Hodo

Here is a thread of my SSTOs, most of which are using B9 parts. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/56945-Hodo-Creations-SSTO-craft-designs-and-files-for-those-who-want-them And here are some of my older still functional Heavy lifters using B9 parts. SP-400A over 60 ton lift capacity (2 orange tanks) And the SP-406 over 90 ton (3 orange tanks) SVO-18 VTOL, SSTO one fuel load to the Mun, not back though... had to send a ship to refuel them there. SVO-25 VTOL SSTO, 25 ton lift capacity. The trick is finding that balance point for the cargo, and managing to get it to fit. The power is the easy part, most of my SSTOs that I have made have a TWR of over 1.5:1. You can use SABRES, they are good, but really not that efficient. For long haul cargo runs I actually make sure to only use the SABRE rocket to push it to orbital speeds after that I turn it off. Most of my earlier SSTOs didn't use SABREs. Tubrojets are fine up to mach 3.5+ then they start to die off. So the trick is to get up to around 25km, slowly while accelerating as fast as you can. Most of my ascents take upwards of 10mins, I climb out of the lower thick atmosphere as fast as possible, usually at 45deg nose up, once I am at 12-15km I bring the nose down to 20deg and continue to accelerate until I hit 25km. If I have designed the aircraft right it should get to mach 5 before I have to switch over to rockets. I prefer LV-Ns for the boost stage if possible, but you can use what ever is lightest and most efficient. LV-Ns are heavy and weak but great for fuel.

You can get away with the larger stock rocket parts, they still work and quite well. I have made a few SSTOs using stock parts.

Currently working on building a communications satellite grid around Kerbin with the RT2 plugin in Real Solar System. Also working on rebuilding a working SSTO space plane fleet that works in the RSS sized Kerbin also.

Any word on when RAPIERs and SABREs will have full RF support?

I really like that design. It is a shame it probably wont work with the plugins I am running.

I am there again, with the RSS mod. Getting a crew of three into a 400km orbit is a challenge, let alone getting 32 tons into orbit.

That setup really wouldn't need fuel lines anyway. The mainsail is fueled by the center tanks, and the outboard boosters are fed by their attached tanks.

Step down off that cross because you ain't Jesus.

Yes thank you, sometimes when I type in a hurry I forget to check my spelling.

I can't say that it really needs it. It works pretty well right now. But I see the OP has been active in the past few days so I would assume it is still being worked on.

So many points of view, and so many that I think are reading this wrong. Squad added the aircraft parts because it is something that was missing from the base KSP. No space program ever got started without the basic understanding of flight, it is simple as that. If you want to just launch rockets great you can launch rockets, but without a basic aerodynamic model your rockets will be no better than throwing powered darts at space, and honestly that isn't much fun to me or many others. For better or for worse, Squad is gradually adding some of the plugins that fit into the KSP game without making it "to realistic" or "to simple". The aircraft parts aren't just for space planes, they are for ALL aircraft, rockets or other. Squad is going to add a few more mods to the stock game that are just things that are missing or incomplete, Kerbal Joint Reinforcement is one that comes to mind. Currently the base KSP joint system is held together by hopes and dreams, KJR fixes that. TAC Fuel Balancer lets you shift your fuel load around without having to click on a dozen different tanks to do it. Again another thing that should be in game but isn't. Kerbal Engineering Redux, a craft information tool, why don't we have an information tool for craft construction? Because no-one thought to put one in till there was KER and MJ. As I am sure one day, Squad will fix the current hydrodynamic modeled atmosphere and use something more like FAR, which makes an atmosphere behave like well, an atmosphere. I also wouldn't be shocked if Finale Frontier and Mission Controller made the list of mods to be added to the stock KSP. Lets look at some of the other mods that were added, Sub-assembly loader, not many people *****ed about that one. Science, again.. not hearing a lot of gripes there either. So my advice is to sit back, enjoy the ride, and see where they go with this game. If it turns out you hate it, well you can mod it how you want or just quit, at this point I am sure you have gotten your moneys worth, I know I have.

RSS FAR DRE Real Fuels Stretchy Tanks Real Chutes TAC or ECLSS life support Engine Ignitor RT2 Those are the mods I would say are needed for a 75% close to reality mod as you are going to get.

