Crys. Nuclear SSTO

[Rune]

Hello there! This one came out too beautiful not to share it with you guys straight away. Look at those lines!

And it is not only for looks. While it looks simple, and it is a mere 41 parts, the thing still has more than 1,800m/s on LKO, and can be refueled for an astounding 4,5km/s thanks to the hidden nuke. Which, BTW, you need to go transonic because the thing flies exactly like a spaceplane should: TWR<1 at all points of the airbreathing flight, and barely over that on rockets. As a result, it is a bit long in getting to orbit, and it requires precise piloting (basically, going very very shallow), but just by switching autopilots you can handle things with just the mouse.

It is very gentle maneuvering, and it accelerates so slowly that the curvature of kerbin is perfect to increase AoA as you build speed when you level for a speed run (I did so at 10kms, 15, and 20). But hey, I took plenty of pics with the UI up so you can check all the relevant numbers and what I did at each step to milk the RAPIER until I was going at 1,500m/s and it switched to closed cycle on its own for brief kick into suborbital flight. I did take care to check that you can actually burn the tanks dry with the nuke without anything getting even close to blow up, of course (with a radiator stowed!), which is why the orbital pic you see has two radiators and the file you get has just the one and a docking port in the place of the other. Enjoy the pics and tell me how it goes if you try it out!

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http://www./download/ku14mgl3k8etpfd/SSTO+Mk+LXIII+-+Crys.craft

Rune. It looks just right enough to resurrect the name. Anyone remember the other one?

Edited July 6, 2015 by Rune

[Guest]

Anyone remember the other one?

No! But this one looks very beautiful - and usefull, too!

[ryan234abc]

Very nice. Reminds me of the White Dart, but more compact. I'm starting to run out of good things to say about your craft so as always, wonderful job. +rep.

[Rune]

No! But this one looks very beautiful - and usefull, too!

Thanks! And it is totally understandable, since it was one of my first ones. As to the usefulness of this... the bay is pretty full already and it has the single seat, so in career its only use would be a VIP contract. But hey, as a joyride, it is really cool.

Very nice. Reminds me of the White Dart, but more compact. I'm starting to run out of good things to say about your craft so as always, wonderful job. +rep.

Yeah, it reminds me too! In fact, with 1.04 and the permissive drag environment allowing low TWR designs, I'm starting to think maybe a revisit is in order... I think it could go back to a single engine.

Rune. The Spatha's revision is already done, BTW. Anybody wants me to post it? It's rather straightforward.

[Majorjim!]

Super sleek design Rune. GJ!

[Teefy]

beautiful.

ill be damned if i can get it above 20km though.

any chance of a more specific flight plan?

[Rune]

Super sleek design Rune. GJ!

Thanks! I'm really happy about how it turned out.

beautiful.

ill be damned if i can get it above 20km though.

any chance of a more specific flight plan?

Do you use some information-providing mod? If not, it'll be harder to control vertical speed with the crappy stock indicator (it's on the top, to the right of the altimeter). Basically, you climb at 15º until 10kms (make sure to use the runway to get the RAPIERs some initial bite in the air, or spend some time at 10º to build speed up to 200m/s, you'll climb faster). Then you go supersonic either manually dropping the nose slowly, or by putting the autopilot on prograde and back to standard stability assist a few times to drop the nose gradually, to zero out your vertical velocity. It's tricky to go over the Mach barrier, so I usually help myself by lighting the nuke briefly until I go over 340m/s. I achieve it at about 5-10º AoA over the horizon, as you can see in the pics. From then on it's much easier, you start building speed quickly and the wings bite more air, so watch you vertical velocity like a hawk and every time it goes above 50m/s or so, you drop the nose a bit (again, on and off the prograde autopilot is a handy trick). Give yourself time to accelerate. At about 15kms, drop all vertical speed (climb rate about zero), and lock stability assist in that heading: you will speed up mucho mucho mucho, and as the planet curves below you, your AoA will slowly creep up, building vertical speed for the climb to orbit. When you notice your speed stops increasing as fast, light the nuke again, and when the RAPIERs go under 50kN thrust you can switch them to closed cycle. When they give out, you should have a very respectable apoapsis, so change the autopilot back to prograde to save drag, push it out of the atmosphere, coast, and finish the orbital insertion on the nuke.

Rune. That is why I never fly without KER. I can, but I hate it, it's like rolling the dice to see what performance I get today, or hurting my brain doing maths on the fly from times and altitudes.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Rune

[ryan234abc]

Rune. The Spatha's revision is already done, BTW. Anybody wants me to post it? It's rather straightforward.

