Hodo

There is a thread for B9 to update it to work in 23.5. Bac9 hasn't updated that mod in a good while. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66020-B9-0-23-fixes

Thank you for the compliments. I have since made a modified version of the design which I am sending Single Stage to the Mun and back, with a lander in it for landing on the Mun. I am also working on a revision of the original design of the SP-406 to make it easier to get the hauler lined up and loaded.

If you want a more difficult career mode, then download the Realism Overhaul plugin and all of the required associated plugins. And you will have probably one of the most rewarding and challenging career modes you can have in KSP.

Might I suggest one more mod to make the refueling possible from inside the cockpit. TAC Fuel Balancer.

At first they were floppy and weak, but I went through redesigned them about a dozen times and managed to get them pretty strong up to about 80tons of lift. The real limit was honestly getting them to settle in the cargo bay without falling through the back, for that I had to use the KAS struts. The cargo would still shift around a bit but as long as I didn't go all "Maverick" on my flight it was ok. The cargo hauler, or just Hauler-1 as I called it, is almost 250 parts, most of which are struts. I think I have over 140 struts holding it together.

N1K1-J 354knots P-51D 380knots max speed. 315knots cruise. P-47D 376knots. FW-190D9 382knots. TA-152 410knots! Unfortunately I have to agree though, aside from a few late war designs, there were a few prop planes that went faster than 300knots.

You can do it without going to map view with a couple of mods. -Rasta Prop Monitor (glass cockpits) -Mechjeb for the information displays on those monitors.

Because I thought this challenge was fun and cool. "An Affordable Space Program: making the reusable spacecraft pay off" This is what I did with my biggest SSTO spaceplane. 4 refuels, no recovering and relaunching of the craft other than a pilot error on my part that crashed it. I placed a 186 ton station into a 100km x 100km orbit with 4 modules attached to it. Lots of equipment designed specifically to load and refuel this craft. Next job for the SP-406 is to go through a refit in the design, and see if we can send it to Jool. It has the d/v to do it when no cargo is on board. Now to remove a large amount of the cargo space and set it up for a four year trip to Jool and back with a lander.

Fourth module added, and mission complete. Mainly because I don't think another mission with an additional fuel tank matters, even though it is WELL within the abilities of the SP-406 to haul another 70-100 tons of fuel into orbit. I think it would be just showing off at that point. Total mass of the station is 186 tons. There are 8 Kerbalnaughts stationed on board of it. The SP-406 was refueled 4 times. Mods used are in my sig. Total points should be about 190 I think. If I decide to launch an additional module I still haven't unloaded the SP-406... it is parked by the refueling truck, because I find this to be quite interesting a challenge to see how long I can keep it operational for.

I love imgur, it is pretty easy to use once you figure it out. To post your album, you post the album code numbers like this... [ imgur ] 4bX8G [ / imgur ] No spaces. And it will come out like this.

You have a great looking aircraft there. May I suggest you use Imgur for your picture hosting, you can set up some pretty massive albums and post them here and they dont take that much space.

I have to ask, why didn't you use the b9 SABRE engines in place of the rapiers?

First I would like to say that some people try to read to much into things and appear to be intentionally looking to start grief. Having recently started using mechjeb I can say it is not cheaty if you already know how to do everything manually. It is mor f andicap then a help for the experienced player. So those of you who have never used it show stay silent on the topic because you have no clue what you are talking about. This I am sure is not intended to be the end all be all list just a general guide.

I hate that, because my name predates that character from that book by about a few hundred if not a thousand years.

Funny looking at your crafts FAR data, it has very close stats as my test craft did in RO+AJE. Yet I had far more problems with AJE then you. Like in this album, these two craft are different, one is more closely modeled after the SR-71 design, which should work fine, but it doesnt, and the other is modeled after a Delta Dart/Mirage.

Looks like if you are creating enough power, you are having an issue with wing flex on the landing gear. When your landing gear is attached to the wings the wings may flex on take off, which will cause the camber of the landing gear which will cause the craft to veer one direction or the other. My suggestion is to add more struts to the wings.

Updated my album and mission.

This is actually one of the reasons why none of my craft now have it so my crew when they EVA have to walk over gaps in the ship. They clip and fall through to often, even in the stock KSP. It is one thing I wish they would fix sooner than later.

