PSA (Prefered Spaceplane Ascent)

[katateochi]

I'm sorry for using the PSA acronym and for twisting its meaning! please don't hit me

Anywho, what I wanted to ask you guys is with the changes in 1.0.3 how are you now flying your SSTO spaceplanes? What is your ascent profile like?

I've been having trouble getting a previously sound (turbojet) spaceplane to orbit and I can't decide if I need to change the plane's design or change how I'm flying it (or possibly both).

Previously I had a very simple ascent profile; climb to 10km at 45 degrees, pitch down to 20 degrees, carry on till speed started dropping then fire up the rocket engines (jets would flame out and be shutdown a little later) ....space.

With my previously reliable 1.0.2 spaceplane using that profile I can barely make orbit, and if I do make orbit I'm too low on liquid fuel to deorbit.

So what changes to your ascent profile have you made in 1.0.3 and is there anything significantly different about your designs. I'm particularly interested in TurboJet based spaceplane approaches.

http://kerbalx.com/katateochi/TurboJet-CrewSSTO

It has 6 TurboJets and two LV-T45s

[RidingTheFlow]

Its not down do ascent profile... With 1.0.3 you need different TWR/deltaV distribution between airbreathing/rocket thrust (note that now ISP for jet engine is worse too, so need more fuel for same dV).

[Wanderfound]

Jet fuel consumption has doubled, but heating is much less threatening. Pull the nose down further and keep it in the high jet thrust altitudes until you're on the edge of cooking; maximise your speed before lighting the rockets.