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SSTOs! Post your pictures here~


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I could, and plenty of people have done that on their own designs, but I've never liked the idea of adding a set of engines that can only be used when landing on airless bodies and are useless the rest of the time. The landing legs don't weigh much (each the same as one of those small Rockomax's), they allow me to use my LV-N as my primary braking mechanism (which lets me take advantage of the much higher ISP), and there's no issue with balancing vertical-lift engines around a shifting center of mass.

Besides, the legs are actually kind of useful, as emergency airbrakes.

Do the legs slow you down when extended?

I've never heard of that before *___*

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A rework of the good ol' Mystline I made about a year ago (Is it that long ago already?). I kept true to the looks but I did a complete rework under the hood. Now the craft is stable at all fuel levels and if you do it properly the craft is stable during high speed reentry. Also the range of the craft has been increased to a Laythe return craft.
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It would be nice to see this craft in Sunlight.. Maybe even on the build screen.

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Here are two of my latest SSTO's. I'm new to the whole spaceplane game, but after experimenting with a sort of wing-body aircraft, I'm never looking back.

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The big one is my heavy lift SSTO test bed. Got to orbit with like...1600 lf/ox left in the rocket tanks (the jets all run off seperate fuel tanks). I'll call that a win for my first one, right? :D

The smaller one is my 2 seater transport. Get VIP's from ground to orbit in 10 minutes or less. That one makes it up with plenty of extra juice too.

I really need to try my hand at NERVA SSTOs, that seems to be where the dV is at. But most of my designs need the brute force to get out into space.

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My latest SSTO and the only one I use now. It was inspired by Exothermos's Ardent SSTO (kudos to him) and is the result of all I learnt about the making of a SSTO plane

Heck yes!

It's like the Ardent's bigger, tougher, ex-marine brother. And, of course, I love it.

Let me introduce you long range SSTO - Ikar. With whooping dV on low orbit - 8288, this craft can reach any target in Kerbin system and return pilot to home. Very stable and controllable in atmosphere from full to completely dry, you do not need to move fuel from one tank to another before dive in atmosphere. With heavy duty gears you can safely land to any body in system without damages and safely takeoff after landing (low takeoff speed full craft on Kerbin ~85m/s). You can make on this craft as minimum 6 travels to Kerbin orbit and back without refueling (I did it and can continue, but it so boring).

That is one ugly duckling, but WOW, that is some seriously impressive performance. Can't argue with that!

Edited by Exothermos
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Here are two of my latest SSTO's. I'm new to the whole spaceplane game, but after experimenting with a sort of wing-body aircraft, I'm never looking back.

The big one is my heavy lift SSTO test bed. Got to orbit with like...1600 lf/ox left in the rocket tanks (the jets all run off seperate fuel tanks). I'll call that a win for my first one, right? :D

The smaller one is my 2 seater transport. Get VIP's from ground to orbit in 10 minutes or less. That one makes it up with plenty of extra juice too.

I really need to try my hand at NERVA SSTOs, that seems to be where the dV is at. But most of my designs need the brute force to get out into space.

Bonus points for not air hogging.

That is actually sort of similar to something that I build, altho I used a single mainsail. It was capable of lifting about 20 tons into orbit.

Here is something that can also lift 20 tons into orbit. 76 rockomax 48-7S and 4 orange fuel tanks.... derp.

Edited by maccollo
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SVO-9 leaving Ike, and preparing for the long trip back to Kerbin.

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Yalin Hawk,

Nice SSTOs you have there, I also applaud you for not airhogging. I have found it actually easier to get to orbit without 400+ air intakes creating a drag wake in front of my craft thats like plowing through cold tar. But I use the FAR mod and DRE so air hogging isnt that practical.

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Thanks. I'm going to experiment with the design now that it works. I want to see if I can replace the LVT30 quad setups with quad NERVAs and take a shallower ascent to build up more speed in-atmo before lighting the rockets. Going to try disabling pairs of jets as I get higher...yeah probably counts as air hogging since all that intake air will go to fewer engines but it would make for a much more efficient craft at 20k+ altitude.

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Heck yes!

It's like the Ardent's bigger, tougher, ex-marine brother. And, of course, I love it.

Thanks a lot. Your work is very impressive and inspiring. And I love the idea of the ex-marine brother :P

SVO-9 leaving Ike, and preparing for the long trip back to Kerbin.

2frx.jpg

Great work on this one !

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SVO-12, a variation on the SVO-11 which was a mistake that worked better than I had ever dreamed.

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Not a lot fuel but great for quick jaunts to the space station at 100km x 100km orbit. When full it sits at 1600d/v for fuel but I am sure it is more than that as it uses a single LV-909 for moving around in space.

I may later do a test with a 48-7S.

The finale version of the SVO-12, the SVO-12A.

58 parts, of which if you wanted to you could shave it down to 43, but you lose RCS, Docking, and ladders.

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Edited by Hodo
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This was my first SSTO, needed some asistance rockets to nose up at the end of the runway, but they were never jetisoned sooo....

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Had a seating capacity of 2, and a 4 meter long cargo bay, but the amount of delta v it got into orbit was amazing, wish I still had the save.

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I should perhaps start a company....

I present SVO-14A

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A simple 2 man quick response low orbit vehicle. Capable of reaching a 100km x 100km orbit with ease. Has a docking port, sensors for science and atmospheric analysis. And if you are able you can even weaponize it. I personally can not because I suck at that sort of stuff.

Edited by Hodo
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I made a sort of Space Station to dock my SSTO Aircraft too~

: D

I need to send up more fuel to dock with it.... But so far I have flown my Type 26 Ares that was previously landed on Minmus back to Kerbin Orbit then docked that with it.

It took over 9000 years to dock it (゜-゜)

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This is just called the x30 at the moment. STOL SSTO.

Thanks to a deeply unfeasible number of air intakes, both at the front and inside the structure, one one tank of fuel it makes orbit at least twice.

ETA - the last landing on the runway was unpowered, just to see if it could.

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Edited by Fellow314
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A rework of the good ol' Mystline I made about a year ago (Is it that long ago already?). I kept true to the looks but I did a complete rework under the hood. Now the craft is stable at all fuel levels and if you do it properly the craft is stable during high speed reentry. Also the range of the craft has been increased to a Laythe return craft.
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That's stunning.

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