SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[lunait]

I was inspired by the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to make a small, dual-seat SSTO. The result can be seen below!

It has 68 parts. It uses all stock parts but was designed with FAR so I'm not sure how it'll work without it (but you're very welcome to try - if so, please report back!). It takes off at about 150 m/s from the runway. I recommend to gain about 2000-2100 m/s in air-breathing mode before switching to closed-cycle, to minimize fuel usage. It's stable with minor corrections throughout atmospheric descent. The landing speed is quite high, but there is a parachute at the back (between the four engine nozzles) for quicker braking. To use it, land at high speed, lift off just a foot or so from the runway, activate the chute, and brake normally when you touch down again.

There are some action groups:

1 - close/open air intakes

2 - toggle R.A.P.I.E.R. engine mode

3 - extend/retract ladders

Craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24407836/Starfighter%20SSTO.craft

Edited April 17, 2014 by lunait

[Cinocal]

[cpt_nosh]

Btw. does anybody know when we'll get the highly needed fuselage and wing and engine update?

[Sufficient Anonymity]

I built a torchship. She runs of thermal turbojets in atmo, and out of it is capable of warping at up 1c, and carries a quantum vacuum thruster for anything that actually requires burning some dV.

Already getting toasty, moments after takeoff.

There's no payload capability, but, quite frankly, you could replace the cockpit with a docking port and whatever you wanted to boost to orbit and I don't think it'd affect the flight characteristics at all.

Edited April 14, 2014 by SufficientAnonymity

[KissSh0t]

Btw. does anybody know when we'll get the highly needed fuselage and wing and engine update?

These will be new parts or they are doing stuff to the current parts?

[Fellow314]

Dunalight.

Capable of getting to Duna and back with no refueling. Just.

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/jzlep05jc765tze/Dunalight%20NMJ.craft

[cpt_nosh]

These will be new parts or they are doing stuff to the current parts?

Well anything would be great, I guess?

[Exothermos]

The recently completed "Create a better Aeris 4a" thread in the Challenge subforum got my creative juices flowing and I've been hunting for designs that meet the needs of a new player, or at least those new to the whole SSTO spaceplane thing. The craft should help teach the player all the little tricks of SSTOs without making things too easy with workarounds and assembly exploits. In that Same vein, it should be easy to reverse-engineer to glean all its secrets.

In the spirit of that challenge I've been pumping out small designs that are:

1) easy to fly in all regimes (maneuverable, and no nasty habits)

2) neutral / stable (or mostly so) without SAS on.

3) Are fully dockable with Docking ports and balanced RCS.

4) Have no "intake abuse" (debatable subject, my definition)

5) Have no "Construction-Foo" tricks with cubic struts and excessive clipping (minor wing surface clipping for aesthetics only).

6) Are in the 40-part ballpark.

This craft that I posted previously was the fist of the group. It is the only rapier in the batch, and will likely stay that way.

The radial Intakes have since been removed on this design. They are superfluous.

Not sleak, but very effective.

A kind-of strange low wing design.

...and so far, the standout of the group for meeting all my criteria

I am also working on a 3-man plane in the same vein to introduce more advanced flight dynamics like juggling Jets/rapiers and asymmetric flame-outs.

I don't know if there is really any point to designing these craft, but it is a fun goal to keep in mind. It forces you to keep things simple, which is something I need to work on anyway.

On the complete opposite end of that spectrum is a clippy, vertical landing Profile shuttle I've been playing with. It is a handful, but lots of fun to land.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Exothermos

[Prophecy]

Im checking out the KSP Interstellar Mod at the moment, so I was wondering if Im able to build a SSTO with it:

Result: You need at least the upgraded fission Reactors and the upgraded Thermal Turbojet (works like the Rapier).

It has some odd flight-pattern for Orbit and its range is pretty bad compared with stock-only-SSTOs, BUT: Dock it on a Craft and sent it to Duna or Laythe and enjoy flying there for a very long time

The Engine will also run in Eves Atmosphere, but I havent checked if I can make it back to Orbit.

Another Feature is, that this plane isnt stalling at all.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Prophecy

[The_Rebel_Flagship]

I made my first fully orbital SSTO space-plane in KSP, and its amazing! It can just barely make it to orbit.

[Andrew Hansen]

Check out this new thread I made about an SSTO that can make it to Tylo and back without refueling. I'm pretty sure this is impossible without some form of separation, so it uses a lander that undocks from the ship, lands on Tylo, then returns and redocks before the whole thing returns to Kerbin. The fuel margins are pretty narrow, be warned!

UPDATE: After doing some calculations, I've found this craft can fly to every planet and back excluding Eve. For Moho, you must encounter it on the ascending/descending nodes, but besides that, the fuel margins are larger than going to Tylo.

Here's a video of it delivering a payload to my Tylo base.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Andrew Hansen

[PidouX]

I present you the Rhino MkII

Built for lifting 20t into orbit. Once in orbit, you should have about 1500 to 2000 delta v / m/s left.

