Gladius SSTO Shuttle

[Rune]

Yet another SSTO Shuttle, courtesy of yours truly. It is pre-crash, but google didn't save it, so I'm re-creating the thread. It's small, it's cute, and it carries a more than decent payload and three kerbals to orbit.

It is actually volume-limited, since I'm pretty sure it can lift considerably more than what you can stick in the payload bay. The sample payload in a Munar lander/rover, but you could take it out and put anything else in there you want, or just a plain fuel tank to turn it into a long-range ship/tanker.

And why should I explain how to get it into orbit, when I have a video of me doing just that, and commenting a lot of stuff about it:

Update! New shuttle version to commemorate a true best-seller. Glad you guys like it! Not much changed, but it looks good:

IMGUR ALBUM:

http://imgur.com/a/SrQBO

DOWNLOAD:

http://www./?q9a86ujb4t943ag

Update! New crew shuttle version: http://www./download/zxu4wi0pvcl48ry/Gladius_%28Crew%29.craft

Rune. Because small is cute.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Rune

[Stelith61]

Looks pretty cool man - I'll have a go at flying it and sticking a payload in there when I get home.

[Climberfx]

It is, really cute!

[Jacob01]

Looks good! Nice video by the way!

[Rune]

Thanks for the positive feedback! It really makes you want to give out more stuff

[Climberfx]

You are Welcome!

[LiquidKameleon]

Looks awesome, really cute and is easy to fly. Still, it would need some more fuel for that rocket engine to be able to safely orbit and deorbit. I'm using it to carry fuel to my station, so I can use up some of the payload if it gets messy, but then I arrive almost empty handed

[Rune]

Looks awesome, really cute and is easy to fly. Still, it would need some more fuel for that rocket engine to be able to safely orbit and deorbit. I'm using it to carry fuel to my station, so I can use up some of the payload if it gets messy, but then I arrive almost empty handed

Well, if I made it heavier, it wouldn't fly as good, now would it But yeah, I can see what you mean. I shoot for 75kms orbits, and have a lot of practice at that, so I could see how being just a bit wasteful could leave you out of fuel, since I don't have that much left on my flights. I'll look into clipping some extra tanks to the front of the existing ones if I get the time, but for now I'm afraid the only way to have a comfortable margin is to use it in the fuel configuration shown in the video. It could probably deorbit on RCS from a low orbit, though. Glad you like it anyway!

Rune. Using is as tanker shows that you really like flying, BTW.

[LiquidKameleon]

Since Aerospikes seem to be more efficient, especially on spaceplanes, I tried to put one instead of that ordinary rocket engine, but it doesn't fit in between the jet engines. Maybe I'll try some further modifications, but knowing myself, I'll probably strap on way too many stuff on it to the point where it won't be so nice and light.

As for deorbiting, you're right, it needs amazingly little fuel for that. Very nice ship.

[way2smrt]

Nice plane

[Gojira]

Could someone please post instructions? I am far too lazy to watch the video.

[LiquidKameleon]

I can tell you how I do it, but I'm sure I do something wrong.

- After liftoff keep lifting the nose to around 45°

- When the speed exceeds around... idk, 80 m/s, you can tilt up a little bit more. I'm still not sure what the sweet spot is, maybe 60°, maybe less, but anyway, aim to get as much vertical speed (the little gauge near the altitude) as possible so that you can gain altitude fast

- While the plane rises, get yourself a snack, this may take a while

- When you hit the 20km altitude mark, start pitching down slowly, drop down to 40° or 30°, that is, make sure that the plane is climbing still, but start reducing climbing speed so that you can control it easier.

- Let it rise gently to 24km. This is where the air is much thinner, the resistance is lower, so you'll pick significant speed. Just keep your eye on your intake air and be careful not to run out of it.

- Keep it at around 24 to 25 km, you can go even higher, as long as you have intake, just be careful not to let the jet engines choke. Now is the time to get as much horizontal speed as you possibly can. Aim for around 1400 m/s or more

-This is where your jet fuel should be very low, so you can use it all up and while you're at it pitch up gently just before it runs out, to, dunno, 30° or such, and activate your rocket engine

- At the first part of the rocket burn keep it at that positive angle for a while to lift up your apoapsis, and as you rise out of the atmosphere, start leveling it to get more horizontal speed

- Pray that you have enough fuel to make an orbit out of this

[Rune]

I can tell you how I do it, but I'm sure I do something wrong.

