Orbit Portal Showroom [Show me your OPT Spaceplanes!]

[Davaeron]

https://imgur.com/a/Se0GJ8L

[Apaseall]

Please delete this. Thanks.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Apaseall

[JadeOfMaar]

This science plane wasn't meant to be a spaceplane and couldn't go half as far as I wanted it to (in 2.5x science mode) but now it can SSTO, after releasing a config to reduce some drag stats on all OPT parts.

It was intentionally disabled from being an SSTO by using the J-61 Starwaster which unlocks somewhat early but is the least efficient of OPT engines. Now that it can put its Apoapsis in space I'm rethinking its design, but on the plus side, that's plenty dV for getting around on Gael/Kerbin.

With the weight and positions of these drop tanks, it's very slow to turn. After they go, the plane is pretty responsive.

[JadeOfMaar]

Codename "Big Mac," weighing 200 tons (45 tons is payload) is a test plane for some non-OPT engines that I'm making. It can compare with my 2.5x OPT spaceplane "The Loader" which is KH class and holds 40 tons.

With this initial engine configuration it crawls to orbit at 1x but it has no hope in 2.5x. I haven't yet seen its behavior when nearly empty of fuel (I'm hoping it doesn't suffer The Loader's balance problem), and haven't tested an OPT-only engine configuration. Its Yaw control is quite sufficient with the dual fish tail setup clearly visible here.

After a discussion about OPT parts, drag, and attachment points with someone on a server I decided to do this on the underside. I haven't tested whether they cancel the drag caused by open stack nodes. But I'm not serious about this plane (yet) so it's no issue to me.

Switching to an LF only engine configuration I found that the ramjet rings each produce 1/3 the total thrust here but it becomes possible for this plane to operate in 2.5x. These nacelles hold a lot of IntakeAir for a novel function not involved with OPT...but allowed the J-92 (with OPT Reconfig) to operate near the atmosphere's edge like OPT's WarpJet SURGE.

Edited July 17, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[docthaspok]

Sleek SSTO, easy to fly, just gotta watch the throttle when J-92s are in Shcramjet mode,  otherwise flat spin from asymmetric thrust( one engine flames out around mach 6+ and Alt. >26Km. 

[JadeOfMaar]

A bit of messing about in 2.5x again and culling OPT Legacy (namely, the fuselage parts and keeping the engines and other little things) has yielded two capable SSTOs.

The [K]arrier which holds 45 tons. The forward cargo bay opens downward while the rear one opens upward. The H mounted parts are completely dry. The rocket engines are scaled to 1.875m. It's hard to tell whether these or the jet engines (on both planes) are the mains or the boosters. Their handling on descent hasn't been tested but overall performance has been quite nice for both. Overheating hasn't been much of an issue.

The [K]arrier has 4 of my customized ramp intake underneath to sufficiently feed the jets all the way.

The Karrier [J] weighs half as much and holds 30 tons. Compared to my NOX Crown spaceplane this one is less ambitious (style and TWR) and tries to be more efficient, saving on part count, width/wing span, and possibly surface area (for drag) too.

The 1.25m tank on its back is countering thrust torque by holding a Classic Stock resource and weighing twice what you would expect (it weighs 5 tons). Maybe if I move the wings up I can ditch that mass.

 

[docthaspok]

Trying more aerodynamic wing configurations for FAR, Still need RCS ports got impatient and just wanted to fly ;).

 

 

 

 

[NHunter]

A neat little spaceplane I've designed to haul tourists to the space hotel:

This spaceplane has seats for 30 kerbals and enough endurance to perform a Ceti flyby. And, despite not using actual wings (only pylons and winglets), it handles surprisingly well in atmosphere.

Problems of this design... well, it uses only deployable solar panels, so it can't passively recharge batteries while coasting through atmosphere. And, of course, it still suffers from J-sized "brick" aerodynamics.

[JadeOfMaar]

@NHunter I see that you're missing B9 Part Switch. The sloped form of that SABR2 intercooler is showing. Your plane may also benefit from OPT Reconfig (see my signature). It adjusts the lift and drag properties somewhat for all OPT parts and should provide a noticeable boost to fuel economy while in atmosphere.

[NHunter]

I have OPT reconfig as well as B9 switcher (both via CKAN). The latter might be installed badly since, as you've mentioned it, I do have straight and slanted meshes of the intercooler showing up together.

EDIT: apparently, my B9 works fine, it was my own patch to remove extra stuff that I don't need from the precooler that messed the model up.

Edited November 24, 2018 by NHunter

[JadeOfMaar]

Codename "Phantom," a very lean, low-drag, Mun-and back SSTO. I used it to retrieve the crew from a very large warpship. It has room for a big Ore tank but is a passenger vessel only, and hasn't been tested with an Ore tank.

It features (extra) chutes near the cabin in case it ends up heavy in the back and enters a dry spin. The blue radiators on the tail are from Thor Tech and use expendable Water to draw heat and ablate it away. The Whiplashes are for TWR.

Amusingly, it's called "Phantom" but its main engines are OPT "ScreamJet."

