Claymore. Bigger than a Longsword... yet with the same mass ratio ;)

[Rune]

I've been torn for a few days now. On the one hand, the Longsword name is awesome... but on the other, this looks nothing like the Longsword (even though it's built on top of it and shares the basic powerplant), and is actually quite more capable:



~50mT to orbit! That is a whopping >25% payload ratio, and the payload rides in style, inside a humongous bay sporting the latest in ramp technologies... just in case you want to load a nuclear cruise stage and use it without unpacking Plus now we support crew! The standard three can ride in style, taking care of the payload and performing any required science!... or rescue, whatever the case might be. Truly, a hammer that is just begging for a problem to solve. They all look like nails with one of these! And thanks to the efficient part count (130 not counting payload), and the ridiculously simple flight manual, a hammer anyone can use. Don't believe me? Here, in this pic you can see how complicated the flight manual is... it fits in its entirety:



It has become practically my go-to cargo SSTO. If nothing else, I can loft a few metric tons of ore up while I do something else... Thanks to the incredibly big payload bay, I just chuck modules inside until I have what I need, then complete with ore not caring much about the payload's CoM... if anything I have a care to put the heaviest things forwards. If the result is under 180 mT at takeoff, I know I am going to have enough to go up. I built with low density payloads in mind, because you are limited by room more often than not, in my experience. BTW, there is a handy unused node where the two bays meet to hang more than one payload without them having to connect to each other.

All in all, it is an incredibly useful "can tackle any job" kind of bird. And sacrificing nothing to aesthetics! I took the "old" Longsword and IMO improved the looks of the thing enormously, while actually saving structural parts, and adding the tail ramp to boot. And the CoM/CoL balance didn't even take a hit! It still can do "Kobras" on reentry to shed speed high up and experience a very cool reentry (even though it's frankly difficult to burn that nosecone off). I think this one will stay with us for a while now, I have no desire to try to improve on this any time soon. I mean, look at it!



Just a few parting thoughts... it has solar panels, but the radiators have a bad habit of activating when stowed and draining the power on ascent, fortunately you have a fuel cell in the bay, remember to use it. Also ... you know what? It has a ton of other bells and whistles, but since they are minor and I've been writing for some time, I think I will let you find those out for yourself... I hope you enjoy yourself while doing so!

IMGUR ALBUM:

DOWNLOAD:

http://www./download/edkvli6yg8hwcd8/SSTO+Mk+LXXIII+'Claymore'.craft


Rune. Being lazy at naming since 2012.

Edited December 21, 2015 by Rune

[Bubbadevlin]

Like the craft!, surprised you named it the name of a sword, with all the ranting of how its like a hammer.... :P Edited November 25, 2015 by Bubbadevlin

[Azimech]

Well ... you're not lazy at writing a lot of words ;-)

[COLOR="silver"][SIZE=1]- - - Updated - - -[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[quote name='Bubbadevlin']Like the craft!, surprised you named it the name of a gun, with all the ranting of how its like a hammer.... :P[/QUOTE]

Not really :-P

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claymore[/url]

Before you hit me with anything:
I've been a playing the Elder Scrolls since 2001 ... nerd stuff & all.

And Rune, yes ... before this becomes another topic of meaningless discussion about life, the universe & everything (:P) ... it's a wonderful ship and I'm really jealous of everyone building those fine SSTO's. Last one I did was in 0.20 I think, and I suck at it. Edited November 25, 2015 by Azimech

[Bubbadevlin]

Whoops yea... lol, got it confused with a mortar

[Rune]

[quote name='Bubbadevlin']Like the craft!, surprised you named it the name of a sword, with all the ranting of how its like a hammer.... :P[/QUOTE]

I've got a sort of naming convention on SSTOs that actually saves me a lot of time coming up with names. Pointy objects! You would be surprised at the variety over the ages... In any case, glad you like it! :)

[quote name='Azimech']And Rune, yes ... before this becomes another topic of meaningless discussion about life, the universe & everything (:P) ... it's a wonderful ship and I'm really jealous of everyone building those fine SSTO's. Last one I did was in 0.20 I think, and I suck at it.[/QUOTE]

Yup, I am quite verbose with or [I]without[/I] a keyboard ;)

And I am not one bit surprised you have a hard time with SSTOs... these days, the key is to use the bare minimum of parts in a lean design, while you are renowned for coming up with the craziest, most complicated contraptions in the history of ever, capable of melting the unwary CPU... to each its own, right? You have a very personal (and original) build style! And you know, you can always come to R-SUV for all your SSTOing needs :)


Rune. What I do is find out what the game likes the most... you just beat it into submission. ;)

[Cupcake...]

