PolecatEZ

I'm going to re-do some of the images anyways so the numbers can be seen a little easier. I also made detailed instruction above about SSTOs in general. Puttering out at 25km though sounds like an issue with climb angle. At about 22km or so you want to level out as much as possible (do it slowly, use the SAS). Keep your yellow circle just above the horizon so you'll be gaining altitude slowly and a LOT of speed. At 25km you should still be running at nearly full throttle on just the jets. Another key to remember - the faster you go = more air in the intakes, more level you are (your nose vs. your prograde vector) = more air in the intakes. More air in the intakes, more power as you climb higher. I'm going to experiment with bottom mounting some 30 degree angled intakes to see of that helps anything

For anyplace that is both low gravity and airless, and for a load over 4 tons, you have no reason to use anything other than an atomic engine. Stick one up the bottom cone with clipping, or use the smallest tanks and attach a pair to the sides with a hose to the fuel tank you have. With that, your lander should be able to go to the Mun and back to Kerbel all by itself.

Just got it to 120km x 12km Orbit, only needed 90 d-V to round it out to at least LKO. The engineers are hard at work and should have a solution shortly.

Hello and welcome to my historical presentation of Kerbalife Security products. At Kerbalife, we're dedicated to giving you only the purest products with our natural all-stock guarantee. Our organic design methods keep clipping to a bare minimum while while still giving you the aesthetic appeal of stucco wall paper. If you need any specifics about a model, or would like to become a Kerbalife Independent Designer yourself, let us know after the presentation. Thank you for sitting through our Kerbalife presentation. On with the show... AA-10E Angry Bird The Angry Bird Project, or the more affectionately known "Plucked Chicken Project" came as a result of the first attempts at SSTO design by the engineers at Kerbalife Security. Mainly, they sucked...badly. After the 14th test pilot went down in a high-altitude flat spin of flames, Kerbalife executives sent out a procurement order for off-the-shelf systems in a competitive bid. After months of expos and airshow attendances, 12 shiny new KF-X Sparrows were purchased. At first the pilots loved them because, well, they didn't kill them outright. However, attempts to use the KF-X for delivery of small space objects sometimes left the pilots with very little delta-V for the return trip, especially with slightly larger masses or higher orbital targets. After confering with higher-ups, the engineers began tearing them apart to find out what made them tick. The requirements for the improved Sparrow, dubbed the Angry Bird, were for use of atomic engines, the ability to take at least 1 ton of cargo into 120km orbit, and use entirely oxidized fuel. Hidden parts were also stripped out, including the faulty mono-propellant tanks, and the troublesome neck-docking clamp was removed for a more conventional piece after an early model disassembled itself in orbit. The current model can put a dual-loaded cargo load into 100km orbit with about 1000 delta-V to spare, and can also refuel for a full 3200 delta-V at any LKO station. AA-40C Cobra The Cobra is the bastard step-child of the mildly successful AA-39 Pythagorus flying triangle and the abortive AA-03 Mouser III design responsible for the deaths of 8 brave test pilots. Following the success of the Angry Bird project, engineers went about trying to figure out, "How freaking big can we make these things?" The results got into orbit on the very first test flight. Featuring 3 ramjet engines with ordered flameout, as well as dual-atomics, the test pilot basically said, "I made 1500 m/s easy, then just shot skyward and profit!" Later refinements added successful "Muner landing gear" to the backside, where a vertical landing is possible, then a simple drop will put it back horizontal as well as large solar panelling just because it looked cool. Featured above is a joint Manta Class Carrier and Cobra SSTO project where engineers literally attempted to mate the two designs. The Hammerhead Class frigate was born a few months later... AA-20B Mighty Mouse The Mighty Mouse is the SSTO conversion of the Mouser VII conventional attack fighter. The conversion was conceived and performed as part of an off-handed bet between Billy-Bobias and Sidson Kerbal over whether 2-1 rocket-jet combo was more efficient than a 1-2 rocket-jet combo. The result was a powerhouse re-dubbed the Mighty Mouse. Its efficient design allowed it to take 2 kerbals into LKO with still about 2500 delta-v to spare without a refuel. The Kerbalife executive board was split between putting the Mighty Mouse into full fleet production or holding out for "something that didn't look like a *** ***." The aesthetics fans wanted a rework of the Sparrow design instead. After about 2 weeks of virtual war in the boardroom, a compromise was made wherein the new engine layout would be a 2-2. The Mighty Mouse models in service were relegated to trainer status and the Eagle was born. AA-31C Eagle After about 10 iterations, the board finally approved the AA-31A Mighty Eagle (later shortened to Eagle) for the primary production run. In addition to pushing a metaphor, the wings proved surprisingly stable and powerful, as well as the somewhat tricky but optimal engine layout. The result is a production work horse capable of putting 4 tons of distributed payload into LKO with 2000 delta-V to spare. Later models added the Munar landing struts as well as other avionics and wing-layout optimizations. So