Hodo

As promised the ASP-1 King Cobra Armament- 2 GAU-19 20mm Gatling guns, 6 under wing hardpoints. (pictured with 8 500lb bombs, 4 rocket pods, 4 AIM-9K Sidewinders) Max altitude 100km x 100km orbit Max speed- 1500mph (loaded max temp for ordnance), orbital velocities just guns Range- around the world, its a SSTO, enough fuel for 1 orbital velocity insertion and return.

Sorry for your loss. But I have never had a problem with my space plane SSTOs getting off the runway, even my largest which can haul 108 tons into an orbit of 100km x 100km, I still don't need a RATO system to get it off the ground. I have toyed with the RATO system before but find them useless for most of the things I do. FAR helps with the aerodynamic model in KSP. The stock KSP aerodynamic model is much like flying a submersible through split pea soup. While FAR fixes this it makes it so that air reacts like air on an aircraft, thus making planes, space planes and anything that flies through the atmosphere act like it should in real life. So pancake rockets don't work well in FAR, if at all.

I didn't see an explosion, I seen what looked like a puff of smoke but wasn't sure. The other issue I seen was the 30mm autocannon, that looks like it should be on a Frogfoot attack aircraft, is horribly slow firing and doesn't really feel automatic. This doesn't account for the times it just catches fire after the 3rd or 4th consecutive firing of it. I instead find myself using the DYJ GAU-19 from an older plugin. My only real suggestions to an otherwise great mod, is to up the size on the AIM-9 Sidewinder and the pylons that they go on, right now all the pylons are SMALL. I actually just attach them to a radial pylon and jettison them after use. The other thing is to increase the rate of fire on the 30mm and or decrease the catch fire rate. I highly doubt the Russians would put a gun on an aircraft that catches fire after a 1.5second burst.

OK downloaded and tested this out. While parts of this mod I really like, other parts still feel off. The size of the missiles and bombs just seem small but that is me. Next the lack of explosions from the bombs just hurt, there is no real explosion when the bomb hits the ground so I don't know if it hit or just vanished. I am unfortunately comparing this to the Lazer weapons mod, which has laser guided munitions and rather large explosions, granted a bit to large. The missiles and weapons in that feel the right size and scale nicely. With that said, I think this is a better weapons pack then the Lazer system but it still has far to go before it is great. I plan on sticking with it, as it isn't adding parts to my craft and it is easy to use.

Wasn't knocking on Ford. They used to make great cars. But your computer is worth more than your Ford Focus. Which is no Mustang. Pretty far from it.

This is why I listed hardpoints and not the individual weapons themselves. The ASP-1 is capable of taking off with nearly 5 tons of ordinance. And as far as shooting something in space, you don't need much to knock out a satellite or station.

You always seem to have problems with any challenge that isn't favorable to you. I would counter your last suggestion with this, no grappling hooks but electro magnets and radial attachment ports would be fine. FYI I recover my satellites with a stock docking port and pilot skill. You can use a docking port if you design your satellites correctly.

Actually the cluster bombs are smart weapons with probe core CPU guidance systems. I chose to drop them dumb to save time. And the rockets are strictly test rockets and can be replaced with far more powerful weapons. The only thing that has not been placed on the craft is the gun system. On a side note. You asked for anything. But only seem to be interested in anti-armor based weapons. Not the actual vessels and craft themselves. When the department of defense looked at the F16 Falcon they didn't care if it could kill a tank with its on board cannon. They cared that it was fast, maneuverable and can pack any ordinance they wanted to strap to it. With any of the designs submitted you could remove and refit whatever weapon system you wanted.

The other option is to build your space plane with the cargo mounted centerline of your craft. This will remove or at least reduce the com shift issues. This is of course assuming you choose to stay stock. If not I can suggest two mods, TAC fuel balancer and B9 aerospace for the cargo bays. And always FAR. Good luck.

From Hodo Creations Inc, our new military line of craft. I will present to you first our oldest yet most successful and simplest (stock) design to date, the F-145 Tomkat. It is a Single Stage To Orbit Space Multi-Role Fighter. Crew- 1 Weapons- 12 weapon hardpoints on 2 pair of pylons. (1 set on fuselage, 1 set under wings.) And now for our unkerballed remote operated close air support craft with amazing loiter time on target. UAV-1 (working on a better name) crew- none weapons- 12 weapon hard points on 4 under wing pylons. And the latest project in the works... and not complete yet.. but here is a teaser.... the ASP-1 King Cobra Crew-1 Weapons- 4 rockets, 2 cluster bombs, possibly more still testing its capabilities. And it is a Single Stage to Orbit space plane! Will be released "soon"!

Determining the payload size for my space planes is a bit of math, and guess work. Using FAR it is mostly determined by your wing surface area (lift you can generate) and the thrust to weight ratio of the aircraft. I find if my TWR is lower than .75:1 using the jet engines, it will not reach orbit. After I design the craft I then put the heaviest possible load into its cargo bay and test to see if it can get to 25km and 1100m/s under jet power. I also test to see how it handles with that cargo, I will dump fuel to get it down to 50% or less total fuel on board and test how the CoM changed.

Yes, a few.... http://hodo.imgur.com/ http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/56945-Hodo-Creations-SSTO-craft-designs-and-files-for-those-who-want-them My thread about most of my SSTO space planes and more.

