SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Lazer Cut]

I've run into a bit of problem in my next design,and I'm hoping you guys can help me out.I look at alot of these and wonder how you get these things off the runway without the back hitting? I have a little 60 Ton concept tester that continually scrapes the ground on take-off. I've given it more ground clearance,Used Radial Rockets,Moved the landing gear around,nothing works.so how you do set up your larger craft?

Had a similar problem myself, my solution in my designs have been to spam wings and lift surfaces. With enough lift you can get a plane with less than 1TWR to take off. Other than that you can add some more jet engines. Also having Mechjeb and using Smart A.S.S module so you can set a pitch at an exact value helps

[Amphiprion]

SSTD, (single stage to duna)

[Exothermos]

Had a similar problem myself, my solution in my designs have been to spam wings and lift surfaces. With enough lift you can get a plane with less than 1TWR to take off. Other than that you can add some more jet engines. Also having Mechjeb and using Smart A.S.S module so you can set a pitch at an exact value helps

Increasing wing surface is one of the best solutions. Assuming the rear gear are just behind the COM, and there is enough moment arm on the control surfaces (canards way up front or tail surfaces out back) most viable designs should rotate and gently lift off at around 100 m/s. This is true of even extremely heavy designs ( check out pa1983's stuff for proof).

Having lots of wing also gets you to acceleration altitude faster. This means you use less liquid fuel to get there, and the flight up is more controllable. For now, with KSP not calculating frontal area, the benefits of more wing out weigh the negatives of drag and weight (within reason).

[Char0093]

Thank you Tex_NL,Exothermos,and Lazor Cut.You were all correct.My problem was not enough lift.and,unless I'm looking at the CoL wrong,I dont think there's an ingame way of knowing that until you try a plane out .

Giving up on my 60 ton Craft for the time being,I went for a intermediate so to speak.Having not used the B9 Aerospace pack at all, (and seeing as I actually had a use for it now) I figured now would be a good a time as any.I dont really have a Name for it,other than a Designation "PD-02",I thought about the one weakness of the Core Booster,Delta-V.Having Redone my numbers,The Core Booster on an optimal ascent only has around 210-250 m/s at a 75-75 Orbit.The numbers I gave before,Upon Further inspection,were dipping into the atmosphere by varying amounts (Damn you Mech Jeb!).

PD-02 is not much bigger than the Core Booster.At 28 Tons to the Core's 18,and only about 4 meters longer.Most of that weight is Fuel and shiny new Wings,inlets,and Cockpit!

PD-02's takeoff is rather easy,though I find myself babying it to the end and then Pulling up.She Easily lifts her nose by the 1/2 mark,and can be airborne by the 3/4 Mark if I wanted to risk scraping that LV-45.I should really invest in a joystick,I know.

20 km and still Chugging a good amount of air.I was half Tempted to lower the nose and see how fast she'd go.

But I thought better of it and Fired up that LV-45 at 24 km,Shutting the jets off around 25 km when it seemed best to run max throttle on the Rocket.

Parked in an 80 km Orbit with a full kilometer of Delta-v Left!Please excuse me while i pat myself on the back.I'm Still in that phase where if something I build works I throw a small party in my living room .Showing off the Gear and airbrakes because that's totally a great thing to show off in space.

Streaking back through the Atmosphere.Lessons learned from Flights in the Core Booster,I Transfer fuel into the front Tanks,even from the back Fuselage. All in the sake of keeping that CoL and CoM even.Because of thise,the ASAS handles the Descent fine on it's own.I even took a risk and went to the fridge to get my Celebratory Mountain Dew!Thankfully,it didnt flip out of control so yay me!

Like the Core Booster,she glides rather nicely down without power.Though I must admit,I tried my damnedest to Stall her out and PD-02 defiantly Lowered her nose and recovered without any input from me.

Safe and Sound back on Kerbin.Bonus Points because nothing fell off!The Airbrakes have two good uses,Decelerating after reentry and Bleeding the last few m/s of Airspeed before touchdown.Wich is exactly what they're supposed to do.

All in all I'm rather happy with it.Might take it up later on a High Altitude run and see how fast she'll go.I'm betting somewhere around 800 m/s without rocket help,maybe more.We'll see.

[Sauron]

SSTD, (single stage to duna)

Are you a wizard? What was your setup? Also, I'd love to get a hold of that craft file (and whatever mod you did the robotic arm with--I thought DR and the like wasn't updated to 2.0+)

[Bothersome]

First Time Docking My SSTO... Actually Took 2 Hours... Not Even Joking... (゜-゜)

Congratulations Dude!!! I bet you were full of excitement after that. What a feeling!

[NoMrBond]

Are you a wizard? What was your setup? Also, I'd love to get a hold of that craft file (and whatever mod you did the robotic arm with--I thought DR and the like wasn't updated to 2.0+)

There is an updated fork of the Damned Robotics plugin in the Magic Smoke Industries thread (Infernal Robotics) which I believe you can use to make DR work in 0.20

[KissSh0t]

Congratulations Dude!!! I bet you were full of excitement after that. What a feeling!

It was!! It was such a steep learning curve trying to dock two objects together... By the end of it I was like.. mmmmm.. I could have built a better refuel platform xD

[Lazer Cut]

When I learned to dock, I used around 6 hours, no kidding. Now I'm far too lazy and use mechjeb's autodock. It saves me for alot of frustration and time

[Bleekosa]

This is the coolest looking SSTO I have ever seen!

How well does it get into orbit?