Man, I gotta start building bigger. :P

Cupcake...

[Azimech]

[quote name='Rune']

And I am not one bit surprised you have a hard time with SSTOs... these days, the key is to use the bare minimum of parts in a lean design, while you are renowned for coming up with the craziest, most complicated contraptions in the history of ever, capable of melting the unwary CPU... to each its own, right? You have a very personal (and original) build style! And you know, you can always come to R-SUV for all your SSTOing needs :) [/quote]


Well, what a nice compliment coming from one of the masters! Thank you!


[quote]
Rune. What I do is find out what the game likes the most... you just beat it into submission. ;)[/QUOTE]

A giggle ... it's true!

[problemecium]

Sweet name for a sweet SSTO. Now I want to build an analogue of my own.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Who said more parts was better? I have a two person SSTMinmus with around sixty or so parts. Though I do love torturing my laptop...

[Thingymajigy]

[IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/US_M18a1_claymore_mine.jpg[/IMG]

[andrew123]

[quote name='Thingymajigy'][url]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/US_M18a1_claymore_mine.jpg[/url][/QUOTE]

I prefer myself a bamboo pit covered with dead leaves. :P

[Rune]

[quote name='parameciumkid']Sweet name for a sweet SSTO. Now I want to build an analogue of my own.[/QUOTE]

Well good luck! Coming up with that wing took some doing, I can't wait to see what you come up with. Everybody needs a ramped heavy SSTO these days! :)

[quote name='SpaceplaneAddict']Who said more parts was better? I have a two person SSTMinmus with around sixty or so parts. Though I do love torturing my laptop...[/QUOTE]

Yup, I have always been of the firm opinion that less is more, part-wise. Unfortunately, until we have 2.5m RAPIERs, there is only so much I can do... 130 is a nice footprint for such a large thing, I think.

[quote name='Thingymajigy'][url]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/US_M18a1_claymore_mine.jpg[/url][/QUOTE]

Hehehe. Seriously? That's the first thing that springs to mind? You need to play more RPGs... ;)


Rune. I learned english through them!

[eddiew]

Probably the best use of those big deltas I've seen. Shame they're not made to tile, but you've done a sterling job of piecing them together ^^

Lack of tail plane's tweakin' my OCD though... Making me wonder if the extended tail could be sawn of for a sort of Clayless...

[Rune]

[quote name='eddiew']Probably the best use of those big deltas I've seen. Shame they're not made to tile, but you've done a sterling job of piecing them together ^^

Lack of tail plane's tweakin' my OCD though... Making me wonder if the extended tail could be sawn of for a sort of Clayless...[/QUOTE]

Thanks! It took some thinking. And yeah, aerodynamically and mass-wise, the bird ends with the RAPIERs. Strictly speaking, this is a canard+delta configuration. But the extra-rearwards tail adds a ton of longitudinal stability, a bit of cargo room, and the ramp that was the main reason for the redesign. Feel free to rip it out, tough! I don't think anything important is attached there.


Rune. Here's hoping for more modular big wings!

[ryan234abc]

Wow. I checked it out, looks amazing. The images and download links, quotes etc aren't coming up for me, the BB codes are glitched still I think. Is that just me? As for the craft, looks great! And here's to a new forum of Rune built craft - faster, further and freaking amazing!

[Rune]

6 hours ago, ryan234abc said:

Wow. I checked it out, looks amazing. The images and download links, quotes etc aren't coming up for me, the BB codes are glitched still I think. Is that just me? As for the craft, looks great! And here's to a new forum of Rune built craft - faster, further and freaking amazing!

Well, an edit while changing nothing apparently fixed everything. I really have to investigate this new forum thingy further... I predict a lot of edits in the not too distant future!

 

Rune. Oh, and thanks for the kind words!

Edited December 1, 2015 by Rune

[ryan234abc]

Alright.

Its working fine now, they've fixed the images, so don't worry about that, but the quotes still seem to have the BB codes before them. As for the Claymore, it's one of the most bad*ss craft I've seen yet - only the name rivals its bad*ssery. To be honest, i'd never have thought you'd make a craft that big. In other news, the Foil recently saved a crew of 3 from the surface of Duna. Admittedly, it was my noobery that landed them there in the first place - I thought the atmospheric height of Duna was 35000 not 50000. Don't ask me where that came from, but The Von Braun station hit the surface at 360 m/s. Still, the science module and cupola cockpit survived, so all three crew members made it back out alive. Hats off to the Foil, they'd still be there without it.

