Hodo

Pretty much what I have found also. That and throttle back, like the real rockets do to. I run usually 60-80% throttle till I complete my gravity turn then I kick it up to 90-100%.

Actually not that small. Unfortunately I do not use this mod, I am waiting on KIDS to work with the SABRE engines then I will be adding that to my mod list. But the universe resize plugin just takes to much memory for what I have left.

There is ISA Mapsat, and the other mapping plugin. Interplanetary launch pads, which adds other resources and not a lot of other parts, I don't use it but I like the idea. FAR adds more control and an actual aerodynamic function to the game, so no more flying bricks. Deadly Re-Entry (DRE) adds a much harsher re-entry effect and G force limitations on crew, thus making re-entries far harder, but far more satisfying. Remote Tech 2, adds a few parts, about a dozen, mostly antennas, and makes for building communications satellites far more realistic.

It is actually easier and more efficient to make a craft that can convert Kethane when on other worlds and refuel itself. That is what I did with 3 of my most successful interplanetary SSTO space planes. Like this one.. I had a minor design issue, I made the gear to tall for the drills so I had to raise the nose gear in order to drill for Kethane..lol.

I run the mods in my sig. But most importantly FAR, DRE, RemoteTech2, Kethane, B9 and KSPX and KER. If I dropped B9 it would be my hard mode. But I like the look of a few of those parts so I keep it. I have used FAR and DRE so long I honestly can't play the game without those two.

I love it, granted it will most likely not work for me, but I love it. Great design!

That one right there.

There can't be anything else around the ladder, and you can't be going that fast. The slower the better to be honest. And sometimes there is a bug on some capsules where it wont detect it correctly and bounces your kerbanaught off the vehicle.

How does it fly in FAR, and can it get to space?

Just hit F3, that will give you that log.

I would keep those tanks, and reduce the midsection like you were thinking, but I would add those radial mono tanks towards the front. This would give you the extra mono propellent you are looking for.

This is true, SABREs are overpowered in some applications. Like if I have a 15 ton SSTO and I place a SABRE-M on it, yeah I am going to blow it to space with the least amount of fuel use. But on a 100+ ton application it loses a lot of that benefit, but that could be said for any engine at that point. I honestly have a love hate relationship with SABREs. I love them for the saving of parts on a craft, not having to place a second rocket or jet engine is nice, but I also hate them because they are so heavy and fuel hungry in rocket mode not to mention they are a bit overpowered. I wouldn't ignore the rocket capabilities at all, they are good, but fuel hungry. On many of my other SSTO space planes that use the SABRE I use the rocket ability only to get into space, once I am there I usually use a more efficient engine to circularize. One thing I noticed about your two craft, you are using the intercooler between the engines and the hull. I have found they do nothing currently and this was confirmed by others in the B9 mod thread, so they are just wasted mass, unless you are using them as structure to move the COM back or space out your engines. The only reason why I list KSPX as one of the mods, is because I don't remember what all I have used the KSPX parts on or what is stock and what isnt part of the KSPX parts list. That is one mod that should definitely be part of the stock game.

Oh one more thing, stock turbojets and D30s start to lose power around mach 2.5+ and really lose all power around mach 4. The stock turbojet makes power till around mach 5.5 then its dead. The SABRE I think pushes till Mach 5.5 in jet mode also. The thing is I run at most 3:1 intake to air breathing jet ratio, climb at best possible rate till around 15km, or till my intake air percentage in the FAR readout drops to 300%, then I start to level off for speed. I then climb at no more than 10-15deg or keep it below 50m/s climb rate, till I can get to over 1650m/s, if I can ride the jet engines till 30km I am happy if not I try to keep them pushing till I am no longer accelerating, then I switch over to rockets.

But the D-30Fs are to me slightly worse than the stock turbojet engines, but when I need brute force they actually do better on that craft. But to me it's like the difference between the LV-909 and the nuke engine, depends on the application. That is actually the old version of that craft, I have changed it slightly to be more efficient. If you have B9, Kerbal Engineering, KSPX, and FAR, I can easily send you the craft file. I haven't flown it in a while but will take it up for a quick test flight and tell you what it does. I remember it was fast when empty and quite a bit slower when packing its full 72 ton cargo. Ok just tested the SP-400A, I can get to without a cargo, up to 1750m/s on just airbreathers alone, at an altitude of 28km, before I have to switch over to rockets. The SP-400A is not one of my most efficient craft, but it does quite nicely for what it is designed to do. My fastest craft on jets as an SSTO is my SVO-11, SVO-12, and SVO-13. Both will do close to 1800m/s in atmosphere before having to switch to rockets.