Yes please! Is this the old Spatha or new Spatha just Spatha makes me think of a Spatha and a Spatha when you say Spatha and I think Spatha. 7 Spathas in one sentence. Noice.

[Rune]

Yes please! Is this the old Spatha or new Spatha just Spatha makes me think of a Spatha and a Spatha when you say Spatha and I think Spatha. 7 Spathas in one sentence. Noice.

Hahaha! It's a new one, where I basically ripped off two engines, added some radiators for looks, removed the upper wing over the engines because it had a low thermal limit, and exchanged the front tank for a 100% liquid fuel one. In the end, it's lighter and carries more paylaod, so yeah, better in every way except TWR. It looks pretty much the same, tough.

Rune. Coming right up!

[Kagame]

Ooh. Me likey. Love the aesthetic simplicity. I've gotten addicted to nukes as well, though I use the excellent Thermal Nuclear mod, which features such things as nuclear RAPIERs. The nuke RAPIERs aren't actually that great (aside from consuming no fuel in atmosphere), but they're excellent for breaking the Mach 3 barrier so you can open the taps on some scramjets, which can get you into orbit (albeit highly eccentric) with some tricky piloting. My latest design with them has 4,000 m/s unrefuelled in LKO...

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thanks, I'll just try it on Layth.

[Rune]

Ooh. Me likey. Love the aesthetic simplicity. I've gotten addicted to nukes as well, though I use the excellent Thermal Nuclear mod, which features such things as nuclear RAPIERs. The nuke RAPIERs aren't actually that great (aside from consuming no fuel in atmosphere), but they're excellent for breaking the Mach 3 barrier so you can open the taps on some scramjets, which can get you into orbit (albeit highly eccentric) with some tricky piloting. My latest design with them has 4,000 m/s unrefuelled in LKO...

That sounds as a bit of an OP engine! Besides, I kind of like having to set up depots and such. In my opinion, a planet is not "tamed" until you have a fuel depot orbiting it and a base on the ground with fuel extraction capabilities, plus the shuttles to link the two. But hey, to each their own, I also like building this kind of sci-fi-ish stuff.

Thanks, I'll just try it on Layth.

Tell me how it goes!

Rune. The chemical version of this may end up replacing the Dart.

[Tangle]

Help, it's beautiful and I'm out of the KSP part of the games cycle of game boredom!

[vestradeus]

That is awesome! I've yet to SSTO...but now the ideas!

[Rune]

Help, it's beautiful and I'm out of the KSP part of the games cycle of game boredom!

Don't worry, it'll still be here when you get back to it... or something even better!

That is awesome! I've yet to SSTO...but now the ideas!

Thanks! This one is an edge case, but yeah, a single RAPIER can push about 20mT to orbit, given that enough of those 20mT is fuel, and you are a good pilot. And just to show this is not a trick of BigS wings, I actually did a version with conventional wings. Ok, waht I was really after was cleaning up the bay of clipped parts so I could put useful equipment like Ore scanners, but hey, whatever works. I think I like the airframe now better!

Rune. Would you guys like an updated file?

[RAINCRAFTER]

Maybe two files. This is just beautiful. Again, as darty as the classic White Dart. I can't believe I haven't made an SSTO in 1.0.X yet, but nearly everyone else has! My LF only "SSTO" got off the runway and hit an apoapsis of 21k, but then things started to explode and the plane fell to it's doom. I was even a master of 0.90 SSTOs, but now I'm broken!

[Rune]

Maybe two files. This is just beautiful. Again, as darty as the classic White Dart. I can't believe I haven't made an SSTO in 1.0.X yet, but nearly everyone else has! My LF only "SSTO" got off the runway and hit an apoapsis of 21k, but then things started to explode and the plane fell to it's doom. I was even a master of 0.90 SSTOs, but now I'm broken!

Yeah, actually I am starting to have a feeling that the chemical conversion of this airframe would make a better Dart than the Dart... In the meantime, the lastest protoype for your perusal, fresh from temperature-proofing. I hate pulling temperature gauges when using the main powerplant! In order to get the performance I show on the pic, though (>2km/s on LKO!), you will have to pull temperature gauges on the way up. And hope you are going fast enough, up enough, when the RAPIER gives out. Anyway, here you go, so fresh it doesn't even have a name. Tell me what you think!

Rune. Maybe more on that soon.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Rune

[Frank_G]

Very good looking craft! Again.