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To be honest, that Kethane rig was more just an example of how to mount an awkward payload. Its RCS thrust is strong enough to shift itself around once on the surface of Minmus (or any other small moon) providing your tank is empty, but it needs a lander to bring it down. So basically, it makes more sense to launch it with the lander attached so that you can use struts to strengthen the connection. I'm happy to share that particular .craft, but would you prefer the kethane rig by itself on top of a probe core instead?

I've never played ace combat, but you're not the first person who's told me that Thanks a lot man

My heaviest plane to ever come down in flames.

Kerbin Family Portrait

It's actually quite shockproof It doesn't manage to peel off the runway before it runs off the end with heavier payloads. It's taken quite a few hard bump after dropping off and I'm yet to sustain any damage with this newer design.

Thanks man. The front orange tank drains readily to lift the nose up for the punch out of the atmosphere. If you mean the central orange tank from the album then no, that is part of a 40ish ton payload. It can be swapped out for just about anything you want that fits in that space. It's more prone to flipping out when it burns dry, but with the intakes open it still flies well.

After a few weeks of solid spaceplane research, I present my 40-50 Ton capable SSTO carrier! I'm rather proud of it despite its monstrous part count Here she is. Dropping off a payload With 9 Tons of fuel to spare after lifting just over 40 Tons. Re-entry Landing Other outfits For interplanetary transport. It uses 374 parts and the .craft can be found here. The full album (49 pictures) along with annotations can be found here. It isn't particularly frame-rate friendly, but the craft handles extremely well for something as big as it is. The craft is 100% stock, but for the best results (and your sanity with low fps) I'd highly recommend Mechjeb's smart ASS and throttle control features should you wish to try it. The jets and intakes are assigned to action group 1, the rockets are assigned to action group 2 and the docking port is designed to be decoupled with action group 9. The standard take off procedure is to stage everything with space bar, then to disable the rockets before taking off. This ensures that the intakes and jets sync up correctly.