SSTO Seaplane Showcase

[Skyshrim]

Here's the product of my weekend with the flu.

This majestic bird is known as the Jumbo Sula. She's can carry a full orange tank to orbit and back from her watery runway.

I was a little short on oxidizer on this flight, but with the mining equipment removed no fuel from the orange tank needs to be used.

I plan to somehow get this baby to Laythe where she will serve to carry submarines around and bring cargo to and from orbit.

[selfish_meme]

1 hour ago, Skyshrim said:

Here's the product of my weekend with the flu.

This majestic bird is known as the Jumbo Sula. She's can carry a full orange tank to orbit and back from her watery runway.

I was a little short on oxidizer on this flight, but with the mining equipment removed no fuel from the orange tank needs to be used.

I plan to somehow get this baby to Laythe where she will serve to carry submarines around and bring cargo to and from orbit.

 

This is seriously cool!

[Skyshrim]

17 hours ago, selfish_meme said:

This is seriously cool!

Thanks, I don't think I would have worked my way through all the failed prototypes without seeing yours for inspiration!

[selfish_meme]

2 hours ago, Skyshrim said:

Thanks, I don't think I would have worked my way through all the failed prototypes without seeing yours for inspiration!

One of my other tricks is to put nukes in the rear bay, when you want to go interplanetary you just open up the doors and blast away

[Skyshrim]

1 hour ago, selfish_meme said:

One of my other tricks is to put nukes in the rear bay, when you want to go interplanetary you just open up the doors and blast away

Not a bad idea. I'll probably try something similar to get this bird to Laythe.

[gilflo]

Hello guys

This is my last OPT: a seaplane SSTO for Laythe

This 924T SSTO is mainly made for sea take off and landing. 4 J61 and 4 MRS Quad Nuke engines. Running only on Liquidfuel. More than 6000DV left in orbit.

Clearance is short under back Starwaster J 61engines, back wings and water or ground, so rotation must be very accurate and rotation rate must be slow. It can take of from Kerbin runway, but i would not try landing or take off on rough surfaces.

Sides cockpit and back wings vernors help for sea steering a low speed. Vernors on top and under cockpit and also at the rear of the wings help former some space maneuver, but mainly fro re-entry on Radial position which is the guaranty of a perfect re-entry.

The gears allow taxi on rough surfaces, the idea being to be able to beach on Laythe island to mine some ore if we don't have enough Liquid fuel for return.

The cargo hold contains science stuff accessible via ladders: SC 9001Sciences Jr, Mysterious Goo, Thermoter, barometer, etc...and a J mobil Lab P3 can help with experiment. Theres also ore tanks, ore converters and 6 big drills. A reckon satellite, equipped with various scanners and detectors is docked inside the hold and will be released when in orbit around Laythe.

in flight

Spoiler

Take off

Spoiler

Climb

Spoiler

Acceleration to Mach 6

Spoiler

4 MRS Quad Nuke engine run on Liquidfuel when in space

Spoiler

Flipping on Radial position for re-entry

Spoiler

Landing on sea

Spoiler

[NSEP]

I have never built a interplanetary hydrospaceplane before. Would love to try that, but i can barely even get into orbit with an Plane SSTO. I would love to try this. Perfect for Laythe!

[gilflo]

I am going to improve it and maybe to put it in my hangar for download. I just need time

[gilflo]

Hi guys

Here is my Project SSTO Seaplane for Laythe. after many attempts and tests here is the final design with pics and vid

 

[gilflo]

My OPT seaplane, after a lot of work, is airborne to Laythe

 

[Zelul]

On 4/17/2017 at 5:31 PM, NoobTool said:

Here's something I built for a long-planned mission to Laythe (that I still haven't done yet).

https://kerbalx.com/NoobTool/Eagle-Ray

Carries 6 Kerbals and a full science payload, has a fair amount of ^V in orbit (I was hoping for more tbh). The first pic is takeoff, not landing.

 

Hi,  I'm new here, so I couldn't message you, and it seemed excessive to create a new thread just to let you know of my experiences with this craft, so...

It's a work of art.  I built my own spaceplane a few days ago, and it's nice in its way.  I can fly it into orbit, circularise the orbit, and re-enter and land.  I was quite pleased with myself.  I planned to make a seaplane, having already built one for Kerbin science trips, but I'm really not at the SSTO seaplane stage as yet.

This is just another level of neat, though.  It's compact, stable at low speeds, I can take off and land on sea and on a runway, and it looks like it fell off the futuristic sci-fi shelf.  I'm not sure how well I'm flying it - I suspect less rather than more - but I have 1600m/s delta-v left after making Kerbin orbit.  I can probably do better.

I did swap the NERV engines for Nertea's lighter and more powerful Stubbers, and I plan to add a KAS socket for in-orbit refuelling, but this thing is epic.  It's the knees of the bee.

I can't wait to try it on Laythe.  

[Aeroboi]

On 5/17/2017 at 4:12 AM, Skyshrim said:

Has anyone here been able to build one of these with a full size mk3 cargo bay with cargo to orbit capability? I got close, but then realized using the cargo bay as the main boat hull results in the contents being destroyed on landing. The only solution I can think of is to make a double-decker fuselage or have some crazy oversized floats, but both of those options bring more challenges like dealing with a lot of dead weight or figuring out how to load and unload cargo to the second floor.

Any ideas?

I often stick MK2 bays underneath the mk3 cargo bay's. Select mk2 fuel tank to mirror symmetry, attach to the hull and move rotate them under the belly. Properly moved they should blend in well to create a nice looking underbelly. Then just put elevon hydrofoils underneath or to the sides. The only design problem is that the CoM isn't through the middle of the cargo bay's so you should play with the engine layout for the proper center of thrust but that's it.