SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[huggy]

@huggy, do you have the second Version as a pure stock parts Version? and some pics from the bottom side?

It is a cool Design.

stock landing gear aren't long enough, also it wouldn't look the same without the intakes.

side view

rear view

bottom view

[Alewx]

Thanks for the Pictures, Looks really cool.

[Captain Sierra]

Pauly,

I *think* that kerbpaint painted crafts are pure-stock compatible, they just show up unpainted. Citation needed on this.

Long and short of it, I want one, and I want it now. .craft in our future?

[huggy]

A space plane i'm using in career mode, designed to preform scientific research. Data capsules detach to recover separately.

Takeoff

Top view

Collecting data

Sending data capsules back to KSC

Reentry over KSC

Chute deployed

[Pauly]

The Manta Ray

Still kind of a work in progress but I will post here since it can make orbit.

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Mechjeb says it has over 18,000 delta v after making 100k orbit, idk if that's a bug or not though. I'm thinking its reading the turbojets still even though they are shut off and nukes are on.

[Pauly]

Pauly,

I *think* that kerbpaint painted crafts are pure-stock compatible, they just show up unpainted. Citation needed on this.

Long and short of it, I want one, and I want it now. .craft in our future?

It is unfinished but here is the .craft if you want it.

http://www./view/7p0rwaa8cyqrcc1/Stingray.craft

[Captain Sierra]

The Manta Ray

Still kind of a work in progress but I will post here since it can make orbit.

http://imgur.com/a/EyI03

Mechjeb says it has over 18,000 delta v after making 100k orbit, idk if that's a bug or not though. I'm thinking its reading the turbojets still even though they are shut off and nukes are on.

Please go make yourself your own thread . . . and post craft files! I want to try this awesomeness.

[Climberfx]

The Newest from Star Series. Star Flight 2.0.

[Silverchain]

"Without your space wing, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult."

[KissSh0t]

Where is it heading!!

[Guest]

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[Silverchain]

I had an interesting aerobrake at Laythe, but it worked out ok in the end.

[KissSh0t]

Why does it only have 1 wing?

[Silverchain]

When I picked up the lander / rover pod from LKO I stupidly ran straight into the pod's discarded orbital insertion booster...

[thescientist]

At least it can land. How much it will be hard, however, is not in my fault .

[KissSh0t]

Trying to build a heavy lift SSTO.... I hope it works : T

Kinda half way trying to figure it out..

[Broco]

As small as possible but still with needed features like docking capabilities and deorbit and land after orbiting without refueling:

[milosh]

My SSTOs not only need to be able to reach a 270km orbit and have a docking port, they also need to be able to vertically launch without a runway. Why? Because it's possible (and before I ever attempted to land on a moon I though it's necessary but in almost 0g the RCS are just fine). It must be light enough for one rocket engine and have enough fuel to reach the orbit. So my SSTO designes at the moment follow this idea: 900 fuel (btw: what's the metric here, tons, liters, mass?), in 3 tanks plus two Turbo Jet engines with High Alt Air Intake. But here's the kicker: I don't use Jet tanks any more for the jet engines but and ordinary 180 rocket tank per Jet Engine which are fuel linked to the rocket tanks (the flow goes from jet to rocket tank). There reason being: When I reached about 29km and the Jet engines stop working I often had 3/4 of a jet tank left, with unusable fuel for my rocket (no oxidizer) and hence a lot of dead weight plus missing a bit of extra fuel to conveniently reach 270km.

With this little "trick" I solve two problems - much less dead weight and more fuel for the rocket, the only drawback being some extra oxidizer that the Jet engines didnt burn.

So here's a first version I uses for some time. Although it fullfills my requirements it has two major draw backs: Due to the two extra engines it's too heavy and burns alot of rocket fuel. Which is not much of an issue for moon launches but reaching 270km from Kerbal with a vertical launch is very tricky and needs some RCS to reach the orbit. It's very stable while hoovering though on Kerbal:

Here's a better version and the one I'm using right now for interplanetary explorations. No addidional engines and (almost) no rocket fuel used to lift of Kerbal vertically. Only a short 1/4s burn with the rocket engine is needed to get it a bit of the ground, then the Turbo Jet Engines take over. It hoovers quite stable too but not as stable as the first version. But reaching 270km is a no brainer with it, I often end up with 3/4 of a 360 tank fuel left when I reach my station.

Vertical Take off from Kerbal:

Retro Burn and Vert Landing on Minmus:

And the eagle has landed:

Let me know if you're interested in the craft files.

[KissSh0t]

@Broco Your image does not work

For sharing images I recommend Imgur > http://imgur.com

milosh's craft >>

Edited February 26, 2014 by KissSh0t

[Exothermos]

That's going to be one HEAVY SOB, Kissh0t! Are you going to tweak some of that oxidizer out of those orange tanks?

[KissSh0t]

That's going to be one HEAVY SOB, Kissh0t! Are you going to tweak some of that oxidizer out of those orange tanks?

I'm already redesigning it because I cant get it off the ground xD

Going for something similar to pa1983's Falcon X Jumbo... Although trying to keep it under 700 parts.

I don't know how pa1983 built that... it is just so crazy.

Edited February 26, 2014 by KissSh0t

[LordFjord]

Stuff of that size will need a lot more lift surfaces. Maybe you can give it another "layer" of lift-generating surfaces on top of the initial one. Might also need moooar boosters. Roughly 1 turbojet per 10 tons does the trick.

I like your wingless design, looks a lot smoother than what I usually do:

Edited February 26, 2014 by LordFjord

[KissSh0t]

Ohh.. It has wings.. what I posted yesterday was just what I had done yesterday.. I've been fiddling with it today.. but it has turned out to be a failure.. the shape of the hull doesn't let me have good landing gear placement so it is pretty much impossible to even get down the runway.

Here is what I got it to before moving onto a new design, maybe showing this failed design will spark an idea for someone else :T

Edited February 26, 2014 by KissSh0t

[NKL]

Ohh.. It has wings.. what I posted yesterday was just what I had done yesterday.. I've been fiddling with it today.. but it has turned out to be a failure.. the shape of the hull doesn't let me have good landing gear placement so it is pretty much impossible to even get down the runway.

I don't wanna set another "mod vs stock" debate, but if the gear was the only problem, you can really try another gear set (TTTmodwheel / B9 with correctives) than super-tiny® stock one's, especially for big lifter like this one.

Or maybe, ugly truss to offset your gear a little?

[LordFjord]

Your rear landing gears are at the very end of the plane, this is why you can't get it off the runway. Try to place them a bit behind the CoM, then it should be possible to lift the nose. You might wanna attach some safety gear at the end so you don't crash your cargobay winglets it into the runway while you lift off.

I would attach the landing gears on ( flat-attached) modular girder segments attached to the orange tanks, one at the front (with brakes disabled and steering enabled) and one a bit after the CoM position.

Can you show a pic with CoL and CoM?

Anyway, by looking at your plane I think I've learned a few things about "coating it with wings"

Seriously, it looks a lot better than my usually ugly designs.