CrimsonEclipse

Nah that just lowers the increment of the grid. After some searching it would seem that turning off angle snapping next to the symmetry button is what I was looking for. Thanks anyway. I think if I can get the angle of incidence on these front wings right I can probably put my payload in orbit now. Edit: Success! One orange tank with assorted RCS doodads in a 100km orbit. Thanks for the help everyone.

Thanks for the detailed response! So for a 150t (laden) craft, I should be using only 5 or 6 rapiers? My nice small 60t SSTO has that many, but it performs really well so I guess I'll give it a try. I suppose cutting down the excess fuel would also help a lot. How many nukes should I have for something with this much payload? 3-5 seems right to me but idk, if I'm overestimating how many engines I need then I'm not sure. When you suggest getting rid of tailfins, do you mean removing them entirely, or just streamlining them down to the absolute minimum? Like a single structural wing type A with a control surface? Or is the stability not worth the extra mass? Is this better? Threw it together in like 5 mins taking into account what you said, haven't flown it yet (though I probably will have by the time the moderators get around to approving this post. Don't know why the system is treating my account as new, pretty sure I've posted here once or twice before). On a somewhat unrelated note, how do you turn off the grid snap for the offset tool so that you can get a smooth translation of the part? I haven't really planned it yet, but I figure an orange tank is the largest single component I'd ever need to launch so having a vehicle capable of putting one in orbit seems like a safe bet. That said it probably will be excessive as hell. I already have a reusable LKO rocket, but it's a pain to judge the landing correctly, and I wanted to try and build an SSTO for fun anyway. Ooh, hadn't thought about that before. Thanks for the tip.

I want to be able to put an orange tank (36t) into a 100-200km orbit, but so far all my designs fall short in some regard. My smaller planes have good balance fueled/dry, but as I go bigger and add more engines, it becomes harder to keep them stable during re-entry. Additionally, for the bigger planes I'm having trouble getting enough TWR to do my insertion burn when laden (I typically run out of LOX for the rapiers before I have a circular orbit but after my apoapsis is in space). My most successful designs so far (last one is my best small lifter/personnel shuttle): https://imgur.com/a/vY4sDgk I've probably done a dozen or more iterations but none have worked to a satisfactory level, and I don't know what I'm missing. If there's an obvious flaw with my designs, I'd appreciate being appraised of it. Some extra miscellaneous questions: Are the "Tail Connector A/B" pieces appreciably more aerodynamic than the "Advanced Nose Cone A/B" and the Shock Cone? They're very pointy, but also kinda heavy so if anyone knows that'd be great. What do you guys reckon is the optimal mass/rapier? What is the optimal wing shape, and how much lifting area/t is recommended? Please rip my designs to shreds. I desperately need the more efficient price/t of a good heavy lifter SSTO so I can build my Duna mission in orbit.