Vtol SSTO Functionality

[Mk3 Maniac]

Dear Everyone,

I have been wondering, what good does a Vtol SSTO craft does. Hazardish and Mark Thrimm both made vtol SSTo craft yet Mark's only has 1000 delta V in orbit and hazrdish's vtol is hard to fly, so I believe that Vtol SSTO's are just a cool gimmick but provide a crippled amount of delta V (and by crippled I mean a few Meters a second of Delta V) that could be spent with cargo instead of VTOl parts, also a stock Vtol craft can be tricky to make. But what good does a VTOL ssto do?

Sincerely Mk3 Maniac

[Foxster]

Pretty much the same as any form of SSTO: It's more cool than useful. 

[Razorforce7]

VTOL in KSP is absolutely useless. Whether it's a ssto, msto or not even able to achieve orbit but just fly. But admittedly it is cool and I have made them on my own.
It is good at one thing and that is to guide your vessel vertically to the ground. If it is originally a spaceplane design (or any vessel that lands horizontally) VTOL can be usefull to guide your vessel into very small craters. Or it can be usefull to land at the KSC helipad. Either on top of the VAB or the one near the astronaut complex.

Besides, VTOL is absolutely wastefull. It requires alot of thrust to get of the ground. Do it with jet engines and you'll need many of them to lift of the ground (depending on which planet you will use it)
If you want to use it on Kerbin or Laythe you will need alot of whiplashes to give the needed thrust. That is alot of dead weight, and thus wastefull to bring along only for a gimmicky feature.
For places other then Kerbin or Laythe you will need rocket engines. But you will only want to use the rocket VTOL function briefly as to not burn through all your LF/O

When you talk about efficiency and Delta-V it is far better to simply lithobrake.
(A) You lose speed without using your engines.
(B) You haven't brought vtol engines along so that makes it even more efficient.

I do use VTOL however, alteast kind of. I have a reusable VTOL rocket powered tug which acts as a modular engine hub to which I can attach cargo in orbit.
It can land attached cargo on the Mun and Minmus and then release the cargo and fly back to orbit.
This is handy if you cargo has either no landing legs/gear or engines (things like bases and similar modules etc)

Edited April 19, 2017 by Razorforce7

[Terwin]

All of my rockets VTOL.

I even have some with sky-cranes that will lift the cargo box off the long-range rocket-base for depositing it on the ground near by.(primarily for Ground Construction, as you do not want those too close to anything as you deploy them.  DIY kit is attached by 2 large docking ports so that the rocket can re-assemble and return after delivering the cargo)  

If you are talking about planes, I do not often use those as they are not as play-time efficient as rockets.

[Aegolius13]

I just built a Mk 2 VTOL SSTO with banks of Junos in cargo bays to provide lift.  It was a fun project,  but I found that the vertical thrust requirement really put a limit on payload capacity.   A Mk 3 design might be able to make use of larger engines like the Panther for more vertical thrust. Plan to try that next. 

But in any event, there's no compelling advantage over taking off conventionally from the runway in most cases. So yeah,  I'd consider VTOL mostly a novelty.   

[W. Kerman]

They are useful if your landing site is not an ideal, flat, surface.

[Foxster]

17 minutes ago, W. Kerman said:

They are useful if your landing site is not an ideal, flat, surface.

So are 'chutes - and they weigh a lot less

 

[W. Kerman]

Just now, Foxster said:

So are 'chutes - and they weigh a lot less

 

I tried using parachutes on a mün lander once!

[Foxster]

Just now, W. Kerman said:

I tried using parachutes on a mün lander once!

Whoops. How'd that work out for you? 

[W. Kerman]

Just now, Foxster said:

Whoops. How'd that work out for you? 

In  classic, everything but the capsule blowing up, fashion.

[Bornholio]

5 hours ago, Mk3 Maniac said:

Dear Everyone,

I have been wondering, what good does a Vtol SSTO craft does. Hazardish and Mark Thrimm both made vtol SSTo craft ...

You mean vertical take off/landing aircraft SSTO?  I do VTOL SSTO's but they look like rockets, great for fueling stuff in low orbit and orbital tourists early career.  Only the cost of the fuel. 

Earth LEO/MEO Rescue pod ^

On Kerbin they can gain 1kish of dV by using airbreathers and good ascents.  Pretty easy to do that with boosters too.  They do a good job of biome hopping on Laythe/Eve/Kerbin if they are air breathers.

They usually can be driven around some. Unlike most landers. They look cool. 

They are the only way to reliably get full return value in a re-usable space program. This becomes arguable if you use Stage Return and or FMRS mods.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Bornholio

[Archgeek]

Things like the tilt-wing concept are entirely doable (Hazardish's needs moar engines and fuel, though), and neat, but inherently wasteful if you've got wings, a runway, and don't need a high-precision landing.  Why hurl dv straight at the ground when you could let your wings do the work while you pick up the first bit of your orbital velocity on your nice expensive runway?  You didn't leave it at level 1 as a rover training ground, did you?