BSC Redux - Stearwing D45 - We have a winner!

[Xeldrak]

The primary vote is done, you can check the result

over here.

The three winners will now compete in the final vote! The vote will run for three days.

Please note, that the final vote is not anonymous!

>>Get all .craft files in one .zip!<<

---

Construction phase is over - time to vote! The primary vote will run for 4 days. If you want to vote, pm me your email adress and you will get a link sent to you.

(The email will be in german - I can't help it. Just click the long link and from then on everything should be english)

>>Get all .craft files in one .zip!<<

---

Introduction

Hey! I know...it has been some time. But maybe some of you still remember the BSC-Challenges. They were all the rage in this forum....like one and a half years ago. With the new aerodynamics I think the time has come for a Better Strock Craft Challenge Redux.

Like last time you guys will have one week to build and one week to vote. I will probably split the voting-procedure in a 4-days primary vote, using a condorcet vote, followed by a 3 days final vote here in the forums. Other people will be able to see what you have voted for in the final vote.

If you want to vote in the primaries - you have to pm me your email-adress.

I repeat: I need a pm with you email-adress if you want to vote in the primaries

The Challenge

So, what is the challenge? Well the veterans might remember: Since the quality of the stock craft that get delivered with KSP is often questionable, I challenge you to come up with something similar but better. Your craft is supposed to be a good craft for noobs that just bought KSP.

Please check the BSC: Challenge Guidelines Mk.II - even if you just want to vote! This is where I've outsourced all the rules, legal stuff and design-goals.

How is this going to work?

You will have 168 hours (7 days) to build you craft and post your entry here with at least one screenshot and its .craft file (only one .craft file is allowed). Also be so kind to drop us a few lines about your craft. What are your thoughts on the design? Why is it a good stock craft? Remember: A good sales pitch will often get you more votes.

Once submissions are closed, everyone who sent me their mail adresses via pm will receive a email with a personal link to the vote. Yes, it's annoying but this method has proved itself. Depending on the number of entries, we will probably first hold primary election, followed a final one. I would like to encourage you to write a few lines why you voted you that craft, as it keeps the thread fresh and we all have something to read while we wait for the votes.

What are we doing this time?

As you allready know, we are doing the Stearwing D45 - the other spaceplane.

The Stearwing D45 is a rather stange plane. While beeing a fun concept, it is rather hard to get it into space - you will need every drop of fuel. However, it carries several passengers and has a formidable set of science equipment. So basically I am looking for a spaceplane with a twist, that can show a noob was stange vehicles are possible in KSP:

Inspiration

Well, there are obviously no real life counterparts to the Stearwing. But there are "one-and-a-half stage to orbit" spaceplanes like SpaceShipOne and Two. Well, they are only suborbital, we want a real space plane. Once again the Kerbals are ahead of us. The Pegasus rocket on the other hand is unmanned but is airlaunched and can get a small payload into LEO.

Contenders

Batz_10K - Stearwing D50

Jodo42 - Stearwing D45 v2

Kweller - GniwRaets

mrmcp1 - Stearwig D48

Rhomphaia - Stearwing D47b

t3hJimmer - Stearwing XL

Xeldrak - CRoBAR

Registered voters:

Rhomphaia, Jodo42, Xeldrak, Batz_10K, mrmcp1, vosechu

Edited July 14, 2015 by Xeldrak

[Rhomphaia]

Good to see BSC back on.

[JPmAn]

I like that this is coming back

[Xeldrak]

Well, up till now the response is....reluctant

We'll see if there will be a Vote. Otherwise I'll pronounce myself winner by default.

[Jodo42]

Hey Xeldrak, glad to see these challenges are back! Here's my entry, the Stearwing D45 v2, or just "V2" for short.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Check out the album in a new tab on imgur for full descriptions and full HD 1920*1080 screenshots!

Note that the inclusion of KER data is purely to inform the reader more accurately of the ship's capabilities. The ship does not have a KER module on it, and is completely stock. The information provided by KER is in no way necessary to pilot the V2 to the fullest extent of its capabilities.

I wanted to create a ship with the same basic appearance and function as the stock craft but with improved performance. To do this, I removed some frivolous bits from the original ship (ie RCS and the cargo bay's passenger seats) and stretched the fuselage. The wings were also reworked and canards were added to improve pitch authority in the stretched design. A vertical rudder was added, along with a materials lab and an atmospheric fluid experiment in the cargo bay.

Advantages over the stock ship include a simpler, less stressful ascent path, better in-orbit capabilities, more scientific equipment, constant power generation, and better control authority in atmospheric flight.

