Meridian 3-crew spaceplane

[RedDwarfIV]

The Meridian is a delta-winged 11-jet 3-man spaceplane capable of achieving 100Pe/100Ap orbit with fuel to deorbit [though in my experience, it's sensible to refuel large spaceplanes before taking them back into atmo to keep balance.] It uses twin Skipper engines to blast its way to orbit, and has a functional Reaction Control System. It is capable of slamming off the end of the runway without its landing gear giving way, so I assume it is capable of landing safely. The radial attachment point plus an RCS tank seems to work wonders as suspension.

Ascent is pretty hairy - you have to keep moving fuel forward and the forward tanks must have their fuel flow off until the Skippers are activated. The way I got it into orbit, it began pulling up uncontrollably so I fired the main engines and shut down the jets, before getting control of its waving around. Having two Skippers instead of one Mainsail really improved the handling, and I didn't have to abort the mission like I might have needed to with one of the older Veto Aerospace 3-man spaceplanes.

Ascent. [This is an older image, showing a version that lacks the three Basic Jets at the rear. However, it does show the six small radial engines on the nose that assist with takeoff. These are switched on and off with the 1 key using Action groups.]

An example of earlier versions' instability. It took a lot of work to get lift/CoM right, and even then I had to balance the Centre of Thrust later on when it kept flipping at about 8Km up.

The Meridian in a 98/102 orbit, and one of the Kerbonauts goes on EVA. This is the image I rotoscoped to make the 'Meridian Flight' drawing.

More orbital imagery. The tail, wing structure and engines can be seen better in this view. Also of note is the shielded docking port.

Edited June 11, 2013 by RedDwarfIV

[SDIR]

Nice. What is the part count?

[RedDwarfIV]

318 parts. As opposed to the single-man Lilith's 125 parts.