Hodo Creations, SSTO craft designs and files for those who want them.

[Hodo]

I will start by saying the mods used in all of my craft will be in my sig to save time. For the most part the mods that are needed for most of my craft are as follows.

-Procedural Wings

-B9

-FAR

-KAS

-KSPX

-Kerbal Engineering Redux

-Kethane (on a few of the vessels. I will note if they do or don't in description)

The first vessel I will present is the SP-400A Freight Hauler.

Crew-3

Max Altitude with max cargo-105km x 105km orbit

Max Cargo capacity- 2 orange tanks or 72 tons

Mods-B9,FAR,KSPX, Engineering Redux

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqdgkyle4lk22kv/SP-400A.craft

Edited November 5, 2013 by Hodo

[BostLabs]

Woo! That is a good sized puppy!

[Hodo]

SVO-15 Crew Shuttle

VTOL space plane.

Crew- 1

Passengers -4

Range-125km x 125km orbit

Mods- B9, FAR, Firespitter, KSPX, Engineering Redux, Procedural Wings

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ki19ayx380nxwpz/SVO-15.craft

Edited November 5, 2013 by Hodo

[Hodo]

SVO-14A Adder

VTOL Interceptor

Crew - 2

Range-200kmx200km orbit

*disclaimer owner is responsible for arming it

Mods-B9,FAR,KSPX, Engineering Redux, Procedural Wings

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7sxwtvazp75jq0g/SVO-14A.craft

Edited November 5, 2013 by Hodo

[BostLabs]

SVO-15 Crew Shuttle

VTOL space plane.

Crew- 1

Passengers -4

Range-125km x 125km orbit

Well, it looks like I'm going to add FAR to my mod list.

[Hodo]

And the newest in our line of VTOL SSTOs, the SVO-17.

Crew-3

Passengers-0

Cargo capacity- tested 15 ton rover possible to carry more.

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Craft File- https://www.dropbox.com/s/moqvvgxbwjvvell/SVO-17.craft

Mods- B9, KAS, KSPX, Kerbal Engineering Redux, FAR, Procedural Wings.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Hodo

[Hodo]

SP-406

Capable of lifting 108 tons into a 100km x 100km orbit

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Mods

Procedural Wings, B9, Stretchy tanks, KSPX, FAR, DRE.

craft file-https://www.dropbox.com/s/jz8ecxhz9yu543x/SP-406.craft

Edited December 2, 2013 by Hodo

[Hodo]

SP-103 Jackal

Crew 2

no cargo

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Mods- B9, FAR, Kerbal engineering Redux, KSPX

Craft file-https://www.dropbox.com/s/jc8kslchuww9kl0/SP-103%20Jackel.craft

[How2FoldSoup]

Hodo I have to say since we first spoke(don't worry if you don't remember) I have always been on the lookout for your designs for ideas to steal:) Here's a shameless bump and I love all your craft!

[Hodo]

Hodo I have to say since we first spoke(don't worry if you don't remember) I have always been on the lookout for your designs for ideas to steal:) Here's a shameless bump and I love all your craft!

Thanks, I don't mind if you steal the ideas or just flat out copy them.

[How2FoldSoup]

I have to at least give my craft a little bit of my own flair

Any chance you could post more pictures of your STOL(or vtol, can't remember) ssto with the built-in kethane refinery?

I've been toying with the idea but I attempted to make a rover/miner/factory to be loaded into cargo instead of just building it right into the craft.

[Hodo]

I have to at least give my craft a little bit of my own flair

Any chance you could post more pictures of your STOL(or vtol, can't remember) ssto with the built-in kethane refinery?

I've been toying with the idea but I attempted to make a rover/miner/factory to be loaded into cargo instead of just building it right into the craft.

I have a couple, I will see if I can get some pictures for you if I still have the save file.

[Hodo]

Here you go...

SVO-9

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SVO-23

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SVO-24

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SVO-19

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Edited December 3, 2013 by Hodo

[Hodo]

SVO-25

I don't think I have posted this one yet. Craft file will come for it a bit later.

Max altitude, to the Mun.

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Mods-Pwing, B9, FAR, KSPX, Kerbal Engineering Redux.

[How2FoldSoup]

I've been busy with finals so I haven't been around ksp too much but thank you for the pictures! I really do like your designs.

I have to ask, how well balanced are they? Can they be flown vtol without sas or do you rely on its torque to keep them level?

How balanced are they when they are dry as well?

Do you prefer the downward aerospikes or b9's rocket vtol engines?

I just recently got the rcs balancer mod and it's proving very useful I'm not sure how I ever built without it.

I was also going to ask about your process of balancing the vtols but it seems with tweakables it will become a lot easier due to the thrust limiting, not only in use but also design.

Last question, are the only rocket engines on SVO-23 the vtols? or did you use another hidden rocket engine for circularizing?

Thanks again!

[Hodo]

I've been busy with finals so I haven't been around ksp too much but thank you for the pictures! I really do like your designs.

I have to ask, how well balanced are they? Can they be flown vtol without sas or do you rely on its torque to keep them level?

How balanced are they when they are dry as well?

Do you prefer the downward aerospikes or b9's rocket vtol engines?

I just recently got the rcs balancer mod and it's proving very useful I'm not sure how I ever built without it.

