Mk3 Skylon

[Redshift OTF]

I hadn't seen one of these around yet so I thought I would make my own. There are obviously inaccuracies so I wouldn't exactly call it a replica but it looks very similar and is really fun to fly as well as being useful.

Mk3 Skylon SSTO

The craft is very versatile. There is a lot of room for extra fuel if you need more DeltaV, (Mun and Minmus orbital missions). It is easy to move fuel around to balance the plane with different payloads but honestly it doesn't seem to need it as the cargo bays are so close to the centre of gravity.

It comes with a sample payload, a medium sized fuel station. (Hotkey 0 to deploy solar panels). You will need to use the whole runway to fly with this but once she is airborne she handles very well.

The craft glides very well when coming into land and survives re-entry without flipping out provided you don't perform any sudden manoeuvres. There's plenty of fuel if you want to land with jet engines.

With sample payload - 374 parts - 150.7 tons

Without sample payload = 348 parts - 119.1 tons

I had to use a lot of struts and bracing to ensure the thrust of the engines didn't rip the wings off.

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Hotkey 1 = Switch engine modes

Hotkey 2 = Toggle bay doors

Download here.

[Guest]

Wow! That´s ... big. How many RAPIERs are there exactly?

[Redshift OTF]

16 Rapiers. I didn't want to skimp on thrust.

[Hobbes Novakoff]

Wow! That´s ... big. How many RAPIERs are there exactly?

Hmmm. I believe the technical term for the engine arrangement is "A Massive Cluster O' Boosters," so I'd say... A lot.

EDIT: Ninja'd

[Tankbuster32]

How many wing pieces aren't visible? That wing looks way too small for an aircraft of this size (especially in stock KSP).

[Redshift OTF]

How many wing pieces aren't visible? That wing looks way too small for an aircraft of this size (especially in stock KSP).

I would guess there's at least 5 times more wing in the hull. It's the only way to get it airborne and for it to look like Skylon. I'm not sure how the real one does it.

[Hydrazine_Soup]

I would guess there's at least 5 times more wing in the hull. It's the only way to get it airborne and for it to look like Skylon. I'm not sure how the real one does it.

The real one, like every real craft, uses they own body as lifting surface, current ksp air model doesnt take this into account very well, FAR for example does, I bet it could fly with far

[Majorjim!]

This is very impressive man. The first MK3 Skylon here for sure. Kudos!!

[Hydrazine_Soup]

This is very impressive man. The first MK3 Skylon here for sure. Kudos!!

Now my MK2 skylon seems useless having the MK3 variant avalible

You served well... RIP

[Redshift OTF]

Thanks for the positive feedback!

My poor MK2 skylon feels pwned by the MK3 skylon

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/541882247437869013/E572BE7359694E9ED6936078426812D6DF7BEA97/

Oh no worries. Your's is probably more authentic than mine, which has a ton of wing clipped into the fuselage, lol. I'm not sure if mine will survive the 1.0 update, in fact many creations won't, so get it while it works!

[Columbia]

Very, very impressive! I like it.

I guess I never thought of using Mk3s for Skylons.

[Rune]

Now my MK2 skylon seems useless having the MK3 variant avalible

You served well... RIP

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/541882247437869013/E572BE7359694E9ED6936078426812D6DF7BEA97/

Thanks for the positive feedback!

Oh no worries. Your's is probably more authentic than mine, which has a ton of wing clipped into the fuselage, lol. I'm not sure if mine will survive the 1.0 update, in fact many creations won't, so get it while it works!

It is an impressive build, don't get me wrong... but I concur that probably Mk2 Skylons still have their place. After all, even with that many hidden wings, I'd bet you this flies more because of "everything will fly if you put enough boosters on it" than because such a thing could fly. RL's Sklylon's fuel tanks are incredibly low-density, considering they mostly carry hydrogen. And still it would take off at about 300km/h.

Also, my Skylon is the first time I did a "all tanks feed at the same rate" trick. And without clipping! So there's that.

Rune. Plus, it managed a respectable 25% of GLOW as payload with two intakes per engine.

[Radam]

It looks like a skylon that is for sure. Nice build. Cargo fraction isnt really that high tho and you could have used even 2 largest cargo holds.

[Redshift OTF]

I could have increased the cargo space for sure but I wanted it reasonably accurate to the real one, (well, the one that doesn't yet exist, lol), however I will probably remake this when 1.0 comes out and I might make a version with a larger bay. I just don't want to make it hard to get into orbit, (this one is currently very easy), keep it noob friendly.