Quarky's Stock Craft Dump

[Quarky]

Hey all! This is my very first thread on the forums, intended for showing off my stock creations, mostly spaceplanes and, uhm, non-space planes. Yep.

DISCLAIMER: While these craft are entirely stock, all of my testing was carried out with KJR, so don't be surprised if you choose not to install KJR and these planes fall apart in midair!

Please install KJR!

[This Section is Under Construction]

I will be updating this page with new craft as soon as they pass my rigorous testing procedures, as I'm very particular about craft performing as well as possible!

Firstly, introducing the Rhino Heavy SSTO series! Two variants have been completed so far, the base HDPRS model (High-Density Payload Rendezvous Spec), and the advanced MPLFS (Maximum PayLoad Fraction Spec). There are 2 more variants in development, one of which is the LDPRS (Low-Density Payload Rendezvous Spec), which is based on the HDPRS airframe but tweaked for payloads such as space station parts and batches of satellites. The other version in development is the LDPRS-EX (EXtended), which is intended for large, low-density payloads and is based on the MPLFS airframe.

Rhino HDPRS specifications, images and instructions:

The Rhino HDPRS variant is intended to ferry orange tanks or payloads of similar mass to orbit, with frankly excessive margins for rendezvous, thus making it perfect for new players. Want to build an orbital fuel station? The Rhino HDPRS has got you covered. Want to build a fully laden interplanetary ship? The Rhino's up for the challenge.

Imgur album: http://imgur.com/a/SP4PE

Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/Quarky_/Rhino-Heavy-SSTO-RS

Action Groups:

1 - Switch RAPIER mode and shut off ramjets.

2 - Activate ramjets to extend crossrange after re-entry.

3 - Activate fuel cells.

4 - Shut down fuel cells.

5 - Toggle cargo bay lights.

Ascent Profile:

Take off, pitch to 30 degrees AoA and climb to 8000m. Level off and keep prograde on 10 degrees. You should have broken Mach by 10000m. From 10km, continue your speed run, holding attitude the whole way. At 25000m, after the ramjets have flamed out, switch to rocket mode and pitch up to between 20 and 30 degrees AoA to gain vertical speed and help push your apoapsis to the desired height. As apoapsis is approaching the target, point the nose back prograde for maximum efficiency. Coast to apoapsis and circularise.

Rhino MPLFS specifications, images and instructions:

The Rhino MPLFS variant is intended to deliver one and a half (!) orange tanks to orbit, but sacrifices the rendezvous capabilities of the HDPRS in favour of maximum payload fraction (hence the acronym).

Imgur Gallery: http://imgur.com/a/9YNae

Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/Quarky_/Rhino-Heavy-SSTO-MPLFS

Action groups and flight profile are the same as the HDPRS, but the margins are a heck of a lot slimmer.

As some final piloting advice, try not to roll the craft too much as you can induce a little bit of roll oscillation that can stuff up your ascent if you're not careful and correct it. I suspect this is a result of the control surfaces not being as far back as possible, unavoidable with the design I chose. It's not much to worry about though and my OCD is probably getting the better of me here.

[COMING SOON]

A medium cargo (6t) Mk2 SSTO that handles like a dream and looks fabulous to boot, a small Mk2 crew shuttle, a micro Mk1 multirole SSTO, and the debut of the, ehm, non-space-planes (including a hyper-manoeuvrable fighter jet and a Mk2 Learjet).

Till then!

Edited August 23, 2015 by Quarky

[Castille7]

Well that's an impressive debut! Welcome to the Forums and I am looking forward to see your future work

[Rune]

Nice! Plus, the low margins are not that bad a thing, even for people that aren't so good with ascent profiles: in actual normal use, 90% of the payloads will be less dense than your standard fuel tank, unless you are bringing Ore up. I would bind the RAPIERs to an on/off toggle, tough, sometimes you have engines on the payload and it's a bother to disable them manually on the runway, so just use action groups for everything and lock staging.

Rune. I myself use an extended version of my Longsword to get more cargo volume nowadays...

[Quarky]

Wow! Senpai noticed me! Definitely agree with you, the way I built the Rhino is right on its limits, so I knew it could handle anything I throw at it. The low-density payload versions I'm working on are going to be the real flagships, as I'm aware fuel tankers are a bit of a niche. As for ferrying engines up I do it the scrub way and put them all the way at the top of the staging tree, and hope that I don't accidentally hit spacebar. I'm very liberal with my quicksaves though.

- - - Updated - - -

Well that's an impressive debut! Welcome to the Forums and I am looking forward to see your future work

Thanks a bunch for the rep man!

[Sharkman Briton]

You can imbed imgur albums by doing [ IMGUR ] XXXXX [ /IMGUR ]

With no spaces, the XXXXX is the 5-digit album code, your album should say (5 random digits) #0 on the first pic, ignore the #0 and copy/paste the 5 digits in between [ IMGUR ] and [ /IMGUR ] and remember, no spaces! Try it.

[problemecium]

"RIP SSTO," people were saying just a few weeks ago xD Well done, sir.

[Quarky]

You can imbed imgur albums by doing [ IMGUR ] XXXXX [ /IMGUR ]

With no spaces, the XXXXX is the 5-digit album code, your album should say (5 random digits) #0 on the first pic, ignore the #0 and copy/paste the 5 digits in between [ IMGUR ] and [ /IMGUR ] and remember, no spaces! Try it.

Thanks! I'll be updating the thread later today with new craft and using that.

Edit: It doest't work :/

Edited August 23, 2015 by Quarky