Gauss H2K

1) a) Try to build an aircraft that has all its fuel at it's CoM, or moves the CoM forward while draining, this makes transitioning from flying full to empty much quicker. You want control surfaces to be set up like a real world aircraft for better performance. This means ctrl srfs inline with CoM but out to the side controlling roll. Either ctrl srfs far behind, or far forward in front of the CoM (The greater the distance the greater the control due to torque), These control pitch. If using FAR I'd recommend either a forward canard or a rear canard that alter it's shape as going super sonic causes the CoL to shift back, potentially nullifying any elevators back there. Finally you want a ctrl surface inline with the CoM but as far behind, and acting as rudder, controlling yaw, or side to side movement. From personal experience the yaw and roll ctrl srfs are mostly used to stabilize, or steer. The pitch is where the majority of your flight will be controlled and special attention should be given to those ctrl srfs. c) Drain excess oxidizer from your space plane in the hanger as extra LF means more fuel for air breathing engines, whereas excess O means dead weight. My advice is to use LFO tanks only instead of LF tanks, as they usually have better Fuel to mass ratios even with all the O drained, and they allow the potential to be refueled to allow your space plane to have more fuel while in space. 2) The answer to this question is the same reason anyone does anything in KSP. They do it for the fun/challenge/roleplay/whatever, it all boils down to we do it because we want to. I personally like doing things this way because Space Planes are kinda Sci-Fi like the x-wings that just go into orbit or wherever and can land on anything they want. They only thing they lack upon returning from something is just fuel, which makes them cool.

Well a higher orbit means you'll have less radial velocity, but it means you're fighting gravity more. Since the atmosphere is so thin around Duna, it might not be a bad idea to use basic kinematics formulas to figure out the range at any altitude since air resistance will be very little. If you're not opposed to mech jeb, it has a module that predicts landing sites.

Good Luck, I was only recently able to put a 90 ton SSTO into orbit, I found that more engines=more problems, so I've been really looking towards the one rapier SSTO's for their part counts and ease of build.

Aren't the B9 SABREs essentially made for SSTO's? Why not use them, and save some weight since those turbojets become dead weight after 20km, and the rockets are deadweight before that. Also you might try adding more intakes, 20km is high, but not high enough. I would also aim for 1.4-1.5 km/s at 25km before switching to rockets.

I have 2 large Tail fins at the back, which are two delta wings with two small standard control surfaces, Edit: In an attempt to improve flight characteristics even better I added a larger Tail Fine with 4 standard surfaces for better yaw control. It flies better now, or at least FAR tells me it does... since the same problem persists. The large standard control surfaces are being used as Ailerons, not elevons. The forward canard and rear elevators are there to help at mach speeds It weighs in at 80t, 4 rapiers is just enough for TWR, and the LV-Ns are to suit it's purpose of being a shuttle between moon bases in Jool's SOI It wobbles in both scenarios, I do believe it's something to do with the hardpoint wheels. It flies just fine, I've built many an SSTO so I know how to design them to either remain at the same level of stability as the fuel drains, or become more stable. I won't try a vertical ascent because it has 1-1.1 TWR on rapiers. It does weigh a lot, as the SSTO's I build are usually <40t. This one is 80t, but I am quite proud, as aside from the landing gear, the FAR data tells me it flies very well.

I know about this, which is why I placed them on structural pylons, attached to the radial fuel tanks. I've also already "over" strutted the wings to everything on the ship. On the earlier model I had, I had 2 front wheels attached on pylons, I removed them because with 4 wheels, it was still yawing. I used snap-to to place all of them making sure they would be straight and only rotated the front gear by 180 degrees. If it were the case that the snap to didn't cause your gear to be straight by default, then this issue should've plagued the other 5 spaceplanes I made, but alas this isn't the case.

Here is my SSTO Here's my query, during takeoff this vessel likes to yaw left and right randomly and violently, what about my landing gear placement is causing this? Edit: since it's not apparent in the pictures, the back wheels aren't attached to the wings. They are attached to a structural pylon attached to the distal fuel tanks. Further Edit: After increasing the size, and control authority of the rudder, I was able to rule out the rudder as an effect, as the problems persisted. Furthermore I saw that at 4 wheels, the back wheels tended to "break" under the weight. Adding more wheels prevented the breaking, but didn't solve the yawing problem. At this point I believe it has something to do with using the small hardpoints themselves, since there were no wheels that were inverted or at an angle other than 90. Final Edit: Look at these pictures: The only thing changed about the landing gear, was switching from a small hardpoint to 2 cubic octagonal struts. Landing Gear problem solved. Don't use small hardpoints.

You're lucky, in an effort to reduce crashes, I end every program on my computer except KSP, and play with only FAR installed. In my case, nukes are so much better for anything larger than a pea. It's not too hard to build an ion plane/probe/rover, the difficulty is then finding a practical use for the new creation. I mean why use an ion plane, if not just for the challenge? It's not practical for exploring kerbin, nor for SSTOs so the only real point to building an ion plane is to say that I've built an ion plane.

Ions wouldn't be so obnoxious if you could leave them to burn while switching to a different vehicle, and come back to them after the burn. As it is, for ultra lightweight craft they're pretty good, the problem being that there isn't a whole lot an ultra light can do. Also I believe the Interstellar Mod has plasma thrusters, and other engines that are similar to ion engines, but scaled up for 1.25m parts.

If you're intent on modularizing it, I would recommend not sending it up all together, and just build the SSTO stage that can be swapped out for an IP Stage, then re swapped for atmospheric return. It would reduce part counts, complexity, and dead weight (assuming you're using turbojets for atmo).

I use the Rapiers with a LV-N engine to create an SSTO that has engines that aren't just dead weight on non oxygen atmo worlds. I also use FAR and I think I've gotten much better performance from using the RAPIERs due to it.

KAC is really helpful, and I recommend it. I don't think anyone will call you out as "cheating" for using an autopilot, since all KAC does is allow you to set alarms, allowing for better handling of multiple missions. It doesn't automatically set "perfect" maneuver nodes at the transfer windows, nor does it autowarp. It doesn't alter any of the physical parameters of any of your vessels, so any craft can benefit from it while still being completely made of ONLY stock parts.

Build redundant systems, like RTGs and Solar panels. Wings and Parachutes. Landing Legs, and Plane Gear. Because you never know when the second system you thought was just extra weight and had no necessary applications, saves your ship, and or crew from total destruction.

If we're going that route, deadly reentry for career mode is another suggestion.

Try aerocapture with either Jool, or Laythe, all it requires is you get your periapsis just dipping into the atmosphere, which will slow you down, and if performed at the correct altitude (I would use quicksave to find it), it will allow you to achieve an orbit with little delta v required. Also when I do reentry burns, I aim to get my periapsis just inside the atmo, and let drag do all the braking. Also if you aren't already using it, I would recommend MechJeb, if you just want to see how your designs work because you're a rubbish pilot, it has functions like an autopilot, if you're a great pilot, it has other features like predicting where you'll land, preventing jet flameouts, and other little things that reduce some of the workload when piloting vessels. Without refueling, something like only 8000 delta v is needed to go from launchpad to Laythe orbit