 

 

[Rune]

3 hours ago, ryan234abc said:

Alright.

Its working fine now, they've fixed the images, so don't worry about that, but the quotes still seem to have the BB codes before them. As for the Claymore, it's one of the most bad*ss craft I've seen yet - only the name rivals its bad*ssery. To be honest, i'd never have thought you'd make a craft that big. In other news, the Foil recently saved a crew of 3 from the surface of Duna. Admittedly, it was my noobery that landed them there in the first place - I thought the atmospheric height of Duna was 35000 not 50000. Don't ask me where that came from, but The Von Braun station hit the surface at 360 m/s. Still, the science module and cupola cockpit survived, so all three crew members made it back out alive. Hats off to the Foil, they'd still be there without it.

 

 

Well, you are welcome! It's always nice to hear good customer reviews.

And doubly glad to see that the Foil can handle a Duna trip, too. Did it make it there on its own fuel alone? Because if so, it would be nice to hear that it can handle a Duna trip, confirmed. I never trust myself and always over-engineer the trips horribly (I.E: Capture propulsively into a high orbit).

BTW, there is a new VB on the works. Once I heard that the new structural fuselages are hollow, and that the crew cabins had their hatches on their ends... well, I just had to do it:

 

Rune. And it isn't particularly bad at part count... I think I will offer two diamters this time, 20 and 40m.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Rune

[Dafni]

Nice! Looking forward to what you can do with the hollow rings!

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Dafni said:

Nice! Looking forward to what you can do with the hollow rings!

Make a ring of course! I have tried this and can confirm it works very well on Kerbin but it is horrible in orbit. EVAing inside it is very tricky.

[Rune]

35 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

Make a ring of course! I have tried this and can confirm it works very well on Kerbin but it is horrible in orbit. EVAing inside it is very tricky.

It takes finesse. Then again, you can also rotate the ring and smash the kerbal against the hatch to get back in. The most infuriating thing is that you only have one hatch in the pod, and there is no obvious way to distinguish it in the editor... or I didn't see it when I built it the first time. Still WiP. Also, I need to decide on including an ISRU unit or not and a couple other minor details.

 

Rune. My 1.05 lineup is going to be a 1.00 "edit & improve"!

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Rune said:

It takes finesse. Then again, you can also rotate the ring and smash the kerbal against the hatch to get back in. The most infuriating thing is that you only have one hatch in the pod, and there is no obvious way to distinguish it in the editor... or I didn't see it when I built it the first time. Still WiP. Also, I need to decide on including an ISRU unit or not and a couple other minor details.

 

Rune. My 1.05 lineup is going to be a 1.00 "edit & improve"!

 Yes of course it takes finesse. It's that or you get stuck inside.. That plus the nightmare camera angles. It makes it a frustrating experience. As base module things they are great though and can take a very tight ring and stlll be easy to navigate through.

[problemecium]

...This thing gets more impressive to me the more I try to replicate it. Somehow you're hauling 50 tons while I struggle to get off the pad with a mere 36, fighting all the while with the landing gear twisting and snapping off.

[Rune]

11 hours ago, parameciumkid said:

...This thing gets more impressive to me the more I try to replicate it. Somehow you're hauling 50 tons while I struggle to get off the pad with a mere 36, fighting all the while with the landing gear twisting and snapping off.

I have been known to pick up a building trick or two over the years

In the case of the landing gear, in particular, I attached it to the cargo bay and then 'cheated' the offset so it sits where it is. No way you can build a non-wobbly wing, so I don't even try. Once you have a stable and balanced platform, taking off is all a matter of lever and wing, and it has a lot of wing. And it's not like mine likes taking off too far before the end of the runway...

 

Rune. 50mT is the absolute maximum, BTW, it flies much better with around 40.

Edited December 3, 2015 by Rune

[ryan234abc]

On ‎01‎/‎12‎/‎2015‎ ‎20‎:‎03‎:‎40, Rune said:

Well, you are welcome! It's always nice to hear good customer reviews.

And doubly glad to see that the Foil can handle a Duna trip, too. Did it make it there on its own fuel alone?

I did a refill in LKO - I need the Ox boost to get me the extra velocity when the wings didn't produce enough lift. And It never hurts to roll it down a valley, into a ramp to get a few more m/s on take off.