Zerik0

Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. It's a Spartan in its simplicity, but with only a 31 part count and only one action group, it's friendly to a lot of computers and pilots, alike. You could also easily switch out the docking port for a small cargo bay and deploy small or micro satellites. I just took it up again after posting this and easily achieved a 110x110 km orbit, deorbited over an ocean, leveled at 6 km and flew to a continent to land safely.

PRESS RELEASE: Rowe Corp is proud to announce the recent successful development of the RC-SSTO Mk5 "Nolyks" single stage to orbit space plane platform. This craft is capable of 90x90km stable equatorial orbits, de-orbiting under its own power and landing safely on Kerbin (although location is based heavily on pilot skill and experience). Furthermore, it boasts a shielded Mk2 Clamp-O-Tron docking port for use with your existing orbital space tugs and refueling platforms. With a low part count and stock components, the Nolyks boasts ease of integration with your existing space exploration program, and can be further customized (within reason) to alter its mission profile. Specialized Controls: Action Group 1: Manual R.A.P.I.E.R. engine mode toggle, Air intake open/close toggle. Disclaimer: Rowe Corp recommends the use of reaction force for the occasional stabilization issues, and absolutely denies any resemblance, direct or otherwise, to the Skylon space plane platform. Enjoy! -=+Download Here+=-

Thank you, everyone, for your help. I've got enough here that I can move forward with some design concepts. I hope this thread, in the future, provides good information to others as well. Marking as "Answered!"

Slashy, Thanks for the update with the screen shots. MK3 level platforms seem pretty far out from my current skill in building yet, but this gives me a lot to work on towards that goal. Ultimately, I think without really gaming the system... the parts for space planes may not exist yet for a moderately informed individual such as myself to easily find success with that large of an SSTO lifting platform. I think I will go back and play around with it, but I was under the impression that my set up was fairly close to what you're suggesting. Do you have any examples? Also, wouldn't adding another tank at the back exacerbate the CoM and CoL ratios?

Slashy, Man, that is a comprehensive and supportive response! I have just begun to post in the forums (usually just a lurker), but I sincerely appreciate it! Would you be willing to provide some examples of your pre- and post-efficiency-overhaul models? The move to less thrust/more lift/fewer intakes is interesting, and I would love to take a gander at what you've done so far. I have to admit that I usually have a much higher intake ratio to get the job done, but I had no idea that lift surface ratio would help so much at those higher altitudes. My other issue is scaling up! It seems so easy to build and fly a spaceplane with Mk1 components when you only need one or two of everything in a nice, neat package. Mk2 gave me some problems, but it was a fairly simple adaptation of Mk1. Mk3 has been a beast to figure the things out that you pointed out. I'll try a little this afternoon to get something going. Thank you much!

The main problem I had with a conventional wing design of that size was getting the center of lift to stay sufficiently far enough back behind the center of mass. It seemed like the obvious answer was to fly a delta wing so that I could have the majority of the lift surfaces as far back as possible. Of course, my big issue so far has been having to adapt real life designs to the stock physics engine for atmospheric flight. Do you have any examples?

I have been playing KSP for a while, and after mastering a lot of the community techniques to build rockets I set out to conquer space planes. I can now develop light space planes easily, but I have found that larger SSTOs really give me trouble. With that in mind, I have designed the following stock airframe utilizing the Mk3 size components. Craft file: http://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B7woBToR2eXwSTk4MFc5QU5FRlU Screenshot (with stats): http://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B7woBToR2eXwSUlVNWVfdTNrRVE Design Goals: Stable/Controllable Flight Robust lifting capability (size: 3 unit cargo bay) Docking Capability SSTO (optional: rendezvous, refill, travel to other bodies). Safe return/landing What I've got so far: The principal flight surface is a delta wing configuration to maximize lifting surface and place the center of lift as far back as possible. RCS and monopropellant with a large capacity for loitering in orbit (may be overkill, but it also puts more weight in the front). Winglets, canards and rear flight control surfaces are large enough to provide fairly robust flight control. After throwing 3x LV-T30 engines on the back to test take off without a load I was able to easily control take off utilizing around 2/3 of the runway. A controlled glide into the ocean was manageable enough to allow the crew cabin to survive sea surface impact at a descent rate of roughly 25 m/s with a forward speed of around 60 m/s. Really, I will take any sort of advice, but I'm principally concerned with techniques for mounting stock engines in such a way that I have enough thrust and fuel to fly a typical SSTO ascent plan to orbit, dock or deliver payload and return for a safe landing. Things I'm okay with: Intake stacking (but not throwing them everywhere... I can do that ) with drag and weight ratios in mind. Typically Ramjet Air Intakes > Circular Intakes > MG-350. Maintaining aesthetics without going overboard with flight surfaces, struts, fuel pump lines, etc. Things I'm not okay with: Debug menu (infinite fuel, clipping allowed) Physics engine exploits (basically no crazy contraptions) Things I don't know: Pretty much anything new with the Beta (root tool, etc). Still learning the changes and deciphering patch notes. The newer techniques from the last 6 months or so. How to build a large SSTO and properly fuel it to get to space. I'm learning, but after several failed attempts I'm stumped. Any and all assistance will be much appreciated. Don't forget, I'm open to any recommendation on the design- not just the engine/fuel/intake implementation! Update: my attempts earlier today were not fruitful. I was successful in adding five turbo jets and intakes that could reach 40k at around 2 km/s, but after attempting to mount two nuclear engines it fell apart from there. My first inclination is to make the craft a horizontally and vertically symmetrical as I possibly can. Thoughts?