SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Yakuzi]

9 hours ago, Gryphorim said:

Yakuzi, what mod is the mk2 drone core from? Also, your Su-style spaceplane takes me back to Ace Combat 3!

Thanks Gryphorim!

The craft I posted above are all stock, no mods... The mk2 drone core you're referring to is actually an upside down standard mk2 cockpit with an air intake clip job so the underside looks flush (I'd post a pic, but my PC died ).

You can always download the craft to check it out, easy as, no mods required!

[soulreaver1981]

8 hours ago, Yakuzi said:

Thanks Gryphorim!

The craft I posted above are all stock, no mods... The mk2 drone core you're referring to is actually an upside down standard mk2 cockpit with an air intake clip job so the underside looks flush (I'd post a pic, but my PC died ).

You can always download the craft to check it out, easy as, no mods required!

Rip yakuzi's pc.

And may flights of kerbals guided thy to thy rest.

Edited April 20, 2016 by soulreaver1981

[Rune]

Let's kick off 1.1 with something simple that anyone can replicate:

30 parts, ~1,5km/s on orbit, easy as boop to fly there (basically point at 10º AoA and forget).

 

Rune. Short of a simpler Foil if you have surface refueling on Minmus.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Rune

[fenya]

I landed a spaceplane with 6 tonnes of cargo on Tylo

while you nonsense do

Edited April 24, 2016 by fenya

[Captain Sierra]

Ranger 2: a capable crew transport shuttle

Single RAPIER for this much mass means a slow but efficient climb to orbit. Two turbos provide most of the speed, while the RAPIER is there for a final bit of umph at the end of the zoom climb. She's very much a slow'n'steady bird rather than a high-TWR brute-force-to-orbit.

[Cinocal]

[Exothermos]

Ha!  I love it.  Take off from a runway but land vertically.  It's the opposite of common sense.  Very kerbal.

[Cinocal]

The design started conventional but it kept burning up during re-entry. ( I use FAR) So I slapped a heat shield on the back in the middle and now it will happily plunge into the atmosphere at 2300ms. Also removing the wings made it so I don't have to worry about CoM balance issues on the return. Lazy for the win!

[quasarrgames]

Mirage Mv3

Pros: Low tech, only 30 parts and 18 tons, yet it gets four kerbals to orbit with theoretical rendesvous and docking capability

Cons: docking capability is theoretical. It only has about 100m's in orbit, and some very slow rcs thrusters. So it could rendesvous veery sloooowly. Also, unsure if it can land safely.

[Angelus2141]

Ok so here is my 1.1 stock 426 part 241 tonne (with fuel) SSTO

Craft is capable of mining and refuelling. Has  Four small rovers for resource hunt (rovers are non-recoverable) Has 2 Large Drills 1 large convertron 1 large ore tank. All science tests. 2 of the new large antenna 3 solar panels16 Landing struts so if unable to land as a plance on the wheels can land butt first. Features the kerbal safety system to keep your kerbals alive in the event of catastrophe (please not Kedillac nor Angel Corp Manufacturers accept any liability for catastrophe.... thats your fault lol). 7 Whiplash engines 12 rapier engines 2 nuclear engines. 3 Dorsal, Ventral, Port, and Starboard RCS thrusters. 4 frount and rear RCS thrusters. 2 ladders. 5 large landing gear. 10k+ electric charge 14k+ LQ 10k+ oxidiser 500 mono.

Capable of reaching low Kerbal orbit with default fuel load and still have a small amount of deltav left over to help with redevous. I designed her to get me to orbit where I can meet a fuel tanker to refuel for first leg of journey then to land, mine, convert, and take off again with the mindset of being able to visit all landable celestial bodies (although asteroids would be tricky to land on).

 

 

Originally the Kedillac was designed in 1.04 and worked beautifully. With 1.0.5  engines had to be added and some redesign done as no longer had enough thrust and then with 1.1 some minor tweaks to get wheels right again (damn friction control) and some aesthetic choices too.

Kedillac was picked as the name because shes big heavy and a fuel guzzler like a cadillac but kedillac meant they couldn't sue me lol.

Should i make a standalone thread for this with craftfile cos the links for it are in the vid description.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Angelus2141

[Mikki]

Hi all, some of you nice people may remember my only SSTO which i gave a name:

"The Terrible Lady in White" or in short, OMGWTFitsagiantbananashapedMONSTERPLANE! 

Its true,... "She"... (ahem) ... flyes still in 1.1.
I just slapped more pitchauthority at her tail.
Only Mod, KJR, still wobbles...
What`s the deal? Well, 179 tonnes payload to 100x100km Kerbinorbit. 
Where is the Payload? The large Kerbodyne assembly beneath the fuselage.



How is "She" going up? By brute force, 1000m/s at 5000m altitude and literally burning on the way up.
It really hurts. "She" has lotsa boost from... 36 engines. Yeah. 



