can you build an ssto?

[Motokid600]

I made a nice plane that goes up to my station and can "land" back at KSC. Landings hard because the plane is balanced with full fuel. Once it runs out of mono it gets rear heavy so I have to go light on the controls. If I'm not perfectly lined up with the runway after reentry then I gotta put it down in the grass. It's a blast to fly. I will say though its not an SSTO. It's a DSTO. Duel stage technically. It uses 6 very powerful KW rockets to lift up off the runway in about a 100 yards from start. I pitch up about 60 degrees then at 1k meters the rockets seperate and off I go. Gets to orbit with almost half a tank left. I use the B9 pack. ( makes SSTO's a breeze to build. )

[Sirrobert]

Sirrobert, the avionics control works rather well for space planes..well planes in general, I haven't gotten mine to space yet. I think the highest I've gotten is about 40k, and thats where it flames out. Got about as many intakes on it as I can fit without getting part lag.

Which brings me to my answer for the poll...yes, and no. Yes in that I can technically build one...but no because I haven't gotten it to space yet. I think part of it may just be it has a specific flight profile I haven't figured out yet, but that's part of the fun I guess.

Yes I tryd the control package. It makes you fight for controls though, so I still managed to fly horrible

[Tex_NL]

The one on the left is a crew shuttle, the one on the bottom right a 20+ ton cargo shuttle. Both are SSTO with fuel to spare.

[Spatzimaus]

Of course. SSTO spaceplanes aren't tough once you understand the basic concepts. Here's my best design, the Sleazy Weasel 3b:

I've got a version that can carry a couple ion probes on the ends of its wings, too. It's almost entirely a stock design; the few non-stock parts are on there either for aesthetics (using KW Rocketry's RCS tanks instead of the normal ones with the same stats) or don't affect performance (like the ISA MapSat scanner).

But you don't need to be a plane to be an SSTO. Here's my SSTO heavy-lift rocket (4000 tons, payload ~500 tons), the Bucket:

It can either put its payload in a circular LKO and then safely de-orbit itself, or it can get the payload almost entirely out of Kerbin's SOI on a direct upwards burn. This one's most definitely not stock, though; those tanks are 3.75m KW Rocketry tanks, for instance.

[CalculusWarrior]

I have designed SSTO spaceplanes before, with a lot of work. However, my designs are a lot less useful and much more tedious to fly than my single-use rockets. I might start using them more when Career mode is implemented.

[rryy]

Yes, but not in spaceplane form.

I tried to make it look aerodynamic, too, but without all that dead weight, it would probably have much more delta-v.

I once tried to build a spaceplane SSTO, and it actually got into orbit once, but because of its nose-heaviness, I couldn't take it into orbit again.

Edited June 27, 2013 by rryy

[The Destroyer]

I got another SSTO here. The boosters are just for extra payload, remove them and she still flies.

Craft here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s8r1derqjiddb10/Vortex%20Transport.craft (needs B9 Aerospace. Yell at me if I forgot something)

[Mic_n]

it's perhaps a bit counter-intuitive, but it's easier to go _small_ for spaceplanes. Biggest limiting factor is a lack of air at altitude, which means you can't have much thrust from a jet engine, and multiple engines wind up working against you.

The thing to keep in mind is that you kinda want to follow a curve, just like a 'normal' launch.. this time though it's less to do with gravity and more to do with air. As you get higher, the air gets thinner, you get less drag, but you have less air to power a jet. However, you can go faster. The faster you go, the more air your intakes can pull in, the harder you can push your engine, the faster you can go.

So there's this corridor where you ascend, where you're high enough to have as little drag as possible, but are moving fast enough to keep some airflow to your engines.

As your airspeed increases, so can your altitude.

It's a tough thing to get right, but it's possible.

I'd suggest a lightweight plane.. a single mk1 fuselage tank (or equivalent), single jet engine, and a pair of the short fueltanks with aerospikes or 909s attached. intakes on the front of that and as many more that you can fit as don't make you feel like you're cheating (I just now made one with 4 intakes total, that's do-able).

As strange as it sounds, wings are pretty much a waste on a spaceplane. Just some little winglets at the back to give you some control and drag the rear back to keep your nose pointed forward. Trickiest part of that is takeoff, then finding that golden 'corridor' for your plane.

Best of luck.

[ShachonianX]

I'm currently working on an SSTO, which is named the Phoenix.

[Brotoro]

I've built several...

