About The Aeris 4A

[Novamarine]

What kind of payload is this plane supposed to deliver?

Every time I get into orbit I only have enough fuel to de-orbit.

Ineffective.

[dulljack]

That's pretty much all it is good for. It can reach any point on Kerbin without dropping stages. If you are having fuel issues, you should be able to dock and resupply with a fuel truck or space-station once you are in orbit

[RocketPilot573]

And that's why SSTOs are 99% useless...

[The Destroyer]

And that's why SSTOs are 99% useless...

*ahem* not if you design em right, they can get 20 ton payloads into orbit! >

[Johnno]

It's just a stock example craft, it's a good starting point for learning SSTO design if you want to go the airplane route.

[Moar Boosters]

SSTO's aren't that useful, but you can build single stage craft that get you a lot further than just orbit. I've done SST Mun and SST Minmus. I'm currently working on a SST Duna spaceplane, but currently having problems landing in that thin atmosphere with enough plane left to take off again.

The aeris isn't great. If you like messing about with space stations in low orbit you can add another pod to it so it can carry up a couple of kerbals. I've seen Scott Manley use a modified Aeris to launch tiny probes, but that's about all it can do. It's got the docking port so you could refuel it in orbit, but chances are that'll be done with fuel flown up on something that isn't single stage so that kinda defeats the purpose.

[thescientist]

As there is written in a lot of post, tha Aeris 4A isn't a very good SSTO becuse she was done when the game physics was a little less accurate, so it isn't the best spaceplane that exist. It is, however, a good way to train the new players that must learn how to land, how to save fuel, how to prevent flameout, why it's a bad idea pitch up a lot when taking off (BOOOM - hey KSC, hadn't the plane a rocket engine?)...this means that it has an autonomy quite limited without refuelling. also the RCS system is unbalanced, so it isn't good even as a crew tranfer vehicle. It's a trainer tha is made up to experiment new ascent path and new ways to flight (due to her tight fuel margin, doing this kind of test with the 4A means immediate aswer to your doubt about some flight path), nothing more IMO.

[bsalis]

Payload is 1 Kerbal to LKO.

Or mishap more often... delivered to random locations on Kerbin.

[KerbMav]

Would be nice to have a two man cockpit and a passenger module in all different sizes.

And: Recently I saw an old youtube video of a really cool space shuttle built in an older version of KSP. Didnt stumble on that craft in the forums though?

[thereaverofdarkness]

The Aeris 4A is pretty much the only stock craft that can actually fly and get somewhere. It's the rest of them that seem useless. Even the landers mostly seem like bad lander designs without heavy modification.