Need some help with early start craft.

[dpraptor]

Hi KSP Community!

 I could really use a hand with building a craft that will allow me to fly around Kerbin as high as 20,000. I am trying to complete the surveys, but every craft that I have designed (and a few I even downloaded) just wont make it. I have completed the 1st 3 tiers of research, and 3 of the 4th tier (the tier that requires 45 Sci Points each). I can get into space and orbit no problem, but I just can't build anything with what I have to fly over kerbin, the rockets keep spinning and are insane to try to maneuver in the direction I need to go, no matter what combinations I try.

  I also tried the VAB and built some basic planes, but that was a joke.....haha..(I think Jeb's still mad at me for dying so many times!) I downloaded the excellent Hummingbird Surveyor from KerbalX, but that is for low flights only, and I had issues keeping it up (More practice I know..) I need a ship that can get to 18,000+ accross a decent distance for the surveys. 

 I haven't played KSP for almost a year, but when I did I had flown to MUN, Minmus and Duna, so I know the game well. Seems the physics changes have really thrown me off. Appreciate any help in either design, or a ship I can download that will do the job, given the limited parts I have in early career mode.

[septemberWaves]

I'd suggest making a plane with a rocket engine if you want to get that high. You'll want to shut down the jet engines when you enable the rocket engine, so that they don't flame out and become impossible to turn back on - unless you're willing to glide back down from 20-ish kilometers.

As for how to design a plane, just make sure that you have control surfaces for pitch (up/down) and for yaw (left/right), and that your center of lift is behind your center of mass. It should fly after only a few design attempts with those instructions.

[Leafbaron]

don't forget control surfaces for roll! each control surface should be limited to one function. Pitch, Roll, or yaw. I would also suggest reaction wheels. once you get to 20 km you're control surfaces will still work but they are much less effective. 

[Vanamonde]

This going to end up being a craft sharing thread, and so it has been moved to the craft-sharing subforum. 

[AeroGav]

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Juno-basic-ssto

Do you have Terrier engine and the small retractable gear?      I suppose you could sub some of the parts if you're not pushing limits.

4 Juno 1 Terrier. Only 30 parts.

[Proterus]

This is a design I came up with, I was able to get it up to 42,000 meters.  And it had most of its fuel when it got over 20,000.  I'd expect this to be good for maybe 3 survey contracts where you dip up above 18,000-20,000 meters for the mission.  I think the 4 Juno's and the Terrier are the standard configuration The cockpit is a bit heavier but it has vastly higher crash impact tolerance (40 m/s).  

The technique I used to fly this thing was I got it up to 10,000 meters, it was starting to slow down at that altitude so I activated the rocket, pitched up but not too much.  Just enough to be gaining a reasonable height while still gaining speed if it's ticking up by whole meters that's fine if it's only ticking up by 0.1 meters, that's too slow.   You might have to start at 20 degrees and move up to 30 when you've converted some of your speed into vertical speed.

 

[Azimech]

On 16-12-2016 at 9:05 PM, eloquentJane said:

I'd suggest making a plane with a rocket engine if you want to get that high. You'll want to shut down the jet engines when you enable the rocket engine, so that they don't flame out and become impossible to turn back on - unless you're willing to glide back down from 20-ish kilometers.

As for how to design a plane, just make sure that you have control surfaces for pitch (up/down) and for yaw (left/right), and that your center of lift is behind your center of mass. It should fly after only a few design attempts with those instructions.

As you enter a lower atmospheric layer, the jets will automatically restart.

[septemberWaves]

40 minutes ago, Azimech said:

As you enter a lower atmospheric layer, the jets will automatically restart.

I must've experienced a bug then, because last time I tried that with anything other than a rapier it didn't work. This was a while ago though.

[Proterus]

I rescind my earlier recommendation, I came up with something even better, The Falcon:

 

 

 you can see here it's up at 22,000 feet, this is not the ceiling of the falcon, this is what happens when you start the engines with SAS on and immediately hit the prograde button, the plane will, on it's own, climb to 22,000 feet   It will then dive down screaming in at just under mach 2, pitch itself back up and go up to 25,000 - 27,000 which is near it's ceiling.

 

 It's powered by 7 juno engines.  This is what I ended up designing after I was experimenting with gliders and discovered that you can actually land the mk2 cockpit by itself, without any other parts, without crashing, even from a 250,000 meter suborbital vertical hop.  So this design only has those 2 steerable landing gears, and only requires that you have aviation tech.  Prior to doing this I would only pick out the survey contracts that require you be below a given altitude because the ones that made you go into the upper atmosphere were too inconvenient, Not only that, you're also able to cruse at 14,000 meters at 600 m/s and then turn on 4x time acceleration.

Here's the craft file:

http://pastebin.com/raw/eQWfQM6T