Hodo

My other is the arctures thrust corrector. It adjusts the thrust output for different density atmospheres and the difference for space.

Simplest answer is to move the three engines on the wings back behind the wings and up on the body of the aircraft to bring the COT in line with the COM. I have found setting them up like a triangle on the sides of the body work best for maintaining the stability. But I myself am just now fiddling around with getting the "space plane" concept running to other planets. Seeing as I can now build them reliably to get to orbit. Now the hard part begins getting them to other worlds. The Mun is my first target.

Here is a couple of mine using FAR and B9.

KSPX Tac Fuel Balancing B9 FAR Deadly Re-entry Chatter Kerbal Engineering Arcturus Thrust Corrector Crew Manifest Procedural Fairings Subassembly Manager Docking Port Alignment KAS I wanted a bit more realism with my gameplay so I went for the things that would give me more of a challenge. The stock game is great but many of the aircraft are flat out ugly no matter how you design them.

For me with the B9 aero pack running the large cone intakes, SCRAM M intakes, for the larger engines, and running a 1:1 ratio on those I can climb to 23km without flame-outs. And 25-28km when at max speed, around Mach 4.6 or so.

Empty the SH-301 weighs in just over 55 tons. Fully loaded, with cargo and fuel, it weighs in at over 90 tons. Currently working on a larger SSTO cargo hauler. Managed to make a SSTO "bus" that can haul 12 kerbals not including crew into any altitude orbit around Kerbin. That SSTO weighs in at 70 tons loaded. Oh and that reminds me, the SH-415, my biggest SSTO, is over 180 tons sitting fully loaded, I have YET to put a cargo in it and test. But it is HUGE. I cant remember how many parts though. Another pic of the SH-415 Bison. And the SH-301

My best is 15 tons, but mainly limited by space in the cargo hold.

I dont "Air Hog" like many designs, and you can build a successful SSTO or "Space Plane" without needing to. As someone else said start with a proven small design, and work up from there. I just finished my 3rd successful space plane. The SH-415 Bison Two cargo bays and can move 20tons into a 75km orbit and return under its own power. Doesn't like to take more than 5Gs though.

My first successful SSTO. The SH-301 Cub. Max payload, as tested so far, about 20 tons. But that severely limits its max orbit height. With its max load it gets up to 72km orbit. With a light load, less than 10tons it can reach 100km orbit.

See here. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/41824-List-of-working-mods-working-not-working-for-0-21-1

From what I have read, the base KSP program it calculates them as drag or additional mass when they are down. Only for landing gear, not for legs. I tested in my KSP but I have the FAR mod on it, and it does make a difference.

Look ma its the shuttle launch. And yes it worked much like the real shuttle, it was out of fuel on landing. Not by design though.

My biggest bit of advice, is keep it simple at first. Depending on what plugins you are running will vary your design a bit. Like myself I run these plugins -Deadly Reentry -FAR -KSPX -Kerbal Engineer -B9 -Crew Manifest -the chat one for random Kerbal comms (I needed the ambiance) -TAC Fuel Balancer -Arcturus Thrust Corrector Like here is one of my recently successful designs. Its useless other than going into space orbiting and then coming back. But hey its a start. Successful shuttle, uses quite a big booster to get to space but otherwise flies well, and handles extremely well at speed. Capable of mach 2.1 at 20km alt.

First post here, but I have been fiddling around a lot with the flight in this game. I have these mods currently installed. -FAR -B9 -KSPX -Kerbal Engineer -Deadly Re-entry -Arcturus Thrust Corrector -CrewManifest -TacFuelBalancer -SubassemblyManager I wanted a bit more realism in my setup so I went with those and they made a huge difference in how planes react in atmospheric flight. I have three aircraft that are stable in flight, one is nimble and slow, at any speed below .72mach it is able to turn 180deg in the width of the aircraft hanger on the field. The other two are like turning pregnant yaks. One I expected it be that bad, its a cargo and retrieval plane. The other is a hypersonic high alt test plane, I was testing to see if I could build a SSTO aircraft. The SSTO side failed but I build a plane that can fly at 25km at 6.5mach and be completely stable. The three things I learned with plane building in game is. 1- Center of lift should be on or slightly behind, but not far behind the Center of Balance. 2- Having control surfaces or stabilizers behind engine exhaust is bad. 3- Center of Thrust should always be in line with the Center of Balance. To high or to low will lead to the plane spinning nose down or up. With those thrust vectoring engines, it is best to lock the gimbles on take off. And have them set to an action group. I highly suggest the variable geometry intakes with them. Otherwise you will lose to much intake air and stall one engine or the other causing a flat spin. Lastly good luck, and have fun.