SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[KissSh0t]

That little small one looks heaps cool.. I wish there were more stock parts that sort of looked that those B9 parts.

I only have 2 working SSTO's.. but I already posted them in this thread xD

[Exothermos]

So I've been having a great time learning the ropes for space planes. I only use stock stuff, but some of the craft posted here make me want to rethink that.

After many failed attempts, this was the first functional SSTO that I came up with: A boxy little thing that I creatively named "Speedy Box":

It lives up to its name:

Its spiritual successor is a plane I just got working correctly tonight, the "Arrow". I really, really like this one:

It's been a long time in development. Here is an early version:

Finally It's pretty efficient. Such a Looooonnngg design has limitations. For instance, manual ballancing of fuel Once during ascent, and Docking... and landing. But it's worth it. Docked at a space station with plenty of fuel left. Parts count Nightmare! :

If there is any interest I will post the craft file in a thread or something.

Now if I could only get a SSTO using the Mk 3 cockpit to work.

[AlthalusFromSpace]

I would absolutely love to see that arrow of your in-game. It looks beautiful, and efficient.

[TheTsar52]

I find SSTO's very hard to build. Does anyone have any tips?

Edited June 19, 2013 by TheTsar52

[Spartwo]

many flips later

by far the most diffficult thing in KSP.

Edited June 19, 2013 by Spartwo

[Rune]

I find SSTO's very hard to build. Does anyone have any tips?

Align everything. Seriously, don't turn off the CoM, CoL, and Thrust markers while you are building. You want the CoL slightly behind the CoM, and you want to watch it so that the CoM doesn't shift as the fuel tanks dry (or if you can't, at least that it moves forward). Also, if you can't take off the runway, consider moving the rear landing gear closer to the CoM (so you need less torque to pull the nose up). If your problem is actually making orbit... MOAR INTAKES!!! With 6 ram intakes for every engine, you can speed up to almost-orbital speeds with the jets, so that you only need a burp to circularize out of atmo. That covers 90% of what people usually get wrong on their first designs.

And this is a showcase thread, right? I have "a couple" of SSTO's (the last stock one I made was the Mk XV):

This one is fresh from posting, the Swan:

This one is my most successful one by far, the Gladius (almost twice the downloads of any other ship in my threads):

And this is my personal favourite, no matter how much clipping is going on there, the Razor:

Last but not least, this one I liked quite a bit before (it flies in atmo like a dream. A very stable dream at that). Then, as usual, I made a better one. The K-22 Rapier:

If you want any (or just want to see more), head to my threads, which you can find in my sig, this is only a small selection.

Rune. Self-promotion never hurt anyone, right? Praise is also nice...

[sturmstiger]

Here's the stock SSTO orbital shuttle I use to send up to 3 kerbals to stations or interplanetary ships in Low Kerbin Orbit. As with my other designs, simplicity is a key feature - it's got only 35 parts and weighs less than 13 ton before takeoff. It's very easy to takeoff, controls smoothly in flight, and should have > 300m of delta V left after reaching 75km circular orbit - enough for LKO docking & deorbiting. It's got a probe core for uncrewed returned flights, 2xRTGs for electric power, a powerful headlight for docking & landing, and 40 units of monopropellent.

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rgdiajx5ljm8c39/OrbitPlane.craft?v=0mcns

Hotkeys: 1. Toggle jet engine & intakes 2. Toggle the rocket engines

Flight instructions:

1. Apply break, turn on SAS, and start jet engine with full throttle. When jet engine power goes above 110KN release break. The plane should start moving when engine power gets ~112KN and will takeoff by itself before the end of runway.

2. Once it takes off, take gears up, release SAS and gently pitch up to ~30 degrees. You can then turn SAS back on, and it will ascent to around 20KM in ~10 minutes.

3. Pitch down to ~15 degress. At some point you may throttle down a bit to reduce air consumption. The 4x intakes allow it to fly to >28km & >1750m/s using jet power. Because it has only one jet engine, you don't need to worry about flameout, which are difficult to recover for planes with multiple jet engines.

