[Stock Replica]SR-1 Normandy (SSTO, custom interior, weapons, air-droppable rover, works in 1.2)

[panzer1b]

Well here is something im actually quite proud of, a SSTO capable SR-1 Normandy replica (4th iteration).  While i am by no means the first to create a SR-1 replica, i do believe this is the first one that is 100% stock and can both SSTO on Kerbin/Laythe and happens to have a 100% customized interior that is as close to the one in Mass Effect as possible.  Every major interior section of the ship is modeled, bridge, CIC, debriefing room, stairs, elevator (used pods to allow crew to go from upper floor to engineering deck), mess hall, medlab, Liara's room, captains cabin, weapons control, engineering, and the armory/mako bay, and the external appearance is as close to the Mass Effect one in terms of size and proportions (not perfect but the closest possible while keeping it aerodynamically stable).

Standard model stats:

* 432 parts

* 292t

* 12 RAPIERs

* 8 turbojets

* reaches a 80x80km orbit (maximum) with just enough fuel for RCS (much harder in 1.2 but the new one does make it)

Action groups:

[1] RAPIERs

[2] switch cycle mode

[3] toggle interior (opens the cargo bays so the interior is accessible, this should be open in space, but needs to be closed when entering any atmosphere or the ship will experience incredible drag and flip backwards usually tearing itself apart during aerobraking)

(no more VTOLs in 1.2 version as the new drag just kills the performance of anything that isnt a realistic jet replica)

[abort] open pod bays and deploy escape pods (technically decouples all the docking ports in the escape pod bays so anything attached to those will decouple)

[brakes] open/close windows (do not engage when flying in atmo or the ship will nosedive)

[stage] hit once to engage all forward engines, subsequent uses fire the 2 weapons one at a time (make sure to open the rover bay when firing)

Instructions for SSTOing (successfully ):

1) takes off easily above 150m/s, best results when 170-180m/s

2) pitch up at 20-30deg and climb subsonic up to 10km

3) level out and accelerate while keeping the vertical speed close to 100m/s

4) pitch up to around 15deg when at 20km (ideally you will be going above 1200 by this point)

5) engage rocket mode on rapiers when you exceed 25km (you should be going at least 1150m/s, faster is better)

6) keep pitch at 15-20deg until AP is 45km, then prograde until AP is ~70-80km

7) thrust as needed to maintain AP as you glide thru atmo

8) circularize as with any craft

9) reenter and land as any other craft but keep vertical speed very low during landing (avoid bumpy terrain or the entire engine assembly will explode more often then not)

SR-1 Download

A few final notes:

The craft can carry 10 escape pods but only 2 are included out of the box and it cannot reach stable orbit with all 10 pods and the VTOL engines.

The VTOL system is extremely weak (and useless on anything with heavier gravity then the Mun).  It is designed purely for deploying vehicles as it will allow the craft to maintain a certain altitude when flying below orbital velocity.  While its possible to deploy makos out of it without the system, using it creates acceleration that gives the wheels traction (so the vehicle just drives right out of the bay).  Im going to make a new mako since the one i used initially sucked (placeholder just to show proof of concept), will have that uploaded soon (and if i can get it to work a version of the SR-1 that can SSTO with a mako loaded inside it since the thing barely makes orbit as is).

The craft uses a trick with cargo bays to disable drag on the entire interior.  This blocks access to the interior (and will often spagettify kerbals if it isnt opened and you try to EVA one inside of the ship), so you have been warned, make sure to hit [4] after reaching orbit and before you start interacting with the ship in any way (close this whenever you are in atmo).  It also makes the top look better (more rounded as the actual SR-1 had).  Also, the craft features "windows" on the front and back in the form of elevators that block the view when they are deployed as flaps.  This is bound to brakes (and doubles up as a airbrake that cannot be used while in flight but works on the ground very well) so toggle that if you want open or closed windows.  Its not 100% authentic that the briefing room had windows at all (placed there for aerodynamic purposes), but if you want to go ahead and open them for a nice view to the rear (may help spot collectors before they start shooting).

Weapons are fairly lousy and are mostly there just because the original craft had weapons, and they are actually located in a similar spot the original ship had its guns.  Fired via stage and can be aimed manually using the weapons control room (cockpit in there that gives you a forward view past the guns so just have the target ship directly in front of you while you fire).  If you want to use this for combat i suggest adding some sort of small guided missiles into the escape pod bays (plenty of 0.6m hardpoints and you can still carry a few escape pods).

