BubbaWilkins

Well, that depends entirely on how hardcore you want to be about it. With a few more mods, you could make a service vehicle which can refuel your craft as well as another which can place a payload. You could go even further hardcore and do a 100% Kethane based system (no free fuel once your kethane operation is running).

While your at it, check the S2 Wide body intake. It's not generating any intake air.

Odd. Now I'm going to have to find what mod it was that did it. Thought the only thing I deleted was tweakscale once I found it didn't work here.

Is it just me or where there some additional command modules in the pre-release that are no longer present in the official?

I'll have to check later, but I believe I'm running 6.3.4 with B9 with no problems.

Is it possible to direct the ray cast diagonally at the ground so that it's projecting out/ahead a short distance?

Sweet! The only request I would have would be an active sweep wing part, preferably 1 in an F-14 size and another in a B1 size. I'm thinking like an integrated base/hinge and animated wing with control surfaces.

Hard to make more NASA easter eggs when there isn't really that many things NASA has left on the Moon or on other planets.

Depends on how fast the craft is intended to go, or how much the CoM is going to change due to fuel consumption. Also, if you're using B9 wheels, it helps to edit the config files and change the sideways stiffness to .01 or .001. Check the B9 thread for the correct answer. There is also separate B9 correction thread that might help. Other tips, - wing and structural flex com into play. If your craft is heavy, its going to flex when on the landing gear deflecting them slightly. Either make your structure stiffer or add more wheels. - if you have a negative angle of attack while sitting on your gear, this just adds more downforce pressure the faster you go. Craft should be level or nose up for best results. - related to the flex thing, but heavy craft will also tend to flex the wings as the load is shifted from the wheels to them. Sometimes the wheels don't like this. - rear wheel placement should be just barely behind your CoM so that minimal control force is required to force the nose up. If your gear is too far behind it, it may take forward canards and other control surfaces to get you airborne. - Check your control surfaces! Don't let wing flaps have pitch authority (unless its a rear delta wing configuration).

This is not an official entry since I have not landed it and did not break the current non-fairing record....but I'll get there! I do have TV Pizza and Aerospace, so this might actually go a lot faster if I remove that.

There are two reasons to use more engines: 1) When total DeltaV is not a factor, but mission duration is. 2) When you need a minimum thrust level to escape a gravity well. If we had life support concerns to also account for, then #1 becomes a much more prominent issue to deal with.

That's the inherent genius of the challenge! No easy mode. How about a ruling on TV Pizza and Aerospace? The scramjets would be a nice addition. They have no thrust to speak of below 1200 m/s.

Correct on both accounts, however I was actually referencing the Princess Bride duel scene. Apparently the site I used to look it up had most of it spelled wrong.

I expected you to trot out Cappa Fero, but seeing as Thibault cancels that out unless you've studied Itsa Glippa, we'll stick with Bonetti's defense. I suppose you aren't left handed either. In all seriousness, this is a very ambitious project. I look forward to see it's development progress.

With 1000's of hours of gamplay under my belt, I find that I prefer the Rapiers in most of my craft. If that makes me a newb, then so be it. Many also refer to grenade launchers in 1st person shooters as newb tubes. 1 on 1 sure, but if you manage to wipe out 2-3 in one hit, that is the proper and efficient application of ordinance. The Rapier is easy to use, but I think it's niche extend well beyond that point. Agreed, it's not the best choice in all instances, but it's also not the worst.