- After liftoff keep lifting the nose to around 45°

- When the speed exceeds around... idk, 80 m/s, you can tilt up a little bit more. I'm still not sure what the sweet spot is, maybe 60°, maybe less, but anyway, aim to get as much vertical speed (the little gauge near the altitude) as possible so that you can gain altitude fast

- While the plane rises, get yourself a snack, this may take a while

- When you hit the 20km altitude mark, start pitching down slowly, drop down to 40° or 30°, that is, make sure that the plane is climbing still, but start reducing climbing speed so that you can control it easier.

- Let it rise gently to 24km. This is where the air is much thinner, the resistance is lower, so you'll pick significant speed. Just keep your eye on your intake air and be careful not to run out of it.

- Keep it at around 24 to 25 km, you can go even higher, as long as you have intake, just be careful not to let the jet engines choke. Now is the time to get as much horizontal speed as you possibly can. Aim for around 1400 m/s or more

-This is where your jet fuel should be very low, so you can use it all up and while you're at it pitch up gently just before it runs out, to, dunno, 30° or such, and activate your rocket engine

- At the first part of the rocket burn keep it at that positive angle for a while to lift up your apoapsis, and as you rise out of the atmosphere, start leveling it to get more horizontal speed

- Pray that you have enough fuel to make an orbit out of this

Hahaha! That's pretty accurate! I would just offer a little more detail: You want to flame out with significant vertical speed. That is, as soon as you are starting to flame out (by sound) at close to 1,400m, throttle down to 2/3rds and pitch up, then light the rocket engines and keep around 45º. Now, watch your vertical speed rise like crazy and when the jets finally give out again (at around 30kms), then turn them off and throttle back up, while lowering your attack angle to get just above your prograde marker. and continue insertion. That way you get out of air as soon as it stops helping you, and you squeeze the most out of your jet engines.

[Rune]

Since Aerospikes seem to be more efficient, especially on spaceplanes, I tried to put one instead of that ordinary rocket engine, but it doesn't fit in between the jet engines. Maybe I'll try some further modifications, but knowing myself, I'll probably strap on way too many stuff on it to the point where it won't be so nice and light.

As for deorbiting, you're right, it needs amazingly little fuel for that. Very nice ship.

Hey! I didn't see that. As to spikes, they are actually the worst option for a spaceplane with jets. You see, by the time you light them, you are almost out of atmo, so the high atmospheric isp is pretty much wasted, and the slightly higher vacuum isp is not enough to justify their lower T/W. Besides, even though it would fit (place it somewhere first, then move it), you would lose the thrust vectoring, and the plane would likely turn uncontrollable on rocket power.

[Rune]

Hey guys! I've noticed that the Gladius is one of my best-sellers (200+ downloads), so I figured I would give you guys some sort of an update. Remember the "challenge" I left you with at the end of the video? (If you got to watch that far, that is) Well, it's kind of impossible, turns out that after TMI, there are like 50l of fuel left in the tanks. Definitely not enough to brake at munar orbit and then return the bird to Kerbin. So, I came up with some fancy tricks:

Yup, that's right, that is the lander detached just after the TMI burn. And I'm not crazy! Well, not completely. Midway to the Mun, I have planned to do a tiny burn (~20m/s according to the flight computer) that will make me miss the Mun and fall back to kerbin with a periapsis of about 30 kms, enough to aerobrake my way to solid ground. Meanwhile, the lander will perform a different correction burn, to basically bring the Mun periapsis as low as I can (I think I'll shoot for about 5 kms), so the braking burn takes me as little as possible (because Oberth and stuff). This is a one-way mission! Mostly because the lander has about 1km/s delta-v, which is nowhere near enough to take off and return after low munar orbit insertion burn and landing. Though I guess I could refuel it at my munar base and return it to orbit... small problem, it doesn't have chutes to come back home. I guess we will have to think of something. In the meantime, Dudbur is ecstatic that he gets to go the Mun in such a fancy way

As a bonus, some nice pictures of the tanker coming back to Kerbin to a runway landing:

Some further notes: Deorbit burn from a 100km circular orbit took about 20l of liquid fuel and the corresponding oxidizer, though just for kicks, I found that you can also lower periapsis to 50kms with RCS alone. Warning! I've found out you need a slight touch of engines to bring descent speed into something survivable, so keep about 5l of fuel to perform a safe landing at <10% throttle, I kept 10 and had enough to correct an overshoot and fly by KSC once, with fuel to spare.

