Il Tempo Gigante mk3

[Shade]

The 'Il Tempo Gigante mk2' - Named after a race car from an old movie.

Basically an attempt to go as fast as possible using only stock parts, this baby will get above 9500m/s on a straight vertical launch, and might possibly break 10k if launched on an oblique trajectory to avoid fighting gravity as much. Steering is extremely heavy, though, so actually managing that would be difficult.

The stuff at the top is actually part of the initial boost phase - Couldn't place them on the lower 'legs' without it inducing unwanted rotation that would eventually result in spectacular failure without adding struts (and thereby more weight, even if just a little), but due to the sheer length of the thing they're actually far enough above everything else that they can fire safely without damaging the lower parts. That whole SRB assembly is gone before the rocket even reaches 3000m.

No SAS modules after the top boosters are gone makes it important to never let it gather any turning momentum, or you won't have the steering torque to recover it.

My best launch so far managed this:

The whole thing is actually an evolution of a previous design for v0.85, which could manage 7500m/s on a vertical launch and just scrape past 8200m/s on an oblique launch. The improved staging controls in 0.9 let me replace a bunch of SRBs with additional liquid fuel tanks though, as well as cut out some heavy stack decouplers and add the whole top booster assembly to assist with the early takeoff. So thanks a ton for 0.9 and the far more powerful stage management system. Couldn't have built this without it ;D

My ultimate hope is to build something that can reach Earth's escape velocity though (which is around 11.2 km/s), so there's a ways to go yet...

[Edit] Typos fixed.

[Edit 2] Tried an oblique launch. Initial boost phase wasn't my best ever, but still managed this:

Now wondering if adding a fuel tank or two to the final stage might give a bit more speed. Would definitely cost some speed early on, but a single fuel tank should add something like 400-500m/s at the other end if the extra weight doesn't cause too many problems elsewhere.

[Edit 3] Added two fuel tanks to the final stage, briging it to eight total. The result:

Just need to find another 400m/s somewhere and I'll have succeeded at reaching Earth's escape velocity... or perhaps 300m/s and some better piloting that I managed : Probably also qualifies as a heavy lift vehicle as the lower stack managed to put the entire final stage of 8 LF-tanks+LF-engine+Pod into Kearth orbit at just over 3400ms, which is just around escape velocity for Kearth. Attachement updated to this mk3 version.

[sirmonkey]

i'd say try not going completely vertical.. start your turn a little early and accelerate out that way.. you should be able to hit terminal velocity with a top speed that high, problem is terminal velocity really isn't that consistant.. so while you think you hit it kearth slaps you in the face and says no..

[Shade]

Oh, that's more or less what I did for the flight I mentioned in the last update. Straight to about 10k to clear the densest atmosphere and then slowly lowered the nose towards the horizon. At the time I hit the final stage I was at around a 57k altitude, with a speed of around 3400m/s and a velocity vector just a tad above the horizon. Sadly, staying in orbit isn't an option going from there. At that speed, no matter what you do, increasing it further will mean leaving the planet behind.

[Minthos]

You broke my record, nice work. I'll have to play around with 0.9 when I get home from my eurotrip and see if I can come up with something faster

[Saaur]

I notice from your screenshots that you're still running the throttle flat-out, even well beyond atmo. It's been my experience that there's a law of dominishing returns on thrust. I've downloaded your beastie and I'm going to try flying it for a long burn instead of a fast burn, see how big a vector I can manage before it empties.