There are no Kerbals in it. Better so.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Mikki

[mk1980]

Some (relatively) early tech SSTO planes from my new 1.1 career:

the first SSTO I used in the career. 4 Panther jet engines, 2 Thud rocket engines. enough fuel to dock to my "hub" Station in LKO. I used that plane to get tourists to the station. the nuclear spaceship that is also docked to the station carries the passengers to their actual destination. the spaceplane either waits for their return or it carries other dudes down who already finished their tour and wait for the transport home. 

 

the next iteration of that design. a bit bigger, uses 2 swivel engines insttead of the thuds. this one actually has about 550 m/s left in orbit, so it doesn't have to go directly to the hub but can collect a few stranded kerbals in LKO first.

 

my most recent design. I still don't have the cash to upgrade the R&D and unlock the ramjet, so i figured why not unlock the MK 3 parts in the meantime and make a cargo plane.

it's relatively humble compared to what you can do with whiplash or rapier engines, but it's good enough to deliver one MK3 LF tank worth of fuel (2500 units/12.5tons) to the hub station.

 

another shot of the new fuel tanker in action:

as you can see in the image, it uses 8 panthers and a skipper for propulsion. i kinda liked the ida of using the mk2 bicouplers to mount the panthers in pairs, but somethin in the fuel logic seems to get messed up. the engines don't draw fuel from the 1.25 meter tanks on the reversed end. looks cool, but the setup is impractical.

[AeroGav]

 

Here's a pure stock SSTO that can take 5 Kerbals to Minmus and back,   or to Duna surface with enough fuel to reach Duna orbit.

http://i1144.photobucket.com/albums/o492/narostel/20160507090916_1_zpslgjbscza.jpg

It's real party trick is horizontal landing - 

Get her here -

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Astrojet-Citation

 

Edited May 7, 2016 by AeroGav

[Vanamonde]

I finally have one worth posting! This is the SP-61 Cargomaster. (Yeah, this is my 61st SSTO design attempt, and I ran out of good names a long time ago.) 

Been playing this game for 4 years and came close a couple of times, but this is my first one that can both carry a usefully large cargo, and do it reliably. 

It can do the orange tank thing (up to a 90km orbit). 
 

And can carry lighter payloads up to the 200km orbit of the station it is helping to assemble. 

And of course, return to Kerbin. 
 

[Heckspress]

20 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

-modsnip-

*applause*

[katateochi]

I've made a couple of slightly odd looking SSTO designs. Actually started out as "what's the ugliest SSTO I can make", but I've grown rather fond of how they look.  

The one on the right is the Retro-Fi MkI and can just reach 100km LKO with it's two rapier engines.  The one on the left is the Retro-Fi MkII; runs on just liquid fuel with two Jet engines and two LV-Ns, it can reach 100km Mum orbit and return home.
The MKI is easy to fly on the ascent, but can be a bit of a challenge to re-enter without it's nose overheating and exploding! The MKII is harder to fly to orbit as it's LV-Ns give it a very low TWR once the Jets flame out, but has better handling on reentry (but due to it's heavy rear engines and two front mounted wheels it can be a pig to land!)

They're both up on KerbalX: https://kerbalx.com/katateochi/Retro-Fi | https://kerbalx.com/katateochi/Retro-Fi-MkII

 

[Signo]

Hi all,

I've made a couple of "LF only" to ferry tourists around and I think they are worth sharing.

Cheers.

 

Arbalester - Ghostrider

Edited May 9, 2016 by Signo

[AeroGav]

On 08/05/2016 at 1:56 AM, katateochi said:

I've made a couple of slightly odd looking SSTO designs. Actually started out as "what's the ugliest SSTO I can make", but I've grown rather fond of how they look.  

 The MKII is harder to fly to orbit as it's LV-Ns give it a very low TWR once the Jets flame out, but has better handling on reentry (but due to it's heavy rear engines and two front mounted wheels it can be a pig to land!)


 

I think they're both kinda cute looking, like a BAE Hawk,  a basic jet trainer that goes to space !   I'm also noticing that LF-only SSTO seem to be having a revival.

How would you say your Mk II compares with my Astrojet Citation?       I don't think mine is particularly  hard to stop from blowing up orbit on 2 LV-N  but it does have massive wings so I can keep the angle of attack between 5 and 7 degrees , which i think decreases drag.    Also i've only got 3 parallel mk1 fuselage sections,  you might have more bicouplers/open nodes hidden via clipping?    Mine weighs 30T loaded /15 T dry.   It's only got one jet engine.

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Astrojet-Citation

 

[LeuZ]

Here is my third try on a SSTO. (Was pretty happy with how the design came out)

It can get 6 kerbals to Minmus and back with about 300 dv to spare.

 

Slightly different design with a different tail fin 

Edited May 15, 2016 by LeuZ

[katateochi]

On 15/05/2016 at 8:41 PM, AeroGav said:

How would you say your Mk II compares with my Astrojet Citation?       I don't think mine is particularly  hard to stop from blowing up orbit on 2 LV-N  but it does have massive wings so I can keep the angle of attack between 5 and 7 degrees , which i think decreases drag.    Also i've only got 3 parallel mk1 fuselage sections,  you might have more bicouplers/open nodes hidden via clipping?    Mine weighs 30T loaded /15 T dry.   It's only got one jet engine.

