Hodo

With a 3:1 intake to Jet ratio you can get to around 24-28km altitude without flame out. You will need to be going fast... REAL fast. Ideally over 1600m/s before you switch over to rockets. But if you just have one SABRE M you will need a minimum of 3 Variable Geometry intakes to make it to 24km. The SABRE M is a REALLY powerful engine and it sucks the fuel.

My VSR-3 on the Mun with its mining rover. And yes that thing works in FAR. Quite well actually. Even though the wings don't generate lift until over 900m/s.

The problem with that one is there no mods. For me no FAR means no challenges. I refuse to get rid of FAR.

Ok I had this problem once a long time ago. You can get rid of those pylons that your gear is attached to. I found that if I strut the back of the intakes to what ever they are connected to it will make them FAR more durable for gear work. I like to use 2 struts connected at the back sides of the intakes and then to the section it is connected to. I also use the Variable Geometry intakes for most of my intake work now. They create the least amount of drag and are most useful at higher speeds. And you really don't need that many intakes with a SABRE engine. The four variable geometry intakes you have under the wings will do fine.

You can however use the plugin "Crew Manifest" which will let you do that without EVA.

Honestly for me I would like to see these things in no particular order. -FAR Aerodynamics become the stock aerodynamics -Kethane and ISA added to the game -an option for Deadly Re-entry effects. -costs and funding to career mode (even though I will likely only play sandbox) -Option to randomize planet types in system on sandbox mode or career mode.

universe replacer.

Simple, do you have nose cones on them? Are they aerodynamically sound? Or are they a bunch of bricks with rockets slapped on the back. If the rocket isn't aerodynamically sound as soon as it gets near the speed of sound, 300m/s (+/- a few meters). It will flip to the more aerodynamic side, which is often the engines themselves. So the trick is with rockets, is keep the speed to around 180-220m/s till you complete your gravity turn at around 10-14km altitude.

No offense, but its not that big of a deal to close or minimize that window every time you go into the VAB. Try having Kerbal Engineering and FAR, then all you see is numbers when you go into the VAB, I have to minimize both before I can do anything. But sometimes I want them open so I can see what is wrong.

TAC Fuel Balancer will solve all your problems. Otherwise it can't be done in the stock game.

Arq, is dead right. You can build a space plane type SSTO with 3:1 intake to jet ratio. The turbo jets are the best for this role and do quite well in atmosphere and handle mach 3.5 and better the best. I use FAR so I can't tell you much about the stock drag model or how it works because I have never dealt with it for any length of time. But you will want your wings to be pretty simple in construction or at least strutted so they don't flex to much. And you don't want to try go and fly it like a rocket, SSTOs take a bit longer to get to space than a rocket. But they can get to space generally with more fuel if done right.

I like Career mode, but do I think I will play it much, no... I like sandbox better. But I won't flame career mode because I don't want to play it.

There is no link in your sig.. or a sig for that matter.

Finally got a SSTO that can not only take off Vertically but it can land vertically and carry a rover! Oh and it doesn't most of its lift created by wings. Its the closest ship I have designed to the shuttles in "Elysium". Not that it doesn't have its bugs.

I have never heard FAR makes getting to space too easy. But there are no others that I am aware of either.

i5 3470 3.20GHZ CPU 8GB RAM W7/64 500GB HDD Nvidia 260GTX GPU I run KSP fine as long as I keep the total parts count below 400. Between 400-500 it gets a bit laggy, but I can push that to 500-600 if I run my Game Booster program, which pauses or kills most windows background programs and gives priority to the game I am running. But KSP doesn't use more than 4gb of RAM anyway so it doesn't really load my computer much. And there is a slight memory leak in it or in one of the plugins. I may do some testing after .22 to see if I can find it. For those of you who are having lag issues in game and are using a Nvidia card, you can set it to run the physics instead of graphics.

VTOLs are very possible in FAR, here is my most successful. It has been to Minimus and back. And here is my knew crew shuttle VTOL. The best bit of advice I can tell you is, you have to do a VERY controlled slow down to your stall speed, and make sure that you are already in VTOL mode at that point. Otherwise you will do all crazy stall flipout. You can put small thrusters or Air RCS found in the B9 pack on the tips of your wings to help with this problem or more SAS systems. It is really frustrating and trying to say the least, but it does work. I am still working on VTOLs to make them better, and I am still making them better on my end.

I use FAR so I am not sure how much help I can be. But when building an SSTO, you have to consider how much fuel to total weight you want to have. TOO much fuel and you will be heavier, thus needing more Delta V to get into orbit. So the trick is to find that perfect balance where you can go fast... think a minimum of 1500m/s in atmosphere on air breathing engines before you even attempt to make orbit. The faster you can go and the higher you can go on air breathing engines the more fuel you will have once in orbit. So the trick is start small, then go BIG once you have the basics of the small design down perfect. None of my big SSTOs can one trip it from ground to Mun. One of my smaller designs can. But I wouldn't be able to land it.

Cool thanks, I may work on another this week, just to see if I can go faster. But I am working on another project currently.... SSTO VTOL without lifting surfaces but takes off from the runway, not a rocket more like a shuttle in that newer movie "Elysium".

DC4bs, great looking craft, I can give you a tip on the large Space plane SSTOs. Add a few struts along the sides of your cargo bay, from the forward section to the aft section. It will take a great will of flex from the hull of the craft making them a lot easier to handle. The other thing is more struts on the wings, they will tend to "flap" under more than 4Gs, they don't have to be long struts but they do help. Lastly, SABRES are great, but EAT UP FUEL. If you can get away with it, put one nuke engine on there in place of one of the large SABREs, it will help with working in space and not eating all of your fuel while doing it. The trade off is you will have some LONG burn times. I even go with 4 smaller LV-Ns at 60kn each they are great for that job.

You can.. where you place your rockets doesn't matter. What matters is the Center of Thrust (CoL) runs through your Center of Mass (CoM).

I tried downloading it, but you are using some mods I don't use. It would be helpful if you listed the mods you are using. Here is a pretty basic picture of how my fastest SSTO is set up. This is the "Jackal". Notice how the CoL is just behind the CoM. And that the CoT runs right through the CoM. It doesn't matter if you are running FAR or the basic KSP without mods, it holds true for both.

So I made it to Minimus with the SVO-3, ran out of Monoprop fuel on landing.. that was fun. But was able to refill every tank on the ship with its massive 32k kethane mining and refining ability.

SVO-3 on mining on Minimus... 32,000 Kethane capacity and processing. From left to right. Mission Commander Kelmin Kermin, Pilot Herby Kermin, Flight Engineer Hadlie Kermin

For me, Tylo and Dres.