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/zr82nbpomojj0d9/Rhino%20MkII.craft

Action groups:

1: 4x TurboJet Engine

2: 4x TurboJet Engine

3: 4x Atomic Rocket

Edited April 20, 2014 by PidouX

[Fellow314]

Duna 3

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/lma8x47tyyr4146/Duna%203%20NMJ.craft

Edited April 20, 2014 by Fellow314

[LvL]

Very easy to fly

Edited April 21, 2014 by oarum

[Fellow314]

Duna Split

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/2bynvpqmntafvib/Duna%20Split%20NMJ.craft

[Captain Sierra]

Users/lukel/Library/Application%20Support/Steam/userdata/113554052/760/remote/220200/screenshots/2014-04-21_00007.jpg

You'll need to upload it to a website like imgur or dropbox and try again. We can't see what's on your hard drive.

[Immashift]

You'll need to upload it to a website like imgur or dropbox and try again. We can't see what's on your hard drive.

(Shameless plug) Check my sig for a guide I threw together on how to do that, if you're unsure.

I was inspired by the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to make a small, dual-seat SSTO. The result can be seen below!

Now that is cool. Too bad I can't make it do much without FAR.

I'm a fan of SSTO's with small wings. Makes them mucho easier to maneuver around, say, space stations when you don't have giant panels sticking out either end.

I wonder if it's still an SSTO if I drop the wings @ 35km up .

Edited April 21, 2014 by Immashift

[astropapi1]

Users/lukel/Library/Application%20Support/Steam/userdata/113554052/760/remote/220200/screenshots/2014-04-21_00007.jpg

Dude, we're not the NSA.

You can use imgur.com. It's free and almost everybody on the forums use it.

[ShiftyMcSly]

Here's a spaceplane I've been working on. I have a bad habit of making things look pretty at the expense of pretty much all functionality, this thing flies just fine on it's own, but strapping any cargo to it messes with the center of mass quite a bit.

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[RogueMason]

The recently developed Altair Crew Shuttle:

Designed to carry 4 Kerbals into orbit on crew transfer missions, it can reach the Kerbin Spacedock with ease.

It does require refuelling at the station before it can head back down to the surface, but this is only a minor inconvenience when one considers the station:

Lots of fuel up there, and double that to come

Anyway, the shuttle uses 4 RAPIERs to push itself into a suborbital trajectory, then the inner two engines shut down due to fuel levels before the outer two make the final push to orbit.

There's usually enough fuel left over after refuelling to run the outer engines and make corrections should the shuttle over or undershoot the runway at KSC.

Safe touchdown at the island runway.

The Altair is my first practical SSTO spaceplane; the others that came before it were merely proof of concept, and while vertically launched shuttles are good, I want to go the route of reusability.

[RocketscientistV]

Not the best, not the worst. 100% Stock.

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[Fellow314]

All my good cargo planes. And a pointless tanker.

Because I was bored.

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[lunait]

Now that is cool. Too bad I can't make it do much without FAR.

I'm a fan of SSTO's with small wings. Makes them mucho easier to maneuver around, say, space stations when you don't have giant panels sticking out either end.

I wonder if it's still an SSTO if I drop the wings @ 35km up .

Thanks! Yeah, I imagine FAR is necessary. Actually I think the torque from the two cockpits provides quite a lot of steering, plus the thrust vectoring of the RAPIER engine of course. I haven't tried flying without cockpit torque, maybe I should...

Also, I made a revised version with a junior docking port just behind the Mk2 cockpit, so that you can do this:

[Immashift]

Thanks! Yeah, I imagine FAR is necessary. Actually I think the torque from the two cockpits provides quite a lot of steering, plus the thrust vectoring of the RAPIER engine of course. I haven't tried flying without cockpit torque, maybe I should...

Also, I made a revised version with a junior docking port just behind the Mk2 cockpit, so that you can do this:

Yeah pod torque steering isn't the problem without FAR

The problem becomes that the small wingspace just doesn't generate enough lift.

You hit 25-30KM and just start going down again.

Normally I do use FAR, but I'm focusing more on rockets in .23.5 so I've left it out to make life a bit harder (delta V) for now.

[Hodo]

I was inspired by the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to make a small, dual-seat SSTO. The result can be seen below!

It has 68 parts. It uses all stock parts but was designed with FAR so I'm not sure how it'll work without it (but you're very welcome to try - if so, please report back!). It takes off at about 150 m/s from the runway. I recommend to gain about 2000-2100 m/s in air-breathing mode before switching to closed-cycle, to minimize fuel usage. It's stable with minor corrections throughout atmospheric descent. The landing speed is quite high, but there is a parachute at the back (between the four engine nozzles) for quicker braking. To use it, land at high speed, lift off just a foot or so from the runway, activate the chute, and brake normally when you touch down again.

There are some action groups:

1 - close/open air intakes

2 - toggle R.A.P.I.E.R. engine mode

3 - extend/retract ladders

Craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24407836/Starfighter%20SSTO.craft

http://i.imgur.com/vQaLowQ.png

I love the design, reminds me when I dabbled in the lifting surface designs for a few days.

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