That's a nice looking design. I've not had any luck using those large wings on SSTOs as they have lower heat tolerances and don't survive re-entry, how do you do reentry with those?
My MKII does have some clipping, but nothing hidden, essentially it's just two rows of tanks one above the other but pushed into each other a bit.  TBH it's not an optimal design, has more drag than a craft of it's size needs to, but I was going for a particular appearance. 

I'm surprised yours does ok with just the one jet. For a 30 ton liquid only SSTO with two LV-Ns I found that two Jets was only just about enough.  But I think I take a different ascent profile to you and I'd rather sacrifice some efficiency to have a faster ascent.  I'm working on another SSTO which is also about 30 tons and carries 10 crew (for LKO station crew deliveries). That uses 4 jets and 2 LV-Ns and has smashed my personal record for fastest flight to stable orbit (reached stable orbit (Ap&Pe > 70km) in under 6 game minutes). 

[AeroGav]

3 hours ago, katateochi said:

That's a nice looking design. I've not had any luck using those large wings on SSTOs as they have lower heat tolerances and don't survive re-entry, how do you do reentry with those?
My MKII does have some clipping, but nothing hidden, essentially it's just two rows of tanks one above the other but pushed into each other a bit.  TBH it's not an optimal design, has more drag than a craft of it's size needs to, but I was going for a particular appearance. 

I'm surprised yours does ok with just the one jet. For a 30 ton liquid only SSTO with two LV-Ns I found that two Jets was only just about enough.  But I think I take a different ascent profile to you and I'd rather sacrifice some efficiency to have a faster ascent.  I'm working on another SSTO which is also about 30 tons and carries 10 crew (for LKO station crew deliveries). That uses 4 jets and 2 LV-Ns and has smashed my personal record for fastest flight to stable orbit (reached stable orbit (Ap&Pe > 70km) in under 6 game minutes). 

If you watch the video you'll see that I get to 18.5km and mach 3.  At that point i have something like 85kn of drag , increasing,  and 110kn of thrust, decreasing,  so I have to light the nukes to sustain progress.  I also have to climb to over 10km and use a short burst from the nukes to pass mach 1.   With two Whiplashes, i'd get a bit higher on air only, but i'd increase the mass of what needs to be accelerated from airbreathing to orbital velocity by 15%.  Would i be boosting my airbreathing velocity by enough to compensate?  And not just to orbit, that extra 1.8 tons of engine has to be dragged to minmus duna etc.

Re-entry is tight, the 1.1.2 update has changed things.    I can aerobrake into Duna at 17km periapse and survive, just, but i wouldnt recommend coming in so low as that's enough to deorbit in one pass if you stay pitched up to 30 deg the whole time ! If you stop yanking the stick back once the temperatures start going down again, you 'll merely capture very positively and re-enter on the next orbit.

From low kerbin orbit, setting a 35km periapse and holding a 25 degree AoA all the way down sees temperatures rise to 85% of max, though that was on a test flight where i never left low kerbin orbit so was re-entering with 1000LF still onboard.   A higher periapse would work better   - maybe 50km?

Edit - I'd also say that re-entry survivability depends on wing loading as well as max temperature.   Those wings would not survive re-entry if they were attached to a 60 ton body and were it's only source of lift.

That space plane is only 30 tons fully loaded and it has almost twice as much lift again from the tail surface, canards and strakes - total lift rating 26.   So, it skims off the atmosphere and won't fall into the thick of it until you've lost  a lot of speed.  For example, when i set the periapse to 35km it actually stopped descending at 50km for  a while, even though i'd only set the nose to 6 degrees. 

 

Edited May 17, 2016 by AeroGav

[Cinocal]

2 Full Orange tanks to orbit, and more!

Edited May 18, 2016 by Cinocal

[Rune]

Whoa @Cinocal, that's big. It has the trouble that (I imagine) you have to balance the payload on each bay somewhat, but it's big. And sexy!

In other news, yay! It stopped blowing up. The latest iteration of the Claymore is ready for public consumption, this time on KerbalX. 47mT of payload and the same ease of use! Just leave it as shallow as you dare when taking off, and she'll fly herself to orbit on SAS.

 

Rune. This updating thing is taking me forever.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Rune

[Captain Sierra]

On 5/15/2016 at 4:53 PM, LeuZ said:

Please put this glorious thing on KerbalX @LeuZ. Very very sleek & I want.

[mk1980]

another spaceplane i recently made. basically a sandbox concept for a big fuel tanker. the biggest plane i built so far.

originally, the plan was to get the fuel in the  (locked) 4 segment mk3 Lf/Ox tank to orbit as payload (4500LF/5500 oxi). actually it worked better than expected - arrived in orbit with a bit more than 9000 LF and 10000 Oxidizer. who needs ISRU when you can get 100 tons of fuel to LKO in one flight

i think i'm getting the hang of that SSTO stuff. might make something even bigger. some day. surprisingly, it only took about half a dozen struts in total to make that monster stable.