like a rocket into orbit. Takes 4 passengers and a set of science into LKO. Going to try to add a docking port, RCS and some solar panels, as well as increasing its range in orbit a little bit. Naturally, a chemical SSTO that takes off as a rocket and land as a plane is probably more feasible at this point, Skipper is very powerful.

Thanks, looks like prntscr is not that good anymore. i hosted on imgur, hope it works

Please try again, I inserted pics into post using insert image tool, let me know if you can't see them.

After many hours of tinkering and testing, I finally achieved my goal. A true plane SSTO that uses ONLY tier 3 parts or bellow. Is ugly as sin, requires moderate flying skills, takes a pilot and 2 passengers in LKO. Takes off the runway on 4 Juno, but you have to wait for end of runway and Reliants have to be engaged right at the end. Junos get turned off around 14km and Terriers get engaged. Reliants get turned off once you reached a 40 km Ap, and thing flies into orbit the rest of the way using only terriers. Reliants can be used for short bursts of speed when necessary. Entries on its back, to protect the basic wheels Is stable during reentry, maybe a bit too stable, has a problem keeping an AoA, so you have to bob up and down to make it break. I might have to tweak CoL more for an extremely smooth reentry, or add more reaction wheels. Has a service bay which can contain more batteries or experiments, as needed. Uses Junos to land fairly easy, just make sure is very horizontal, as there isn't much clearance, due to wheels being close to the body to minimize drag. Edit: After some refining, here is final form, with 700 m/s dV remaining in orbit ! I ditched atmospherics completely, not worth it to lug them around for the benefit they provide, just added few seconds of fuel. Moved stuff around, simplified, now is a pure rocket plane. Starts on runway, as it needs the lift generated by wings to offset TWR < 1.

Incorrect. That only matters on Kerbin or other planets that have atmosphere. Or you might want to explain how people are landing and taking off Mun with nuclear engines and TWR of 0.25 ?

Next stop, a mk3 plane SSTO that goes from KSC all the way to land on the Mun ! With room for 3,000 ore to bring it back for contracts !

It took me another 8 hours, but I finally made a plane SSTO using Juno's and a Reliant. It's gonna take a bit to tweak it for tier 3 parts (I want to see if I can use basic wheels). Takes 2 passengers into orbit, unfortunately, despite my best efforts, only has enough dV to come back down once in LKO: Maybe if I tweak burning points and amount of Fuel/Oxidizer will get more useful dV up in orbit.

I became obsessed with early SSTO's and spaceplanes. Here is a spaceplane made with tier 3 parts (tier 4 on wiki), the ones with basic Aviation: It uses basic wheels which explode at 1200 Kelvin. Solution, you have to enter atmosphere inverted, wheels "up" so to speak, so you break with the top of your plane instead of the bottom. Is balanced very well, very easy to fly and land. Despite my best efforts, front wheel explodes even when inverted, so I added 2 radiators attached to front cockpit and slided back, to help with cockpit heat dissipation during reentry. It seems to do the trick. While it can land with 1/4 of the fuel for orbital engine, more is not recommended, basic wheels are very, very weak so they might explode. Make sure you empty the Terrier engine tank to 1/4 or less, before attempting a landing. Once in LKO, you have 1100 dV, which is enough for a Mun flyby, or easily perform 2 rescues and take your kerbals sightseeing. Unfortunately it cannot dock as that tech is not discovered yet. The booster is quite expensive (~30K), as the plane weighs more than 7 tons, and booster is designed to be a remote piloted SSTO itself, using Reliant engines: On the upside, is easy to recover and fly, despite not having SAS. I added 3 inline reaction wheels and plenty of batteries and a Sputnik probe for remote pilot control. Lands on chutes, if deorbited correctly is easy to land in KSC vicinity, for 95% + recovery price. Has 9 tail fins on the bottom to offset CoL of the Spaceplane closer to booster CoM, to prevent instability during launch. If piloted correctly during launch, is quite easy to get into orbit. If you don't need that much dV in orbit, tank can be easily swapped for a FT-L200 tank, dropping plane weight to 5 tons, which significantly simplifies the booster:

