bsalis

Congrats man, welcome to the club. Why did you leave it to now! Kudos for no airhoggin too.

Is that not news? Just because the forum is down does not mean community activity was on pause.

The CoM has moved as the fuel is consumed. That is why translation is causing the craft to turn.

Landing gear... Yeah. Agree. But some people go nuts and put 5:1 or more. I suspect Squad will do something about that one day.

This is a stock VTOL SSTO Spaceplane. Craft here (v0.19.1) Version in screenshots below has a MechJeb radial attached. I have flown it without it - works fine. The craft linked above is all stock. Key stats... * Full mass 25.5 tons * Full mass (rocket tanks only & minimal RCS) 22.5 tons = 2962 m/s dV (using LV-909s only) * Dry mass 10.37 tons * Can get to LKO with 700-800 m/s dV Some pictures from the maiden flight... Here we go! Couple of jets under the wings keeping us aloft. Ascent on jets. Ascent on rockets. Pe 100Km. Does not look bad either... Re-entry. Landing. Landed. Happy to provide guidance on how to fly this if anyone is interested.

Finally I did it. A stock VTOL SSTO Spaceplane. Yeah I know it has a mechJeb radial on it, but I have flown without it. Here we go... Couple of jets under the wings keeping us aloft. Ascent Pe 100Km. MechJeb tells me I have 833 m/s dV. Does not look bad either... Landing. Mostly vertical descent... didn't want to risk a straight down landing on this flight. Ta da. Sorry about the nightness.

If you design the craft to use many small tanks, you can fit quite a lot of intakes. For example, I call this a boxkite style design... So that is 12 intakes for 5 engines. Could probably have 16 using those bi-adapter thingies. Having two mount points like that also lets you spread out the engine mass too.

I don't see a point in a boxed copy. That's a thing of the past. Boxes just take space and gather dust. I cleaned out a bunch of boxes a while ago. Only one I kept was Sam & Max Hit the Road. You don't need a boxed copy to have merchandise, like Kerbal Figurines... or a cloth delta-V map with a Kraken illustration on it.

What do you mean by trouble with fuel?

I can't think of an easy fix. LT-N is a pain like that. If you want to re-design a little, try putting the LT-N under the ASAS, the radial attach small tanks, and put the legs on the tanks.

Ok, so I had a look at your original picture... I would say your center of drag (COD) is too high. Ram scoops are not very good either. If you do use them, then don't have them all on top like that, put some on the underside to balance the COD, ideally behind the COM too. The other reason it's pulling up would be the COM is moving backwards as the jet fuel drains from the front tank. So perhaps move the COL back a bit... or disable the front jet tank for initial flight. And I have more advise... * Nosecones and other pretties add dry mass and reduce performance. * You only need one ASAS. It's more dead weight having three! * You have more RCS fuel than you need. More dead weight! * I think proportionally, you have more thrust than needed, in both Jet and Rocket power. (ie. possibly want to add more fuel) * Mebe want some more control surfaces (especially if you add more fuel and more lifting surfaces) * You have a lot of jet fuel in proportion to rocket fuel. That's fine if your going for a high altitude screamer. However to do that you need a lot more air intakes. * No need for so many RCS ports. If done right you will not need it to pitch up, or just a regular fitout will be enough. * Control surfaces work better the further they are away from the COM. You have quite a few near it... on angles. * No need for dual fuel lines... one is all you need.

I won't go into details on what I think the tech tree should be. Lots of good ideas have already been posted. What matters to me is that whatever is done in regards to research, that it allows the player to devise and execute a strategy on how to beat the game within the campaign mode mechanics. For example; * Will you invest in safety to run a high reputation space program so as to secure a safe flow of public funding? * Will you invest in dangerous heavy lifting tech to do the private sector missions that have big payoffs? * Will you invest in tech to run a very efficient low cost space program, that makes most use of part re-use? * Or will you focus on tech to make money out of selling precious resources that can only be mined on other planets?

I guess more than anything, creating an SSTO Spaceplane is about balance, and then some. To start with you probably want to start small, then pick an engine count. Look at some existing designs as well. Might be easier if you post some pics of your attempts and the problems you have.

An SSTO rocket or Spaceplane?

I agree with RoboRay. Having them harder means you have new challenges to move onto once your bored and done with rockets. Besides, I'm not sure how they can be made much easier. The main challenges are around balance, and that is pretty fundamental.

Sure I miss it. Having said that i'm glad it was retired. It was neither cheap or safe.

The higher ISP over the other chemical LT engines more than overcomes the slightly heavier weight. I did some math after the nerf to find out.

Seems like the UK has an outbreak of Measles on its hands... Gimme teh news google! Sadly someone has died from this. With a few hundred infected. There is a rush for vaccinations. It is believed that a factor in the outbreak has been diminished herd immunity from parents opting out of vaccinations. this is from a debunked paper released many years ago... MMR vaccine controversy

Hmmmm, well the K-prize is practically a KSP institution. If boolybooly does not show soon mebe i'll see if i can pester a mod to create and run a sub-forum for it.

Well, I made it to the Mun. However it's sad when the debris lands upright but you do not.

You rendezvous with your tanker and there is a queue...

I'm pretty sure it changes. Almost every major version.

Meh. Stop whining and just use the ORDA mod until it's done.

9 parts. Ascent Pe 71Km Re-entry Landed. Even re-packed the shute but sadly cannot refuel.