SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Sampa]

yeah, I am thinking that Mechjeb is at fault as it put my angle of attack too low and burn a lot of liquid fuel, then when the rockets kicked in, it went through that liquid fuel and I ran out long before the oxidizer burned up. in any case, I lacked the proper amount for a round trip anyway.

[Scoundrel]

The CSP17 "SkyOX"...

That is a nifty looking spaceplane! If you ever get around to doing a "2.0" version of it, I would recommend rebalancing your fuel tankage around the center of mass and plumbing the tanks so they feed to a central point, then plumb from there to the engines so you get balanced fuel consumption... then posting the craft file. For, um, science.

If anyone has any ideas on how to remedy the terrible looking nose...

It doesn't look like IntakeAir is a shortage for you, so you have a few options:

• There is the Tail Connector if you want something pointy and a little bit scifi. Not a fan of it personally, but that's must me.
  
• The classic Aerodynamic Nose Cone (though, to be honest, I hate that blue nose part)
  
• A Shock Cone Intake doesn't look that bad, and is preferable to the Aerodynamic Nose Cone IMHO (but that's just me)
  
• An Aerospike if you're really feeling Kerbal so you don't have to turn around to deorbit
  
• If you want something a little more complicated you could start with the FL-A10 Adapter, do a 4 Vernor radial around it (which will help with the pitching issue), and then cap it with a Standard Nose Cone or an Atmospheric Sensor... or even a Stayputnik.
  

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure one of the builders on here will have even better ideas.

[blowfish]

yeah, I am thinking that Mechjeb is at fault as it put my angle of attack too low and burn a lot of liquid fuel, then when the rockets kicked in, it went through that liquid fuel and I ran out long before the oxidizer burned up. in any case, I lacked the proper amount for a round trip anyway.

I haven't used MechJeb's spaceplane guidance, but that might be the problem. To get the most efficient ascent (and assuming you're not using AJE), you probably want to climb to a pretty high altitude then start gaining speed in order to minimize drag losses.

[KandoKris]

Just a little somthing I made for all those orbit contracts.

[blowfish]

My SSTOs tend to follow rather traditional hypersonic design principals - low aspect wings with a high sweep angle compared to the nose. But they're relatively sleek and seem to work well...

[moronwrocket]

Can't fit your cargo into the cargo bay? No problem! We'll just take our saw and cut our plane in two, add some docking ports and RCS thrusters, and voila!

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[Jan Gaarni]

Can't fit your cargo into the cargo bay? No problem! We'll just take our saw and cut our plane in two, add some docking ports and RCS thrusters, and voila!

http://imgur.com/a/vYnGC

Hahaha, nice one!

[eddiew]

Can't fit your cargo into the cargo bay? No problem! We'll just take our saw and cut our plane in two, add some docking ports and RCS thrusters, and voila!

Magnificent! I have no idea how you hold it together through re-entry with just docking ports ^^;

[moronwrocket]

The plane is remarkably stiff, using 4 docking port Jrs. The only flexing I saw was the little bit that I captured during landing. Otherwise it flew fine. Stock aero, except for stock drag fix (removes drag from fuel weight). I could tune it so the center port docks at the same time as the side ports, but I already spent way too much time fiddling with it and too little time advancing my career save. Plus that sort of thing is probably pure Kraken bait...

[Sampa]

Magnificent! I have no idea how you hold it together through re-entry with just docking ports ^^;

My guess, very carefully

[LordFjord]

It's been ages since I did a mission report, so time to change that. Parts and souposphere are all stock.

Here's a nice small-sized longrange science SSTO. ~30 tons fully loaded, carries 2 cargobays full of SCIENCE. Enough whoomps to goto orbit with only a little help from rocket engines. 2.9k dV once in orbit, so plenty to do some biome hopping on Minmus or Mun.

And all that with a stylish look that was totally not inspired by Romulan Warbirds.

It demonstrates nicely that it isnt about the number of intakes per engine what matters but the equal intake distribution. 2 radial intakes per jet.

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(sorry that I forgot to take a screenie with some readouts while in orbit, I was too busy on EVA that I only noticed later, you have to take my word on that)

[burglebox]

The "Unnamed". 6 Kerbals to LKO/Station and back with docking capabilities. SUPER stable in flight and reentry, and obtains orbit easily.

[Leon026]

Hey guys, I'm new here

Wanted to present my little contribution (using NEAR and B9)

Silent Hawk Mk.7 (previous version were atmospheric and testing)

It flies.... quite well. I don't use it much, other than to fly around for some fun.

And my current more 'useful' shuttle for satellite delivery

Work quite well in kerbin's orbit, but I'm having trouble getting it to the Mun, landing it on the Mun, and back without refueling. Maybe I should be using LV-Ns instead of stacking more Sabre engines?

Fuel efficiency is my current bottleneck I'm not able to overcome...

[Samniss Arandeen]

Mockingjay, the K-Prize SSTO that uses zero oxidizer.

