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Oh cool ssto mate! What's the payload capacity and payload fraction? + rep for that I like skylon stuff, I'm gonna make one myself I think

Yes I find far really difficult. I would like it if I could fly planes and rockets without them falling apart! Haha and yes, a larger rapier would be lovely! Maybe that's what we need. A 2.5 m rapier! Or maybe a one that's larger than 1.25 but still connects to 1.25

But you're using FAR, in Far, there is not the "1.0.2 drag" in stock now you can't just fly a mo2 plane with one rapier.. not even 2 if its a bigger one, you have to combine them with turbohets to get enough thrust to counteract drag. And on mk3 planes... Well, my orange tank to orbit sat has 16 rapiers and 16 turbojets and a mainsail...

Well the turbojet would still be better up to mach3 , the rapiers just push to mach 4 they would still be the same other than that I guess. So turbojet would still be better for atmospheric craft due to better isp and thrust at lower mach number

interesting thought, ill have to see how that does.

but dont you thing it could do with a biiit more speed than the turbojet? just 1400 m/s in atmo maybe?

So what do you all think? Personally i think it could do with a better top speed in atmosphere, perhaps 1400 m/s than the now 1200 m/s, as the real SABRE can go to mach 5, i feel the rapier needs to keep gaining power longer past when turbojets flameout to distinguish itself as a airbreathing engine against the turbojet. at the moment the rapiers airbreathing mode had less thrust and isp than the turbojet, the only advantage is that it peaks at a slightly higher speed. all i think it needs then, is a thrust increase, and a slight top speed increase, that would make it more viable than the turbojet for sstos IMO.

Ooh I like that one! Would it work in stock? I find far way to difficult XD.

I dOnt know, it might throw the center of mass off balence. What you could do is replace the adtapter with the equal fuel sized normal shape mk3 tank, and then put your shuttle cockpit on that. Bearing in mind to reenter and fly to land after having used up fuel, you will have to pump the fuel around as the diagram in my thread shows. This will prevent flatspins and other craziness. - - - Updated - - - I could have done this I suppose but I liked the pointyness of the design and of course you cab still put the pointy thing back on to the shuttle cockpit for a laugh

I made one! Have fun with it download link in this thread http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/121684-The-MONSTER-130-ton-ssto-that-can-take-a-full-orange-tank-to-orbit%21

Tried that it did nothing.

But I can't get it back to exactly how it was... It seems to only affect the vessel I did it on, my space station. No other camera views, like other vessels, kerbals or the ksc.

I accidentally pressed ALT on my keyboard while scrolling with the mouse wheel, and now the camera field of veiw is wayyy spazzed out, how do I reset this?

You know what, I think the only thing it needs is its gimbal back! IRL all engines have gimbal, NERVA did! Also it could do with a teeny bit more thrust, perhaps 65 Kn?

spaceplane reentry is easy, you don't even need airbrakes, all you gotta do is maintain a 30-40 ish degree angle off attack, and by the time you're near the "death zone" you'll be at a safe sped and you can fly normally.

Oh my god its beautiful! And 2 orange tanks to lko... Wow. I didn't think it was possible! +rep !

how do you install this?

Thanks! Found out that the ratio is about 100:2 (xenon / lf) ill take that into consideration when I'm building this, +rep!

Just as the title says, is there a perfect ratio of LF and O units to Xenon gas units when you use fuel cells to power ion engines? For example, I'm planning a test craft, just to send to minimus and back to see how much fuel it uses, it would use 4 ion engines and 4 fuel cell arrays, one per engine. I thought of putting the large 1.25 meter xenon tank in conjunction with a fl t200 tank, I wonders if that would be enough LFO for the 5000+ xenon? Oh yeah it is a manned lander btw

I think, leave the poor thing alone its fine how it is! (though, a little more thrust could be nice, say 65 or maybe even 70 kn ) Just to add, the real nerva had 333.6 Kn of thrust, 850 isp, weighed 34 metric tons when empty, and was about 10 m wide and 40 something m long. So maybe moar thrust for our tiny scaled down nerva wouldn't be unrealistic.

Ah the reason its got the pointy bit is because I thought it would minimize drag and make it go faster haha

XD yeah that's a good one haha

Lol no I'm not from squad XD its just a typo lol, I did mean 1.0.2. I shall change the OP. Oh and thanks EladDv how do I find out what my payload fraction is? Also has anyone tryed it out in 1.0.2 yet?