[Exothermos]

Cinocal's SSTO reminds me of a couple I'm playing with now. Kinda similar design elements.

And here is Foxbat-looking derivative.

They are light airhogging nuclear jobs, so they are ridiculously efficient.

[SkipSpikowski]

The James Earl Carter. It'll deliver 6 Kerbals and 1000 L of fuel.

[Crt272]

Long time lurker, just getting in to posting stuff.

Here is an SSTO I built(inspired by several craft from various members here, forgot the names though, sorry!) that can carry up to 7 kerbals from Kerbin to Laythe. It's most likely a one way trip although I'm not sure because I'm a mediocre pilot at best, and I missed the most fuel efficient Jool window.

In Orbit above Kerbin, starting burn to Jool.

On Approach to Laythe, passing Jool.

Searching for a suitable island to land on...

And finally landed, currently awaiting a pickup due to low fuel.

[bsalis]

Welp, I thought I would start with some older models...

My first K-prize SSTO (though a slightly improved version I think)

Refueling (with mods). Busy day at the tanker.

Docking before docking. This was from my grand tour (moons only, no planets yet).

Pilot switch on Minmus. Jebediah insisted.

VTOL SSTO using DR rotatrons.

This is The Battleaxe. First interplanetary. Duna orbit and return, or Laythe one-way.

3-seater cruiser.

Heavyweight... mostly rocket powered SSTO.

Edited July 22, 2013 by bsalis

[pa1983]

I call here the Falcon XII Skymaster Transport (didn't come up with anything better, names are not my thing)

You can read more about here here. She is all stock btw.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/11214-The-K-Prize-100-reusable-spaceplane-to-orbit-and-back?p=533392&viewfull=1#post533392

Here is two videos, part 1 covers construction and part 2 is the test flight.

http://youtu.be/4epfP6F7AF8

http://youtu.be/NEKtKB76udA

[Rune]

I call here the Falcon XII Skymaster Transport (didn't come up with anything better, names are not my thing)

You can read more about here here. She is all stock btw.

[snip]

I've got a couple of replies to that:

First, you are a SSTO expert. That is awesome! I even picked out a couple of ideas.

And second, but no less important: ALT+click! It'll save you hours building. Basically, it copies the clicked part and any attached to it. Nice to copy complicated sections of a fuselage, for example. But perhaps more importantly, it also saves you from flipping through the parts if you have one already on your craft. And as a bonus, it keeps the orientation of the part, if you messed with angling it, which is a nice way to know two parts are placed at exactly the same angle.

Rune. Good job and all that

Edited July 22, 2013 by Rune

[Sean Mirrsen]

My "Space Harrier" SSTO series, since renamed as "HarrowJet", has long, long been a staple of my SSTO fleet.

First prototype, suborbital flight:

The series went through numerous variations, of engine types:

..wing layouts (Not all of them were good):

..and eventually it was refitted for interplanetary travel:

...it didn't end well.

So now it's been reworked into more of a close-range vehicle, showcasing advances in design...

..and gimmicks.

Lots of gimmicks.

It received VSTOL capability around that time (and lost the Space Harrier name around then too, ironically).

Which allowed it to land on the Mun. Or try, at first.

But it succeeded!

Now it's being reworked again. Waiting for the advances in ASAS technology, it received an upgrade in VSTOL capability and aerodynamics.

Work continues. I really only keep it around so long because I can't get over how good it flies for how good it looks - and that's without any kind of clipping abuse.

[Deadweasel]

My "Space Harrier" SSTO series, since renamed as "HarrowJet", has long, long been a staple of my SSTO fleet.

*queue dramatic music*

In a world,

Where physics are on permanent lunch break,

One man DARES to dream.

It's a tale of love, loss, heartache and triumph.

..and gimmicks.

Lots of gimmicks.

Coming this fall, 2013: Tucker-

*record scratch*

-errr... Flight of the Navigat-

*polite cough*

-uhhh... Flight of Frankenstein...? Right, Flight of Frankenstein! Coming soon in IMAX Real3D, to a theater near you!

[Exothermos]

jeez, pa1983... When are you going to build something impressive? Gosh.

Seriously though, that thing is incredible. And I thought the last one was incredible. I like your engine nacelle idea with the thinner wings, and it was a joy watching you struggle with the geometry of skinning the craft. I picked up a bunch of ideas.

Here is one of my biggest so far. A 19 man space bus! It has some bugs I have to hunt down (specifically with the ASAS pushing the nose down for some reason), and some more refining to do because the skinning is a bit of a mess, but it is coming along.

[KissSh0t]

pa1983.. that design is a lot better.. with your previous one I was looking at it thinking.. those engines would be better off closer to the body. This new one is a really impressive build.

I know others have mentioned this but for the love of Kerbal use Alt+Click.

xD

Exothermos, that's a nice design.. It's like a flying wing.

Keep the SSTO's coming~ This thread has some amazing builds now.

[Cinocal]

This is the coolest looking SSTO I have ever seen!

How well does it get into orbit?

Gratitude!

It works as well as it looks. Plenty of dv left after getting to a 100km orbit. Also glides like a paper plane when its out of fuel, in FAR anyway.

[roblamb98]

ill be sure to add better photos soon, tweaking it some more

[roblamb98]

out of all these SSTOs, i find yours the most visually appealing

[Cinocal]

[KissSh0t]

ill be sure to add better photos soon, tweaking it some more

You will need to upload your image to the internet before linking them here...

A lot of the people here use http://imgur.com/

I myself use Tumblr.com

You cannot link images from your hard dive like you have tried.