The Kolibri, family of little shuttles

[XB-70A]

Hi everyone,

I recently have finished to reshape my two oldest shuttles named Kolibri (Humming-bird). They were at first placed at the top of a large SRB coming from a STS mod and propelled by a nuclear engine from a mod too :

 

They are now full stock, ridding on my Universal Light Craft Launcher made for the X-36 Arethuse.

Both of them are maneuverable and easy to place on orbit. In any case you can start your gravity turn around 70 m/s then wait for the Kickback to went off. Once the hard acceleration over the climb will be soft and enjoyable.

The U.L.C.L. carries a guidance unit  and eight parachute for the return. You can place the shuttles on a 80x80 orbit, separate then de-orbit the U.L.C.L. After the hotter part you should still have enough fuel to decelerate and realize a soft landing on the Vector.

The Kolibris on their part can reach their target up to 400 km without any refueling. On every test flight I de-orbited them from 200 and 150 km respectively without getting any overheating problems. The IB is more than stable while its younger brother the II is totally unstable during the approach.

 

Here is the first member, the Kolibri Mk. IB :

Extremely stable during the re-entry, you can find it here : https://kerbalx.com/XB-70A/Sleg-Kolibri-Mk-IB

 

Then comes Junior, the Kolibri Mk. II :

The landing can be, hem... intense with this one, just as the re-entry (do not touch the controls during it) as in a total craziness I choose to make it with a negative angled wing.

Can be found here : https://kerbalx.com/XB-70A/Sleg-Kolibri-Mk-II

 

Note that if you are a user of the StageRecovery mod, every parts will be recovered, the Kickbacks getting parachutes and the main core realizing its own propulsive landing.

[DDE]

Hm. If I'm seeing it right, the Junior has nothing on the rear end of the adapter. Have you ever fancied putting the docking port there and not a Mk 2 inline? It would be more Kliper than Dyna Soar.

[Tex_NL]

12 minutes ago, DDE said:

Hm. If I'm seeing it right, the Junior has nothing on the rear end of the adapter. Have you ever fancied putting the docking port there and not a Mk 2 inline? It would be more Kliper than Dyna Soar.

[Pic Snip]

You mean something more like this?

Edited November 20, 2016 by Tex_NL

[XB-70A]

12 hours ago, DDE said:

If I'm seeing it right, the Junior has nothing on the rear end of the adapter. Have you ever fancied putting the docking port there and not a Mk 2 inline?

I also have two small 5 and 6 seats lifting bodies shuttles like this, the first based on the X-38 and the other called Doom Chaser. Both got a rear docking port.

But the litlle one got an aerospike at this location :

These two birds are really "old" to me, I made them during my second week of KSP playing if I remember correctly so they got all the stupid decisions a rookie can take, This craft was equipped originally with the RL-10 from FASA as the stock T-1 Aerospike could not be stacked at this time. Then I rebuilt the wing and don't change anything else.