That is interesting, I have considered attempting something like this before, but never got around to it. Fantastic!

edit: hmm, how do you embed the album? edit2: ah got it. edit3: nope, never mind :/ [ imgur ] hCaNy [ / imgur ] Without the spaces.

I have to disagree and agree. Engine nacelles are inefficient, but they are also useful when you need the airflow for lower speeds. The SSTO I posted was an Attack/fighter SSTO, and it was designed to work at all altitudes without the use of Nukes and still be useful at low altitudes. So at sub 20km alts I would close the RAM intakes to reduce drag and just use the nacelles and radial intakes. They work like intake super sonic bypass valves on most modern fighter jets. As for the LV-N and the LV-909 debate, right now he is just trying to get it to orbit. After that step you can work on refining and improving the design.

There is three styles of SSTOs you can build aside from the intake spam monstrosity. This one that I build when RAPIERs were new. Notice there is no additional jet fuel onboard of the craft. And it has 2 intakes for the RAPIER in jet mode. Then there is this, which does not have a Rapier or a nuke, but has 3 intakes per jet engine. And the Tail lander, which is MUCH more challenging to build and fly but no less interesting.

Let me help you out a bit, as I person who only builds SSTOs. You have to remember that your take off angle should not be much more than 10-15deg normally anyway. If you have to pitch up more than that you have a problem. The thing is with refined piloting skills you should be able to get off the ground with only 5-10 degrees of pitch up. No need for silly tail wheels or any of those things that are not on 90% of real aircraft. You may have to move really long engines to a more centralized location on the aircraft, like along side the tail section instead of it being the tail. There are some minor problems with your current craft that I can see from that picture. The air brakes are mounted high on the nose of the aircraft, and you have none towards the bottom. If you hit your air brakes at high speeds it will pitch your aircraft in a direction you don't want to go. Try to match your airbrakes top and bottom. The mono-tanks on the top of the wings also are a problem, they add weight higher on the centerline of the aircraft, this raises the CoM, putting your CoM and CoT out of alignment ever so slightly. While it may not be a problem when the craft is full, it will become a problem as your craft burns fuel and the mono tanks stay full.

I have to disagree with this. The F-22A ©raptor has the vertical stabilizers canted for radar stealth reasons, not so much added lift. The other option instead of using the LV-N rocket, you can use the smaller half ton rocket engines that generate 50kn of thrust each. They work great when in pairs, and are light enough that a single turbojet can get you fast enough and high enough that you don't need to burn a lot of fuel to get into orbit. As for the intakes, Northstar is dead on, I have managed to get a SSTO into orbit with a 1:1 ratio of intake to jet engine. It was a bit harder but it is possible, granted I use FAR so I have the added benefit of air compression at higher speeds to make up for thinner air at higher altitudes. The one I posted on page 2 that shows my accent profile only has 18 intakes for the 10 air breathing engines. Most of my current SSTO space planes use a 3:1 intake to jet ratio for ease of flight, which isn't bad and I can find documented cases of it in the real world. There is a fine line for SSTOs and fuel balance. I prefer to use TAC fuel ballancer to let me ballance the tanks without having to worry about them mid flight. There are 3 mods I consider core for building any SSTO spaceplane and I will not go without. This is one using only stock parts, and it has 3 intakes per jet engine. 2 Radial intakes 2 RAM intakes 2 Engine Nacells for 2 Turbojets TAC Fuel Ballancer- helps keep your CoM where you designed it, and you can shift it slightly in flight by moving fuel around. Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR)- Aircraft behave like aircraft, not like submersables at 10,000leagues. Kerbal Enginereering Redux or Mechjeb- information displays are invaluable.

We could have a whole discussion about weapon system designs that work with mods and without.

Love the run, I have to ask about the rockets, what mods were used in making those? I have been looking for a smaller rocket design outside of using my standard stretchy tank SRB rockets.

African or European? The funny thing is I have launched two other SSTOs, SVP-407s, one that went Single Stage to the Mun and back, and another that just took my communications satellite network up in a single launch. And did the KSC Defense challenge, all the while the SP-406 is still parked by the SPH hanger with the fueling tanker right next to it. I should really load up one maybe two more modules and take them up and then park it for good. You can see it here in the right edge of the picture. And here.

I only have two craft that I had to ask Ferram about.... SVO-11 and SVO-12. And then this one... which worked great till I got it all the way to Ike and realized that its drills were to short to reach the ground with the nose gear deployed.....

Here is an album I just made of one of my newer SSTO space planes, it is based on an older design. SVP-407 VTOL SSTO. If you look at the pictures I took them at key points during the accent to give you an idea of what the typical accent profile is for a space plane. This one was a bit more shallow and longer than most due to its cargo distribution but it is pretty much the same for all of my SSTOs.

As Captain Sierra said, RPM does a great deal of improving the look of some of the cockpit IVAs. Truth is they provide about half the information the F-16Cs MFDs provide a real pilot. Overall KSP is great because you can mod it to fit your level of "realism". I would love to see more finished IVAs and clouds and even weather patterns but I am not going to get my hopes up for them anytime soon.

Easiest way to fix KSP aerodynamics.... Use Ferram Aerospace Research plugin (FAR). Done.