Anyways, i hope you guys enjoy this, originally intended for cinematic purposes but i think i wont use it as it doesnt fit the aesthetic style of a particular faction i planned it to use...

Edited September 17, 2016 by panzer1b

[panzer1b]

Updated with a (considerably better then the original) Mako and a SR-1 that is fully prepped for dropping said Mako (removed LF, so use hyperedit or so to get it into orbit).  Its not stellar, but it drops out of the Normandy as it did in Mass Effect, roves around, flips over constantly (brings back fond memories of getting the Mako stuck in holes and general instability when climbing tall cliffs).  It also has a cannon thats tested on Kerbals (4 kerbals went poof during live firing tests) and low impact tolerance buildings.

use RCS controls to fly it around (vernors are used as its primary thrusters, and they have been tested on Minmus, should work on Mun though if you use the SR-1's engines to get you to lower speeds, doesnt quite have the dV to land and take off from Mun orbit).

Mako Edition

Also, i added a few more reaction wheels to make it less painful to maneuver while dropping Makos.  Give it some time to turn around, but minor correctioins are quick even with the lag this thing brings to the game.

[TwinKerbal]

How has no one commented on this!  It's amazing!

[qzgy]

Cool! Looks much better than whatever abominations I manage to put in orbit!

[Eldrad_Ulthran]

Awesome! How much hit on performance does this take?

[panzer1b]

Updated to 1.2 standards, sadly with the loss of the escape pods and VTOL units since its so difficult to get anything that doesnt look like a conventional aircraft into LKO right now.

Also, there is a change to action groups, [3] is not the interior toggle and there is no [4], [5] used.

Otherwise, internals are the same, externals are more or less the same, and it does still make orbit (just barely).  I'm going to try and make a better version that has the fuel to drag a few more tons up with it (so i can mount a few escape pods and get the VTOL units back onboard the SSTO variant), Mako edition is the older style since it was never designed to SSTO anyway (Mako weighs too much)...

[Exothermos]

Impressive building!  I have been unable to build a stable SSTO with the ramp pieces oriented backwards like that.  They usually flip over backwards in the hypersonic stage.

[panzer1b]

10 hours ago, Exothermos said:

Impressive building!  I have been unable to build a stable SSTO with the ramp pieces oriented backwards like that.  They usually flip over backwards in the hypersonic stage.

There is a bit of a long story (and quite some development time) that went into making this airworthy, and if you've flown it it isnt exactly efficient by any means.  Anyways, i started by thinking of ways to make an interior and keeping it aerodynamic in the atmo, and the only way i managed that is by using a similar technique to my 1.0.5 HK-201 SSTO starfighter, which used a MK-2 bomb bay to disable drag on the entire fuel and weapons load (there is no wany whatsoever it would be able to get 7000dV in orbit otherwise).  My initial 1.1 design used MK2 bays, but it failed since they were too small to properly occlude the entire center section from drag forces, so i swapped to the MK3 bomb bays.  Made the hull out of those, and i did my best to make it look at least somewhat like the SR-1 hull (yeah its not perfect but you just cannot get an exact replica and keep it air-worthy).  As for the ramp pieces, i used those because they were the only way to make the front and rear look close to the SR-1's.  They use symmetry to counter the insane amount of drag and lift (which is pointing sideways btw) so i dont have flipping issues.  The bottom one is not symmetric but its a minor problem.  Any inherent instability in the frontal section is countered by wing spamming the rear until its stable (it insta-flips if you remove the wings clipped into the engine nacelles).  Not an efficient or pretty solution, but again, given how most sci-fi replicas uttery FAIL at aerodynamics you need to just keep piling up wings near the rear until there is no situation where the craft will flip (even if you try to reenter backwards it will right itself and fly forwards).

TLDR, if you have flipping issues with any craft you need to add wings to the rear so the CoP is behind the CoM at all times.  Yeah it may not be the most efficient thing you can do, but enough lifting surfaces (or drag inducing objects) near the rear and you can stabilize the worst designs in existence (or as an alternative shift mass to the nose).

[Matuchkin]

This is a great idea for an SSTO.

[EVA_Reentry]

Ah, yes, man, love custom interiors!

[Matuchkin]

But I'm thinking: how did the OP get rid of the bay doors?