[Tutorial] Advanced SSTO Design

[buzz66boy]

I created this SSTO tutorial for people looking to go beyond orbit in an SSTO. It is a general guide and has a lot of my opinions about the different parts. Enjoy!

Edit:

New video augmenting the old one. Brings up changes in updates and takes you to the Mün and back in an SSTO.

Edited July 23, 2014 by buzz66boy
Added 2nd video

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Thanks! I'm amazing I didn't think of "staging" the air intakes. Overall great tutorial

[buzz66boy]

Thanks! I'm amazing I didn't think of "staging" the air intakes. Overall great tutorial

Thanks, and as always feedback is welcome!

[Specialist290]

Nicely done. Very in-depth and well-explained. Adding this to the Drawing Board to go along with your previous video.

[Bean]

Very helpful, I don't like doing intakes like that though, but I'll have a shot with some other points you brought up

[Mexxy]

Brilliant tutorial! Was EXACTLY what I was looking for after building my first basic successful SSTO.

One thing to note, your voice started de-syncing as the video went on. Fraps tends to do that if you use it to record your voice as well. I recommend Audacity to record your audio as it gives you a separate audio track to tweak and it doesn't de-sync.

I'm guna go check out your channel for other tutorials - I wanna learn how to make a decent rocket!

[Immashift]

Excellent quality tutorial. Did help with how my SSTOs have a runway wobble problem, although part of it sometimes is lack of struts which induces the wheels not being straight, especially once the lift starts pressing on the craft during takeoff.

I tend to dislike the airhogging a lot of people do. I find about 3 rams / turbojet MUCH more than enough to take off of Kerbin and Laythe. My own favorite design uses 3 per engine, with a modular rocket engine design which uses docking ports to switch around engines after getting to orbit.

Hell the stock Aeris 4a uses 1 ram intake per engine and a few radials and it still climbs to orbit relatively easily. Although if you're looking to save every drop of fuel, nukes and airhogging is the way to go, I just think it looks terrible.

I was however impressed with how little you had to use your nuke. I'm used to switching to rocket around 34km up at maybe 1700-1900m/s. Seeing all that fuel left on yours was interesting.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Immashift

[buzz66boy]

Brilliant tutorial! Was EXACTLY what I was looking for after building my first basic successful SSTO.

One thing to note, your voice started de-syncing as the video went on. Fraps tends to do that if you use it to record your voice as well. I recommend Audacity to record your audio as it gives you a separate audio track to tweak and it doesn't de-sync.

I'm guna go check out your channel for other tutorials - I wanna learn how to make a decent rocket!

I do use audacity, but I was interrupted mid-video. So I had to sync it in post. It seemed like I had it perfect, I used a couple key points as reference. I will be more careful in the future.

[buzz66boy]

Excellent quality tutorial. Did help with how my SSTOs have a runway wobble problem, although part of it sometimes is lack of struts which induces the wheels not being straight, especially once the lift starts pressing on the craft during takeoff.

I tend to dislike the airhogging a lot of people do. I find about 3 rams / turbojet MUCH more than enough to take off of Kerbin and Laythe. My own favorite design uses 3 per engine, with a modular rocket engine design which uses docking ports to switch around engines after getting to orbit.

Hell the stock Aeris 4a uses 1 ram intake per engine and a few radials and it still climbs to orbit relatively easily. Although if you're looking to save every drop of fuel, nukes and airhogging is the way to go, I just think it looks terrible.

I was however impressed with how little you had to use your nuke. I'm used to switching to rocket around 34km up at maybe 1700-1900m/s. Seeing all that fuel left on yours was interesting.

Yes, if you want to go to the far reaches of the Kerbol System airhogging and nukes is great. I don't like it either, but it works (and looks ugly w/o clipping). If there was another way I would use it.

[Rysq]

This was great, i had no idea you could do that with air intakes to get more from jet engines, very helpful. Thanks !

[carazvan]

Good video sir.

I was laughing thoroughly during this video thought from the 5th minute onwards ... why? ... take a look at the Ant SSTO I've been using for a bit now:

Except for a few different choices for fuel routing and positions .. it's similar ... guess we all gravitate towards the same things with SSTOs once we start getting into them

[buzz66boy]

Good video sir.

I was laughing thoroughly during this video thought from the 5th minute onwards ... why? ... take a look at the Ant SSTO I've been using for a bit now:

-snip-

Except for a few different choices for fuel routing and positions .. it's similar ... guess we all gravitate towards the same things with SSTOs once we start getting into them

Haha, well done! As you can tell I was obviously constructing it on the spot. That is quit e a coincidence.

