how big an SSTO plane did you manage to build?

[lammatt]

a bigger plane means you can take with you a larger payload.

--------------

the biggest i managed to build is this, the starting mass is 130t (without payload)

6 stock turbojets + 3 SABRE M (6 ram intakes 2 SABRE intakes + 4 radial intakes)

it's pretty hard to land bacause anything > -3m/s vertical when touching down results in breaking some control surfaces or wings)

Edited September 12, 2013 by lammatt

[allmhuran]

Stock. No idea how much it weighs.

I suppose I could go edit some part files and scale it all up by a factor of three and then claim I built something three times as big!

[Rage097]

Nonexistant.

Weight=N/A

Mass=N/A

Size=N/A

Post=irrelevatnt

[Comrade Jenkens]

allmhuran: That thing is huge!!! How many parts is it?

Looks really pretty as well.

[lammatt]

allmhuran: That thing is huge!!! How many parts is it?

Looks really pretty as well.

I guess it's around 150-200t

as you can see there are ~7000 liquid and 7000oxidisers to start with.

and i bet it'd be fairly hard to fly too, just like the stock albatross, unless he strutted every wing connector.

[solidgeoff]

http://i.imgur.com/zhzhTr6.jpg

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

this is the biggest, with a cargo container in the middle. on a later version, i didnt bother with the pylon engines under the wings.

http://i.imgur.com/wqmF83o.jpg

This one is probably my most successful. the atomic engines allow it to deposit a lander to the Mun and then take it back to Kerbin.

[allmhuran]

allmhuran: That thing is huge!!! How many parts is it?

Looks really pretty as well.

It's around 1100 parts. It's meant to be a starcraft battlecruiser: http://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/16/15361/Battlecruiser1.gif

I set myself a few requirements:

- Look like a starcraft battlecruiser (obviously)

- Be very large. No mini-versions allowed! (too easy)

- Take off under its own power (no booster-assisted takeoff)

- Take off and land on its own landing gear

- Be able to get to Duna (not necessarily back) without refuelling

- Able to be refuelled (this is harder than it seems... the hard part being the problem of actually clicking on the fuel tanks to transfer fuel in given the amount of wing parts surrounding everything)

- Controlled re-entry and landing

- Sub 1000 parts

I spent several weeks after building the one you see here trying to refine it for the sub 1000 parts requirement and the "look like a battlecruiser" requirement. On a battlecruiser the rear wings are angled down a bit more, mine are only 5 degrees down, I wanted 10. But that makes balance very difficult. In the end I gave up - most of the sub 1000 parts designs with more angle on the wings were wobbly in the atmosphere - if I could get them off the runway to begin with, the angle down rear wings making the craft have a pretty serious nose-down pitch on the runway.

And yes... the tips of all wings are strutted to the outlying wingtip structure both at the front and rear. This is to prevent the wing structures from separating from each other (looks bad in flight otherwise) and to give more support to the (relatively heavy) wingtip structures.

Flight is quite stable but turning is slow. In order to overcome that all of the engines (both the set of 4 nuclear engiens at the back as well as jet engines at both front and rear that are not visible in the picture) are set up in action groups to assist with pitch up, pitch down, yaw left and yaw right.

Edited September 13, 2013 by allmhuran

[Hodo]

SH-401 "Bison"

200tons full of fuel. Over 270 when loaded with cargo.

Max tested cargo capacity is around 70 tons, limited by space, and 12 Kerbalnaughts.

And here is the "Trident" my current mid tier workhorse.

130 tons on take off, 32 ton cargo capacity, limited by space. No passengers.

[Moar Boosters]

100% stock. Just over 100 tons. 533 parts. Gets to Duna and back. Can also land on non atmospheric bodies.

[lammatt]

SH-401 "Bison"

200tons full of fuel. Over 270 when loaded with cargo.

Max tested cargo capacity is around 70 tons, limited by space, and 12 Kerbalnaughts.

And here is the "Trident" my current mid tier workhorse.

130 tons on take off, 32 ton cargo capacity, limited by space. No passengers.

270t is pretty impressive

i run into structural integrity problem with my barely130t thing; the wings flops like no tomorrow and it's fairly hard to land too...