Project X VTOL SSTO Spaceplane

[selfish_meme]

Project X

SMA has something special for you today, a fully stock, Spaceplane with VTOL and SSTO capability. Yep you heard right, an SSTO Spaceplane that can take off and land vertically. It uses jets so it's VTOL capability flying around Kerbin can be enjoyed at anytime. Then when you feel like a little orbital jaunt, just point that sucker skyward. This is a technology demonstrator and a much better VTOL plane than it is an SSTO. Being experimental, the handling can be....unpredictable with low fuel.

It has been tested to 70km+ orbits with 600m/s+ of dV remaining

Landed successfully on VAB Helipads

Download

Fly's very nice, until you run low on fuel, make sure to transfer everything to the nose tank before de-orbiting.

Action Groups

Action Group 1 - Switch between Horizontal and Vertical engines

Action Group 2 - Switch Rapiers on and off for use in atmosphere

Action Group 3 - Switch Mode on the Rapiers

Action Group 4 - Switch LV-N on and off

For Vertical Takeoff

Start craft, turn on brakes and stage Rapiers with no thrust (T + X + Space) then hit Action Group 1 to switch to Vertical mode and then Z for full thrust. When the craft rolls forward a bit pitch back to bring the nose off the ground and it should then rise smoothly, (albeit slowly) with no further input.

For Transition to Horizontal flight

Click Action Group 2 to activate Rapiers and when you have reached about 80m/s click it again to toggle Rapiers off and then click action group 1 to switch engines from vertical to horizontal flight, the ship will start to lose height. Just keep the nose above horizon to about 5 to 10 degrees and wait for the ship to start climbing again.

To orbit

Like any Rapier powered craft keep the pitch low till you hit 400m/s plus and then slowly pitch up to between 10 and 20 degrees. You need to keep the speed climbing and be about to exceed 1000m/s by 10 km. Once you have reached 10km and 1000m/s the trick is to keep accelerating. If it starts slowing down stage the LV-N and finally switch mode on the Rapiers with Action Group 3. This tends to pitch the craft up so be ready for it, try and keep the pitch below 25 degrees, pulse the Rapiers with Action Group 3 if it pitches too high. Once you are out of atmosphere (35km+) you can pretty much leave the Rapiers off and continue with the LV-N, I sometimes pulse the Rapiers to give it a shove, but the pitch up is quite severe with the low fuel remaining. It handles quite well on the LV-N alone.

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Edited August 24, 2015 by selfish_meme

[Majorjim!]

SMA has something special for you today, a fully stock, Spaceplane with VTOL and SSTO capability. Yep you heard right, an SSTO Spaceplane that can take off and land vertically. It uses jets so it's VTOL capability flying around Kerbin can be enjoyed at anytime. Then when you feel like a little orbital jaunt, just point that sucker skyward. This is a technology demonstrator and a much better VTOL plane than it is an SSTO. Being experimental, the handling can be....unpredictable with low fuel.

It has been tested to 70km+ orbits with 600m/s+ of dV remaining

Landed successfully on VAB Helipads

Fly's very nice, until you run low on fuel, make sure to transfer everything to the nose tank before de-orbiting.

Action Groups

Action Group 1 - Switch between Horizontal and Vertical engines

Action Group 2 - Switch Rapiers on and off for use in atmosphere

Action Group 3 - Switch Mode on the Rapiers

Action Group 4 - Switch LV-N on and off

For Vertical Takeoff

Start craft, turn on brakes and stage Rapiers with no thrust (T + X + Space) then hit Action Group 1 to switch to Vertical mode and then Z for full thrust. When the craft rolls forward a bit pitch back to bring the nose off the ground and it should then rise smoothly, (albeit slowly) with no further input.

For Transition to Horizontal flight

Click Action Group 2 to activate Rapiers and when you have reached about 80m/s click it again to toggle Rapiers off and then click action group 1 to switch engines from vertical to horizontal flight, the ship will start to lose height. Just keep the nose above horizon to about 5 to 10 degrees and wait for the ship to start climbing again.

To orbit

Like any Rapier powered craft keep the pitch low till you hit 400m/s plus and then slowly pitch up to between 10 and 20 degrees. You need to keep the speed climbing and be about to exceed 1000m/s by 10 km. Once you have reached 10km and 1000m/s the trick is to keep accelerating. If it starts slowing down stage the LV-N and finally switch mode on the Rapiers with Action Group 3. This tends to pitch the craft up so be ready for it, try and keep the pitch below 25 degrees, pulse the Rapiers with Action Group 3 if it pitches too high. Once you are out of atmosphere (35km+) you can pretty much leave the Rapiers off and continue with the LV-N, I sometimes pulse the Rapiers to give it a shove, but the pitch up is quite severe with the low fuel remaining. It handles quite well on the LV-N alone.

http://i.imgur.com/qy4eGeS.png

Hey man, I will test this later today and report back. Do you know about isolating fuel tanks by using the attachment nodes twice? That way it makes it very easy to set up any kind of fuel flow you like.

[selfish_meme]

Hey man, I will test this later today and report back. Do you know about isolating fuel tanks by using the attachment nodes twice? That way it makes it very easy to set up any kind of fuel flow you like.

I will have to look into it, it is really late here and I can't finish posting the rest till tomorrow.

[selfish_meme]

Updated with some pics and download links, obviously people were not as impressed as I was. I don't think I have seen a 1.04 stock VTOL SSTO Spaceplane yet.

[selfish_meme]

Uploaded the full video to Youtube, warning long video showing Vertical takeoff to orbit and return, by return I mean crash, but it's close enough to prove the concept. I am working on an updated version for Executive Transfer to Orbit (2 crew) with safety devices (parachutes).

Edited September 4, 2015 by selfish_meme

[Major SNAFU]

Very intersting. Looking forward to giving it a try.