The "MONSTER" 130 ton ssto that can take a full orange tank to orbit!

[Screeno]

(Warning! in my game i'm playing with an aerodynamics config numbers exactly between that of 1.0 and 1.0.2 because i hate the 1.0.2 too much drag thing, and i thought 1.0 was fun but don't want to stray to far from "stock" personally i think squad should implement this best of both worlds config in the next patch as it would please many.* i have not tested this in the 1.0.2 configs, do so at your own risk!!!* lol)

Haha my first ship sharing post!

Well here is the culmination of days of failed attempts and some rage, until finally... it was born. Behold! the MONSTER! (that is literally what it is called, i didn't know what to call it)

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A Mk3 SSTO that can take a full orange tank to LKO and probably anything you can cram in there to be honest!

Stats:

Weight wet/dry (not counting payload): 70/130 tons

Engines: 8x R.A.P.I.E.R, 8x JX4 "whiplash" Turbo-ramjets (the whiplash's are actually mounted on a cubic strut behind the rapiers, then i just used the offset tool to move them forwards so they work) 1x RE-M3 "mainsail"

How to fly this thingy (as mentioned before, this assumes you are using an inbetween 1.0 and 1.0.2 aero config. it will probably go even faster in 1.0's aero, but if anyone wants to try flying it to orbit in 1.0.2 can they show me how they did it?)

CONTROLS: 1 toggles jets and rapiers, 2 toggles rapier mode, 3 toggles mainsail

1.first press x to turn throttle off, then press space activate all engines, but then press 3 to turn off the mainsail as you dont need that now lol

2.once thats done, full throttle and when your'e getting faster pitch up, it should take off around 130m/s

3.now your're airborne, pitch up to 45 degrees remain like this until 5000m, when you pitch down to 30 degrees, during this time you'll go supersonic.

4. as you get faster and get towards 10000m you need to pitch down to 20 degrees, and you will then really start gaining speed, then at 15000m pitch down to 10 degrees, and you will start cooking! nothing exploded when i flew this way so you should be fine.

5. remain at 10 degrees, by the time the airbeathers begin to die you will be around 1300 something m/s activate the rapiers mode (2) and mainsail (3) when you notice you are no longer gaining speed

6. just burn like this until desired apoapsis. (i tested it doing a 75x75 orbit. it is desgined for low orbit.) when desired apoapsis is reached, press 1 to turn off rapiers and turbojets. the mainsail is way more than enough for space. ( and more efficient)

7. circularize and release your payload!

8. de orbit burn will take only a second or two, do this as you will. (in low kerbin orbit i put my periapsis at 20000m, seems to be enough to get spaceplanes down without cooking.)

9. quickly before you enter the atmosphere you need to balance the tanks. you must put equal amounts of remaining oxidiser in the two most far end tanks marked by blue , and any remaining liquidfuel must go in the two 1.25 m liquidfuel tanks marked by red. there is probably more liquidfuel than this, so divide it between the 2 tanks just behind the ones i just mentioned, this is marked by pink. as in the included diagram

10. as soon as you get below 70000m, pitch up 30 degrees and open airbrakes. holding this pitch while above 30000m won't make you flat spin and will slow you down enough so you dont cook when you enter below 30000m

11. when you gett below 1000m/s speed close the airbrakes, cooking won't be a problem anymore. then make a shallow dive to your landing, use the airbreathers to assist the glide if you start going to sloww and falling. hope you picked a reentry over land!

Have fun with it!

the reason i posted this is to see what other people think of it, to see what can be improved/ optimised, and i also need to ask, why is it prone to flat spins and other stalling crazyness when it is nearly empty gliding back from reentry? i did help this by going into the SPH and tweaking the fuel values on it in the editor to see if the COL stayed behind the COM when it was empty and it did, but only just. this COL being too close to the COM when empty is maybe the cause? anyway to temporarily fix this the only thing to do is pump the fuel remaining as i said in my picture.

well, thank you for reading, good luck with the MONSTER!

.CRAFT file: http://kerbal.curseforge.com/shareables/230578-monster-ssto

Edited May 17, 2015 by Screeno
Lol typos

[Starwhip]

WHAT, you have 1.2.0?!?!?

I think you mean 1.0.2.

Pretty cool.

[EladDv]

WHAT, you have 1.2.0?!?!?

I think you mean 1.0.2.

Pretty cool.

He's an undercover squad employee starwhip. i'd bet it's kasper with another late April fools prank.

Now to the real topic- it's a good looking plane but it is not a monster - i have 300 mT SSTOs for about the same payload (a tad more 45 mT) but you have WAY better payload fraction so good job mate!

Edited May 16, 2015 by EladDv

[Starwhip]

He's an undercover squad employee undercover

Wouldn't that make him a normal Squad employee?

[EladDv]

Wouldn't that make him a normal Squad employee?

lol oops typo...forgot to delete the second "undercover" after rearranging the sentence

[Screeno]

Lol no I'm not from squad XD its just a typo lol, I did mean 1.0.2. I shall change the OP. Oh and thanks EladDv how do I find out what my payload fraction is? Also has anyone tryed it out in 1.0.2 yet?

[Foxster]

Gotta be called "The Narwhal"

[Screeno]

Gotta be called "The Narwhal"

XD yeah that's a good one haha

[Kagame]

"Swordfish" would be a good fallback name. You might want to try replacing that cone with a shielded docking port, as I've found it blends best while using the Mk. 1-2 command pod as your cockpit. Of course, that's just a personal opinion, yours may and probably will differ. xD

In my experience, the Big-S and Fat-455 lifting surfaces create a lot more lift for a lot less complexity AND have LF stores in the wings. However, they don't have as wide a selection of parts as the normal lifting surfaces, so it's very difficult to get anything to look cool. Have you at least tried the FAT-455 tailfins at the back for a horizontal stabilizer?

[Screeno]

Ah the reason its got the pointy bit is because I thought it would minimize drag and make it go faster haha