Your most awesome SpacePlane

[Cool200]

what is your most awesome spaceplane?

[MartGonzo]

I wouldn't call it awesome but my favourite was was one I used to use back in 0.90, it could get to the Mun, rendezvous in orbit and get home with fuel to spare.

If you're wondering how it got into space, there is a KW Rocketry engine clipped inside the turbojet.

Hard to tell, but this is on the dark side of the Mun.

Unfortunately this design just doesn't work any more in the 1.04 aero

[mythbusters844]

It has to be this one:

[CalculusWarrior]

It has to be this one:

http://i.imgur.com/V8ffKkt.png

I simply must know how you did that.

[sal_vager]

Moving to the spacecraft exchange

[mythbusters844]

I simply must know how you did that.

I launched it in one piece inside a payload fairing with the wings detached to make it smaller, then re-attached the wings when in space.

[Levelord]

[Raptor9]

The SR-21 Pegasus. Designed to ferry cargo and modules from Laythe orbit to the surface, it was a pre-1.0 design. It had four embedded J-33 Basic Jet engines providing VTOL capability on Laythe's various islands, the J-X4 Turbo Ramjet in the back could provide enough thrust for normal flight in Laythe's atmo, and the four RAPIER engines could easily sling it back into orbit.

Only mod part was Lack's Mk3 Ramp. The ramp was big enough to roll a rover down, but if I had to drop a module, I opened the ventral doors aft of the cockpit and dropped the module straight to the surface.

On a suborbital test-flight over Kerbin. It was a few hundred delta-V short of circularizing the orbit around Kerbin, but the SR-21 worked great around Laythe due to the slightly lower gravity. I could easily load cargo through the ventral or dorsal bay doors in orbit around Laythe, and then shuttle it down to the surface and roll it down the ramp, or out the ventral doors.

With the new engines and Mk3 tail ramp that Porkjet is making for KSP 1.1, this design is about to get brought back from the boneyard.

[Val]

This is one. It's not very efficient or pretty. But it can lift very long cargo.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[problemecium]

That'd probably be this Laythe SSTO that fits in a cargo bay:

More details and a download link are available via my signature.

[Wjolcz]

One of my best planes is i my sig. Sorry for not posting any pics. Browsing the net on mobile is a pain.

Edit: oh, I actually have another one that works in FAR, but I'm not posting it 'til it's accepted into the BAD-T tournament. Secret war stuff is secret.

[selfish_meme]

My Jool Grand Tour ship (not completed) was supposed to be 2xSSTO inside an SSTO (but Tylos an ass so I made a staged lander instead, I got the Tylo SSTO working but the it takes many many many many landing attempts).

Edit: Note my improved MK 3 cockpit, you can get the subassembly here

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited August 30, 2015 by selfish_meme

[fenya]

Interesting to see other people's spaceships, so I contribute to this topic.

[Rune]

Hum. I can't pick one.

Rune. And those are just my favorites right now.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Rune

[Aegeas]

Still a WIP but it was designed to be able to swap out the two central crew cabins for fuel or cargo bays without the COM changing drastically and able to fly well in any configuration. Kind of a one plane does all.

I'm also showing the trick I came up with for stability sake that can't be seen once its moved inside the adapter tanks.

- - - Updated - - -

Hum. I can't pick one.

http://i.imgur.com/LvKtqr6.png

http://i.imgur.com/QrQ8LYk.png

http://i.imgur.com/UI9l34m.png

Rune. And those are just my favorites right now.

I like the middle one Rune, reminds me of an A-6 Intruder.

[windows_x_seven]

I... can't SSTO...

someone hug me, please.

[Tankbuster32]

Well. Back in 0.90 this was my favorite plane. It's the only SSTO I've used routinely.

[Rune]

I like the middle one Rune, reminds me of an A-6 Intruder.

That's actually an unmodified Trident, which is available in it's own thread, waiting for some feedback before I archive it in my page. Care to give it a spin and report back?

As to your bird, those canards are positioned so the drag and lift vectors will be all weird. Try using smaller control surfaces in saner orientation, and you will cut on drag a lot for the same lift. The nose has a big lever arm with respect to the CoM to work with...

Rune. It doesn't quite fly better in reverse.

[Aegeas]

That's actually an unmodified Trident, which is available in it's own thread, waiting for some feedback before I archive it in my page. Care to give it a spin and report back?

As to your bird, those canards are positioned so the drag and lift vectors will be all weird. Try using smaller control surfaces in saner orientation, and you will cut on drag a lot for the same lift. The nose has a big lever arm with respect to the CoM to work with...

Rune. It doesn't quite fly better in reverse.

I've downloaded your craft, will give it a spin and let you know what I think but I'm only just getting a grip on the best accent strategies since reading these forums. What I had worked out myself seems to not be correct judging by the success I've seen some ppl achieve.

I was under the impression that the best average vertical speed possible until high altitude was what I was after at which point it was a case of getting the most mach for the least fuel used.

But from seeing all the experts on low TWR accent profiles achieve ridiculous orbital DV I see I have a lot to learn. I also have only just recently been clued into AOI.

