SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Zeiss Ikon]

Well, this is nothing like as cool as all the spaceplanes in the thread, but technically, it is an SSTO -- in fact, of its 132.8 T launch weight, it orbits a 16 T combination of upper stages, payloads, and fairings (plus the booster with enough fuel left to circularize the full stack and then deorbit the booster after deploying what it carried).  Also, it's 100% stock. 

 

On the pad:

In stable orbit after deploying the fairing.

Elirys likes it a lot... 

[SpaceC]

This is my first post so "Hello all KSPers" and I hope all this stuff works right cuz im a noob.

My best so far Mk3 SSTO and return safely to Kerbin. (no mods)

DOWNLOAD CRAFT FROM KERBALX: https://kerbalx.com/SpaceC/Mk3-SSTO-Shuttle

 

Edited January 22, 2017 by SpaceC

[Torquimedes]

5 hours ago, SpaceC said:

This is my first post so "Hello all KSPers" and I hope all this stuff works right cuz im a noob.

My best so far Mk3 SSTO and return safely to Kerbin. (no mods)

DOWNLOAD CRAFT: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ag4Ut6BtH_RngR-OMIDKAQelW6FP 

 

That is a beautiful bird. How much payload to orbit?

Are the chutes intended as drogues after landing?

[SpaceC]

33 minutes ago, Torquimedes said:

That is a beautiful bird. How much payload to orbit?

Are the chutes intended as drogues after landing?

Thanks a lot Torq. It can haul about 5.0 t payload depending how good a pilot. There is a couple drogue chutes for slowing down if needed but the ones you see are probably the ones on the back for just in case you have to ditch.

[Guest Space Cowboy]

DOWNLOAD CRAFT
Space Trucker Biotch
2 oranges to 200km no problem.
Could be my final heavy lift spaceplane.
Instructions in SPH dropdown.

DOWNLOAD CRAFT

Edited January 22, 2017 by Space Cowboy

[Jett_Quasar]

On 1/18/2017 at 2:20 PM, Speed_Kerman said:

 

This is the SSTO version of my X-Wing.  I'm planning on releasing the craft file later this week along with a video on how to fly it.

-Jett 

Edited January 24, 2017 by Jett_Quasar

[Skyshrim]

This big sexy spaceplane is known as Jumbo Jim and he has a song for you all today.

The Name’s Jumbo Jim-bo
I am an extra large ss-t-o
If you have some heavy car-go
I’ll get you to orbit for cheap, yo

I am a drone, there’s no lives at stake
Half a million speceos is all it’ll take
sprint down the runway like a race
next thing you know we’re up in space

eighty thousand Kilos in the trunk
and I still got fuel that I haven’t drunk
single stage to orbit means no space junk
It pays to spend up front, who woulda thunk

.....................................................................

So, anyways... This guy can carry just over 80 tons (2.25 orange tanks) to a 90km orbit with enough fuel left for rendezvous and landing. The cargo being delivered above was for an attempted Eve rescue. The mission failed miserably, but it was worth the motivation to develop this SSTO. Another rescue attempt using this spaceplane is already being planned and I expect it to also play a key part in salvaging two other missions that currently require assistance as well. It is also an excellent platform to modify into an SSTA. I haven't tested it yet, but I suspect replacing 50 tons of cargo weight with liquid fuel and mining equipment could easily do the trick.

This baby weighs in at 282 tons with 222 parts. No mods used, but autostruts are required.

 

Craft file download: https://kerbalx.com/Skyshrim/Jumbo-Jim-mk4

[Dr Farnsworth]

On 1/23/2017 at 7:23 PM, Skyshrim said:

This big sexy spaceplane is known as Jumbo Jim and he has a song for you all today.

The Name’s Jumbo Jim-bo
I am an extra large ss-t-o
If you have some heavy car-go
I’ll get you to orbit for cheap, yo

I am a drone, there’s no lives at stake
Half a million speceos is all it’ll take
sprint down the runway like a race
next thing you know we’re up in space

eighty thousand Kilos in the trunk
and I still got fuel that I haven’t drunk
single stage to orbit means no space junk
It pays to spend up front, who woulda thunk

.....................................................................

So, anyways... This guy can carry just over 80 tons (2.25 orange tanks) to a 90km orbit with enough fuel left for rendezvous and landing. The cargo being delivered above was for an attempted Eve rescue. The mission failed miserably, but it was worth the motivation to develop this SSTO. Another rescue attempt using this spaceplane is already being planned and I expect it to also play a key part in salvaging two other missions that currently require assistance as well. It is also an excellent platform to modify into an SSTA. I haven't tested it yet, but I suspect replacing 50 tons of cargo weight with liquid fuel and mining equipment could easily do the trick.

