Batz_10K

This is one that I'm experimenting with. Not terribly efficient, but designed to carry cargo (externally) that is larger or awkwardly shaped which wouldn't fit in a cargo bay.

Here's my go - I too went for a simple, small design. Although I suspect this bends the rules a little :S (Chute was repacked at the island runway)

Here's my entry - The kerbojet 200 long range regional airliner Not going for any records... Crew: 2 Passengers: 4 Mass: 8t Propulsion 2x Juno with 1.25m intakes Time elapsed : 15m12s (Ok, Edmal did get out and do a walk-around at the island runway) [imgur]uMnEA[/imgur]

Thanks! Yeah I haven't had too many issues with the wings overheating, although they are usually the first things to show temperature indicators. (well apart from my first attempt at aerocapture at Laythe doing 3700m/sec... it was a very short attempt ). I did make sure they had fuel in them to help soak up some of the heat, though.. The only thing to watch for is that as the wings are mounted close to the CoM some of the control surfaces are reversed on the pitch axis. (on that design the innermost control surfaces work ok, but all of the outermost ones are reversed (and of course, "invert" only works on deployment, not the pitch axis...)). Also as the control surfaces are close to the pitch axis, they don't have much effect anyway. I worked around the issue by disabling and inverting 2 of the control surfaces, and dedicating the other 2 to roll control, and binding the 2 disabled control surfaces to an action group. That way I could "trim" the aircraft for takeoff and low-speed flight with heavy fuel loads. - you can see them active on image number 3. It also comes in handy if you want to pitch the nose up for re-entry) - The inner most control surfaces were used for pitch control only. The only other way of dealing with the issue is to move the wings back further behind the CoM and use canards - but then it isn't a flying wing anymore... Hmmm. I wonder if it will fly on Duna

I've been experimenting with flying-wing type designs. They seem to have improved with the new aerodynamics, This one has sufficient reserves for a one-way trip to Laythe, although I think I need to get some more experience with gravity slingshots in the Jool system...

Here's my attempt. This is a 17(ish!) ton lander, This isn't too different from Foxter's version, but as any initial orbit is permitted, we can use a 20x20km initial orbit and a 15x15km final orbit to save some fuel.... The experimental hyperdrive jump worked well, and this time there was no sign of excess limb syndrome. The initial deorbit burn was flown manually and switched to MJ for the actual landing, as MJ doesn't seem to be able to land this type of lander. Basically as the TWR is fairly low, you need to keep about 10 degrees above retrograde until you decelerate to a safe speed for landing. Flag planted (Of course Bob plants it backwards), it looks like there's just enough fuel to make a 15x15 orbit. Initial circularization put us in an 15x8 orbit, so we need to raise the Pe up to 15km with another burn. It turns out there's a high enough mountain range in the way that I needed to tweak the orbit a bit using RCS to make it over, but with that done it was smooth sailing to the final circularization.

