SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Exothermos]

Woah, I love the look of that. Sweet!

[KissSh0t]

Still Testing... Not happy with the wing layout... Functional though. Docked along with an older SSTO at my in progress space station that is actually waiting to have big red fuel tanks brought up.

[9t3ndo]

Woah, I love the look of that. Sweet!

I edit my post for the craft file if you want to try it, when mine craft was meant.

[Cinocal]

Science research bird.

[ZodiaK]

my new SSTO: the PYLON! (named and modeled after the Skylon SSTO.)

Full forum thread Here

ZodiaK. Cool SSTOs BTW

[9t3ndo]

I updated my Rapier Shuttle.craft so it get usefull for crew transports

*added second cockpit

*improve aerodynamik

*improve fuel flow

Edited December 21, 2013 by 9t3ndo

[Hodo]

SVO-22 Thrush (named after a Aerotech fighter from the Battletech universe)

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[razgriz86er]

This 2 seat SSTO is also a VTOL for gravity levels of Duna or less. the VTOL engines should be balanced the entire flight. the engines are fixed over the center of variable masses with the COM centered over that mass as well. full or empty the COM/COL shouldn't create unpredictable controls in atmosphere.

it uses the tweakables system to achieve a fuel mix optimized for getting into orbit around kerbin. the control surfaces have been tweaked as well.

sadly i wouldn't say this is an easy craft to put into orbit since it uses a 1-1 intake to engine ratio.

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[Dooz]

This is mine its been my work horse in carreer mode its job is to deliver small satelites to LKO when done it lands at ksc runway

[Overfloater]

My 1st ever successful space-plane. yes, PLANE! and my 1st time landing a plane!

This new update rocks! Now that we can empty fuel tanks while in assembly, we can see how the weight centre shifts, and adjust the design accordingly.

Also we can now use any fuel tank as a plane tank by emptying the oxidizer, and the relative weight between the fuel and it's tank is about the same as the fuselages!

Space Plane Mk-I

Has one atomic engine, 4 turbo jets, 10 ram intakes.

Capable of landing on Minmus. It's low gravity allows a full stop 1 inch above surface, and then a flip to land on the wheels. Can also reach Duna, and stay there.

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Also, Airhog Lifter Mk-II prototype, gets above atmospere on jets alone, and puts a full orange tank there.

I aint done with VTVL rockets just yet xP

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[KissSh0t]

@Overfloater

VERY nice work with the big red lifter!!

[RocketPilot573]

Due to some recent improvements, it can now transport 20 tons of payload to the surface of Minmus and return to KSC/the Island Airfield. And the payload is neatly concealed in the absolutely huge cargo bay (roomy enough to fit one and a half orange tanks WITH accessories such as lights, RSC, and landing gears on the side).

[KissSh0t]

Returning from my space station~ I wasn't worried about this type 26 Ares, I knew how it was going to act... perfectly~

I wish I could say the same for the second test SSTO that was docked at the space station.. I lost my first Kerbal today.. I am sad : <

[Astraph]

I wonder if this is an appropriate place to ask for help... But so far all my SSTO designs crashed due to fuel/mass ratio. Namely, I got caught in a vicious circle of "bigger payload -> needs more fuel to keep DeltaV -> gets heavier -> needs more jets to lift up -> needs more rockets to get to orbit -> needs more fuel to keep the DeltaV"... Which ended up around ~140 tonnes with "duck this sheet, I have no idea where to put more fuel tanks". Therefore, could anyone out there give me a hint how to overcome this problem? Or possibly, pinpoint any critical misconceptions in the following idea?

-> Crew: 2 Kerbals

-> Propulsion: multiple (jet + rocket // R.A.P.I.E.R., ion, Kethane turbines)

-> Mission profile: takeoff from Kerbin, with enough fuel to reach orbit. At LKO switch to ion drive, perform trans-Eve injection, rendez-vous with Kethane miners at high Eve orbit for refueling and Kethane transfer. Gliding descent onto Eve, usng drouge parachutes & B9 aerobrakes to save fuel. Take off using Kethane turbines as jet ersatz, another refueling, return to Kerbin.

My initial design ended up with ~30 tonnes of non-fuel mass (wings, docking port, RCS, solar panels, empty Kethane tanks, ion drives, gears, etc.). According to my calculations, this requires ~150 tonnes of total mass (~120 tonnes of fuel) to reach 250 km orbit around Eve, with DeltaV being around 5200 m/s (I assumed Kethane turbines would cut off due to lack of air at around the same pressure and speed as turbojets on Kerbin - which I calculated to be ~39 km altitude with ~1000 m/s velocity, which is already included in DeltaV estimation above). My past plane experience suggests this would require around 15-16 turbojets to lift off (with simmilar amount of Kethane turbines for Eve flight) - increasing this to ~170 tonnes final mass (and 17-18 jets, as I tend to keep a ratio of 9-10 tonnes per turbojet).

