SSTO "Freerider" series

[LordFjord]

Hey all,

I was so inspired by Majorjim's Eagle SSTO that I simply had to do an own attempt on an opentop custom cockpit SSTO. All stock.

So this is what I came up with.

A custom cockpit for 2 Kerbals, including an eject system for both, and access to the cockpit from inside the craft. The plane's design was inspired by my other SSTO - in particular the vertical turbo jet and tanks arrangement. Some tanks are a bit clipped, but I adjusted their fuel levels accordingly.

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Craft file (dropbox)

Edited February 24, 2015 by LordFjord

[Majorjim!]

Hey man.

I love this! It's a really lovely looking craft. And very capable too by the looks of things. The cockpit looks awesome too, and two seats! Kudos.

You would get much better performance with only one nuke in there. See if it's possible to try with one.

Other than that its great!

MJ

[LordFjord]

Thanks yeah i know that two were overkill, but for the sake of symmetry...

I had a lot of fun building this. The editor gizmos are absolutely awesome and building stuff like this would be impossible without them.

Here's a pic from the abort-system:

Edited February 22, 2015 by LordFjord

[Majorjim!]

Thanks yeah i know that two were overkill, but for the sake of symmetry...

I had a lot of fun building this.

I'm very glad to hear it!

The editor gizmos are absolutely awesome and building stuff like this would be impossible without them.

I haven't had a chance to have a look at yours in the SPH yet but the Eagle was moslty built without the use of the gismos. But they where invaluable for making the little 'clean up' tweaks.

Here's a pic from the abort-system:

awesome! gotta keep the little guys safe.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Majorjim

[LordFjord]

Another day, another SSTO

Freerider MK 2

Some specs:

- almost 60 tons on the pad

- including 18 tons cargo spread to 4 MK2 cargobays

- custom built cockpit for 3 happy Kerbals, each with his own eject/chute system

- quite high partcount for its size, thats the prize for style

The pics show the maidenflight, to my surprise it even go to orbit with something like 600dV left. Using the tanks in the cargobay, it would have ~4k dV.

The flight wasn't easy, all those wing pieces and disabled control surfaces in the cockpit ofc still generate lift, and that from weirdest angles. Also, its far away from the CoM so I was busy keeping the bird on its tracks. Needs more SAS. Reentry went perfectly stable with an easy landing. The langing gears need to be a bit more apart from each other to make it more stable on the ground, but otherwise there was no reason to complain.

The ejection system needs some refining before it works reliably, but I wanted to show some pics already. Yeah, I quite like how it turned out

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Next time, some MK3 stuff if I find a way to build a nice cockpit.

[LordFjord]

I polished the cockpit, iimproved the aft gear positioning, added 2 SAS and improved the escape system to work (in 33% of the cases - yes, thats an improvement).

Feels a lot better now.

Here's the craft file if anyone wants to try it:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lyftua5f6u9go10/Freerider%202.craft?dl=0

A few instructions:

- breaks on

- move all 3 Kerbals from the hitchhiker to the seats

- hit space to get rid of the hitchhiker

- hit space again to eject cockpit canope

- hit space again to eject the kerbals - pray that nothing collides in unlucky debris

Action groups:

1: inner 4 jets

2: outer 2 jets

3: nukes

9: ladder

10: cargobays

Edited February 24, 2015 by LordFjord

[LordFjord]

And here is another, still work in progress.

Freerider XL

- 5 Kerbal custom cockpit

- 2 orange tanks to orbit

- 550+ part count

- 360 tons on the runway

First test-fight went well - except the landing. Its hard to balance these big birds, need to practice that more.

Fuel flow is also complicated on these twin hulls. But all in all, I had a lot of fun building it.

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