Here's my impressions - Jodo42 - Stearwing D45 v2 + Nice and stable on ascent + Easy to fly + easy takeoff + easy to make orbit + I like the design of the intakes with nosecone fuel pods - I (personally) don't like the wing design. (the gaps don't work for me) ~ Reentry slightly tricky, can't adjust trajectory easily - Stuff in the cargo bay gets HOT (actually had a few science instruments explode during re-entry) + Handles well in lower atmosphere, but doesn't glide well - Likes to roll when pitching up and turning, could use more pitch authority Kweller - GniwRaets ~ Unusual design. + 800ms dV on-orbit. (unladen) - should be plenty of excess to fly a small satellite - Jets and rockets on the same action group, without any indication that you're supposed to toggle the rockets with "2". -- Interestingly enough it's possible to make orbit (without much fuel remaining) running both jets and rockets and climbing at about a 40-45 degree angle. - Nosewheel very far back, unstable under brakes. - No rudders, and all control surfaces active for all axes, tends to drift off 90 degrees during climb. + Re-entry ok, nice and stable. ~ wasn't sure about fuel distribution for landing, fuel + oxy in forward tanks seemed to work ok + Ran out of power at 60km. stable enough without power. + Yay! has jets so it's possible to make the runway - Is HARD to land safely, no rudders makes it hard to line up on the runway, - Can't use brakes very much as nose gear is too far back and brake torque is equal to rear wheels mrmcp1 - Stearwig D48 ~ Nice design. + Easy to orbit. Handy instructions in the notes dropdown. + Wing design is nice - control surfaces active for all axes + Good collection of science instruments + Excellent control on re-entry, and glides really well. Was able to land on northeast island after overshooting the KSC, + It's actually possible to circle the landing area while gliding - controllable without (electric) power... awesome Romphaia - Stearwing D47b + Close to the original Stearwing, designed for 1.04, repurposed as a crew transport as opposed to the original's mix of science and crew transport features. + Fixed RCS thrusters + Very powerful. Slightly tricky takeoff - not much clearance for lower set of engines + Plenty of fuel on-orbit (866ms dV) + Monoprop moved to built-in tanks in the docking port, reducing drag + Excellent re-entry handling. Stable even after the (electric) power had run out + Able to tune glidepath and glides reasonably well + heavy duty landing gear handles rough landings with ease - not enough brake torque to stop on the runway after landing at ~120ms t3hJimmer - Stearwing XL - Changes from a crew transport to a research satellite transport - very large wings and tail surfaces - replaces original jet/rocket combo with rapiers - Reasonably easy to fly to orbit. Small tail surfaces means a tendency to drift off course (like the GniwRaets) during climb. - More intakes may mean you can run the rapiers in air-breathing mode longer, changeover altitude/speed seems quite low, but sufficient fuel to reach orbit is available. + Re-entry good, + nice and stable, doesn't run out of power + very noob friendly, can adjust speed/deceleration rate very easily with AoA + excellent flying qualities, plus rapiers can be used to make it to the runway. - More brake torque please! hard to stop on the runway, likes to bounce at landing (at least you can go-around with the rapiers) Xeldrak - CROBAR - Changes from a crew design to a mixed crew/satellite transport. - Unusual design with SRBs inside the wings. Reminds me of an old-school .90 design - A little twitchy and unstable on climbout - mainly Dutch-roll oscillation (the D50 suffers from the same problem) - Plenty of fuel to get to orbit. Possibly the LV909s aren't required while the SRBs are firing. - No way of dropping the SRBs after burnout. (or intakes for that matter, once the jets are gone) + Re-entry ok. heavy and takes a long time to slow down, difficult to control speed/deceleration with AoA - Not much pitch authority, barely made an emergency landing on the island runway after overshooting the KSC - Small landing gear for such a big/heavy aircraft + Yay airbrakes (boo didn't notice them until halfway down) + Plenty of brake torque (yay!) A few random pictures from my testing

After careful consideration of all of the guidelines in the Challenge guidelines Mk II, I have decided to ... Crumple them up, light them on fire and then throw them away completely. This, then is the Stearwing D50, with fully recoverable booster stage. craft [OneDrive] The orbiter component contains all of the wacky features of the original, including a deluxe economy-class sauna for 5 Kerbals (*re-entry only), not one, but two goo pods, way more RCS fuel and thrusters than you will ever need, a tiny amount of fuel, funky forward-swept wings, and business-class seating for 4 The transport component is just enough to get the orbiter into a 75x75km orbit, and land somewhere downrange. Instructions You should probably read these, or there will be many explosions... Takeoff - Full throttle, then pull back (gently!) at 70m/s. Pitch up to 25 degrees. Climb - You can pretty much fly hands-off once you're at 25 degrees pitch. the ship will pitch up to 30 degrees or so as it climbs all the way to space. - At 15km, enable RCS - Once the speed starts to drop as the jets lose thrust, stage to activate the rhino. Then press 2 to shut down the jets, and 1 to close intakes (don't try to fly too long on jets at high altitude, that's asking for a spin...) - Note that you don't need to pitch up further - Once the Apoapsis reaches 75km, throttle down the Rhino. Set the SAS mode to 'Prograde' to reduce drag, and coast to the edge of the atmosphere. - About 10s from Apoapsis, throttle up the Rhino until you get to 2100m/sec Separation - At 2100ms, stage to separate the orbiter. - Unlock the fuel tank on the orbiter, and stage to eject the engine fairings (note: ensure that you have cleared the transport before ejecting the fairings, unless you want fireworks. well, they _usually_ don't do any damage to the transport....) - Throttle up and circularize the orbit. - Press "[" or "]" to switch back to the transport, and get ready for re-entry Transport re-entry - Transfer all remaining fuel from the rear-most tank (the one attached to the Rhino) to the front tank (the one attached to the shuttle cockpit) - Press 3 to deactivate the Rhino - Press 9 to activate 2 Jet engines for landing - Keep the nose between 10-20 degrees above prograde (ideally about 15) - note you'll glide for quite some time at about 30km. (it's actually possible to climb a bit too) - Deactivate RCS around 10km. - You should be somewhere over the large continent to the east of the KSC. Pick a reasonably smooth place for landing. Minimum flying speed is about 60-70ms. Careful on the manoeuvres, it's quite easy to spin when the fuel gets low. Flaps are on action group 5. Stearwing re-entry - This is a pretty normal spaceplane re-entry. Make sure it's not too steep, as there's lots of melty-explodey stuff on the Stearwing. - Use up the rest of that RCS fuel to maintain attitude during re-entry. 15 degrees seemed to work reasonably well. - This version has heavy-duty landing gear fitted, so it can tolerate some reasonably hard landings. Action Groups 1 - Toggle intakes 2 - Toggle jet engines 3 - Toggle rhino 5 - Toggle flaps 9 - Toggle two jets only (enough to fly after re-entry, saves fuel)