This baby weighs in at 282 tons with 222 parts. No mods used, but autostruts are required.

 

Craft file download: https://kerbalx.com/Skyshrim/Jumbo-Jim-mk4

Congratulations on making a MKIII ssto. It's not an easy feat.

And welcome to the forums!

[Reusables]

Just a proof of concept, of propeller-rocket SSTO. (Didn't care much about aesthetics and optimization)

Developing this for Eve even though it is impossible.

[Korsakovski]

Started wondering how exactly am I going to land a several hundred ton SSTO on Tylo. Grabbed 3 vector engines and ended up with this unfinished and untested VTOL prototype. I'll post the finished product later.

Fafnir D-1

http://imgur.com/a/9MVjy

Edited January 28, 2017 by Korsakovski

[renhanxue]

Mucking around with dinky little Panther-powered things again. This here thing is completely stock, 28 parts, takeoff weight <16 tons, requires only two 160 science nodes (Supersonic Flight and Advanced Electrics), ferries 3 Kerbals to or from LKO with ~350-400 m/s dV to spare. I'm quite satisfied with of the aerodynamic part of the design - it handles really, really well and is very stable.

https://kerbalx.com/renhanxue/Everything-I-Know-About-Spaceplanes

I wrote a lot of words about everything I've learned about spaceplane design in the KerbalX description. Some of it is empirical, but I've also learned a lot from reading things written by the members of this forum - thank you, guys!

Edited January 28, 2017 by renhanxue

[AeroGav]

4 hours ago, renhanxue said:

Mucking around with dinky little Panther-powered things again. This here thing is completely stock, 28 parts, takeoff weight <16 tons, requires only two 160 science nodes (Supersonic Flight and Advanced Electrics), ferries 3 Kerbals to or from LKO with ~350-400 m/s dV to spare. I'm quite satisfied with of the aerodynamic part of the design - it handles really, really well and is very stable.

https://kerbalx.com/renhanxue/Everything-I-Know-About-Spaceplanes

I wrote a lot of words about everything I've learned about spaceplane design in the KerbalX description. Some of it is empirical, but I've also learned a lot from reading things written by the members of this forum - thank you, guys!

I really like this shot,  looks  a bit like an F-14 from this angle.

In a way it's rather comparable to my https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Basic-Tourist-SSTO

same number of engines and crew .  Mine was just a career mode craft i put together to earn a bit of money , then shared on kerbal x - it's not as polished and i didn't try to make it pretty !  I didn't bother angling the wings.

The fuselage, like yours, was designed to avoid CG shifts.  One jet fuel tank dead centre , surrounded by four rocket fuel tanks, one left , one right, one in front, one behind, a "maltese cross".

Spoiler

 

 

   At the time i created it, I didn't have RCS build aid installed, so this is how i overcame the problem of dihedral raising the wings above CoM (which would then cause CoM to shift upward, and result in the engines being slightly out of line with CoM)

Spoiler

 

 

It does have a lot more wing area than your ship, which is extra dry mass.   This does reduce re-entry heating though as it tends to stay above 40km until most of the speed has bled off.   Rather than pitching to 70 or 80 degrees (not enough electrical power to hold such an angle!) i just maintain 5 to 10 deg.    A  heat bar does appear for part of the re-entry but nothing glows red or yellow.   If I'm undershooting KSC I'll maintain closer to 5 degrees which is nearer "best glide", if i'm zooming over,  i pitch up more to create extra drag 

Edited January 28, 2017 by AeroGav

[renhanxue]

That thing of yours is really cool :V

If there's one thing I don't like about mine it's that there's a bit too much unused tank mass (and a pair of structural fuselages for balance reasons). This is in part due to part number limits, but I think it might be fixable if I just let go of some design orthodoxy...

[AeroGav]

7 minutes ago, renhanxue said:

That thing of yours is really cool :V

If there's one thing I don't like about mine it's that there's a bit too much unused tank mass (and a pair of structural fuselages for balance reasons). This is in part due to part number limits, but I think it might be fixable if I just let go of some design orthodoxy...

I suspect it's the tyranny of engine placement.    All engines at the back looks coolest,   but means you need all the passenger cabins far fwd (where they catch most of the heat) then create a "neck" with structural fuselage/empty tank to get CG right.