Rune. As Scott says, fly safe!

Edited May 8, 2013 by Rune

[senoiurkabls]

how the hell do you use this thing? it spins out all the ****ing time and it cant seem to turn upwards when i need it to wtf is with that?

[Rune]

how the hell do you use this thing? it spins out all the ****ing time and it cant seem to turn upwards when i need it to wtf is with that?

That's 'cause you let it flame out, and one of the engines flames out before the other. Any SSTO with more than one engine will do that. Follow the instructions in the video and you'll be fine. In fact, it will pitch up too much when the fuel empties, which is why I say in the video to keep the throttle below 2/3rds when you are nearing the end of your orbit insertion burn. If you want more of a beginner's SSTO, check the Crys in my thread (it's linked in my sig), that one only has one engine and is also a better glider.

Rune. Above all, don't despair! SSTOs are trickier to master than rockets.

[Imaginer1]

I'm liking this. It's so good that I think I'm going to feel really, really bad using this in my singleplayer game, just because it doesn't do honor to how epic this is.

[Rune]

I'm liking this. It's so good that I think I'm going to feel really, really bad using this in my singleplayer game, just because it doesn't do honor to how epic this is.

Hehehe, don't worry, the only way to learn is to fail. And Kerbin is littered with the broken pieces of crafts that say I also had to learn.

Rune. Sometimes a good fail is fun, too. Ever played Dwarf Fortress?

[Queue]

Very nice video.

[apoch1999]

so what engine are you using in the middle there? if its the atomic one, how did you get it so far back in the fuselage? i ask because ive designed a plane and have issues with the rocket slapping the pavement on take off if i run them

[Rune]

Very nice video.

Glad you like it!

so what engine are you using in the middle there? if its the atomic one, how did you get it so far back in the fuselage? i ask because ive designed a plane and have issues with the rocket slapping the pavement on take off if i run them

That's a standard LV-45 hanging on a strut. It gives the plane a decent T/W so you can do rocket takeover earlier, and even leaving it at 50% throttle in space, you have more than enough thrust. A nuke would be much more difficult to get to orbit, since it has less than half the thrust with almost twice the weight, you would have to airhog to a higher speed on jets alone to minimize gravity drag when you switch to rocket power (so moar intakes, you find them a place), but you could attach it by turning on part clipping and making it stick to the front of the tank, I think, if you are having runway issues.

Rune. The best way to learn about something is to break it, then try and put it back together.

[apoch1999]

Glad you like it!

That's a standard LV-45 hanging on a strut. It gives the plane a decent T/W so you can do rocket takeover earlier, and even leaving it at 50% throttle in space, you have more than enough thrust. A nuke would be much more difficult to get to orbit, since it has less than half the thrust with almost twice the weight, you would have to airhog to a higher speed on jets alone to minimize gravity drag when you switch to rocket power (so moar intakes, you find them a place), but you could attach it by turning on part clipping and making it stick to the front of the tank, I think, if you are having runway issues.

deffinately...i finally got it up by clipping them INTO the tank, never can pick up speed fast enough though. and i end up running out of fuel at about 30k meters...

[Richy teh space man]

Looks good, I'll have a play with this one later

[Rune]

Hey guys! I'm finally back from exams, and what better way to celebrate this, but with trying out the brand new 0.20? I though I would first make sure everything works, and as a bonus, you get a new version of my current best-seller, the Gladius. This time optimized for crew transportation, 7 kerbals can safely ride to orbit on this one:

And the orbital data, to prove this is still SSTO:

The new crewed version's download: Gladius crew shuttle version (also on the first post)

Rune. Now to do the gazillion ideas I got during exams. Expect more stuff soon!