SSTO Struggles

[Comrade_]

To put it frankly, this flips at 18k, help me

[Cranium]

Have you checked that your Center of Mass and Center of Lift are lined up properly? For the most stable plane, it's generally accepted that you would want a CoL slightly behind(towards the tail) of your CoM. That way, as fuel drains, your Center of Mass shifts towards your Center of Lift, making it even more stable.

[Spartwo]

the ram intakes are for low altitudes you should use the blue ones at a 2.5:1 ratio.EDIT:oh not flameouts sorry.

[Cranium]

Although you do make a good point, Spartwo. If you find that you are running out of air, use the ram air intakes. They are the ones that glow slightly blue, and have a square-ish scoop. They have a much better intake ratio at higher altitudes.

As an aside, however, you might want to switch to the Avionics Package instead of an ASAS. It is much better for spaceplanes, as it allows you to make course corrections while using stabilization. ASAS will simply try to keep a current heading, and even if it is wildly thrown off course, it will try to get back to that original heading, often causing compounding overcorrections.

[Comrade_]

The ones that glow blue with the squarish scoop are on the front

[Spartwo]

Although you do make a good point, Spartwo. If you find that you are running out of air, use the ram air intakes. They are the ones that glow slightly blue, and have a square-ish scoop. They have a much better intake ratio at higher altitudes.

As an aside, however, you might want to switch to the Avionics Package instead of an ASAS. It is much better for spaceplanes, as it allows you to make course corrections while using stabilization. ASAS will simply try to keep a current heading, and even if it is wildly thrown off course, it will try to get back to that original heading, often causing compounding overcorrections.

I thought the gray ones were rams.ok comrade was just noticing dead weight.

[Cranium]

No, the gray ones are labelled as radial intakes, as the mount radially.

But if you already have the intakes, yous hould be fine for flameouts with just two engines and the amount of intakes you are using.

[Sᴄɪɴᴛɪʟʟᴀᴛᴏʀ]

One of your engines is probably flaming out, try binding them to action groups to quickly shut them off.

[El wonso]

Air intakes placed only on the top of a spaceplane cause irregular drag that flips your plane.

Extra advices.

Use better air intakes (big blue ones are the best), install them on the wings.

I think you have too much jet fuel, 1 tank per 1 engine should do the trick.

[Tarmenius]

It could also be an issue of too much control authority at the front of your craft. Try placing static winglets on the nose instead.

[Jod]

Put. The aerospike. In. The FRONT. If you've tried everything else - it is most definitely Drag. Drag center is shifted too much by a massive 1.5 t aerospike with a low drag coefficient 0.1. You need the aerospike in front of your center of mass.

I've done several aerospike craft and unless I put aerospikes in the front - they all flip at high speeds on these altitudes. Here are some pics to show possible designs.

Also consider using ram air intakes, arranging them symmetrically and moving them to the back.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Jod

[bsalis]

Air intakes placed only on the top of a spaceplane cause irregular drag that flips your plane.

That.

I also see an ASAS on top. So that is lifting the CoM up above the CoT, causing it to pitch up. This can be controlled at lower altitudes because the control authority is better in the thicker atmo.

Fix the above and you can probably get that to orbit. I doubt you will be able to re-enter and land it though.