SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Hodo]

AletzN1, here you go... my first working SSTO non-space plane design. SVO-2.

Still working on landing it on Kerbin... but in launch to landing without breaking atmo, climbing to 500m then moving and landing near the runway, it works.

It has 2 cargo bays, and can ferry 12 Kerbalnaughts to space... possibly to Mun if I manage to perfect the launch.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Hodo

[Vaebn]

Hi AletzN1! I've actually accidentally done a couple of those in my explorations for a SSTO Tylo lander (I don't like my ships littering like *some* people)

Here's one, full stock, minus the mechjeb:

I call it the "The Space Booth". In fact, this silly thing not only makes it to an 100km orbit, but if you do a Hoffman transfer it has enough fuel to crash on the moon.

So I guess you could call it it a Single Stage to Moon Impactor or something

Craft file to confirm: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ud9ois

And yes, for that matter, it is a fully a capable 100km to surface, surface to 100km, SSTO Tylo lander as well, if interested. Or don't mind carrying a 80tn "lander" around.

And here's another one! (told ya I have lots). This is not exactly a lander design, but a derivative of one which I figured could make it to Kerbin Orbit with a couple of tweaks.

It makes it to 70km Kerbin Orbit, again full stock, minus Mechjeb:

Wat. LV-Ns? I know that these make no sense on Kerbin but in makes more sense on Tylo. Notice the aerospike in the middle.

This actually starts with a terrible TWR on Kerbin of, uh, 1.04, but as it consumes fuel it improves. At about 30km, I shut down the aespike and LV-Ns can do the rest alone.

Craft file to confirm: http://www.sendspace.com/file/98dve1

Remember that you are looking at lander design derivatives so none of those are really meant to carry any payload or land again, they are however "rocket fuel only, stock parts, SSTO"s ^^

Edited September 12, 2013 by Vaebn

[littlebattler]

From the depths of the 6th page of the rocket builders subforum, I have come with finally, a cargo lifter.

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C20S4-2 "Supper Guppy" Monarch

Download

Barely controllable, the Monarch is created out of my unwillingness to compromise between form, function, and my own self-imposed rule of what can and cannot be clipped. The end result, as you can see, is an utterly ridiculous looking plane that works with FAR with a maximum payload of 20 tons to a 75x75 orbit. And yes, before you ask, the cargo detaches from the plane as if it were in a proper cargo bay (minus doors) thanks to the magic of SelectRoot. The action groups have been set up so you can turn the turbojets off in stages, starting from the ones on the sides, the top one, and finally the bottom one. It is advised that you don't start the rockets before reaching 1500 m/s. If you need to shorten the cargo bay for whatever reason, take off the rear I-beam and replace the front one.

At this point, some of you may be questioning what's with the "Supper Guppy". As some may have noticed, I attempted to replicate the bloated hull look. Of course, the Super Guppy does not have a massive delta wing trailing behind it, but at least I got the cockpit position right. As for why it's Supper instead of Super, it was a typo that stuck since I thought it was funny.

If you feel like you want to use this, do note that an autopilot mod is highly recommended. It's perfectly flyable by hand, yes, but not comfortable at all thanks to the slow nature of the SAS. Once we get a hard lock SAS, flying this will be much easier.

[Keranolist]

Not only SSTO but SSTD - Single Stage to Duna!

Cruising around in the atmosphere - sadly i didn't managed to land because jet engines wont work without oxygen and the rocket engine freaked me out for "normal" flying with this design, after like 10 attempts I gave up and returned (safely! yay!)

I'm really proud of this for myself because around a week before this mission I wasnt even able to build an airplane that was flying straight in one direction

[speedboiae86]

Spartan 300 Industries proudly presents, our latest and greatest single stage to orbit spaceship, Project Icarus Mk. II

Icarus is capable of reaching a stable 80x80 km orbit around Kerbin, with fuel leftover for some small delta-v maneuvers, such as rendezvousing with a space station to refuel. It carries three Turbofan Jet engines, and single LV-T30 liquid engine. It is capable of supersonic speeds, this SSTO was built to go fast. The cost of making this beast so fast, is that it's light on fuel and oxidizer, so skillful piloting is required. A plethora of Ram Air intakes will keep the jets breathing upwards of 25km. She has plenty of onboard RCS for docking maneuvers, and a topside Clamp-o-tron Jr. docking port allows the ship to dock at a space station for refuelling. It features a vertical landing system for airless worlds in the form of retractable rear mounted landing legs. A single radiothermal generator supplies all this ships power needs. Should s*it hit the fan, this ship features a safety system that ejects the pilot capsule. A top mounted parachute brings the capsule safely to the ground.

All stock parts, Mechanical Jeb only shown in the photos. Craft file will be up as soon as I have it uploaded.

[Hodo]

And back to spaceplanes... I find the non-space plane designs to be less efficient than the space plane design. You use so much fuel getting to orbit, but you can do it faster. But it could be I suck with them.

But I found a hidden gem in my previous work. The "Trident" space plane.

32 ton cargo to orbit of 73km, could have gone higher, but needed to stay lower than my station at 75km to catch it. Finally building a refueling station in orbit... so ferrying parts up to it.

another shot without the UI up. It actually flies like a dream when empty. But I found one minor flaw in the design... with that much weight in the cargo bay, it shifts the center of weight further forward of the center of lift, making flight a bit of a balancing act until you get up to supersonic speeds. Good news is that only takes about 2 min after take off.

[RocketTurtle]

One question... what is Stabojet?

[SofusRud]

One question... what is Stabojet?

Stabojet is when you angle your jet engines so they always point through the center of mass. that way when you flame out your active engine is still in line with the center of mass and you don't spin-out. Then you can throttle back and reignite the engine that flamed out.

