Stock Sea Level Eve SSTO

[quasarrgames]

I've been toying with the idea of trying to make a stock sea level Eve SSTO for a while now. Though impossible with conventional engines, with propellers it might be possible. Such a craft would need to have:

-At least 4km/s of delta v (a mass fraction of at least 3.2, assuming an aerospike was used)

-A propeller that could get the craft to an altitude of at least 25km on Eve (about 8km on Kerbin), preferably going 100-200m/s at maximum height

 

This seems on the very edge of possibility, but i've seen people do some incredible things with stock propellers, so i'm holding out hope that it can be done.

I'm working on it too (no pictures yet). The best i've been able to do while getting a mass fraction close to the target is 80m/s in level flight, while an optimal plane would probably have an airspeed close to 250.

Good luck and Godspeed.

[sevenperforce]

I've been working on this as well. A couple of things to consider:

• For optimal drag characteristics, your prop should be able to deploy between a minimum and maximum pitch so you can light up your engines while you're still in-atmo.
• The Dart has only 6.3% better ISP than the Skipper, but the Skipper has 20% better TWR and gimbaling, so the Skipper (perhaps paired with a couple of LV-Ns) might be a better option for main propulsion. The Rhino beats both, but it may be too big for your purposes, depending on the size of your propeller.
• If possible, your propeller should use a bearing mechanism that can be reattached in orbit, so you don't warp and lose it, and so that it can be refueled and sent back down for another trip. A pair of small docking ports might work if you fire a pair of Spiders to push the ports back together.

[fourfa]

The shielded docking port and Claw have both been used to re-dock stock bearing mechanisms, without having to translate the rotor