First I would kill your argument with this statement here, it is a game. Next mods are what make KSP fun, the stock base, KSP is pretty bland and incomplete currently. It can be fun for a a few hours but once you have a basic understanding on how the game works you can do anything. The first time I played KSP my first rocket I launched made it to a 250km x 250km orbit. All I did to learn how to do that, was watch a single Scott Manley video. The thing is in real life there are some jet engines that can operate at super high altitudes, look at the U-2 and the SR-71, both were capable of operating well above 20km altitude. The SR-71 set the absolute altitude record of 25,929m! Which oddly enough is about where most of my jet engine SSTOs cut out in FAR+KSP using a single intake per engine. The U-2 operated around 21km altitude again in stock KSP that is REAL high, but in the Real Scale System mod, that is about 80km short of space. Making a SSTO with the RSS mods and the required mods to make it realistic, KSP becomes a much different game. Even launching a successful rocket in career mode becomes a challenge. So don't bash SSTOs, saying they are sci-fi or easy, when you haven't fully explored the options with mods that make the game harder. I don't even bash the people who make stock monstrosities, or only use mechjeb to do things, I often am interested to see what they come up with, what bits of amazing imagination that they use to create these craft. Sure they most likely will not work in a realistic environment but that is KSP. I really suggest you try a few plugins FAR and DRE are great ones that actually make KSP respond like a realistic atmosphere, which is nice. Do you realize that the Delta IV Heavy is 12 stories tall! 40m is nothing to scoff at, that is almost 20 men standing on each others head. And the amount of power the DIVH has in its main boosters is considerably more than what we have in the stock KSP boosters. Because they are scaled for Kerbin.

Cheaty is what you make of it. I personally feel running the stock KSP without FAR+DRE is cheaty. Here is my heaviest lifter SSTO space plane before I added RSS+RF to the mix. And here is my newest SSTO space plane in the Real Solar System with Real Fuels sized Kerbin (which makes it the same size as Earth). Most of my craft are 3:1 intake to jet ratio at max. I haven't found a real life example of an aircraft with more than 3 intakes per engine.

If I weren't running the Earth sized Kerbin RSS mod, I would so do this.. but it takes an hour at mach 6 to get there, I can't imagine how long it will take by car.

The ones with BadS, or badass, do not get scared. Jeb has that perk, and is never scared, no matter what is stats say.

I know if you run the RSS mod you need large panels to make up for the distance from the sun.

While the concept of the "warp drive" is plausable, it is not possible currently. The issues that we face with the warp drive is it wouldn't work like in Star Trek and the power requirements. A warp drive would require a nearly unfathomable amount of power to do what it is needed to get a spacecraft past the speed of light. The next feat would be reducing the mass of that spacecraft to less than that of any known particle so that it can go faster than the speed of light. The last factor is how do you get a human or living crew to survive such a transition in speed without being atomized. Then there are the other factors, like dust and micro meteorites that you could collide with at those speeds which would be catastrophic to say the least. The Roddenberry Warp Drive, works on the principle that the warp field moves space around the ship, which is kept in a bubble or a field that in which the ship is not technically moving. Kind of how a bulldozer track works on the ground, if you are standing on the inside of the track, it isn't moving, but the vehicle is moving. A real warp drive would have to work differently, as pulling space around a field may not be possible, but reducing the theoretical mass of something is.

They aren't straight. That is the simplest answer without actually testing your aircraft.

Thanks, that is useful.

I can't tell you much about the stock KSP aerodynamic model because I got rid of it after an hour of playing in the stock KSP. It made no sense to my slightly educated mind. So I installed FAR so aerodynamics work, mostly right, instead of like flying through slush. PWings actually work great, I use them all the time on vast majority of my spaceplanes, and I have built a few. I have even started building space planes in the Real Solar System plugin with an Earth sized Kerbin, while they aren't as good as my stock sized Kerbin space planes they do work. The thing is with the stock KSP, you really just want to take everything you know about aerodynamics and what looks like it should fly and throw it out the window. In KSP you can get away with putting a barn door on the front of an aircraft and if you put enough engines behind it it will fly just fine. If you put enough reaction wheels and control surfaces, you can create a working UFO with no jet engines. I know a lot of people don't like the inline intake nacelle, but it is actually pretty decent at adding a second intake on an airframe without slapping two RAM intakes together.

My latest creation for the RSS sized Kerbin... The X-6

And another SSTO space plane... this one is capable of a bit higher, but still rough around the edges. I call it the X-6. I am still working on the LOx to LH2 mix for those engines, but I am getting REAL close. I estimate this craft will be able to take up to 5 tons in to a LKO of 140km when completed. Currently I am having issues with uneven thrust out of the engines in either jet mode or rocket mode. They are perfect till a certain temp then they get uneven.. one drops to almost 20% of the other ones power. Both have the same fuel flow and air flow from the intakes. It is odd.

That actually gets to orbit? Awesome!

The Tordial Aerospike has these ratings. 175kn of thrust 390vac ISP / 388 Atmo ISP and weighs in at 1.75tons The Kethane Turbine 200kn of thrust is a jet engine so requires air and kethane Atmo ISP is 2300. and weighs 1.75tons. It is also useless above a certain speed.