[Auriga]

Thanks for this great tutorial, for me it was the best SSTO tutorial I have seen so far. I was able to build a small space plane a couple of month ago, but your tutorial gave me some extra knowledge to be able to build some more larger and "unusual" stuff:D thanks a lot.

[kyle.mk.howard]

Great tutorial. Is it just me, or is the amount of air intakes used on the aircraft seem excessive?

[buzz66boy]

Great tutorial. Is it just me, or is the amount of air intakes used on the aircraft seem excessive?

Airhogging as it is known is really a kind of stop gap measure before KSP starts focusing more on aerodynamics and spaceplane design. I don't like it, but to quote earlier "if you want to go to the far reaches of the Kerbol System airhogging and nukes is great. I don't like it either, but it works (and looks ugly w/o clipping). If there was another way I would use it."

[Cypherwraith]

"When a wing falls off, that's generally not good."

Quote of the day, right there.

[buzz66boy]

Quote of the day, right there.

It was actually live commentary, I have no idea how I kept my cool during that.

[Just_Testing]

Thanks a lot! I thought the ram intakes all along the wings looked a bit stupid, so I used radials instead (less efficient and a bit heavier I know but they look better imo) and built this:

I even managed to take it to the Mun, but I FORGOT to take any pictures of it on the surface (it's 4am for me) -.- I have a pic of very low orbit though:

Because of how difficult landing on a nuke is already, I had to reload the save a few times, so I know that in that picture the plane (SSTO Peregrine) was <100m from the surface. I then managed to take off and bring it home:

All in all, one of the most helpful tutorials I've ever seen, thanks a lot! I'll be using your principles a lot in future!

[EnteroTuna]

Thanks, this was really helpful!

[panzer1b]

not bad, although while im no fan of intake spam (despite it being one tactic that works very well for some reason, not like itd work irl), i do have to say you your tutorial did help me squeeze out much more power from my SSTO's (even if they are inefficient as can get, since i tend to prefer making something look epic over pure functionality).

especially the center of lift thing, somewhat more stable now for me now, even if my main fighter required wings within its fuel tanks to maintain its shape and get the lift center behind the cog.

guess ill need to ditch the idea that everything i make has to look epic (i tend to design somewhat scifiish rockets/ships/ssto, so they may look good but few are what id call optimal or efficient).

also, one more tip i found, if you insist upon max performance and want to spam intakes, then put them within fuel tanks, it looks much nicer, and doesnt clutter up your wings, its cheap to abuse part clipping, but since air intake spam is already sortof abusing game mechanics, might as well stuff them inside the fuel tanks......

also, does anyone know what the most optimal ascent path is if you do not spam air intakes? is it more like a rocket, since you run out of air at around 25000-30000, and you cant really get your speed up enough to really get into orbit without dragging along a very large amount of fuel for the rockets that will inevitably have to be used for quite a while to get the orbit high enough.

[Andrew Hansen]

also, does anyone know what the most optimal ascent path is if you do not spam air intakes?

Take a look at this video from a new YouTuber named Cruzan AK:

He shows how to create an SSTO with just two RAM intakes and takes it into orbit perfectly fine. He says he's going to post another one sometime soon on how to build larger SSTOs that can go past Minmus, so I'd stay tuned for that.

[buzz66boy]

Hi guys, I updated the tutorial with another video. Though I wouldn't consider it a direct replacement, it does follow the same guide. However, it takes into account various changes in updates and I take you farther than orbit.

[Pecan]

Why are all your SSTOs spaceplanes?

[buzz66boy]

Why are all your SSTOs spaceplanes?

Good point! In general SSTOs that go much beyond orbit need to be spaceplanes. I have seen non-plane SSTOs go to the Mun and Minmus but in general not farther. I have begun experimenting with non-plane SSTOs though, and especially with the ARM parts it seems they have more potential.

[Pecan]

Oh good - looking forward to what you come up with. I shall probably copy them shamelessly ^^.

Incidentally - a SSTO that goes much beyond orbit is a mistake ;-) What with it meaning Single Stage To Orbit and all that. Beyond orbit, what's the point in carrying around all those wings, landing gear and jets? Arguably useful for other planets/moons with an atmosphere and particularly fun for Laythe, of course, otherwise - SSTO then detach vacuum transfer/landing stage to carry out the mission and return. Dock and land later.

ETA: Er, yes, I might just be being bloody awkward here but I want to encourage people - especially beginners - to look at the cheap and easy possibilities of non-plane SSTOs and designing for different mission stages. Launch-to-orbit is, after all, a very particular challenge.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Pecan