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[Rune]

Well, this one should also go here, at least. Chemical SSTOs FTW! Quoting myself:

Another week, another hangover, another release! And yeah, this time... another replica of another shuttle! Only this one wasn't really built in the end. Designed to the original specifications of 20mT in low orbit, but with a really big bay so you don't have any trouble putting your stuff there, let me present to you the shuttle's SSTO successor that never was:

I built it from memory and going by the rule of cool, so probably not 100% accurate, but I think it looks the part: drone controlled, lots of aerospikes in a linear manner... Yeah, I know, that big engine maybe shouldn't be there in the middle. But it decreases part count a lot and makes it easier to use!

That's it's main selling point, actually, simplicity of use. This will take you to orbit in eight minutes flat! With no thrust fiddling during ascent required as the spikes shut off sequentially flattening your thrust curve. In fact, you can trust the autopilot to do the gravity turn for you too: as you go over 10kms, switch to "orbital" in the navball speed indicator, and tell the computer to hold prograde. That's pretty much it! And if you are not trying to land with a full cargo bay (which it can do anyway, but requires a pretty good pilot), it glides like a feather since it's so light.

And not only is it easy to use, it is practical too! You get 20mT to LKO with >250 m/s in the tanks and full RCS for docking, so this very usable as you standard medium launcher, for station modules, probes and the like. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can mount an expedition to most places with 20mT! Be sure to let me know what you are using it for if you like it

And when you are done lifting your stuff, of course, just deorbit and land it for full recovery and lots of √savings. Again, let me reiterate: You are supposed to have left the stuff in the cargo bay in orbit. Then landing is as simple as taking off, and boy is the takeoff simple. But of course I wasn't going to stop attempting it myself to find the limits of the design. If you land with it full... well, then you have my respect, and can boast that you can fly as good as I do. Take that as you want!

IMGUR ALBUM:

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DOWNLOAD:

http://www./download/072waqtmc3rj0t2/K-33.craft

Rune. Probably my easiest SSTO.

[eddiew]

Well, this one should also go here, at least. Chemical SSTOs FTW! Quoting myself:

Rune. Probably my easiest SSTO.

...strangely familiar...

But boo "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rune again."

Anyhoo... my first successful foray into an MK3 heavy lifter. Annoyingly high part count of ~155, excluding cargo, which makes for almighty lag in-atmosphere - but it can get orange tanks to LKO, or as illustrated, MKS modules. Although it doesn't have a good way of ejecting them, so it's just release then use RCS to back away while a proper tugboat collects the cargo.

Stock + procedural wings/control surfaces.

I think the odd docking port ois probably attributable to Rune Didn't want to lose the node on the front for one; that's a prime intake space that is!

Needs a bit of practise to land gracefully, but you do get the comedy moment of having the front end go wheeling off along the runway, balanced perfectly and guided by the canards But if you hit the brakes then it tips over and explodes

Edited February 16, 2015 by eddiew

[blowfish]

[drewscriver]

Not to spam, but this seems an appropriate place to mention the Alaflux.

[Rune]

Hey guys, I'm new here

Wanted to present my little contribution (using NEAR and B9)

(snip)

Work quite well in kerbin's orbit, but I'm having trouble getting it to the Mun, landing it on the Mun, and back without refueling. Maybe I should be using LV-Ns instead of stacking more Sabre engines?

Fuel efficiency is my current bottleneck I'm not able to overcome...

They look awesome, so you have half the battle won already, in my book. As to range, yeah, you have an isp bottleneck, same as everyone. It's called the rocket equation! See, its exponential nature means than when you go over a mass ratio (fuelled weight/empty weight) of "e" (2.72etc), you get into diminishing returns very quickly if you just add fuel. An LV-N allows you to go twice as far just by having twice the isp (dV=isp*9.81*Ln(MR), so directly proportional), so that's probably your best bet: having a single of those doubles your delta-v in orbit. In the end, though, the most efficient thing is to use the SSTO as a launch/reentry stage, so you can break the rocket equation completely and still have 100% recovery on the runway. Plus, a dedicated lander stowed in the bay is always going to be easier to land on airless worlds, because it was designed for it form the start: never mind that it will have a fraction of the weight to carry to the surface and back (which is awesome in itself), it's worth it just for the maneuverability and the landing legs!

...strangely familiar...

http://www.transformerscustomtoys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Transformers-TheArk-www.transformerscustomtoys.com_.jpg

But boo "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rune again."

Anyhoo... my first successful foray into an MK3 heavy lifter. Annoyingly high part count of ~155, excluding cargo, which makes for almighty lag in-atmosphere - but it can get orange tanks to LKO, or as illustrated, MKS modules. Although it doesn't have a good way of ejecting them, so it's just release then use RCS to back away while a proper tugboat collects the cargo.

Stock + procedural wings/control surfaces.

http://i.imgur.com/Ia7Myd6.jpg

I think the odd docking port ois probably attributable to Rune Didn't want to lose the node on the front for one; that's a prime intake space that is!