Here is a streamlined design inspired by your Mk2 Spaceplane. Unfortunately is in vanilla, 1x Kerbol System : Uses tier 4 techs for plane itself and booster (inline docking might not be T4). Pilot plus 2 passengers in LKO, 800 m/s dV once in orbit. 7k dV using Junos in aero mode. Optimized for landing with rear tanks empty (the ones used by Terrier). It recovers the orbital engine as well. Off the pad, with booster: Bottom of the booster is filled with 12 tail fins, to offset the CoL closer to CoM, to eliminate instability during aero flight. Don't know if there is a different method, but this seems to work and it makes booster highly flyable.

How about a pic with the giant rocket, I love to optimize rockets, maybe another pair of eyes can give you ideas

Haven't played since they introduced a relative wing surface for command pods. All my crafts usually use their engine to break, no heat shields (100% reentry heat). So I started a new career, did my 1st suborbital flight, capsule flipped nose first and plunged into the ground killing Jeb. And Valentina. A series of flights followed, killing more kerbals, adding all kind of contraptions to the upper stage to make it fly properly, nothing helped. Until I noticed the description on the command pods.

Sad to hear it. I haven't played in a while and did not realized capsules now have a relative wing area associated with them. SO, I built my typical SpaceX SSTO, but as usual, did not add a heat shield on the payload stage. When I returned from Minmus, my craft flips over, nose first and dove straight into the ground, killing Jeb. It seems head shield now have that relative wing area and is the only way to keep a spacecraft pointed the right way. AFAIK.

After a 2 months hiatus, came back to do some contracts. Picked some "build station around planet X" contracts and I hit upon the idea of building a cool looking ship instead of a station, that can satisfy the requirements. I settles upon the CR 90 corvette from Star Wars, princess Leia ship that gets boarded. After more than 24 hours of building, during which I lost more than a few hairs (but I learned a lot about building techniques), is DONE. At almost a million credits, is quite an expensive piece of kit. While I tried to make a faithful replica as possible, only vanilla parts were used and Tweakscale. I optimized the ship for science/ fuel depot /hotel, it doesn't have guns like Leia's ship. I like to think corellians built a "S" version instead of "M". Many docking ports of all sizes, full SCI apparatus, labs and 2 RCS tugs: Hangar view. Is a heavy ship, not even fully loaded with fuel Engine view. Burn baby burn ! Sunrise. Side detail.

I'm not doing it to be efficient. If you want efficiency, rockets is the way to go. I'm simply sick of launching every mission, then having to fly the booster back every time. Also I'm looking for variety, something different, achieving something in fewer launches but in a different way. I also like a challenge, see what's possible to design using early tech. Internet is filled with SSTO's on which you slap rapiers on then call it good. Your out of the box idea seems interesting, basically an almost chemical SSTO, it might worth investigating. Well I'm at the point where a 25 ton (payload) booster isn't exactly cheap at around 40k. And most contracts for such missions pay around 100k. If I were to discard that, that would make the payout not really worth it. I'm going for a 100% recoverable career. A 20k booster won't cut it.

Very nice, thank you for the post. That should point me in the right direction. I have several questions: 1. Are you sure you don't mix up the modes ? Dry mode is when Panthers have cowlings closed, 300 m/s max, wet mode is when plumes are red and you go considerably faster, 2.6 Mach. 2. Why so many wings ? Did lift was severely reduced in 1.8 ? Or they provide high drag in upper atmosphere for quick deceleration, to avoid overheating (I used to do that)? 3. Why Swivels ? Only for gimbal ? They weight more and they're less efficient than Reliant, both is ASL and VAC. Will some extra torque make up for the gimbal ? I have to test that. 4. Fairings around the engines ? Wow drag is really a pain it seems in 1.8. Nice idea, I observed that certain engines seem to have a lot of drag. Yesterday I figured out how to investigate drag, wish there was a mode that would float numbers over selected parts with the drag. Offsetting the engines inside the tanks don't eliminate that drag ? Again, thanks for sharing !