I suppose you could compromise and bring only the panther forward, it wouldn't change the look much as the flanking terriers would keep the nice long tail,  and bear in mind the panther weighs more than both terrier combined so it's the best one to bring fwd.

Would look nicer than my design i think.   Or just put the terriers out on the wing tips?  

As regards angled vs non angled wings, the major source of drag on both our designs are the open rear attach nodes on the terriers.   I was up against the 30 part limit, but what i normally do here is put a reversed cone on the back of the engine, which brings it down to a similar drag level to the panther (which doesn't have a rear attach node)

[renhanxue]

6 minutes ago, AeroGav said:

As regards angled vs non angled wings, the major source of drag on both our designs are the open rear attach nodes on the terriers.   I was up against the 30 part limit, but what i normally do here is put a reversed cone on the back of the engine, which brings it down to a similar drag level to the panther (which doesn't have a rear attach node)

I considered doing that but since it has no problems at all breaking the sound barrier and tail end drag basically disappears for all practical purposes above Mach 1.1 or so, I decided against it.

Edited January 28, 2017 by renhanxue

[Korsakovski]

Fafnir Mark 2 testing underway. And the damn thing has gotten almost too heavy for 3 vectors, Tylo landing would have to be with the tanks mostly empty, with just enough LFO to land. Should I add a fourth vector? But that would require a more significant redesign and perhaps the throttle-controlled avionics mod... Decisions, decisions

 

http://imgur.com/a/ObJN0

[quasarrgames]

46 minutes ago, Korsakovski said:

Fafnir Mark 2 testing underway. And the damn thing has gotten almost too heavy for 3 vectors, Tylo landing would have to be with the tanks mostly empty, with just enough LFO to land. Should I add a fourth vector? But that would require a more significant redesign and perhaps the throttle-controlled avionics mod... Decisions, decisions

Very nice! Good luck with tylo!

...Also, that's a lot of monopropellant you have there. you'd probably save a few tons by replacing your RCS with reaction wheels, if you wanted.

ALSO, mostly out of sheer luck, i've created an incredibly low tech SSTO, the Crazy Maverick:

I don't even know how it works so well, but it does. Only requires aerodynamics and advanced rocketry to get (technically not even advanced rocketry, since i got the terrier as part of a contract). Might even be able to give it a drone core and make it carry a couple tourists.

[Korsakovski]

1 hour ago, quasarrgames said:

Very nice! Good luck with tylo!

...Also, that's a lot of monopropellant you have there. you'd probably save a few tons by replacing your RCS with reaction wheels, if you wanted.

Mmm, yea, it is way too much monoprop, and I will clip 5 large reaction wheels inside the fowardmost passenger cabin in the next version. (Forgot to do it with Mark 1 and Mark 2.) But the monoprop tanks are mostly to partition the cargo bays. I think I will try for an optimal solution with only one mk3 rcs tank later on. Maybe replace rcs tank with crew cabin.

[vladd148]

Presenting the Spectre Type 36LR!

Still a work in progress, but is currently able to carry an orange tank into a 250km orbit, dock with my space station, and then return and land back without refueling with about 30% fuel leftover in the tanks. The plan is to see if I can extend it to an interplanetary cargo ship. I reckon it won't take too much fiddling about, but we'll see. 

Flies very nice and stable aside from the takeoff, as it uses up the entire runway!

 

 

[ajburges]

Late game SSTOs seem to all be either be a Skylon mimic or a thrust plate. And they all use Rapiers and maybe Nukes. It just feels formulaic. OTOH I don't see as many novel low tech designs.

Meet the Lance (an unintentionally ironic class name). It does require a few building upgrades and some 300 level nodes, but it serves as a fine SSTO platform until you get the Dart. It is very efficient for what does: less than 211 funds a passenger (4) to orbit. It is trivial to upgrade the jet engine and intake as you get better tiers. Power-plant isn't that original, but I like the aesthetics of my spin. This is actually an evolution of another, lower tech design I've since expunged.

Flight profile is easy but doesn't have too much margin.

