Jakewhistler

Thanks! I'll have another look at FAR and see how much I want to keep it or not. I don't mind the lines of RCS thrusters. I just hadn't added them yet; I wanted to test the overall shape and handling of the plane first. Shape doesn't matter so much in space. Kind of like the shuttle Enterprise's test flights. (But not nearly as successful )

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that I use FAR. It came recommended in the Basic Aircraft Design tutorial. What made sense to me was that KSP adds the drag from each component and not just those on the outside. The example given is a probe inside a fairing has more drag than just the probe on the rocket. This made sense to me. Does it not do this? (That guide was posted seven years ago but edited just before KSP 1.9.1 came out, but after 1.9, so I don't know what that means.) Other than that there's Mod Manager and Docking Port Alignment Indicator. (Sometimes I really wish this machine could play Orbiter. So much instrumentation, but no spacecraft construction!) I didn't initially auto strut the wings because I didn't want to poke the Kraken. I'm running on a laptop and KSP doesn't run at its best. I've read that excessive autostrutting could cause problems, and those wings have more parts than I'm comfortable with, that's why I went with the S-wings on the second version. I don't remember if I saved that one auto-strutted or not. I'll try the fuel tank replacement, I hadn't thought of that, or measured my fuel, really. The airplane vertical tail made me nervous though, I'll replace it. So far all my r"e-entries" have been from the atmosphere anyway so it hasn't come up. Edit: I tried your flight profile, and I think I just need to practice with it: I keep ending up rolled a little to one side or the other and attempts to correct it lead to more problems. But on one of my flights the Structural Wing Type B on both wingtips fell off and it flew just fine until it didn't. They move the CoL forward though so I'm going to leave them. And it doesn't seem to want to climb that fast. I've also added batteries and the RCS, so that's covered for now. (I didn't notice that rapiers don't have an alternator! I just sort of take it for granted. I need to find a solution to that...) But thanks for your help! I'll keep practicing, and hopefully I'll get it well above 1Km. -Jake

Thanks! I did look over the spaceplane tutorial you linked, I actually had it open in a tab already. So I'm trying to make a runway-to-orbit ship that can carry space station assemblies. Eventually I could retool it for mining and exploration. First I need to get it off the runway for an appreciable amount of time without it exploding or just losing its wings. I'm using four rapier engines, to save on oxidizer in atmosphere and just overall weight efficiency. (Four engines for both space ant atmosphere instead of rockets and jets, that sort of thing.) I've tried using Matt Lowne's craft files but the only one that opens for me is a space station. Nevertheless I've been inspired by his designs. The first iteration I made "piecemeal" wings that work better now that I've autostrutted them. That's this one: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RuABmApe5UK0IkFZEfMH5rZOgW85GRiD The second design has space shuttle Big-S Delta Wings. First just one set and then another set mounted on top of the engines, for Moar Lift! This got slightly better results I think, even more slightly better when I added a pair of Vector rockets but the improvement wasn't worth the extra danger when everything went pear shaped. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GELHayXG8mvaqJ-pCUaDLlJbUqI10vX7 I'd appreciate any help. I know the first one doesn't have any RCS yet but I figured I'll get it off the runway and into higher altitudes first, and add other finishing touches.

Is this the right place to ask for help on a spaceplane design? I'd like to post the craft files of both versions. Each fails spectacularly in its own way. And never very far from the end of the runway.

I've downloaded all the .craft files and moved them to the /sph folder. Loading them I get all sorts of errors. So far the only one that will load is the Monolith Station, and that gives me a couple of errors. Also there's a strut that just sort of leads to nothing. Are there any mods required? I noticed they were posted a few years ago, are they incompatible with KSP 1.9? Edit: This may be nothing but they also have no thumbnail picture in the 'Select a craft to load' window. Just adding in case that is relevant.