What technologies have to unlock to build spaceplane

[Pawelk198604]

Something only to have its apogee more than 70 km, just to crash magical, Kerman, of excuse mua,  Karman line of Kerbin

 

[Fearless Son]

There are different ways of building a spaceplane, and many different techs can go into any of them, so it is hard to say specifically which nodes a spaceplane actually requires, but practically speaking if you can unlock the Hypersonic Flight and/or Aerospace Tech nodes, you probably have what you need.  The former will get you Whiplash engines, the later will get you R.A.I.P.I.E.R.s, either will be able to accelerate you out of the atmosphere.  You will also need a space engine for outside of atmosphere flight, which the R.A.I.P.I.E.R.s can double as, and enough fuel to actually make it up there and complete a circularization maneuver.  

But from the wording of your question, I am guessing you already can actually get going to a trans-atmospheric ballistic flight but run out of juice before getting into a stable orbit, yes?  This is the tyranny of rockets, and it goes double for spaceplanes, sadly.  If you can get that far, you can go all the way, it will just take a lot of design tweaking and experimentation with fuel loadouts and ascent profiles to find an optimal one, and there is no making that easy since each spaceplane design will be different.  

Good luck though, making an effective spaceplane is a challenge.  

[GoSlash27]

I'm just now downloading and installing 1.1, so this answer may be incorrect.

In KSP 1.05, tech level 6 was sufficient to achieve orbit in a practical spaceplane. That's using the Panther, nacelle, and LV-909 or Poodle. Unless something's changed, that should still hold true.

Best,
-Slashy

[HMIC]

Agree with @Fearless Son, once you get the rapier engine and aerospace tech nodes, you have more than enough of what you need.  But just having waht you need won't simplify the "how to get there" nor make it any easier.

The parts for a spaceplane are just less than half of what you need, RAPIERS are not mandatory. It's the how you build the plane design, how much it weights with jet, rocket engines and fuel, how fast it can go all the way to a 20 km altitude (and keep going), reach above 70km and circularize for orbit out of the atomsphere.  

This second part is cricitcal and is way more important than parts. Trial and error is your best friend and 20km altitude is your sweet spot to determine if you'll make it,  How your plane handles at 20km altitude and how much fuel or dV (delta V) it has left here will depend whether you make it or not.

So first make sure you can make 20km altitude smoothly without problems, then fire those rocket engines, go to a +70km apoapsis and always check your  fuel gauge, or you'll run out.

  

Edited April 20, 2016 by HMIC

[LameLefty]

Open up a new Sandbox game and then play around with the stock Dove design - it's a Rapier-based spaceplane that can easily make a circular 70 - 75 km circular orbit with a 250 - 300 m/s of dV to spare.

Once you master that one, open up the Aeris 4A design and play around with that one, which can achieve orbit with the combination of a pair of turboramjets to get you to ~1,000+ m/s and 23km, and then an aerospike rocket engine to make orbit and for deorbit burns. Again, you should be able to make a 75km circular orbit with that one, with a couple hundred m/s worth of dV to spare.

The trick with most spaceplanes is to accelerate up and off the runway quickly, but not TOO quickly - you don't want to waste fuel fighting drag <10km, for instance. I generally hit V2 (liftoff speed) and then climb at 35º - 40º until 18km - 19km. Then, I nose down to about 20º or a bit lower and accelerate until the jets flame out (or the Rapier switches modes to closed-cycle) and then nose up again to 30º+ until I have an apoapsis of 75km. Then circularize when you get there.

 

[samstarman5]

There really is not going to be just one perfect way about it. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another because we do play differently. I love ballistic flight, which saves me a lot of funds as I don't need to spend them on the SPH or Runway.  But I do like using jet engines for a cheap launch platform for small payloads.  Anything that can get an OKTO or HECS with all the necessary bells and whistles is enough for me, and that means something more than the Juno.

While the Rapier is ideal, it is also very expensive in science. You may as well just unlock your entire tree for that.  But if you really want to get off the ground, I would definitely suggest aiming for getting the Panther unlocked. That along with 909's to get you into orbit should be good enough. But that's just my two cents.

[Pecan]

Wings ... and wheels if you want to land horizontally as well.  As soon as you have them you're good to go.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Pecan

[Wanderfound]

Minimum tech SSTO spaceplane:

The tailfin I used there is the highest tech part, but that was just for aesthetics; you could easily replace that with a lower-tech equivalent.

However, while it is possible to make SSTO spaceplanes as soon as you unlock the first wings, it isn't very practical. Spaceplanes don't become truly useful until you have the Panther, then become a lot easier again once you unlock the Whiplash.

[Pawelk198604]

 

What it's wrong with my space plane how make Val survive flight please watch the last 20 minutes 

 

I would glad for you feedback :-)

 

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by Pawelk198604