Buffalo High Altitude Aerospace Craft - Parasite Rocket Carrier (>80km in a climb!)

[Jetman123]

Behold, one of my few - and most unexpected - successes. I was experimenting with larger, more lightly loaded, high-thrust aircraft, sort of a transonic B-52 if you will compared to some of the stuff I usually try in terms of spaceplanes.

The craft I have affectionately nicknamed "Buffalo" is, in its high-altitude variant, capable of 1550 m/s or faster (!) and a suborbital zoom climb of up to 80km or higher (!!!) while running 'clean' with no parasite rocket attached, and nothing but airbreathing jet engines. No rockets here, not even for takeoff assist. It's quite a marvel that such a heavy, drag-laden craft is able to go this fast.

It has a thrust to weight ratio greater than one and, despite all of this absurd performance, is actually exceptionally stable, even at high speeds. I won't go as far to say that you'll never need SAS, but she won't slip or spin unless you're careless. And yes, she's no 'dragon lady' - you can certainly land her just fine.

Included in this pack are three aircraft - the initial, low-altitude-only prototype, the improved "high altitude" variant, and a 'special' variant that Jebediah himself requested...

... along with a QRF (Quick Reference Document) describing my experiences with flying her so far. This craft would be perfect for the attachment of a parasite rocket (something I'm experimenting with myself as we speak) as well as for just general high-performance fun. I'm really surprised an aircraft with this big a wing was such an unexpected success as a high-speed, edge-of-the-earth transsonic plane. If you're really patient and skilled, you might be able to fly her as high as 25000 meters without stalling her.

Feel free to modify and play with this craft as much as you please.

Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rzbz35xry0uemd7/Buffalo-HA.rar

Imgur gallery: http://imgur.com/a/s524F#0

[Nephf]

80 kilometers? that's quite a lot!

[chunkblaster]

Throw a couple of small rocket fuel tanks and a nuke engine or 2 on and you got yourself a lovely SSTO.

[Jetman123]

Throw a couple of small rocket fuel tanks and a nuke engine or 2 on and you got yourself a lovely SSTO.

Just what I'm experimenting with now! This might actually evolve into an entire little family of spaceplane carriers and orbit craft. Trouble is, the drag balance is proving difficult for most mounting points - I'm going to have to do a slight redesign of some of the fuselage. Still, it shouldn't be too difficult!

[chunkblaster]

if I could make a suggestion, replace the radially attached intakes for ram intakes, even if you gota stick them on with the little tiny strut cubes. They're much more effective at high altitude. you might be able to run your jets a bit longer that way and put you up even higher before you need to burn the rockets.