Magnificent Aerial Steam Liners Of The Future - Today!! Development Thread: New WIP Fireflash SSTO.

[Bubbadevlin]

I have one suggestion, watch out with those FAT-445 Control surfaces, they have an insanely low max temp (1200)... sadly, they often overheat on SSTOs and such

[Mister Dilsby]

Simply glorious. That fumfdecker was one of the noblest craft I have ever seen. Too bad exhaust heating in 1.0.5 will kill any kerbals sitting in the 'warm' seats.

[BlueCanary]

I have one suggestion, watch out with those FAT-445 Control surfaces, they have an insanely low max temp (1200)... sadly, they often overheat on SSTOs and such

Yeah, by the end of the flight they were precariously close to exploding. I might try putting radiators on them on the inside of the cargo bay they are placed on.

[BlueCanary]

So I tried making the Fireflash SSTO, and somehow, it did.

I swapped out the 6 pod engines for RAPIERS, leaving the wing turbojets untouched for extra power and efficiency at low speeds (but mainly because I'm too lazy to attach fuel lines out to the wings.)

Some extra power generation stuff went in the front cargo bay with the probe core and I swapped out the liquid fuel tanks in the fuselage for rocket fuel. Other than that, the craft was pretty much unchanged.

After a terribly flown ascent profile and some moments of panic as the canards went poof one by one (Bubbadevlin, you were right. Radiators don't seem to have helped), it's now in orbit. A wierd 100 x 78 orbit, but still an orbit. There are 4596 units of liquid fuel and 6568 units of oxidiser left. That's 55.89 tonnes, and that means 55.89 tonnes of payload capacity to LKO. (Some would be used for deorbit, but I doubt that'd be a huge amount, especially once that 55 tonne payload is released.)

This is my first post 1.0 SSTO, and the first thing I've put in orbit in months, and I was never a great SSTO pilot anyway, so there's probably quite a bit of room for improvement in there. If anyone who actually knows how I should be flying this has any ascent profile advice or would want to test fly this, that would be awesome.

I think if I put a long cargo bay in the fuselage it should be able to reliably lift pretty much anything you can fit in there. The current plan is for it to act as a heavy lifter, putting payloads into orbit where they'll be shunted around by some tugs I'll make, so it probably won't need to do much in the way of maneuvering or docking itself. I might also make a fuel tanker variant that will dock itself, and maybe a passenger one too. Currently it's unmanned because I couldn't see anywhere good to put a cockpit, but I was thinking maybe a detachable manned subcraft in a cargo bay, capable of docking, deorbiting or landing itself if needed, could be a fun addition.

KER is being uncooperative and won't give me any TWR or Delta V stats, but it's probably safe to assume they're not great, especially with payload. It's also currently borderline uncontrollable in space, because I forgot reaction wheels or RCS. It needs landing gear too. Still a lot of work left, but it still seems promising.

[Foxster]

I was building a Minmus biomes science hoppy thing and it kinda turned out a tad retro...

But hidden under the rather old-fashioned exterior is a full science suite and enough iony goodness to hop all over Minmus...

...and a brave soul to take surface samples...

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s0fa4m0nscyq6xo/Mini%20science%20hopper%202.craft?dl=0

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

[...]

...and a brave soul to take surface samples...

http://i.imgur.com/X1nWicg.jpg

[...]

...Sitting right below an RTG.

[Rath]

It'll only be a oroblem if (when) the RTG ruptures.

[BlueCanary]

This was meant to be Thunderbird 1, but it turned out a bit pants.

[Sharkman Briton]

News?

[BlueCanary]

News?

I've only got to really try 1.0.5 properly in the last couple of days, so not a huge amount. A flying car is the first thing I have in the works though, here's a couple of screenshots of the first design I tried:

EDIT: Ok, there would be some screenshots but they must have been lost when I messed up backing up before downloading the silent patch. Oh well, the design wasn't working great anyway. I have a much better plan for the next one though.

[Spacetraindriver]

Steam liners or streamliners? I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Still AMAZINGLY cool! Trains had many streamliners, but I don't want to post it because I don't know which word! Also, I'm on my I pad.

[BlueCanary]

Steam liners or streamliners? I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Still AMAZINGLY cool! Trains had many streamliners, but I don't want to post it because I don't know which word! Also, I'm on my I pad.

A mix of both I think. I was planning to wait until 1.1 brings non-glitchy wheels to make anything land based but until KER updates most of the other stuff I want to do is very difficult (no TWR and delta V stats), so I might try a train today.

[Generalstarwars333]

I made a space battlecruiser and have a landship version of it in the works. If I get really crazy I might put wings on it at a high angle of attack and see if it can fly. It would probably be unstable as crap. but maybe if I have enough engines...

[selfish_meme]

A mix of both I think. I was planning to wait until 1.1 brings non-glitchy wheels to make anything land based but until KER updates most of the other stuff I want to do is very difficult (no TWR and delta V stats), so I might try a train today.

You can use KER, it just doesn't work on jets

[Astrofox]

Have fun! I love the ideas here, and I hope to see more of these (awesome) insanities in the future.
By the way, can I post some of my own insanities here?

[BlueCanary]

[quote name='Astrofox']Have fun! I love the ideas here, and I hope to see more of these (awesome) insanities in the future.
By the way, can I post some of my own insanities here?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, feel free to post whatever you want. I don't have much to put in here myself at the moment (lack of time and ideas) so if you want to help keep the thread going that would be great.