4. When it reaches >28km and >1750 m/s, press 2 to start the rocket engines. The jet engine will flame out shortly, then you'll press 1 to turn it off. At this point you may want to pitch up a bit to get out of denser atomosphere quicker. When the apoapsis gets above your intended orbital altitude, stop the engines, and circalize when it reaches the apoapsis.

5. The plane usually have 30 ~ 50 units of extra jet fuel left which may used for landing. It should have a pitch of 5 ~ 6 degrees at the moment of touch down for main gears to touch down first but not scraping the engine nozzles.

[Colonel_Panic]

Dart, Arrow and Javelin (see signature for .crafts)

[Turd]

I posted this in a different thread, but at the time I didn't have any images of the H model, as it wasn't done being tweaked yet. I eliminated the clipping of engine parts through the wings and improved the lighting along with fixing "bugs" in the fuel feeding. Also I have had 0 instances of the tail falling off or the craft exploding randomly after the gear is retracted! Still need to get some illumination on the nose, and reposition RCS to be more efficient. Mods are still TouhouTorpedo's omni-wheels, Mk3 expansion set, and mk3 cockpit, SasquatchMarmalades pulse detonation jet engines, and Snjo's Firespitter.

Bill, Jeb, and Bob landed their Wasp class reusable SSTO spaceplane Mk. 37-F "Intrepid" today, the Intrepid had been in orbit for almost a week (real time). Unfortunately she will never fly again as the landing was VERY far from KSC, the craft took minor damage, and the F model is very outdated at this point.

The good news is that a new model, the Mk. 37-H has been completed. Bill, Jeb and Bob took the "Alacrity" out for its first orbital flight. Its mission is to standby in orbit for two days awaiting the delivery of a new module to the Kerbal Space Station then dock with the station, and upon completion return to KSC for refueling and reassignment to testing of potential reusable Munar landers. Judicious use of F5 and F9 will be employed to ensure completion of all mission parameters.

"Alacrity" approaching mach 1, meanwhile Jeb stays true to the name of his ride.

The Mk.37-H is becoming difficult to control with just the aerodynamic surfaces due to high altitude, RCS will soon be engaged followed by a main engine shutdown and activation of the rocket engines at 1300 m/s

Main burn has been completed, apoapsis of 130K is predicted. This flight with the improved H model has been particularly efficient, normally in order to establish orbit over 900m/s of acceleration is needed.

Orbit achieved, time to circularize then wait for module four of the KSS to be delivered.

Bill, Jeb, and Bob get to enjoy the view for 2 days.

[spaceBrezel]

really like those big SSTO planes.

@Exothermos: arrow design looks nice:D

im trying to experiment but im limited at ~500 parts just using stock parts.

"bumerang II"

"bumerang I" rendevouz with my biggest plane so far

"spacebus Vx"

"mr orange"

"ssto ?" the "?" did delete the savegame, so this ship is lost

Edited June 20, 2013 by spaceBrezel

[ialdabaoth]

Do vertical SSTO's count?

If so, then behold the S.S. Buck Rogers:

[ShachonianX]

Currently working on the Phoenix SSTO.

[KissSh0t]

So I've been having a great time learning the ropes for space planes. I only use stock stuff, but some of the craft posted here make me want to rethink that.

After many failed attempts, this was the first functional SSTO that I came up with: A boxy little thing that I creatively named "Speedy Box":

It lives up to its name:

Its spiritual successor is a plane I just got working correctly tonight, the "Arrow". I really, really like this one:

It's been a long time in development. Here is an early version:

Finally It's pretty efficient. Such a Looooonnngg design has limitations. For instance, manual ballancing of fuel Once during ascent, and Docking... and landing. But it's worth it. Docked at a space station with plenty of fuel left. Parts count Nightmare! :

If there is any interest I will post the craft file in a thread or something.

Now if I could only get a SSTO using the Mk 3 cockpit to work.

The Arrow is such a great design!!! Really love that!!!