Still, I have a strong feeling I'm doing something terribly wrong here. Not only I'm terrified by the perspective of accelerating such monstrosity using 2kN worth of ion thrusters - but I also noticed that most of your designs are considerably smaller, even taking the Kerbin-Eeloo SSTO into account. Therefore, masters of spaceplanes, please advise - where lies my mistake?

Edited December 22, 2013 by Astraph

[Spartwo]

[KissSh0t]

I wonder if this is an appropriate place to ask for help... But so far all my SSTO designs crashed due to fuel/mass ratio. Namely, I got caught in a vicious circle of "bigger payload -> needs more fuel to keep DeltaV -> gets heavier -> needs more jets to lift up -> needs more rockets to get to orbit -> needs more fuel to keep the DeltaV"... Which ended up around ~140 tonnes with "duck this sheet, I have no idea where to put more fuel tanks". Therefore, could anyone out there give me a hint how to overcome this problem? Or possibly, pinpoint any critical misconceptions in the following idea?

-> Crew: 2 Kerbals

-> Propulsion: multiple (jet + rocket // R.A.P.I.E.R., ion, Kethane turbines)

-> Mission profile: takeoff from Kerbin, with enough fuel to reach orbit. At LKO switch to ion drive, perform trans-Eve injection, rendez-vous with Kethane miners at high Eve orbit for refueling and Kethane transfer. Gliding descent onto Eve, usng drouge parachutes & B9 aerobrakes to save fuel. Take off using Kethane turbines as jet ersatz, another refueling, return to Kerbin.

My initial design ended up with ~30 tonnes of non-fuel mass (wings, docking port, RCS, solar panels, empty Kethane tanks, ion drives, gears, etc.). According to my calculations, this requires ~150 tonnes of total mass (~120 tonnes of fuel) to reach 250 km orbit around Eve, with DeltaV being around 5200 m/s (I assumed Kethane turbines would cut off due to lack of air at around the same pressure and speed as turbojets on Kerbin - which I calculated to be ~39 km altitude with ~1000 m/s velocity, which is already included in DeltaV estimation above). My past plane experience suggests this would require around 15-16 turbojets to lift off (with simmilar amount of Kethane turbines for Eve flight) - increasing this to ~170 tonnes final mass (and 17-18 jets, as I tend to keep a ratio of 9-10 tonnes per turbojet).

Still, I have a strong feeling I'm doing something terribly wrong here. Not only I'm terrified by the perspective of accelerating such monstrosity using 2kN worth of ion thrusters - but I also noticed that most of your designs are considerably smaller, even taking the Kerbin-Eeloo SSTO into account. Therefore, masters of spaceplanes, please advise - where lies my mistake?

I recommend looking here >> http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50768-SSTO-Spaceplanes-ranging-from-LKO-to-Duna-and-Laythe-nonstop-flights-with-payload

pa1983 has made some very good large haulers that you might be able to get some ideas from.

[Fellow314]

I wonder if this is an appropriate place to ask for help... But so far all my SSTO designs crashed due to fuel/mass ratio. Namely, I got caught in a vicious circle of "bigger payload -> needs more fuel to keep DeltaV -> gets heavier -> needs more jets to lift up -> needs more rockets to get to orbit -> needs more fuel to keep the DeltaV"... Which ended up around ~140 tonnes with "duck this sheet, I have no idea where to put more fuel tanks". Therefore, could anyone out there give me a hint how to overcome this problem? Or possibly, pinpoint any critical misconceptions in the following idea?

In my limited experience, and if you don't really mind, erm, being creative with the physics, there are very few problems that can't be solved with more air.

[zapy]

Personal SSTO

I've designed this rocket/plane to use the new R.A.P.I.E.R engine.

It costs 16827 and weights less than 4 tons.

It's main purpose is to be used to transfer a single kerbal to orbit and back.

Although I didn't added, a probe core can be added to pick up a kerbal in orbit and return him to kerbin.

If you do a orbit refuel, you can get more than 950m/s DV, enough to leave kerbin SOI

After some tries, there's enough fuel to fly for about 30 km after reentry, so is relatively easy to land on ksp complex.

The landing system is in that way to save fuel, the 3 landing gears needed will weight 1,5 tons, and in a spaceplane smaller than 4 tons is too much. Still, landing at a precise spot is easy enough.

The powered descend at the end of the video is recommended, but not needed if there's almost no fuel left.