The trade- off is that the more you angle your jets, the more they thrusting against each other, creating inefficiency. So ideally you want to have them angled as little as possible, and the center of mass moving as little as possible.

[Rune]

One question... what is Stabojet?

Hahah. Good question!. The thing is, it's the name of a craft by... I think it was Meticulous Mitch, but the main thing is it was a jet-powered SSTO, and that he angled (quite brilliantly) the jet engines so their thrust would go through the center of mass of the craft. That meant, that when one of the jets flamed out, no matter which one, he wouldn't get any spin, just the thrust would be angled towards the direction of travel slightly. Amazing idea! no more flat spins of death making you restart the flight after you spent ten minutes getting to altitude.

And we are all so grateful he posted the idea, we named the concept after the craft. Quite simple, and it's no law or anything, buty I always refer to it by that name.

Rune. Also, he is also the guy (I think) that first worked out how to do stock helicopters with aerodynamic controls work. Shame his bearing system no longer works.

[RocketTurtle]

Oh... thanks!

[speedboiae86]

Supersonic SSTO - Icarus Mk.III - Upgraded over the original, now capable of getting up to speed much faster with 5 Turbofan Jet Engines, arranged with StaboJet technology. Jets are angled through the center of mass, so if one flames out, it is quite easy to recover by throttling back, and reigniting the engine.

Sitting on the runway, standing by for takeoff.

On a stable 80km orbit around Kerbin.

Edited September 14, 2013 by speedboiae86

[jfull]

My first ever SSTO

I Just need to tweak its capabilities a bit, but I should be able to use it to ferry Kerbals and a small amount of cargo to and from space stations and interplanetary craft in Kerbin orbit.

[Hodo]

jfull, looks good. Once you start, you will always want bigger.

[jfull]

jfull, looks good. Once you start, you will always want bigger.

Well, funny you should say bigger

because, for my next project, I went in exactly the opposite direction

The Mayfly:

...I still can't believe it makes it to orbit

This prototype has way to much liquidfuel though, and not enough oxydizer to de-orbit it.

I'll fix it in the final version, which will also be able to dock.

Edited September 14, 2013 by jfull

[Hodo]

Tonight I did this one... which I call the Wyrm, only because of its flight characteristics. But it managed to get a 60 ton part into orbit and connected to my space station project and land back at KSC, thats when I took the picture.

To this, which is the smallest cargo hauler I have ever made. I don't know how much it can fit in that tiny cargo bay but I cant imagine much more than 8 tons maybe 10.

[Cruzan]

Here's my contribution to SSI's catalogue! Figured I'd post it here as well

It's a VTOL SSTO, (VTOL is atmospheric only).

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[KissSh0t]

What is it's top speed in atmosphere using only the Jet Engines Cruzan?

Edited September 16, 2013 by KissSh0t

[Cruzan]

Good question. I actually didn't know so I did a test run for you to find out since you got me curious.

Looks like 2382m/s. I usually don't push it that long because I'm impatient and switch to the nuke earlier

Edited September 16, 2013 by Cruzan

[KissSh0t]

Good question. I actually didn't know so I did a test run for you to find out since you got me curious.

Looks like 2382m/s. I usually don't push it that long because I'm impatient and switch to the nuke earlier

Trust you to reply as I edit my post haha..

I mean in atmosphere.. not out of atmosphere... Because of it's small size I was curious how fast it can go before running out of air and having to switch to rocket engines.

[Cruzan]

I'm technically still in atmosphere there at 41km. I had .03 units of intake air left to throttle around with before switching if I wanted to.

I can test it at a lower altitude if you want though, just give me a number to shoot for!

[KissSh0t]

Haha! well.... I guess it does count in that situation xD

Very good.

[pinolallo]

Hello,

Here a SSTO production project and the data sheets of 6 SSTO's builded using my standar SSTO body (in version v1, v2)

You can find more info inside the album descriptions.

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[Mrwood]

I'm using the S2 six meter cargo bay on the B9 mod, but I'm having cargo problems. I don't have a joystick and when I use SAS after take off the cargo snaps off inside the cargo bay and through the fuselage due to body flex. (I'm using FAR also). I have a docking node on the door of the forward section holding the cargo. Any ideas as to how I can keep the oscillations down or secure the cargo better? I don't think I can do the same thing on the rear end because my cargo has a rocket engine on it. If I put structure links on it will it undock once I reach orbit? Can I put something on the bottom/sides of the cargo bay?

Thanks in advance.http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/images/smilies/k_huh.gif

[jfull]

Here's my contribution to SSI's catalogue! Figured I'd post it here as well

It's a VTOL SSTO, (VTOL is atmospheric only).

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Oh wow... that makes my Mayfly compact SSTO look like a jet liner by comparison.

You should dock a few of them on an interplanetary ship and send them to Laythe, they'd be perfect.

[pa1983]

My latest SSTO. A lot of people on the forum and on youtube have requested a Medium SSTO spaceplane so I hope this fits the bill. Modifications should be easy enough for those that need docking ports, more fuel, no payload doors etc. This is the basic multipurpose version.

It has a very high lift rate so very efficient climber even at low speeds. It has about 44ton of trust with 4 turbojets at take off and a take of tonnage of 70 tons with a 9 ton payload still it can climbs with very good efficiency that can be seen by the almost parallel smoke trail during the initial 45 degree climb. I got away with 50 intakes, a lot but not as many as I would have figured.

Flight instructions and the craft file can be found in the description in the youtube video. You can also go to my channel using the link in my signature.

Here is a video of the new SSTO, Falcon XIV Kosmos doing her first successful trip.

http://youtu.be/ayHBGs9Ztrw

Edited September 17, 2013 by pa1983