First Attempt At Cargo SSTO in 1.0.2 : Does 18+ tons to orbit

[RuBisCO]

Not much of a pilot. Prefer to use the rockets, but after some success with a small passenger shuttle and passenger SSTO for cycling kerbals and leveling them up, I tried to make a cargo carrying SSTO. It worked on the second try with an 8 Jet engines instead of 6. It can lift 18 tons (2 locked X200-16 tanks) to 80 km, with plenty of fuel to spare.

To Orbit: Take off at 20° to 10 km, then 15° until velocity no longer increases, start rocket engine, go back to 20°, turn off jet engines once they give out (custom 2), turn off air intakes (custom 1), continue until apogee of 81 km is reached, coast at 10° until above 70 km, circularize.

To Land: Retroburn at ~90° past spaceport. I used Mechjeb to see predicted landing spot, have it at 550~575 km before spaceport, put all fuel in furthest forward tank, balance oxidizer or dump almost all of it via fuel transfer mod (keep some for fuel cells). Maintain 10° angle during re-entry until 600 m/s, dive as low as -45° angle to 5 km, turn on engines to 1/3 thrust, level off at 3 km, cut engines before landing to glide in at 50~100 m/s.

Any improvements recommended?

http://www./download/4szgm0co5wv97kq/Large_Cargo_SSTO_1.craft.zip

[SHiftER2O]

What are the statistics of this aircraft? (i.e. base weight, blah blah)

[RuBisCO]

117.26 ton wet mass but no cargo, 64.767 tons dry mass. At least 13.2% cargo mass to orbit. The craft file should give you all you need.

[RuBisCO]

Replacing half of the jets with Rapiers improves performance a little. The Rapiers are never used in Rocket mode though.

[SHiftER2O]

Replacing half of the jets with Rapiers improves performance a little. The Rapiers are never used in Rocket mode though.

Yep, a combo of jets and RAPIERS are powerful enough to send things way past 1100m/s, the jets used for the general lifting, and the RAPIERS to kick through Mach