If anyone wants to download it here's the link.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wv1au4e6s0w2z3j/c7HqgafD3j

[inigma]

Here are my first RAPIER SSTO

The Rapier Shuttle.craft - with 30° straight into 120km orbit....

http://i40.tinypic.com/f403yd.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/103djys.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ch6c5y.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/33d8gtd.jpg

That craft is worthy of an SSI submission if you're up to it. What are its range capabilities?

[zombiphylax]

The Super Sparrow with a single RAPIER engine.

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[9t3ndo]

That craft is worthy of an SSI submission if you're up to it. What are its range capabilities?

The range isn't not so big. In my second post you can see v1.1 on Duna. This was a 1 way trip after refueling it at my station. The craft was only concepted for crew transports to my station and as landing ship for my "Explorer One" interplanetary science ship.

Edited December 24, 2013 by 9t3ndo

[Hodo]

So I made my first successful vertical launch SSTO...

VSR-8

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I have no clue what I am going to do with it, but I think it would be great for exploring other planets. It is kind of limited on range though, only a d/v of 2900m/s.

[Rune]

I wonder if this is an appropriate place to ask for help... But so far all my SSTO designs crashed due to fuel/mass ratio. Namely, I got caught in a vicious circle of "bigger payload -> needs more fuel to keep DeltaV -> gets heavier -> needs more jets to lift up -> needs more rockets to get to orbit -> needs more fuel to keep the DeltaV"... Which ended up around ~140 tonnes with "duck this sheet, I have no idea where to put more fuel tanks". Therefore, could anyone out there give me a hint how to overcome this problem? Or possibly, pinpoint any critical misconceptions in the following idea?

-> Crew: 2 Kerbals

-> Propulsion: multiple (jet + rocket // R.A.P.I.E.R., ion, Kethane turbines)

-> Mission profile: takeoff from Kerbin, with enough fuel to reach orbit. At LKO switch to ion drive, perform trans-Eve injection, rendez-vous with Kethane miners at high Eve orbit for refueling and Kethane transfer. Gliding descent onto Eve, usng drouge parachutes & B9 aerobrakes to save fuel. Take off using Kethane turbines as jet ersatz, another refueling, return to Kerbin.

My initial design ended up with ~30 tonnes of non-fuel mass (wings, docking port, RCS, solar panels, empty Kethane tanks, ion drives, gears, etc.). According to my calculations, this requires ~150 tonnes of total mass (~120 tonnes of fuel) to reach 250 km orbit around Eve, with DeltaV being around 5200 m/s (I assumed Kethane turbines would cut off due to lack of air at around the same pressure and speed as turbojets on Kerbin - which I calculated to be ~39 km altitude with ~1000 m/s velocity, which is already included in DeltaV estimation above). My past plane experience suggests this would require around 15-16 turbojets to lift off (with simmilar amount of Kethane turbines for Eve flight) - increasing this to ~170 tonnes final mass (and 17-18 jets, as I tend to keep a ratio of 9-10 tonnes per turbojet).

Still, I have a strong feeling I'm doing something terribly wrong here. Not only I'm terrified by the perspective of accelerating such monstrosity using 2kN worth of ion thrusters - but I also noticed that most of your designs are considerably smaller, even taking the Kerbin-Eeloo SSTO into account. Therefore, masters of spaceplanes, please advise - where lies my mistake?

Your mistake? Basically trying to SSTO from EVE. Can't be done stock, and I doubt the heavy kethane turbines make much of a dent on the huge delta-v to achieve it. Did you know they flame out MUCH sooner than turbojets and you can't add intakes to it to airhog? At about ~10km equivalent pressure, they shut down, I think.

Rune. Because science! And reasons! (mostly the dry mass fraction of fuel tanks and the T/W of engines).

[Hodo]

Your mistake? Basically trying to SSTO from EVE. Can't be done stock, and I doubt the heavy kethane turbines make much of a dent on the huge delta-v to achieve it. Did you know they flame out MUCH sooner than turbojets and you can't add intakes to it to airhog? At about ~10km equivalent pressure, they shut down, I think.

Rune. Because science! And reasons! (mostly the dry mass fraction of fuel tanks and the T/W of engines).

You're right, the Kethane turbines would be near useless on Eve. They would flame out at around 40-50km and be dead weight, and you haven't even made it through half the atmosphere. For Eve the best SSTO you can come up with a REALLY light SSTO, that takes only what is needed down and refuels down there, and that is it. It would be best to use a small high ISP rocket, to do this, and glide down to land. The smoother and more aerodynamic you can make it the better.

[Yaeah]

This is my SSTO, the Peregrine MkIV utilizing the new R.A.P.I.E.R engines, and is quite heavy, and can have some issues getting up there. with a refueling tanker, I can reach Eve quite easily, and possibly laythe.

http://imgur.com/a/ru9zf