As for my bird, well that's purely about aesthetics over performance. For some reason I hate the look of tails on my planes, maybe I think it looks old fashion or something, I like the modern flying wing look. For this plane to be what I'm after it merely needs to get the 10 kerbal version to LKO so it can dock and refuel at a station. The 2 kerbal version can capture orbit around mun/minmus to likewise dock and refuel so it has met its design goals. It handles really well at speed and on empty landing and it looks really sleek when you see the cross section. You always have to sacrifice some things for style, but I ok with that.

[Rune]

I've downloaded your craft, will give it a spin and let you know what I think but I'm only just getting a grip on the best accent strategies since reading these forums. What I had worked out myself seems to not be correct judging by the success I've seen some ppl achieve.

I was under the impression that the best average vertical speed possible until high altitude was what I was after at which point it was a case of getting the most mach for the least fuel used.

But from seeing all the experts on low TWR accent profiles achieve ridiculous orbital DV I see I have a lot to learn. I also have only just recently been clued into AOI.

As for my bird, well that's purely about aesthetics over performance. For some reason I hate the look of tails on my planes, maybe I think it looks old fashion or something, I like the modern flying wing look. For this plane to be what I'm after it merely needs to get the 10 kerbal version to LKO so it can dock and refuel at a station. The 2 kerbal version can capture orbit around mun/minmus to likewise dock and refuel so it has met its design goals. It handles really well at speed and on empty landing and it looks really sleek when you see the cross section. You always have to sacrifice some things for style, but I ok with that.

Well, this is a bit tricky on account of being quite draggy, but it has a relatively "comfortable" TWR of about 0.7 with the maximum recommended payload (10mT). Just level at about 10,000m to go supersonic, and then you can keep on climbing at that same AoA that got you through the Mach barrier, it'll pitch up as you gain speed and kerbin curves under you, and you can reach orbit without further adjustments I think, other than switching the engines to closed cycle and maybe putting the autopilot on prograde once your time to apoapsis goes over one minute.

Rune. Check action groups in the SPH!

[peachoftree]

Its gotta be the K.S.S Betelgeuse. Has SRB takeoff assist, 6 crew capacity, and can get to orbit with 3 km/s delta-v in the tanks, perfect for servicing my minmus base.

[selfish_meme]

I've downloaded your craft, will give it a spin and let you know what I think but I'm only just getting a grip on the best accent strategies since reading these forums. What I had worked out myself seems to not be correct judging by the success I've seen some ppl achieve.

I was under the impression that the best average vertical speed possible until high altitude was what I was after at which point it was a case of getting the most mach for the least fuel used.

But from seeing all the experts on low TWR accent profiles achieve ridiculous orbital DV I see I have a lot to learn. I also have only just recently been clued into AOI.

As for my bird, well that's purely about aesthetics over performance. For some reason I hate the look of tails on my planes, maybe I think it looks old fashion or something, I like the modern flying wing look. For this plane to be what I'm after it merely needs to get the 10 kerbal version to LKO so it can dock and refuel at a station. The 2 kerbal version can capture orbit around mun/minmus to likewise dock and refuel so it has met its design goals. It handles really well at speed and on empty landing and it looks really sleek when you see the cross section. You always have to sacrifice some things for style, but I ok with that.

In the Stock Payload Fraction Challenge, which is a good thread for ascent profiles, it was found that with Rapiers getting them up to speed as early as possible was key. Also for best dV it is a matter of reducing cosine loss from high Angles of Attack. So typically an ascent would start with running off the end of the runway, pitch up to between 5 and 10 degrees, lower for lower TWR, reach 400ms and then keep ascending to 10000m by which time you should be doing 1000ms already and then it's just a matter of tweaking your ascent velocity to keep it from blowing up and stay on air as long as possible to achieve the highest speed. Any big pitch changes cost you dV. Also wing inclination to body helps, a LOT. I only found out how much recently, makes me want to go back and redesign everything.

[Aegeas]

Well, this is a bit tricky on account of being quite draggy, but it has a relatively "comfortable" TWR of about 0.7 with the maximum recommended payload (10mT). Just level at about 10,000m to go supersonic, and then you can keep on climbing at that same AoA that got you through the Mach barrier, it'll pitch up as you gain speed and kerbin curves under you, and you can reach orbit without further adjustments I think, other than switching the engines to closed cycle and maybe putting the autopilot on prograde once your time to apoapsis goes over one minute.

Rune. Check action groups in the SPH!

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner, haven't had time until now... had a quick look last night, just doing some aerobatic/stall tests.... haven't taken it into space yet.

One thing I did notice though is that it rolls when I try and yaw, and to the opposite side. I used the probe core as the 'control from here' point so it all seemed to be in line with the control surfaces. I disabled yaw on the rudders and it stopped doing it but not much yaw was capable from just the cabin reaction wheel.

I tried lowering the tail plane to be more in line with com but still basically the same problem.

Basically had to revert to roll & pitch to turn rather than yaw... was using a keyboard though, not sure if you are using a joystick?

Anyway had you found this too or is there something I'm missing that I should have done?

Not really sure what to suggest at this point as to the cause, seems maybe to do with drag causing the roll as it moves away from prograde.

I'll be able to do some more testing this weekend and let you know how it goes.

[Jawstin]

If I had to choose between the best of my SSTOs, I would probably choose the KTS - Pandora !

[Camaron]

Wow what graphics mods are those?