I'm trying the large carrier plane/recoverable booster approach...

Here's another 1.04 entry... This one is called the V-Machine

For me it happens pretty reliably under the following circumstances (This is probably only one class of this problem) * Your vessel is above 62km * There is liquid fuel in a liquid-fuel only tank (e.g. liquid fuel fuselage/LF engine Nacelle) You can work around the issue and restore the delta-v display by transferring all liquid fuel from LF-only tanks to LF+O (rocket fuel) tanks. This example shows the problem: I haven't tested whether enabling/disabling the turbojets affects the issue. This example has them disabled. Cheers

Kerbal Airlines Flight 256 to KSC is now boarding.

Thanks! Actually not all that long - although the turbojet is offset, the CoM is pretty low and the control surfaces take care of the rest, and by the time you are out of air for your control surfaces, the turbojet has flamed out anyway. The main issue was figuring out the proper amount of fuel/number of twitch engines and ascent profile. The margins are pretty tight as that's a fairly draggy design. (there's a small docking port on the bottom which isn't visible) This is a twinjet variant that I also use, which is much easier to get into orbit and has a lot more delta-v on orbit... it's a little more ME262

I find in general I'm favouring twinjet designs now as they seem to be a bit easier to fly, but this is one that I'm using in my career game to transport Kerbals to and from my LKO station Edit: Name - this is the K110 Backlash

Can we please have a 'toggle' option for the fuel cells?, so that we don't have to waste two precious action groups on starting and stopping the fuel cells?

Well, my first landing was ... an explosion. my *second* landing however -

What a cool challenge! Here's the Arado Ar Projekt 1 It tends to be difficult to control in pitch, but apart from that it flies pretty well...

Don't clip the 1.25m utility bays. Your craft will fall apart.

Yup. That technique seems to work pretty well. If you place your speed brakes in the right place you can do a hands-off re-entry attitude. Interestingly this one heated up mostly around the tail area, the cockpit and front intake never got above about 400 degrees. so I think having fins attached to a given part makes for much more heat on that part during re-entry.

Yeah, heating definitely seems to be a problem. The NCS adapter needs fuel in it to delay the onset of heat-related explosions. This one turned out not to be capable of re-entry as I think the NCS adapter is picking up heat from the canards. (use Alt-F12 debug menu: Physics->Thermal->Show temperature in part information). Fortunately it seems to be possible to fly canard-less delta-wing designs much more easily now, So I think I should be able to get something to work... It'd be *really* nice to have some sort of carbon-carbon heat-shield nosecone like they had on the Space Shuttle...

Enjoyed the last few days of abusing the old aerodynamics model...

Huh. I didn't realize there were 2 trailers.... That is what I imagined it would look like. I guess if I put a hitch-hiker under the capsule it'll hold 7 Kerbals and look a bit more like the movie one. The Aerospikes probably need to be swapped for LV909s too.

Here's another take on the MDV. The trailer looks good, I'll be interested to see how the movie turns out as so much of the book is inside Mark's head.

Some SF ships fly very poorly....

The Lag Mahal.... ...Very slowly as it has no landing gear.