Disadvantages are small: the ship lost its RCS system, docking port, and extra crew storage. Power output is slightly less than when the solar panels of the D45 are functioning as well. The V2 is not as compact as the original.

The craft is available for download here. Thanks for considering my submission, everyone!

Edited July 7, 2015 by Jodo42

[Xeldrak]

Well, we have our first entry

[Rhomphaia]

Stearwing D47b

The Stearwing D47 features a unique three-stage design: The first stage takes it up to the edge of the Stratoshphere at incredible speed. The second stage kicks in just after the turbines flame out, And provides a thrilling ride to near orbital speeds. The LV 909 rocket takes it from there out to space, with plenty of fuel for maneuvers.

The D47 carries a crew of 2 plus 4 passengers in a pressurized cabin, and comes complete with a belly mounted 1m docking port and monopropellant Reaction Control Systems

Action Groups:

1.Toggle Solar Panels

2.Toggle Docking port shield

3.Toggle Antenna

4.Toggle Ladder

Download

More pics and ascent profile coming soon.

[Xeldrak]

Well, at last enough participants for a vote Now we need more voters....

Interestingly I worked on something very similar to the Stearwing D47b; using SRBs to get into orbit. It it didn't work as I intended

[Rhomphaia]

Well, at last enough participants for a vote Now we need more voters....

Interestingly I worked on something very similar to the Stearwing D47b; using SRBs to get into orbit. It it didn't work as I intended

I made the decision for SRB's early on, but I went through quite a few D46's before I got anything workable. Really have not spent much time with spaceplanes since 1.0 dropped. It took quite a bit of figuring out.

They are just too heavy, so unless you mount them forward (the 47a had the SRB exhausts just forward of the passenger cabin windows, would have been a spectacular sight for any BadS tourists flying), you need more wing to balance them, too much wing and the Airbreathers struggle with the increased drag.

I was working on a more elegant solution without such an overpowered turbojet stage, but this was more spectacular and I was hoping another entry might encourage more participation.

[Xeldrak]

I'm still working on my entry and I've returned to the SRBs. I've spend the last three hours balancing lift/drag/fuel and while I'm not satisfied yet, I think I'm getting somewhere.

[Batz_10K]

I'm trying the large carrier plane/recoverable booster approach...

[Xeldrak]

Well, that looks...insane o.O Can't wait to see the final product

[t3hJimmer]

Can the stock Stearwing even make orbit in 1.0.4?

I cant even get to space with it. maybe i'm just bad at flying.

[t3hJimmer]

Here's my submission: the Stearwing XL It's a little tame looking, but it's very noob friendly to fly. It has lots of fuel, big wings and control surfaces, and RAPIER engines.

The Stearwing XL is a single stage to orbit (SSTO) space plane that carries a deployable satellite. It is powered by RAPIER engines that can operate as both jets and rockets. Getting to orbit is as easy as pointing the nose 25° above the horizon (pull back until the orange marker on the navball is lined up with the 25 line) and firing the engines at 100% thrust. Once you achieve an apoapsis of 75km (The AP on the map view), power down and wait until you reach apoapsis. Burn prograde at apoapsis until your orbit is circularized.

The cargo bay can be operated using a right click or taping the 1-key.

The RAPIER engines will toggle to rocket mode automatically, and can be manually toggled between rocket and air mode using the 2-key.

**note** the fuel on the satellite is locked, in order to fly the satellite, you have to right click on it's fuel tank and enable fuel and oxidizer use. Do this after the satellite is deployed.

Craft File available here: http://pastebin.com/EFhjLud2

Edited July 8, 2015 by t3hJimmer

[Xeldrak]

I present my own entry, the ChemRock Solid Booster Assisted Rocket Plane, or:

CRoBAR

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I ditched the whole forward-swept wing idea and built the plane completely around the SRBs that are used to boost the plane into space once the jet engines flame out.

The CRoBAR has a cargo bay, a docking port, RCS system and solar panels, so it's quite versatile.

Do not extend the solar panels while the bays are closed!

ChemRock sOlid Booster Assisted Rocket Plane

Action Groups:

1: Toggle Bays

2: Toggle Solar Panels

3: Toggle Mobility Enhancer

Datasheet:

Crew Capability: 6 Kerbals

Mass: 41.12t

Delta-V 4,761/5,699 m/s

>>Get your CRoBAR here!<<

[Captain Sierra]

Woah, okay. BSC is back at it. I got what, 48 hours to get something together? I have an idea.

