Aerion AS2 SSTO

[justidutch]

I am normally not a plane builder, but in the science labs had started a thread about a supersonic business jet thats currently on the drawing board called the Aerion AS2. I really like the look of it and wondered if there's any basis in reality, so I tried it:










Craft file is here

I've only flown it twice but both times made it to a circularized orbit, albeit with hardly any fuel to spare. Once in space it handles quite goofy because of the CoT misaligned with CoM, don't use throttle more than 30%. To get to orbit I just pitched up ~20% the entire way until it was time to switch engine modes (the '0' button). I have not tried landing it after orbit but imagine it will be difficult as the CoM will have shifted; you'll see the fuel tanks are all mostly behind CoM so its flight characteristics will most likely be bad. But, it was a fun couple hours getting it to the point where it is. Not perfect, the tail is not right but I had to compromise to get everything balanced enough to fly. Enjoy!

Edited December 11, 2015 by justidutch
fix images and link due to forum migration

[Rithsom]

That's pretty good! I especially like how you did those engines. :)

[X9Squared]

In my opinion, a mk1 cockpit would have looked better, but the intakes and such are awesome and the rest looks great!