What’s your favorite engine

[SSTO Crasher]

Mine is probably the vector or the mainsail 

[Kerb24]

Wolfhound. It's efficient and has high TWR.

Edited April 12, 2022 by Kerb24

[SSTO Crasher]

I know half of the people her are going to say the NERVA’s and that would be mine except for the fact they have terrible TWR

Also how do I add a poll

[xub313]

I like the Dawn ion engine. Long burn times don't bother me, I just read a book or something. I've even used them to redirect asteroids.

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

Skipper or Poodle. They're both really good: efficiency, power, low weight.

[The Aziz]

Swivel. Ideal for small satellite launchers. Powerful enough to work on the bottom of 1.25m rocket, has thrust vectoring. Don't need more if it can do the job. Even in late game.

[miklkit]

The Thud.  One gets it right at the start and I still use it for landers everywhere. 

[KerikBalm]

Hard to pick.

The rapier sees a lit of use in my programs for getting things to orbit, but little use beyond that.

The Rhino is used to get massive payloads to orbit, but part of my love for it is because of the stats it had when it first came out, but it was nerfed after that iirc.

Then I quite like the LV-909, it's a great little engine for space travel and landers on low to moderate gravity bodies.

Similarly, the poodle has grown quite a bit on me since its graphics update.

And one can't forget the vector - highest thrsu to cross section ratio of any engine - just great for Eve.

The spark and even ant have their merits, but don't make my favorites.

It's too hard to pick just one. No engine is best or even a decent choice in every case.

Ones I don't like:

Wolfhound: OP Isp, don't like the look, more mass and thrust than needed for a 2.5m vacuum engine.

Skiff:  got hit with the nerfbat too much, needs substantially more thrust.

Radial mount engines: meh... they all have inferior stats to their inline counterparts, and it's easy to find a way to mount those counterparts to a radially attached part if necessary.

LV-N: TWR is too low (realistically,uch higher TWR designs are possible), the lack of a radiation mechanic means I avoid it like the plague out of principle for any manned mission/ one in Kerbin's atmosphere.

Aerospike: needs better TWR, and needs more thrust (even if accompanied by a mass increase)

Ion engines: needs a thrust during warp mechanic to be really viable for me.

[Bej Kerman]

Wolfhound and NERB are the be-all-end-alls for interplanetary stuff. Ion I refuse to do without PersistentThrust. For atmospheric, KS-25 is just the winner. The gimbal makes most builds stable, even if the aero profile is poorly planned.

[panzer1b]

LV-N (NTR) by a long shot, followed by the LV-909.  I actually like my capital ships to feel heavy and aside from a handful of interdictors or things that NEED to land, a single nuke of 909 can comfortably push 30-40t with a little bit of phys warp and some patience.  That and the NTR is plain and simply so much more efficient that it blows everything else out of the water at least when it comes to capital ships and larger SSTO.  They are a bit vulnurable to weapons fire, but all things considered, the ship is either going to get all its fuel tanks evicerated by fireworks, or just explode in a single hit from a heavy torpedo anyways so why would i care if the engines are destroyed slightly easier then a smaller LFO engine (i have vernors on my ships for backup as well).

And as for my 3rd most common engine, the 48-7s.  Its been nerfed badly from its original form, but it still ha decent ISP and enough TWR for smaller fighters when clustered.

[MythicalHeFF]

Although it’s not my favorite engine, I feel like the Skiff is pretty underrated. In its 1.25m form (no shroud), it’s a nice medium between the Reliant (which I barely use anyways) and the ludicrously powerful Vector. 
 

My favorite would probably have to be the Mainsail since it’s visual update; it just looks cool when it’s firing. I love using clusters of them in heavy-lift vehicles.

 

As for the nuclear engines, I typically don’t use them, as I feel that they make interplanetary travel too easy. I will use them when I have to get really heavy payloads somewhere or when I go to Moho though.

Edited April 14, 2022 by Jack Joseph Kerman

[Abel Military Services]

Skipper. Although @SQUAD says that it's a middle stage engine, but it's perfect with JUMBO-64. 

[cantab]

That's tough.

I'll always have a soft spot for the Mainsail, the one-time king that sadly has been dethroned, and now may not even wear his royal robes.

The Vector is a beast and if money's no object it's usually the best choice for a sea level engine.

There's the ion engine. Phenomenal delta-V, itty-bitty TWR. It can do things no other engine feasibly can. Although for most purposes we use the Nerv.

The Bobcat is a career great because it's really good for thrust per dollar. It's a bit bulky but works well with three-core designs.

Overall I think I'll give it to the Vector. I shamelessly like performance. Build big rocket, stick enough Vectors on the bottom, job done.

[Catto]

I like the terrier, good in a vacuum.

[Alpaca Z]

I saw three answers saying Mainsail. While it is a good engine and I used to put it on all my rockets, its position has been replaced by Mastodon since I bought DLC.

Mastodon has the highest TWR among bare liquid fuel engines in the game, even higher than Mammoth. Its sea level Isp is higher than Mainsail and its cost is much lower. And it's fairly small (bare version), so you can make a huge cluster of them under your giant rocket.

(Of course, Twin boar has higher TWR if you subtract the weight of the integrated fuel tank)

[DunaManiac]

There are of course the staples; the early-career powerhouse the terrier and the swivel, as well as the mainsail.

I would pick the skipper, as its more efficient than the mainsail, but I find it to be too weak. It really needs to have side boosters to be viable.

The vector is small and powerful, with high gimbal to boot.

I would however, pick the aerospike. Its one of the most efficient 1.25 meter engines, but not ludicrously overpowered like the vector, nor weak like the NERV. It also has a decent amount of thrust, enough for a relatively small 1.25 meter rocket or a spaceplane. And it has a unique look on top of that.

[awsumguy76801]

vector gang