Anyone tried Multistaged planes?

[Jappards]

Today I built a multistaged plane using farings:

Craft file:

http://www./download/kvrbdtn33edbd6j/Staged_aircraft.craft

Has anyone tried to build a multistaged aircraft?

[Wjolcz]

Three stack decouplers... Why...

[windows_x_seven]

Three stack decouplers... Why...

Efficiency at its best.

I think he did it so that he could put the fins there.

[Gaarst]

The point of making spaceplanes and SSTOs, in career, is that you recover all of the ship when your mission is done so sending things into orbit cost a lot less.

If you intend to jettison the fuel tanks, engines... to keep only the payload, a rocket will be much simpler, and probably cheaper.

But if you're playing sandbox mode for fun or just want to experiment, feel free to do so: trial and error is a key point in KSP

[Jappards]

Efficiency at its best.

I think he did it so that he could put the fins there.

True, the fins had to be that far back, otherwise the center of lift was infront of the CoM and that makes the glider aircraft in the farings unstable.

I forgot to say, explosions when staging are totally normal.

[sal_vager]

You could make each stage of the spaceplane individually flyable...

[regex]

One of my favorite things to do is build a rocket sled to launch a robot plane from the runway. Not really needed with the new aero...

[amorymeltzer]

I used to do multistage planes because landing is hard anyway, it's easier to explore Kerbin in a plane, it's easier than landing, and you don't have to save half your fuel to get home. Plus, you don't have to deal with the hassle of landing!

[moogoob]

I almost got a high-altitude plane that launched a manned 1-kerbal rocket to work... flew more like Virgin Galactic than a successful orbiter - getting sufficient fuel for more than a suborbital flight was difficult. Eventually abandoned the concept on grounds of practicality in favour of simpler size-1 rockets.

[Alshain]

I used to do multistage planes because landing is hard anyway, it's easier to explore Kerbin in a plane, it's easier than landing, and you don't have to save half your fuel to get home. Plus, you don't have to deal with the hassle of landing!

If landing is really your issue, you could just fit parachutes on the plane and land that way, no need to throw away the parts.

[Tw1]

I'm only seeing one actual stage though. It's more of a plane with an ejectable cockpit.

Wouldn't a truely multistage plane have a few sets of wings, tanks and engines?

[KerikBalm]

I've tried to have a plane that goes suborbital, and then decouples an orbital insertion stage that would boost a payload to orbitl and re-enter seperately.

Then I'd switch to my suborbitla plane and fly it back to the runway.

I found I didn't get any noticable efficiency increase, and it was much more time consuming than just SSTOing.

So I've built multi-stage craft to go to other places, like Mun, where the first stage is a plane to LKO.

I've got not good multistage plane designs to LKO though.

[InterCity]

I used some JATOs back in .90:

Not sure if it counts as a multistage plane though. If it does, I've made plenty of VTVs (Vertical Takeoff Vehicles, not quite a space shuttle but very close to it) in my day. It goes something like this:

The boosters were already jettisoned when the screenshot was taken. The thing why I made this... thing is because it is more versatile than standard SSTO and I'm too daft for a normal NASA-style spaceshuttle. The costs really pay off though, not to mention the fun I have building them (it's quite hard).

[rodion_herrera]

This thread brought back memories of 1982 when I was playing this at the local arcade...

[Wanderfound]

Outdated now, but: Kerbodyne Sabotage.

Test flight at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Sabotage/story

Alternate format at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/slideshow/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Sabotage

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/4r9gc6zi5p57lrp/Kerbodyne%20Sabotage.craft?dl=0

[magnemoe]

Putting fly or trashcan SRB behind rapiers for an fast liftoff is fun, with parachutes they will even land safely.