I am the same as Random Tank, never just bring liquid fuel tanks, they are really just wasted mass once you get into orbit. Here is one of my older designs, that I used a few months ago, to rescue a SSTO I stranded on the Mun. Take note at the Dry CoM (red ball) and the wet CoM, in relation to the CoL. This is what will make or break an SSTO spaceplane. If its CoM shifts to far back and ends up behind the CoL, it will be unable to be controlled once it hits atmosphere. To far forward and it will become to nose heavy to do anything but lawn dart. This is expecially true in this case of my SVO-19 and all of my SVO line of craft, because they are also VTOLs and their CoM can't shift to far off of the verticle CoT. This was my SP-314A it was a failed design. It looks like it should have done alright, but if you note the dry CoM is almost sitting on top of the CoL, which makes it VERY "twitchy", the amount of drag at the front of the aircraft doesn't help either. It actually pushest the nose up when coming in at any re-entry angle higher than 10deg off of flight path. Once that happens the aircraft goes into an unrecoverable spin and often pulls itself apart.

After dropping the RO mod because of computer problems, I decided to try this challenge. Unfortunately my craft had an unexpected failure on re-entry. (read pilot error, I tore the wings off of it due to overpressure) Station was only 29.6 tons, could have launched it in my SP-400, but decided to haul it up in the heavy lifter SP-406. But that is just the core section, the SP-406 had over 4000m/s delta/V before I ripped the wings off of it. (Still getting used to the dynamic pressures in FAR 13.) I am planning on trying again later, or just continuing the mission with another SP-406, and just loading its second module up as if I did not crash it, and just charge me a refuel. Seeing as I would have refueled anyway. Next module is the fuel module, and that is slated to weigh around 100tons. Edit- Additional mission updates. Second module loaded and launched on the SP-406. Total station mass 100 tons. Kersta-1 core module 26 tons. Fuel Pod, 76 tons. 2 Kerbals loaded on the station. 1 Refueling so far will refuel again after the fuel pod. Next stage launch the extended crew habitat and docking port for ships. Then an additional fuel pod will me attached. Last two stages will be load final crew load and the Emergency Crew Recovery System, or escape pod.

I place my BZ-52 inside my cargobays, along the bulkhead wall, with the autosnap feature turned off, (the hex to circle) and align it visually. Then I put a docking port on the BZ-52 so I can dock things to it. You can see in that picture that I have a docking port senior attached to the BZ-52.

One other consideration that most people who play with the stock KSP dont consider, your Thrust to weight ratio (TWR). With FAR you do not want a stupid high launch TWR, it is generally best to stay between 1.2-1.4 TWR on launch. Because if you accelerate to fast, you generate a great deal of pressure in front of your rocket basically acting like hitting a wall at the lower altitudes. I generally start my gravity turn around 1000m, or 100m/s which ever happens first. I never turn more than 5deg at a time, I try and keep the prograde marker with in the flight path marker till I get into the higher atmosphere.

3 variants of the F-35. F-35A- CTOL version F-35B- STOVL version F-35C- CTOL/Carrier launched and arrested, larger wings.

Oddly enough I get bigger loads in my SSTO, then I could with most of my rocket designs. But I am not a big asparagus launcher guy, as a matter a fact they just don't work in FAR or in RO. So if I want to get anything into orbit of 100+ tons I use my SP-406 design which can easily haul 108tons into a 100km orbit.

There is two ways of making a space plane. 1- RAPIER/SABRE engines, which have shorter range but are far easier to get into orbit or 2- Jet engines and small high ISP rockets as your booster stage. Both are quite effective when you get the design down. The biggest factors to consider when building a spaceplane is you need to factor in your TWR ratio at all stages, unlike a rocket which you can get away with slapping the biggest booster you can on it and blowing it into orbit. Ideally you want to be going well above 1000m/s before you switch over to your rockets and be between 22-30km altitude. I prefer to be going in excess of mach 5 before I switch over, so momentum does most of the work. My airbreathing stage is usually a TWR of 1.5-2.5:1 and my rocket stage is rarely more than 1:1. I start by climbing as fast as possible to 18-20km before leveling off for speed. At that altitude I try and maintain a positive climb rate but nothing to drastic, usually less than 10m/s. And I try and accelerate as fast as possible during this time on the airbreathing engines. Once I hit 25-28km altitude my airbreathers start to run out of air and are going so fast that they start to lose power. At that point I gradually pull up and increase my rate of climb to about 20-30deg, and switch over to rocket engines, and shutdown the airbreathing engines. I also close my intakes at this time to make sure there is as little drag as possible on the airframe. Once I hit my target AP, usually 100-150km I shutdown the rocket engines and wait till I am around 65km before I maneuver into position for the circulization burn.