Skyshrim

I think I'd have to go with the airbrakes cause it looks so smooth when closed and not too bad when opened in my opinion. Great ingenuity by the way, creating your own 1.25m cargo bay like that. Is the finished product gonna be a mini space shuttle sorta deal?

Not a bad idea. I'll probably try something similar to get this bird to Laythe.

Thanks, I don't think I would have worked my way through all the failed prototypes without seeing yours for inspiration!

Here's the product of my weekend with the flu. This majestic bird is known as the Jumbo Sula. She's can carry a full orange tank to orbit and back from her watery runway. I was a little short on oxidizer on this flight, but with the mining equipment removed no fuel from the orange tank needs to be used. I plan to somehow get this baby to Laythe where she will serve to carry submarines around and bring cargo to and from orbit.

Underwater base? Space bar? Orbital death ray? Something with one of the game's Easter eggs? Basically anything that's needlessly over complicated just for the hell of it or of course puns are always great for a laugh.

This one time I made an I-beam trailer hitch for an SSTA to pull a truck and another for said truck to pull and refuel a jet. It worked a lot better than I expected. Oversized album here:

Has anyone here been able to build one of these with a full size mk3 cargo bay with cargo to orbit capability? I got close, but then realized using the cargo bay as the main boat hull results in the contents being destroyed on landing. The only solution I can think of is to make a double-decker fuselage or have some crazy oversized floats, but both of those options bring more challenges like dealing with a lot of dead weight or figuring out how to load and unload cargo to the second floor. Any ideas?

I tried my hand at making a near replica of my favorite aircraft, the Consolidated B-24 Liberator! She's slow and heavy, but still gets the job done of course! KerbalX: https://kerbalx.com/Skyshrim/b-24-bro-loaded

This big sexy spaceplane is known as Jumbo Jim and he has a song for you all today. The Name’s Jumbo Jim-bo I am an extra large ss-t-o If you have some heavy car-go I’ll get you to orbit for cheap, yo I am a drone, there’s no lives at stake Half a million speceos is all it’ll take sprint down the runway like a race next thing you know we’re up in space eighty thousand Kilos in the trunk and I still got fuel that I haven’t drunk single stage to orbit means no space junk It pays to spend up front, who woulda thunk ..................................................................... So, anyways... This guy can carry just over 80 tons (2.25 orange tanks) to a 90km orbit with enough fuel left for rendezvous and landing. The cargo being delivered above was for an attempted Eve rescue. The mission failed miserably, but it was worth the motivation to develop this SSTO. Another rescue attempt using this spaceplane is already being planned and I expect it to also play a key part in salvaging two other missions that currently require assistance as well. It is also an excellent platform to modify into an SSTA. I haven't tested it yet, but I suspect replacing 50 tons of cargo weight with liquid fuel and mining equipment could easily do the trick. This baby weighs in at 282 tons with 222 parts. No mods used, but autostruts are required. Craft file download: https://kerbalx.com/Skyshrim/Jumbo-Jim-mk4