far, almost 150 have been produced, with another 80 currently being made for export. Only 2 have been lost to accidents or structural failures, one of them taking out Fuel Depot Yankee in a spectacular lesson in how not to dock. AA-32D Condor and AA-30B Falcon Following the start of production for the AA-31 Eagle series, several variants were produced which culminated in the AA-32D Condor for almost exclusive use by Kerbalife Security Marine Division. This model features a fighter cockpit upgrade for the front end, as well as extened and expanded wingspan allowing it a much better (and slower) angle of attack vector for unleashing up to 12 tons of ordnance on a target, either diving in from orbit or by more conventional runway to target missions. The AA-30B Falcon, on the other hand, is a major retrofit for the AA-10 Angry Bird/Super Sparrow series to attempt to bring it up to the Eagle standard. It features the changed wing design and a longer centerline fuel tank, but otherwise doesn't change the profile of the AA-10 significantly. And now for something completely different... DS-05E Confederate Skycrane Hot on the heels of the success of the DS-02 Union and DS-3 Overlord Dropship designs, engineer Sidson Kerbal decided to slap a few rebellious jet engines onto the side of a DS-02 Union "just to see what would happen." The dumbfounded mission control team then watched as it made orbit on its very first run. Given that 30 tons just made it into orbit without losing any stages, it suddenly found itself in the SSTO category. After some tinkering with the original retrofit, the "lander can" cockpit was added, the 3-man was dropped in favor of cargo, and the engines were placed outward from the body so as to accomodate odd-sized underslung loads. The result can put up to 5 tons into LKO with just enough delta-V to de-orbit and do a controlled parachute/VTOL landing right back at KSC. For best results, plug in the numbers above into your favorite ascent computer, kick on the atomics at 30,000m, turn off the jets at 36,000, and you should be home free as long as you're keeping the throttle at safe jet levels. Landings do need some jet assistance, as the chutes will get it to 10 m/s or so, jets will be needed to get it down to < 5 m/s. In the future, we will be posting up threads of Dropships, Capital Ships, and our very own line of Space Station parts. Cheers, Polegato Kerbal, Kerbalife Independent Designer Addendum - Basic SSTO instructions: As for flight profile, testing these gave me some very hardcore experience (probably spent easily 100 hours getting spaceplanes into orbit). Here's the basic idea for any of them: 1) Don't mess with the intakes, you have enough to worry about and a few points of drag coefficient at lower altitudes isn't worth the headache. 2) Basic safety level for air is (Number of Jets) x (Approximate throttle by points)/10 so if the air level is showing .03 and you have two engines, you can run them at 15% throttle. One turbojet is good enough for anything at altitude. 3) At around 30,000m you can kick on the LV-Ns and keep your throttle low and run everything. Keep tapping the throttle lower as you climb. Mechjeb 2 is ok at doing this if you set it to "prevent flameout with safety 20%". A flameout at 5% throttle isn't going to kill you with the LV-Ns going also. 4) The real trick - when the jets cut out, make sure you're still gaining altitude. Its very hard to change your velocity upwards again if you're altitude is dropping. This is the key. 5) When the jets cut out, turn them off, crank the LVN's to full, and pitch up hard. You should have about 60-75 degree AoA and your prograde (yellow circle) should be just above the horizon or more. Your altitude should still be gaining. 6) If your altitude hits 40km, you're golden. My way of monitoring is to watch your "Time to Apoapsis" number. If it goes below zero, you're screwed, if it gets close to zero and creeps back up, you're good. Any number above zero is good until it goes to a BIG number below zero. With LVNs your climb can sometimes be another 5-10 knuckle biting minutes. You have a lot of dV though so don't sweat too much. 7) Your Apoapsis will start to rapidly out-pace your altitude, when it hits the desired orbit then cut the engines or drop them back down and just run them in tiny bursts until you're out of the 69,000 altitude range. 8) With LVNs, you don't burn much fuel, so if your numbers above don't look good, cut engines until you get back down to 20-25km and then try again. Each try you'll be a hair lighter so its that much easier. You should get at least 3 good tries on most of these craft. All of this becomes very second nature after a while. Using Mechjeb 1 or 2 can also be a good time saver - turn on "Ascent" about step 5 - though you do need to heavily babysit and adjust numbers for each craft.

After successful testing at the last Air Expo, Kerbalife Security has decided to procure 4 of these for special operations. Don't expect half of them to last through the night, as our engineers tend to strip excess parts out rather quickly. So far they are performing exactly as advertised.

I thoroughly tested this and even got a screenshot I'll post later, but you CAN do this absolutely...it can be only chute landings. Just hotkey the release button for every clamp on the ship, stage up until the parachutes are live, set yourself on a crash orbit, and as soon as you hit about 30-40k meters up, release everyone. The parachutes will stay active after detachment, and you'll get a nice mass paradrop effect. I tested with about 12 pods simultaneously for a KSMC (Kerbal Space Marine Corps) training exercise. Unfortunately, you can't do that with powered landings