Ok the cargo lifter looks like it is to heavy to reach the speeds you want with the engines it has. Each one of those SABRE-S engines are heavier than a single turbojet engine by about 2x. They also are less fuel efficient than the turbojets. Here is my heavy lifter, the SP-400A, compare the designs and see the differences. Initially I had a problem much like you, where I had to many engines or relied to much on the SABRE, it is good but it is to heavy, and I found that the turbojet was just better.

One problem, there is no end log screen shot to confirm anything. But great flight. I don't know if there is going to be an update on the leader board, the original poster hasn't been online since Oct 30th.

LOL, no not really, I run DRE, and I get SSTO space planes into orbit on a regular.

The issue is the altitude, to get much faster than 1700m/s you will have to go a little bit higher or have a much higher TWR ratio. SABREs are great for their power but are kind of lacking when you do the TWR math. SABREs are horrible engines for trying to make an interplanetary SSTO from Kerbin. And honestly 1700-1750 isn't bad before switching over to rocket power if they are done right. I have more than a few SSTOs that use SABREs and quite a few that don't. May I see a picture of the craft so I can see how it is laid out and see if it is underpowered or using to many intakes.

1- actually they do. Having flown a few sims and had some real experience in an twin engine aircraft, nothing sucks more then one engine suddenly loses power, and I am not talking 1 or 2 % but like 50+% of its power at once. You can recover but it takes a great deal of effort. 2- ORLY? Then why can't the F-15C Eagle fly higher than 65kft? *rhetorical question* Because the engines won't breath that high. 3- Actually that is true in real life to. Why don't you see aircraft with a MASSIVE intake in the front anymore or why we quit making planes like the F-84 and F-86. Because that massive nose intake was causing more drag than it was worth. If you notice the F-22 and the F-35 have much smaller intakes than even the F-15C and F-16 fighters. I have built the fastest, and the challenge shows it, FAR mod Stock aircraft here, and it isn't an intake spam yet reaches Mach-6. Don't believe me look at this thread. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/27296-The-MachingBird-Challenge! Who is on top of the Stock+FAR mod? I have also built over two dozen SSTO space planes, all using FAR, some using Arcturas thrust corrector, and they all work, even the few that are using stock parts. So I know it is completely possible. I think your problem is, really two fold, but I will deal with the problem in KSP+FAR as the other problem I can't fix. You are taking a two aggressive ascent profile for that craft. Each one of my SSTOs work differently, some I can shoot right off the end of the runway and go straight into a 60deg climb till 20km, others I have to ease up to 15km then build up speed at a 5-10 deg climb rate till 25-30km. But to end this little debate, it is all speculation without actually seeing your craft.

The FAR mod helps a fair bit with the aerodynamics problems. And I admit all of my SSTO/Spaceplanes are built with it in mind. At this point I am a bit elitist and refuse to build a plane or space plane without it.

Most of my CommSat-3K satellites are running the 1000 unit batteries and 2 large solar panels with a pair of radioscope generators as backup power. I have 5 antennas on each ComSat-3K, but only 2 or 3 of them are online at any given time the others are used in cases where I need the deep space communications coverage for a interplanetary probe or something like that.

SSTOs are easy.... Once you get the hang of them. The tutorials listed above and everyone who has answered I couldn't agree with more. Trust us we know SSTOs.

FAR has settings which let you set up control surfaces as airbrakes.

Pretty close. But I love KAS for the uses, it has so many applications that are available in the real world and is handy when you run Kethane or even RemoteTech2. I design many of my ships to be as realistically plausible as I can, without running Earthsized Kerbin mod and KIDS. Granted when Ferram4 gets KIDS working with the B9 SABRE engines I will be switching to that.

I use my space stations for two things. 1- They are orbital command centers for my communications network using the RemoteTech2 mod. 2- They also act as refueling and high powered science transmission stations.