• Reach peak velocity (~200 m/s) ASL under military thrust. Be careful the wing incidence makes it a little squirrely here.
• Engage Afterburners, Pitch nose to 10 degrees above horizon. Again the wings will fight to go higher. Don't let them!
• If you manage pitch right, you should wind up at the base of a shallow zoom climb at angels 12 with prograde 10 degrees above the horizon and ~800 m/s. Light the boosters (stage) and pitch up.
• Keep heading 10 degrees above prograde (touch the v to the prograde circle) during climb for thermal management. Cockpit will not easily survive atmospheric circulation.
• You should have 300+ m/s in a 75 x 75 orbit.
• Deorbit burn PE below angels 20 and use cobra reentry.You can level out at 1400 m/s. Glide AoA is somewhere near prograde. That excess lift now allows for a nice slow landing.

[AeroGav]

14 hours ago, quasarrgames said:

Very nice! Good luck with tylo!

...Also, that's a lot of monopropellant you have there. you'd probably save a few tons by replacing your RCS with reaction wheels, if you wanted.

ALSO, mostly out of sheer luck, i've created an incredibly low tech SSTO, the Crazy Maverick:

I don't even know how it works so well, but it does. Only requires aerodynamics and advanced rocketry to get (technically not even advanced rocketry, since i got the terrier as part of a contract). Might even be able to give it a drone core and make it carry a couple tourists.

My non-retractable SSTO kept melting its undercarriage, so came up with this workaround -

In honour of the program's female test pilot,  I came up with a totally non-sexist, empowering name for the ship

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Dolly-Bird

[Aerospacer]

Cave style minimalism - Science45 stock HTOL-SSTO  LTS-6:

Just 1 gimballess engine (LVT-30), just 6 t of propellant, just 13 parts, just 6618 kerbucks at launch.
Launch mass less 9.3 t, left DV on LKO 50-60 m/s - enouch for soft deorbiting and land to runway.

Low Kerbin Orbit 74x72 km, 51 m/s dV left.

Full flight album: http://imgur.com/a/VtC12

Edited January 30, 2017 by Aerospacer

[Yukon0009]

I built a small spaceliner able to carry 4 kerbals into LKO with fuel for docking.

Also made a fuel tanker, bus and mobile staircase to ensure it's true reusability!

It's extremely stable on ascent, requiring not much input from the "pilot".

Hits orbit with about 600m/s dV left over.

Reentry is easy as well, nothing burns up.

Fuel tanker claws onto the liner and refuels it..

..While it's refueling it also tows the plane back to it's starting point.

Fully fueled, the engines are started for a second run.

Went for an inclined orbit to try landing at the Island Airfield.

Due to a less efficient ascent, I made orbit with only 300 m/s to spare. You may notice there's a MJ panel there that wasn't there first ascent, during the refueling I got an engineer to stick it on via KIS.

 

 

 

[Korsakovski]

After having my fafnir vtol prototype repeatedly kraken'd, (After the screen froze for a few seconds, plane just performed a spontaneous explosive self-dismemberment on the runway.) I decided to clear my mind and make some valkyrie variants.

Crew over range version

https://kerbalx.com/Korsakovski/Valkyrie-XB

http://imgur.com/a/UPkGN

And then the golden middle ground between crew and range.

https://kerbalx.com/Korsakovski/Valkyrie-XB1

http://imgur.com/a/SJpu4

Will post the craft files later, kerbalx is being kinda wonky (or maybe it's imgur)

EDIT:Craft files uploaded

Edited January 31, 2017 by Korsakovski

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I kind of made an SSTO by accident.

I had taken one of the "Conduct observational surveys of Kerbin" contracts and, rather than employ my usual strategy of building a sub-orbital rocket and hoping that I could aim it right, I decided to build an atmospheric plane to handle the job. I put a small plane together with Panthers for thrust (since they have great fuel efficiency in dry mode but can still get to high altitudes on wet mode) and confirmed that it could at least get off the runway and fly around a bit when I thought that it might be useful to have a biome-hopper like this on Laythe. The problem is, how do I get it there? Carting it though space won't be a huge problem; it's got a shielded docking port on the back so I can just attach a nuclear tug to it to get it wherever it needs to go, but that'll only work if I can get it into orbit in the first place.

After trying and failing to build a rover that could dock with the plane on the runway to attach a rocket to the back I decided to just stick some R.A.P.I.E.R. engines to the sides. The extra weight of the additional engines and fuel was offset by the extra thrust that the R.A.P.I.E.R.s provided in air-breathing mode, and after switching to closed-cycle mode they had (barely) enough power to circularize at 70km, at which point I detached the pylons that they were mounted to since they'd done their job. However, I was already in orbit by that point and hadn't shed any parts to get there, so it still counts as an SSTO.