Alaflux Beta - modular wing SSTO

[drewscriver]

I've had this done for a little while, but I wanted to make a video, which I'm not nearly as good at as the actual craft building. Still, I wanted to release this before the mark 1 cockpit revamp breaks it.

So, without further ado, here is the Alaflux Beta, a modular-wing SSTO:

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As with the first Alaflux, the atmospheric section and orbital / lander section are discreet. Once the quad rapiers get you into orbit, you can drop them off and go places with the Nerv-powered orbital unit.

A demo trip to the moon (including a 2.25 ton test payload) - no problem. I could've hit minimus afterwards, if I'd wanted to.

http://i.imgur.com/25cT8Dj.gifv

Four rapiers means that it'll go orbital in a hurry. Just climb at 25 - 30 degrees until you hit 10k, break mach, climb again to 20k, build speed until you top out at 1400+. Once you've reached the airbreathing limit, toggle one pair of rapiers, and fire the nuke if you want, and push to orbit. The oxidizer should be enough to kick your apoapsis up out of the atmosphere, and you can use the nuke to circularize. Once there, you should have plenty of liquid fuel left over to top off the orbital section.

With a full orbital module, you have about 4,500 delta V to play with, and a lander capable of putting down on most non-atmospheric bodies.

Download link

Happy flying!

-Drewscriver

Edited October 22, 2015 by drewscriver

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Well, my SSTO flying skills never existed, but that looks awesome! I love how it's a traditional lander too.

[KSACheese]

10/10 would crash again. I've never been able to fly SSTOs, but this one looks, as Tony the Tiger says, GRRRRRREAT!

[drewscriver]

Thanks!

I'm glad to see you guys enjoying it.

I'm currently working on a Duna landing module.

The idea is to enable a mission profile where there's an appropriate pair of wings in orbit, and an orbital unit can arrive, strap them on, then use them to descend and perform its ground operations. Once finished finished, the craft can then go back up and drop the wings off in orbit for the next craft to use.

[manek22]

Just how did you build it so the wings stay together? I was trying this earlier and mine just feel apart. awesome design.

[drewscriver]

Just how did you build it so the wings stay together? I was trying this earlier and mine just feel apart. awesome design.

Ah, I think I know what's happening. You have to keep in mind that KSP's crafts are built using a tree structure - you can't just build off of multiple docking ports and strut them together. As soon as the root part disconnects, the struts to the disconnected piece will also break, the same as struts break off of sections when you stage them away.

In the Alaflux Beta, I sidestep this problem by making sure that each craft section has only one root node. This is why I have the awkward clampotron jr. docking port assembly on the top - I needed something centered that I could use as the root for the Aero section. Since the entire back of the craft is built off of just that single part, I can strut the child parts together and nothing breaks when I undock.

If you check, you'll see that the normal size clampotrons are not actually attached in the editor. I've just tweaked it so that they are very very closely aligned, and they automatically dock when the craft loads on the runway.

I hope this helps!

Edited October 22, 2015 by drewscriver

[Dr Farnsworth]

Ingenious!