Here is My mk 3 ssto nicknamed "MONSTER" a 130 ton ssto which can get a full orange tank to LKO and then land safely! http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/121684-The-MONSTER-130-ton-ssto-that-can-take-a-full-orange-tank-to-orbit%21

(Warning! in my game i'm playing with an aerodynamics config numbers exactly between that of 1.0 and 1.0.2 because i hate the 1.0.2 too much drag thing, and i thought 1.0 was fun but don't want to stray to far from "stock" personally i think squad should implement this best of both worlds config in the next patch as it would please many.* i have not tested this in the 1.0.2 configs, do so at your own risk!!!* lol) Haha my first ship sharing post! Well here is the culmination of days of failed attempts and some rage, until finally... it was born. Behold! the MONSTER! (that is literally what it is called, i didn't know what to call it) A Mk3 SSTO that can take a full orange tank to LKO and probably anything you can cram in there to be honest! Stats: Weight wet/dry (not counting payload): 70/130 tons Engines: 8x R.A.P.I.E.R, 8x JX4 "whiplash" Turbo-ramjets (the whiplash's are actually mounted on a cubic strut behind the rapiers, then i just used the offset tool to move them forwards so they work) 1x RE-M3 "mainsail" How to fly this thingy (as mentioned before, this assumes you are using an inbetween 1.0 and 1.0.2 aero config. it will probably go even faster in 1.0's aero, but if anyone wants to try flying it to orbit in 1.0.2 can they show me how they did it?) CONTROLS: 1 toggles jets and rapiers, 2 toggles rapier mode, 3 toggles mainsail 1.first press x to turn throttle off, then press space activate all engines, but then press 3 to turn off the mainsail as you dont need that now lol 2.once thats done, full throttle and when your'e getting faster pitch up, it should take off around 130m/s 3.now your're airborne, pitch up to 45 degrees remain like this until 5000m, when you pitch down to 30 degrees, during this time you'll go supersonic. 4. as you get faster and get towards 10000m you need to pitch down to 20 degrees, and you will then really start gaining speed, then at 15000m pitch down to 10 degrees, and you will start cooking! nothing exploded when i flew this way so you should be fine. 5. remain at 10 degrees, by the time the airbeathers begin to die you will be around 1300 something m/s activate the rapiers mode (2) and mainsail (3) when you notice you are no longer gaining speed 6. just burn like this until desired apoapsis. (i tested it doing a 75x75 orbit. it is desgined for low orbit.) when desired apoapsis is reached, press 1 to turn off rapiers and turbojets. the mainsail is way more than enough for space. ( and more efficient) 7. circularize and release your payload! 8. de orbit burn will take only a second or two, do this as you will. (in low kerbin orbit i put my periapsis at 20000m, seems to be enough to get spaceplanes down without cooking.) 9. quickly before you enter the atmosphere you need to balance the tanks. you must put equal amounts of remaining oxidiser in the two most far end tanks marked by blue , and any remaining liquidfuel must go in the two 1.25 m liquidfuel tanks marked by red. there is probably more liquidfuel than this, so divide it between the 2 tanks just behind the ones i just mentioned, this is marked by pink. as in the included diagram 10. as soon as you get below 70000m, pitch up 30 degrees and open airbrakes. holding this pitch while above 30000m won't make you flat spin and will slow you down enough so you dont cook when you enter below 30000m 11. when you gett below 1000m/s speed close the airbrakes, cooking won't be a problem anymore. then make a shallow dive to your landing, use the airbreathers to assist the glide if you start going to sloww and falling. hope you picked a reentry over land! Have fun with it! the reason i posted this is to see what other people think of it, to see what can be improved/ optimised, and i also need to ask, why is it prone to flat spins and other stalling crazyness when it is nearly empty gliding back from reentry? i did help this by going into the SPH and tweaking the fuel values on it in the editor to see if the COL stayed behind the COM when it was empty and it did, but only just. this COL being too close to the COM when empty is maybe the cause? anyway to temporarily fix this the only thing to do is pump the fuel remaining as i said in my picture. well, thank you for reading, good luck with the MONSTER! .CRAFT file: http://kerbal.curseforge.com/shareables/230578-monster-ssto