speedboiae86

Looks more like a medium weight SSTO to me... a few modifications, I bet it could make it to Minmus, or possibly even Duna. Just swap out the Aerospike for a Nuke and use the offset tool to hide most of it after you have the action groups set.

Looks more like Eve to me.

D'oh, I just did one too and called it the Albatross... More specifically, the "Star Albatross" Small Payload Satellite comes standard. Whoops, overshot my re-entry. Good thing that this can immelmann turn, LIKE A BAWSS!! In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Another happy landing." MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Where in the hey-ho heck did you stick the cockpits?

I'm personally not a fan of too many mods in a game, but that looks freaking sweet!!

I really do miss the aesthetics that those black undersides used to provide though. It made your Scythe look more, stealthy... like it could slip under enemy radar and surprise them with a volley of missiles or torpedoes in orbit.

I did not know that... crazy... I guess I'll have to try that on my next mission out to the Mun or Minmus or something.

How did you manage to get the Kerbal to turn his head in the video? It looked creepy as hell...

I see what ya did there...

@DuoDex Here she is, just for you. "Star Series" Star Heracles (Hercules) SSTO Mk. II with Mun Lander. Be sure to catch Action groups before take off but here is a quick run down: 0 - Toggles all intakes closed, press before take off!! 1 - Toggles all intakes open and toggles 1st pair of jet engines 2 - Toggles 2nd pair of jet engines 3 - Toggles 3rd pair of jet engines 4 - Toggles 4th pair of jet engines 5 - Toggles 5th pair of jet engines 6 - Toggles Solitary rocket engine 7 - Toggles paired rocket engines Important, do not set your take off angle to anything more than 10 degrees pitch until you are off the run way, doing so will cause a tail strike and tear off the rear wings and rocket engines. From there, gently pitch to 15, 30, and then 45 degrees. She doesn't like pitching up too rapidly. Climb to 12,500m, level out initially to 30 degrees, then 20 degrees, and nothing below there. Let it build speed until 1,400 m/s, and then hit the ascent autopilot. Listen for when the jet engines start to lose power. Anytime you find yourself about to flatspin, shut down one pair of engines, starting from the outside and going in. She has a ton of reaction wheels, so it'll correct easily. When you're on the final pair of engines, feel free to activate the solitary rocket motor. Keep listening to your remaining jet engines, they should start losing power quite quickly at this point. Shut them down, one at a time, until you can no longer keep the last pair of jet engines lit. Shut them down and close all the intakes with the 1 key. Activate the paired rocket motors. Let those do the rest of the work. She easily make low (80km x 80km) orbit. Feel free to fiddle around with the cargo section if you like. Remember, anything you can fit in there, you can take to orbit. You could potentially even use this SSTO to build an entire small space station!! If you do anything interesting with it, show me!!

Do you even lift, bro? XD I couldn't resist... Thought I'd chuck this in here; The "Star Hercules" Series Medium Weight Lifter SSTO. Basically, whatever you can fit in it's cargo bay can be taken into orbit. A fuel tank, a mun lander (pictured), whatever!! Just do not forget to strap down your payload with struts, or it'll wobble all over the place. Also, disable crossfeed on the docking port so you don't accidentally use payload fuel. Completely stock, non air-hogging design. Let me know if you're interested and I'll post a download link. Model shown has Mechjeb equipped, but I can "stock-ify" it for you.

Took this for a test flight today. My only qualm, no action group for shutting all the intakes at once. I also experienced an asymmetrical flame out when the intake air dropped below the jet engine's functioning threshold. But other than that, it's a great little ship!! She's quite peppy!! 100th post hype!!

Holy cow dude!! We finally hear the voice of Cupcake!! I for one have totally loved your dropship designs (the Stratos still being my favourite, next to the Scythe). Good to know you're still plugging away and doing what makes you happy my friend.

I've done an SSTO like that!! Extremely low part count in itself and no part clipping to speak of!! I called it the "Sundog". I based it on a high altitude flyer design that could very nearly reach orbit on just it's turbojet. 1 turbojet jet, a can of jet fuel, 2 ion engines, 2 Gigantor XL Solar Arrays, 2 Ram Air Intakes, and one Engine Nacelle Intake.

Calling it your "best" is kinda like calling a gas guzzling car "fuel efficient". What is it's effective range? If it can get to Minmus on it's own, I'll be impressed.

Hmm, I'll see what I can do, it looks a little unstable when you were landing it hard, the tail section showed a lot of flex. Some struts could help with that... I'd need to give this a download before and test run myself before messing with it. Cupcake is the authority around here on VTOL SSTO's, you should definitely check out his thread or his Youtube channel, CupcakesLanders.

That's freaking badass!! You should show that Cupcake!! Any plans to turn that beast into an SSTO?

You should make an SSTO version.

I never read the books, but I do still love the animated series to this day. I haven't ever seen the one where they go to the moon yet but I'm sure it's out there somewhere on the internet. Great looking replica, as has already been said. Takes me back to my childhood days when I used to watch Tintin, but was too young to understand it because of all the complexities... Now that I'm older I can appreciate it more. Good job!!

Looking sweet!! I can't wait to give them a try!! Those ion engines are pretty damn efficient, and with the new beef-up they got in 23.5, they pack quite a bit of power now!!

It's a beauty!! I'll have to take it for test flight. What's it's range?

Looks as those will be another in your line of "Black series" VTOL's. I may give them a try too.

I am proud to present another "Macey Dean" inspired craft. Naval VTOL Pattern SSTO Fighter Prototype - Isprit SSTO Mk. VII - Inspired by the "Laythe Edition" VTOL Pattern Fighter Isprit, this variety was designed as an entirely independent Single Stage to Orbit craft. While it won't win any prizes for range, it does make orbit on it's own with just a tiny amount of fuel to spare, but it does carry plenty of monopropellant for orbital maneuvering. The vertical take off is nice and stable thanks in part to 6 Rockomax 48-77 engines pointed downwards and balanced well with the center of mass. A single Turbojet engine does a majority of the flying to carry it to 25 km in altitude at 1,400 m/s before two Rockomax 48-7S engines take over and carry this craft up to a low orbit. As of right now, because this is a prototype, this fighter is currently unarmed, but one can expect an armed variant soon. Send me a pm if you would like a download link and I'll send one along.

I'd love to take it for a spin.

My standard ascent profile is generally climb initially at 45, level off at 12,500 to 15-20 degrees depending on the plane, cruise to gain speed to at least 1,500 m/s, and then climb out of the atmosphere at 35-45 degrees, build ap to 80km, coast, and circularize.