[pinolallo]

New SSMRL (single stage Multi Role Lander) with kethane self sustain

SSMRL on Duna drilling kethane

SSMRL on Mün drilling kethane

3k Catalina Rescue SSTO (amphibious 7 kerbal 3*100km orbit run capable)

2 BigMouth docked at kerbin One (bigMouth is a large body 21 tons lifter)

The new FatBob (large Body 42 tons lifter with 3m module cargo bay and dock/undock)

The FatBob docking Bay from the Shuttle on redocking manouvres

[techstepman]

first successfull ship.still a prototype.never expected it to actually fly not even mention getting a stable high orbit.

[Kerbal01]

I made a SSTO: the ravenspear Mk V SSTO

pics:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Link:http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/37072-The-Ravenspear-Mk5-SSTO

[Johnno]

After a heap of hours tinkering tonight I managed to not only create my second ever SSTO, but also my third ever. My first wasn't fancy enough to share and my second was finicky and sluggish to fly. But this third one flies like a dream and gets up into orbit fast (compared to my other planes at least). Plus I managed to make it look cool too. I haven't come up with a fancy name for it so for now it's just X-3.

[El wonso]

My standard ssto spaceplane in space. Landing with any amount of fuel is easy.

With probe capable of Gilly landing.

With Ion probe - 1.3 t, 19.5 km/s dV, 11h burn time. Causes massive drag at >30km, throttling down is required.

Not a spaceplane SSTO.

Edited June 27, 2013 by El wonso

[pa1983]

My latest SSTO the Falcon XI Hercules. Lifted 72+ tons during its first flight to 100km LKO. Wil lbe use to lift a payload plus a booster that then will take the payload from LKO to its target destination.

You can see more pics and read more about the craft here.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/11214-The-K-Prize-100-reusable-spaceplane-to-orbit-and-back?p=484622&viewfull=1#post484622

[KissSh0t]

That's a very nice Engine layout pa1983... Very good stuff.

[Exothermos]

I've been busy with this lately:

Intake Abuse Police should be alerted immediately!

It does this:

Baby's First Payload Capable SSTO. 4+ kerbal tons with ease.

Also a fun but pointless Drone SSTO series:

And a fat, 3 person development of my previous "Arrow"

All coming soon. They all work, but need some wrinkles Ironed out.

PS: Dayum KSP, you purdy.

[Deadweasel]

HSTAC Silverhawk II began orbital trials today

The new version has slightly better range and docking capability.

Johnry pays tribute to fallen courageous comrades with an unscheduled wing walk.

Apparently one of two top secret experiments Silverhawk II was carrying began to malfunction, prompting an evacuation. Luckily, it was a false alarm. Bill has been verbally coached about leaving snack wrappers in power reactor cores during pre-flight servicing.

Among the passive defense programs nearing completion are the "boo" lights, thought to be an effective deterrent against kraken attacks

Meanwhile, back on the ground, the X-108 began its own flight tests under project code-name "Trident".

The X-108 is a variant of the Silverhawk frame, and represents the first active offensive design launched from the KSP. Relying on automated or remote control instead of live pilots, the Trident program craft are designed to be exceptionally maneuverable, and capable of delivering large support or munitions payloads to operating theaters around the globe.

[KissSh0t]

Here is my new Test SSTO that turned out to be so fast It can circularize orbit using only jet engines, Then using 2 Aerospikes to punch it out of atmosphere *___*

I was experimenting with parts inside parts.. But I am not using the clipping thing, I am using default everything.

The first image shows the engine layout and all the Air Intakes.

So far the maximum speed I have recorded using only the jet engines is 2202m/s before needing to switch to the Aerospikes which makes this my fastest jet powered aircraft.

Keep the SSTO's coming guys!!! If you have an SSTO post it in this thread!!!!

[maackey]

Just posted this to the b9 thread, but its a pretty good SSTO (500km orbit with 3.2 ton payload and back), I figure there's no harm posting it twice

Gallery is here (includes some older iterations as well)

[Deadweasel]

Here is my new Test SSTO that turned out to be so fast It can circularize orbit using only jet engines, Then using 2 Aerospikes to punch it out of atmosphere *___*

I was experimenting with parts inside parts.. But I am not using the clipping thing, I am using default everything.

Can't... breathe... someone used... ALL the air!