Exothermos

Yessssssss... this is hilarious and awesome!

Your videos are always entertaining, but I have to say these 2 really hit a chord with me! Great music choice, editing, and "camera" work. It creates a fun, adventurous, but somehow almost poignant tone. And the craft are what we have all come to expect from you: Deceptively simple-looking exteriors hiding LOTS of work and creativity. Bravo!

Dancing that line between burning up at low altitude vs. being too slow at rocket switch-over is the name of the game. In the case of this design, my guess is that you have way too much thrust below 12k, and no where near enough between 15k and 25k where most of the speed is gained. Try switching to 2 rapiers and dropping the spike entirely. Change your wing angle so that the angle of attack on your main wing is 5 degrees or so. This will allow you to keep your nose flying more-or-less directly into the path of the wind, while still gaining altitude. Fly at 10 degrees the entire time below 30k. Those things should do it. I bet if you just changed the wing angle and flew at that profile you would still make it into orbit better with the design the way it is.

Ha! I love it. Take off from a runway but land vertically. It's the opposite of common sense. Very kerbal.

Really nice video! That docking sequence was mesmerizing

Simple is beautiful. There are lots of neat little design decisions on this one. I DO think that Jeb might be radioactive for the next 10,000 years after being sandwiched between all those RTGs, though. The delicate takeoff isn't that bad. I only blew up once. Those vector engines are outrageously OP of course, but hey, might as well take advantage of it while you can!

Wow, this is over the top. Great modeling!

My most productive time! I built lots of SSTOs and planes. Wait... that's Still what I do. These and like, 3 times more... nuts. And building aesthetically was a PAIN back then without Rotate and Offset (thank you squad)!

Great video! I'm going to try tweaking my stuff to drop some TWR based on your results. I'm really surprised those wing parts held together on reentry!

I haven't been playing much lately as I'd lost "the bug". I put some time into the game this weekend though, and I finally got the feel for the new aerodynamics model. Oh, I have been reading endlessly about it and knew all the technical details, but really struggled with it for a long time, and dismissed it as too restrictive for the type of liberties I like to take in design. I've learned to work with it finally; it is amazing how one day you will just develop a deftness that escapes you at first. Anyway, here are 4 of the Mark 3 lifters I have nearly finalized. Due to drag, most people's Mark 3 designs look pretty similar, and I guess mine are no exception. There are, however, a ridiculous amount of nuanced little decisions in these simple looking designs. Tiny changes in angle of attack and sweep of wing, intakes, and nosecones seem to have enormous effects on performance. I have put many more hours into these designs than I ever did previously for such a meager output. I really admire some of the designs here that lift huge payload fractions on just a few engines. That is not what you see here! I am a very impatient player, so these designs focus on brute force and sweet handling characteristics and leave the efficiency to the engineer/magicians (Magicianeers?) Also, I have taken a few liberties with less-than-ideal-parts-for-the-job in some areas for aesthetics. If you see something glaringly stupid, you may safely assume it is because I had no idea it was stupid. I still don't really know what I am doing anymore. So please, let the feedback fly!

Bread Box! I built one of those after the Cargo Bay parts came out, but before the Aerodynamics update for 1.0. Does it even fly? I cant get anything to fly with so many wing parts at angles like that.

Who's going to be the first to make a Subarine SSTO, an SSSTO?

I've been experimenting with Mk3 lifters too, and by necessity they are quite similar looking! I started with a shape I liked: But found out it was just to darn draggy, so it's slimmed down to this: ...which has its own charm. I've really been trying to put the airframe on a diet, reducing it's frontal area drastically: The lifting surface is also drastically reduced meaning that it is quite a handful to fly. I'd love to get rid of the canards for aesthetic reasons, but i don't think that's going to happen. They are heavily relied upon on takeoff and re-entry. Right now it can easily lift hefty-sized space station parts, but struggles with a Jumbo-64 Orange tank. Once I've tinkered it to death and it can barely get a -64 to LKO, I will probably release the craft file. Edit: This is a minimalistic masterpiece:blush:

After a few month hiatus, i finally installed 1.04 today and went straight to doing what I always do; obsess over SSTOs. But, boy, things have changed! I have to relearn all the rules again! Anyway here is the first medium sized one ive built that functions. It hasn't carried any cargo yet, but there seems to be dV to spare. Am I correct in noticing that drag is paramount now?

Oh, nice! How's she fly in the new aero model? I haven't been able to play much recently, and haven't tested any of my existing stuff in the newer versions.

I loved it so much that I copied KerrMü's Shinden and adapted it for 1.0. (I hope you don't mind KerrMü!)

This ugly thing is my first payload SSTO in 1.0 The best flight profile I can find in the 1.0 model is a rocket-like ascent. I pull to 45% and shallow out ever so slightly around the 15k mark. The Turbo Jets fart-out around 20k and they turn off. I switch modes around 24k meters and power to 70k apoapsis. I'm not entirely sure the turbojets are the right solution. It may be that more rapiers is more efficient. After the orbital insertion burn, it is on fumes, but a reasonable small payload is deliverable to LKO. Reentry is the most confounding part of the whole process. Sometimes things go well and the ship keeps its parts, sometimes not. The best solutions I've found is either skimming the upper atmosphere around the 50k mark for as long as possible to decelerate, or going with a very aggressive de-orbit burn and dropping steeply through the atmosphere. Anything in between is a part-eater. I'm convinced some of the aero parts are too weak. The strakes, and some wing panels stand out. It's definitely a completely new process to learn. EDIT: This little guy works too!

Yeah, me too, that's totally fantastic! o/\o

Haha.. ok, wow. This is even better than your PAK-FA.

I seriously hope you are right. In my experience with FAR and NEAR, most of my craft were totally unusable because of using wing parts as structural members, fuselage skinning, duct ramps, etc. FAR had no idea what to make of those pieces that are largely there for aesthetic reasons and weren't meant to be lifting surfaces.

Well how's my XB-70 supposed to outrun a Mig-25 SSTO?! Perfect timing! Let the arms race begin. Nice plane. Edit: when I first saw this it was on my phone, I didn't notice that the thing can get to Duna or do a moon landing. Incredible.

I'm glad you guys like it! Yeah it bugs me too, but we will have to live with it in the realm of stock. I would love to have bay doors that slide back (and wingtips that fold), But we need Infernal Robotics to make that happen. (Also the new landing gear that porkjet is working on are absolutely perfect for this craft. That will be great.)

I've had this one on the back burner ever since 0.90 came out. With 1.0 on the horizon I figured It was time to release it before the new aerodynamics model forces a complete redesign! I know replica jets don't do much other than fly around, but I had fun with this one. Included is a XGAM-87 family air launch ballistic missile. Payload away! Stage one, burning for altitude. Stage two No turning back now... Poor Koviets. Many thanks to eorin for the behind-the-scenes encouragement. DOWNLOAD

What do you have to lose? I like seeing everyone's non SSTO spaceplanes too. There are a couple aircraft showcase threads, but none ever caught on.

Quite the engineering feat! Very cool video too.