[Xeldrak]

Yeah, you have about 48h left. Also don't forget to register for voting

[burnoutforzai]

48hours! whoa. Started work on it.

[JPmAn]

Will be a voter

[Feradose]

Javascript is disabled. View full album

With this, I tried a weird, very draggy wing design unlike the original.

Around 6 minutes to orbit, this thing has excess oxidiser, and I also forgot to remove the unused monopropellant.

I am not the best pilot and someone could get better flights than me.

No electrical parts because its only meant to go to orbit with a small satellite and (return? without the satellite?)

Whoops!

Craft file

Edited July 9, 2015 by Feradose
Forgot the link

[Xeldrak]

If you want to take part in the competition Kweller, you need to make the .craft file available.

[mrmcp1]

Here is my entry the Stearwig D48

Javascript is disabled. View full album

It is a small two stage science space plane capable of an 80x80km orbit. It has a full science complement and a disposable air engine stage.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/skq7km67yf2vu6n/STEARWIG%20D48.craft?dl=0

Warning do try not to use physics warp as it seems to overheat what ever is in the cargo bay.

[Batz_10K]

After careful consideration of all of the guidelines in the Challenge guidelines Mk II, I have decided to ... Crumple them up, light them on fire and then throw them away completely.

This, then is the Stearwing D50, with fully recoverable booster stage. craft [OneDrive]

The orbiter component contains all of the wacky features of the original, including a deluxe economy-class sauna for 5 Kerbals (*re-entry only), not one, but two goo pods, way more RCS fuel and thrusters than you will ever need, a tiny amount of fuel, funky forward-swept wings, and business-class seating for 4

The transport component is just enough to get the orbiter into a 75x75km orbit, and land somewhere downrange.

Instructions

You should probably read these, or there will be many explosions...

Takeoff

- Full throttle, then pull back (gently!) at 70m/s. Pitch up to 25 degrees.

Climb

- You can pretty much fly hands-off once you're at 25 degrees pitch. the ship will pitch up to 30 degrees or so as it climbs all the way to space.

- At 15km, enable RCS

- Once the speed starts to drop as the jets lose thrust, stage to activate the rhino. Then press 2 to shut down the jets, and 1 to close intakes (don't try to fly too long on jets at high altitude, that's asking for a spin...)

- Note that you don't need to pitch up further

- Once the Apoapsis reaches 75km, throttle down the Rhino. Set the SAS mode to 'Prograde' to reduce drag, and coast to the edge of the atmosphere.

- About 10s from Apoapsis, throttle up the Rhino until you get to 2100m/sec

Separation

- At 2100ms, stage to separate the orbiter.

- Unlock the fuel tank on the orbiter, and stage to eject the engine fairings (note: ensure that you have cleared the transport before ejecting the fairings, unless you want fireworks. well, they _usually_ don't do any damage to the transport....)

- Throttle up and circularize the orbit.

- Press "[" or "]" to switch back to the transport, and get ready for re-entry

Transport re-entry

- Transfer all remaining fuel from the rear-most tank (the one attached to the Rhino) to the front tank (the one attached to the shuttle cockpit)

- Press 3 to deactivate the Rhino

- Press 9 to activate 2 Jet engines for landing

- Keep the nose between 10-20 degrees above prograde (ideally about 15) - note you'll glide for quite some time at about 30km. (it's actually possible to climb a bit too)

- Deactivate RCS around 10km.

- You should be somewhere over the large continent to the east of the KSC. Pick a reasonably smooth place for landing. Minimum flying speed is about 60-70ms. Careful on the manoeuvres, it's quite easy to spin when the fuel gets low. Flaps are on action group 5.

Stearwing re-entry

- This is a pretty normal spaceplane re-entry. Make sure it's not too steep, as there's lots of melty-explodey stuff on the Stearwing.

- Use up the rest of that RCS fuel to maintain attitude during re-entry. 15 degrees seemed to work reasonably well.

- This version has heavy-duty landing gear fitted, so it can tolerate some reasonably hard landings.

Action Groups

1 - Toggle intakes

2 - Toggle jet engines

3 - Toggle rhino

5 - Toggle flaps

9 - Toggle two jets only (enough to fly after re-entry, saves fuel)

[Xeldrak]

Only ~6h left. If you want to participate - hurry up

[Xeldrak]

Construction phase is over - time to vote! The primary vote will run for 4 days. If you want to vote, pm me your email adress and you will get a link sent to you.

(The email will be in german - I can't help it. Just click the long link and from then on everything should be english)

>>Get all .craft files in one .zip!<<

---