Stylish SSTO Ferry - Aero Edge

[Redshift OTF]

Here's an SSTO I designed to ferry 8+2 Kerbals to orbital stations and back while having sweet lines on it. :P The Aero Edge SSTO.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/kNcA0Y2.jpg[/img]

116 parts. 75.2 tons. It uses 4 Whiplash engines to gain speed, 1 Vector to punch out of the atmosphere and 2 nukes for orbital manoeuvres. I wanted a plane that didn't use Rapiers for a change.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/91CxF56.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/z8p0dPq.jpg[/img]

[B]Hotkey 1)[/B] Toggles Whiplash engines
[B]Hotkey 2)[/B] Toggles Vector
[B]Hotkey 3[/B]) Toggles LV-N engines
[B]Hotkey 0)[/B] Toggles cabin lights

[B]Flight instructions:[/B] Press space to switch on Whiplashes, (the Vector and LV-N's will remain inactive when staged). Fly up to 10km. A glide angle of 15 degrees works well. Flatten out to go trans-sonic and stay flat until the Whiplash engines thrust gets up to 300 kn and orbital speed is over 1000 m/s. Then let the plane naturally pitch up until you reach 20km and an orbital speed of around 1200 m/s. Press hotkeys 2 and 3 to engage the Vector and Nukes. When the Whiplash engines give out press hotkey 1 to disable them and close intakes. When the Vector gives out press hotkey 2 to switch it off. Point to pro-grade and let the nukes slowly push you into orbit. You should have about 1200 m/s of deltaV to do orbital stuff.

[B]Re-entry procedure:[/B] De-orbit and enable air brakes. Flare the plane up and down below 40km to create enough drag to slow you down.

If you re-fuel this in space with just Liquid fuel the LV-N's will give you around 4337 of DeltaV to do other stuff if needed.

[imgur]lZQeH[/imgur]

[url=http://www./download/qef03rpndshvctn/Aero_Edge_SSTO.craft]Download here![/url]

Let me know what you think. It's not the most efficient SSTO ever made but I think it looks cool.

[CitizenAerospace]

That is a very serious looking plane! Love the design!

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Nice! I'm always trying to build something like this, but it gets so big it can't take off.

[Castille7]

Very nice work! I think these type crafts deserve REP just for making it from the Runway to Orbit!