Single-kerbal SSTO, landing on its rocket flame:

Seven-kerbal Crew Carrier SSTO:

Four-kerbal version for use at Laythe:

SSTUBBY compact single-kerbal version for use at Laythe:

Edited later because I found this:

i meant a spaceplane ssto

Then why didn't you say so?

Yeah, I made one of those as well:

Edited June 27, 2013 by Brotoro

[0Kev]

Another vote for "Yes but not a plane".

It's easy with no payload.

[AustralianFries]

Yeah, I dont find them too difficult.

[Eric S]

Technically yes, it's even a spaceplane. I just need to work on it so that I can do something other than get into orbit, then deorbit and land. No cargo capacity, no RCS, not even sure how far beyond a 100km orbit I can get it, so it's pretty much just a checkmark on what I technically can do at this point.

[RealHogweed]

Yes, this is the best i can do.. i've never managed to build a bigger one though, neither now that i'm using FAR nor before

[Tex_NL]

I got another SSTO here. The boosters are just for extra payload, remove them and she still flies.

http://i.imgur.com/xG89BMp.png

http://i.imgur.com/2gnjcG2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TKBmkhj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Hq1aZNv.png

Craft here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s8r1derqjiddb10/Vortex%20Transport.craft (needs B9 Aerospace. Yell at me if I forgot something)

http://i.imgur.com/lK3v7n7.png

How do you land that beast?

Yes, this is the best i can do.. i've never managed to build a bigger one though, neither now that i'm using FAR nor before

http://i.imgur.com/NjQJcV1.png

After my heavy cargo planes I started looking into light weight again. Mind if I steal copy some of your ideas?

Edited June 27, 2013 by Tex_NL

[FlamedSteak]

Nope, I can never get my TWR high enough. As soon as I strap a rocket to one of my planes it flies like a brick.

Half the time I can't even get the fuggin thing off the ground. That being said, I think my wing designing skills are all kinds of suck.

Edited June 27, 2013 by FlamedSteak

[Flixxbeatz]

No. And never will anymore.

I gave up building them already, got my focus back on multistage rockets.

[arq]

I've been messing with SSTO's for awhile now, but I only recently managed to get one all the way out to land on Minmus and back. Still working on increasing the range. One guy made one that could land on Duna and return, but I've got a ways to go before I can manage that sort of thing.

[nerdboy64]

I've made quite a few SSTOs before. As a big fan of science fiction, I've always liked the idea of a craft that can take off from the surface and get all the way to space unassisted. Here are some of my latest models:

HS-830 Hercules

A monster of a craft which puts coolness before efficiency. I started with the central bit, which has a crew capacity of 15, a big orange fuel tank, ASAS, and RCS fuel. Then I added wings, engines, and more fuel tanks until it got into space. Doesn't serve much "practical" purpose, but since when was KSP about practicality?

HS-210

A slightly more reasonable SSTO with a single pilot. Very stable and easy to fly (for an SSTO, that is), and quite maneuverable at low altitudes.

Edited June 28, 2013 by nerdboy64

[Ganymede]

Yep. It even got to the Mun without refuel.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/27276-Sentinel-Mk-V-Spaceplane-SSTMO-%28Single-Stage-to-Munar-Orbit%29?highlight=sentinel

[asae]

Would love to say yes, except since OP meant spaceplane SSTO then I cannot say so.

[Rhino1998]

Yes, and with lots of cargo, however, it is heavily modded:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/33908-B9-Kondor-Mk-II

[Festivefire]

It's always nice to see a fellow procedural wing user!

[khyron42]

SSTO spaceplanes seem to fall into two categories: small cargo haulers, and personnel transport. I've done some of each, but adding a detachable payload makes keeping an SSTO balanced for lift even harder. The hard part is landing after the tanks are mostly empty; most of the time, your center of gravity has moved forward or back too much for the craft to handle well unless it was really carefully designed.

My usual trick is to build the SSTO and save it, then build a second model where all the fuel tanks are replaced with structural fuselage. I can compare the center of gravity of the structural fuselage model to see about where it will be after the fuel tanks are empty; then I'll redesign the wings to give easy flight control at both the full and empty CoG. I'll also try to manage the CoG shift during flight by keeping the centermost fuel tank disabled until needed, or having my payload positioned to keep the CoG under control and then pumping fuel into different tanks before I re-enter to restore trim.

This is actually one reason why most real-world aircraft use the wings as the fuel tanks - it puts them right at center of gravity and burning off the fuel doesn't move the CoG enough to cause issues.

[Giggleplex777]

I've even landed on Minmus with one.