smallest / earliest and viable SSTO ?

[Psykikk]

Hi there
I am currently farming missions to get money and all that stuff (career mode, custom difficulty)
I am fairly advanced in the tech tree, but I do not have rapier engines yet. 

is it possible to build an SSTO plane without rapier engines ? 
I would love to use an ssto plane as a reliable and cheap way to get crew on / off planet..

so far I used normal rocket launchers with reusable stages. works decently well but I wanna switch it up a little. 

so far I am having problems even achieving orbit with the jet engines I got available.
I know I can solve this by just going bigger, attach normal rockets and be done with it.
BUT I would prefer to stay at 6 kerbal capacity and keep it as small as possible. 

thanks in advance
regards
 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Psykikk

[king of nowhere]

2 hours ago, Psykikk said:

Hi there
I am currently farming missions to get money and all that stuff (career mode, custom difficulty)
I am fairly advanced in the tech tree, but I do not have rapier engines yet. 

is it possible to build an SSTO plane without rapier engines ? 
I would love to use an ssto plane as a reliable and cheap way to get crew on / off planet..

so far I used normal rocket launchers with reusable stages. works decently well but I wanna switch it up a little. 

so far I am having problems even achieving orbit with the jet engines I got available.
I know I can solve this by just going bigger, attach normal rockets and be done with it.
BUT I would prefer to stay at 6 kerbal capacity and keep it as small as possible. 

thanks in advance
regards
 

it is absolutely possible to build an ssto plane without rapiers. but i'm not sure it's practical.

early jet engines cap speed at 500 m/s or less. there's not enough of a gain to justify using them instead of a rocket.

as for ssto in general, you can make an ssto rocket already with basic rocketry, with 14 fuel tanks and a swiwel engine. like this

this goes to orbit all right. not much of a useful payload, though.

with some more tech, you can do something more elaborate with a useful payload

this workhorse has a useful payload of 25 tons to orbit with an aerodinamic fairing, it's ssto and can be recovered entirely. total cost for a launch is less than 10000, so a net cost of 400 per ton to orbit.

 

[Psykikk]

26 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

it is absolutely possible to build an ssto plane without rapiers. but i'm not sure it's practical.

early jet engines cap speed at 500 m/s or less. there's not enough of a gain to justify using them instead of a rocket.

as for ssto in general, you can make an ssto rocket already with basic rocketry, with 14 fuel tanks and a swiwel engine. like this

this goes to orbit all right. not much of a useful payload, though.

with some more tech, you can do something more elaborate with a useful payload

this workhorse has a useful payload of 25 tons to orbit with an aerodinamic fairing, it's ssto and can be recovered entirely. total cost for a launch is less than 10000, so a net cost of 400 per ton to orbit.

 

ahh. ok so I was on the right track then. 
I built almost the same rocket and made it fully recoverable. 

also thank you for the info about jet engines. more patience is needed then :-) 
 

[jimmymcgoochie]

Building an SSTO spaceplane with a usable payload is tricky, but it’s definitely possible even without the fanciest parts. Here’s one I’ve used extensively that I found on KerbalX:

https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/Kronus-LowTech-20-Ton-SSTO

As the name suggests, it’s fairly low tech (only requires a level 2 R&D) and in my experience it can handle 20 ton payloads for a net cost of around 6000 funds per flight if returned to the runway. It also flies well with and without a payload attached and is pretty simple to operate, so if you just want a functional SSTO that can actually put a decent sized payload into orbit, it’s a good place to start.

[miklkit]

Staying at 6 crew?  This one could orbit the mun and return and could carry some cargo too.  It just takes some patience getting it up there.

[TheFlyingKerman]

For a classical space plane the Juno is a liability. However a combination of Panther and Reliant / Swivel is practical.
https://kerbalx.com/TheFlyingKerman/HKA-4C-SSTO-4t-cargo

For minimal tech I'd turn to SSTO rockets
https://kerbalx.com/TheFlyingKerman/Simple-reusable-lifter-S-2F

Edited December 30, 2022 by TheFlyingKerman