Needs a bit of practise to land gracefully, but you do get the comedy moment of having the front end go wheeling off along the runway, balanced perfectly and guided by the canards But if you hit the brakes then it tips over and explodes

http://i.imgur.com/JJZKWMC.jpg

Thanks! And don't worry, I'd rather have a kind comment than more rep any day of the week! And no, nothing to do with Transformers, all I followed were my recollection of how Lockheed's Venture Star was supposed to look. Nice Big Red SSTO, BTW! Am I seeing TurboRAPIERs as the powerplant? They are incredibly easy to make now (gizmos are the best thing since sliced bread), and very awesome in performance, so if you picked them up from me, you chose well.

(snip)

Looks good and pointy. I would exchange a few RAPIERs with turbojets, though: you don't need all that rocket thrust, and the turbojets save some weight while having higher thrust in the lower atmosphere, greatly cutting on the time to make the ascent.

Rune. Lately this thread is filling with Big Red carriers! Remember when SSTOing was something hard?

[Sampa]

Ok, I cave, next time I have some time, I need to design my own passenger SSTO to replace my aging CSS fleet

[jman508]

i know this isn't much to some people, but i finally made my first working ssto last night!.

if i was more efficient on the ascent i probably could have gotten it to a 300x300 km orbit.

and it has a cargo bay to deliver satellites! i have been trying to make stto's that are actually useful and this will make my life in career mode a lot easier because the lifting platform I've been using is about 150,000 kerbucks and the ssto I've bade only costs 41,000, so that saves me a lot of cash.

[Sampa]

Congrats! you actually succeeded in something I have only halfway succeeded in! (only got a craft that was suborbital at best)

[eddiew]

Thanks! And don't worry, I'd rather have a kind comment than more rep any day of the week! And no, nothing to do with Transformers, all I followed were my recollection of how Lockheed's Venture Star was supposed to look. Nice Big Red SSTO, BTW! Am I seeing TurboRAPIERs as the powerplant? They are incredibly easy to make now (gizmos are the best thing since sliced bread), and very awesome in performance, so if you picked them up from me, you chose well.

I never made a Big Red SSTO ^^;

But now I want to know what a turborapier is... some miracle of clipping, or just a 1:1 twixt rapiers and turbojets?

[Rune]

I never made a Big Red SSTO ^^;

But now I want to know what a turborapier is... some miracle of clipping, or just a 1:1 twixt rapiers and turbojets?

Didn't you say it can take an orange tank to LKO? That's a "Big Red" SSTO in my book, a SSTO capable of taking a Big Red up! Not so long ago, that was a very difficult thing to do, and a milestone in SSTO design for a lot of people.

And "TurboRAPIERS" are a wonder of clipping... and a 1:1 turbojet/mixture, too (It's what I call them anyway... ^^'). The trick is to put the jets on the RAPIER's rear attachment point, and move it forwards a couple of tics with the translation gizmo. Fuel flow will work perfectly, and both engines will thrust. They end up being very compact and powerful, and the thrust curve is pretty sweet for SSTOs, plus you can let the RAPIERs autoswitch to rocket power and milk the turbojets a bit further after flameout.

Rune. I always thought the RAPIERs had too much rocket power... unless a nerf to the maximum speed on airbreathers is on the books, which could very well happen next version.

[eddiew]

Ahhh... now I understand. Well thank you - I won't even pretend it wasn't a long and gruelling task getting the darn thing to work, but it was nice when it did! Procedural wings is just... well, it should be stock, basically. There should be no mods that ever have to add wings, and the number in stock should be exactly 1. Probably saved me another 20-30 parts, which is kind of important given how laggy it is already at ~150. Seems to be the curse of spaceplanes; you spend so long in atmosphere that the laggy seconds of a rocket ascent get stretched out to many, many minutes.

Still, am working on a B9 prototype that's only 85 parts including it's 'big red' (plus a 2.5m can of monoprop) cargo, and glides up with a yellow clock instead of red. Suddenly I no longer feel like B9 is cheating, so much as addressing the fact that stock isn't spaceplane friendly. Not to mention this fuselage is exactly the same shape as stock's MK3... makes me wonder which copied which

(It's a bit of a catfish right now, need to sort out the canards.)

I shall have to try some turborapiers at some point though, especially for smaller builds that won't benefit from a big 2.5m B9 sabre! Got a little 2x2x1 (rapier / turbo / nuke) that would be a prime candidate for it actually... This looks much better with only 2 air engines, but it could never get to space due to lack of power. Time for a revisit

Obviously you're stuck with the same weight, but if you can get twice the thrust out of the same number of attachment nodes and make it look better, that's a winner! I do have a mix of both on the big Tigerclaw, but I've arranged them as rapiers on the outside and turbos hugging the body, so that when the turbos begin to stutter and flameout, the change of thrust torque is minimal compared to the rapier rockets under the wings. Seems I can just let them fizzle without getting thrown off course at 35km.

And there kind of is a nerf on turbos, if you use B9 - by default it limits them and cuts power after mach 3.2. Happily the config is easily removed and you can get back onto a level playing field with everyone else when you want to make a stock design!