 

[JadeOfMaar]

Codename "Phantom ES," another very promising OPT + Thor Tech mix. This rather short plane employs a small dose of shameless part clipping to meet the design needs. Its design is still WIP (after the first image, the legacy wings are replaced and a missing OPT drone core added, and the cockpit may have to change).

The Phantom ES is built for sandbox exploration and VTOL/STOL in 2.5x, and, well, it can SSTO from Kerbin with 15 tons of payload (way OP for stock scale), and operate very well on the likes of Duna without using LiquidFuel. I might find a place for this in my science game, and I brought the SAGE engines to near melting point while flying on Duna.

Unfortunately, the current cockpit drags stronger than anything else, even overpowering the surprisingly weak Big S Elevon cluster I added just to attempt to counter-drag the plane... And yaw control is rather scarce.

The nose cones in the tail are Shieldnir cones but their textures are invalidated by the part revamp in KSP 1.6. Shieldnir's purpose on the plane is to give some amount of guarantee that the Thor Tech VTOL engines survive the shock heat of ascending or descending at Kerbin.

 

Edited January 7, 2019 by JadeOfMaar

[NHunter]

A plane I've built for (the final stretch of) Gael's version of Commnet Dish Inspection Challenge. It was aptly named "Inspector".

Edited January 8, 2019 by NHunter

[TheKurgan]

This thing is SAVAGE!! Jet power to an apoapsis of over 100km.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by TheKurgan

[TheKurgan]

 

 

[docthaspok]

Crew Tranport for tours and Station crew rotation.

[JadeOfMaar]

Well this takes me back. My earliest shuttle for crew rotation was a small Mk2 with 2x J-61 ramjets and the NTR from Mk2 Expansion. It was so OP it would blackout everyone on it (if I knew about the difficulty setting for it and turned it on) and it needed a heatshield on its nose.

Spoiler

 

[captinjoehenry]

Well I have the latest version of my Artemis SSTO science plane.  It uses some personally made parts that act as realscale scramjets / closed cycle gas core nuclear rockets.

[JadeOfMaar]

On 5/27/2019 at 2:29 PM, captinjoehenry said:

Well I have the latest version of my Artemis SSTO science plane.  It uses some personally made parts that act as realscale scramjets / closed cycle gas core nuclear rockets.

Screenshots when?

[gilflo]

Here is my Stratolauncher OPT, able to deliver 168T between 190 et 210 kms 

470T at take off including load

Take off is long

long initial climb to acculerate

Hypersonic acceleration between 15000 and 30000m, mach 6.8, allowing apoapsis between 190 and 210 kms

After take off from Kourou in Guyana, we reach center of Africa

The te test tank of 168T is oflloaded at 191 kms, over Indian Ocean

The suborbital Stratolauncher allows to launch a rocket just before Apoapsis. Then you just need the fuel to circularize, saving the whole launch through atmosphere

After Apoapsis we begin descent, and stabilizing between 25 et 30000m for a short hypersonic cruise, we have flown more than half around the world.

before flying along the  Central America coast , then north of South America

seeing again Kourou after a complete tour of the world

Then we start idle descent and we are soon in sight of the runway

and the Stratolaucher lands easily, having lost 1/3rd of its weight

It stops on the runway with still 1/3 of Liquid fuel in the tanks.

That souk allow to lift heavier load. Mission lasted  1H14

OPT "Humpback" Stratolauncher: 1 central engine 2m50  J-61 Turboramjet Starwaster + 2 lateral engines J-61  1m25 + 2 side engines J-61 1m875

Empty Weight with fuel - LF: 301T  - Load to orbit: 168T

Range on mission: 1 complete world tour with 1/3 Fuel remaining in tanks

 

[gilflo]

On 3/30/2019 at 7:11 PM, TheKurgan said:

 

 

Hello

What mod are you using for the wheels?

What liquid fuel engine with electric charge are used for circularization?

Thank's

[TheKurgan]

9 hours ago, gilflo said:

What mod are you using for the wheels?

What liquid fuel engine with electric charge are used for circularization?

Hello,

The Wheels are the Adjustable Landing Gear (Large) from Kerbal Foundries which includes Textures Unlimited, and KSP Wheel.

The wheels on my plane are scaled to 1.5x 

The engines are from OPT_Legacy, the OPT-E Hybrid ScreamJet "J-60D" which uses LF-OX + EC, and are very efficient.

Cheers,

Edited June 23, 2019 by TheKurgan

[gilflo]

Many thanks!

Kerbal Foundries is working on KSP 1.7.x ?

[TheKurgan]

 

4 hours ago, gilflo said:

Kerbal Foundries is working on KSP 1.7.x ?

Yeah, it's working perfectly fine for me.

Some mods are unaffected by patches/DLC... depending on what gets changed. I have mods that work perfectly fine in 1.7.1, that were meant for 1.3.1

[gilflo]

Hello guys

What do you use for VTOL on no atmospheric planet on your OPT crafts ?

Edited June 25, 2019 by gilflo