I was also going to ask about your process of balancing the vtols but it seems with tweakables it will become a lot easier due to the thrust limiting, not only in use but also design.

Last question, are the only rocket engines on SVO-23 the vtols? or did you use another hidden rocket engine for circularizing?

Thanks again!

Some of them are quite balanced others not so much. It depends on what I was going for in the design. I know one of them is pretty much perfect, I for the life of me can't remember which one but I think it is the SVO-25.

SVO-23 if you look at the 4th picture in you can see a nuke engines stuck in there. The funny thing is it isn't clipping its on its own fuel tank right there in the middle.

You can fly most of the designs with the SAS turned off but they are far easier with it on, less management on your part.

As for Aerospikes or B9 VS-1 Rocket VTOL engines, I like the B9 engines more. They weigh .5 tons and have a 100kn thrust. Their ISP isn't great but it isn't to bad. I mainly use them for landing and taking off, other than that they are off most of the time.

On a side note, I just downloaded infernal robotics plugin for the moving parts. Been messing around a bit with that, may see some interesting new designs in the next few weeks. Already found a use for the hydrolic piston, it is being used as a telescoping docking port for vessels that cant reach a docking port, or to pull a cargo module out of the cargo bay when it is docked to the other object. And I love the RCS balancer mod, it is useful in so many ways, and I think that is a MUST HAVE for the stock KSP.

[localSol]

Really good examples here of how all these mods can work well together. Do you use or have you tried ferram's kerbal joint reinforcement mod too?

[Hodo]

Really good examples here of how all these mods can work well together. Do you use or have you tried ferram's kerbal joint reinforcement mod too?

Yes and I love it.

[How2FoldSoup]

Ahh I see the nuke engine now..it had me confused for quite awhile

Speaking of infernal robotics I made a pretty cool VTOL cargo ssto a month or so ago. It uses the pistons to raise it off then ground then the rotatrons to rotate the cargobay upsidedown to drop rovers down onto the ground. If that interests you I'll load up .21 and take some screenshots for you. I stole the idea from someones video when I was just going to concede and attach it upside down in the first place. Since .22 I haven't reinstalled infernal robotics and continued that project though. It was capable of lifting up to 50 tons into orbit too. VTOL only worked with TAC's fuel balancer on though.

Well you've inspired me to boot up kerbal and design some more planes hehe

Edit: While I'm sitting here messing with them...have you messed with any of the settings on b9's vtol engines much? I only know the basics of rotation and all that..but the hover mode and rotation type. What does it all mean?

Edited December 14, 2013 by How2FoldSoup

[Hodo]

Ahh I see the nuke engine now..it had me confused for quite awhile

Speaking of infernal robotics I made a pretty cool VTOL cargo ssto a month or so ago. It uses the pistons to raise it off then ground then the rotatrons to rotate the cargobay upsidedown to drop rovers down onto the ground. If that interests you I'll load up .21 and take some screenshots for you. I stole the idea from someones video when I was just going to concede and attach it upside down in the first place. Since .22 I haven't reinstalled infernal robotics and continued that project though. It was capable of lifting up to 50 tons into orbit too. VTOL only worked with TAC's fuel balancer on though.

Well you've inspired me to boot up kerbal and design some more planes hehe

Edit: While I'm sitting here messing with them...have you messed with any of the settings on b9's vtol engines much? I only know the basics of rotation and all that..but the hover mode and rotation type. What does it all mean?

That's great, I would love to see pics of it.

I haven't messed with the B9 settings for the VTOL engines but they are the same settings for the Firespitter propeller mod. Its hard to explain what they do, I rarely use much more than the hover mode in that.

[How2FoldSoup]

Keep in mind it was still experimental heh. It could fly vtol and get into orbit but I never finished the cargo business or made a rover light enough to be lifted by the kas winches.

It was a real...annoyance getting the rototrons right and i'm still not convinced the way I did it is the best possible way. For the legs I used hinges to hide them inside the button and turned them downward and then lowered the pistons.

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Edited December 23, 2013 by How2FoldSoup

[Hodo]

I love that, I will have to mess around with that concept and see if I can build something like it.

Oh and how to post imgur pics in these forums type [] (imgur in those brackets) the letters and then [/] (imgur after the/)

So it will come out like this.

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[Hodo]

So messing around with infernal robotics... this is what I came up with.

It's ugly, it's big, it has over 7000d/v....

SVO-29!

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Test flight altitude 270km... this was an accident I was playing Candy Crush on my phone and paying NO attention to my current AP. But it still had over 54% of its fuel left so I am happy. It has a large docking port on the rear for attaching extra tanks and such for deep space missions. Crew space for 4, and a small cargo bay that handles all of the communications gear and scanning equipment.

[Peppe]

Awesome looking designs. Your designs inspired me to expand my mod pool and I hope to learn from them.

Other than kethane i have avoided content mods... but with the sabre engine in .23 I built my first SSTO spaceplane to see what all the fuss is about. I have not been back to the VAB since! I am officially hooked on spaceplane style payload delivery.

I've always been concerned content parts would be overpowered compared to stock, but after trying to build reasonably shaped wings like a jigsaw puzzle I'm ready for something that works and looks good doing it.

I just saw the rocket payload fraction bump to the top of the challenge forum. Anyone know if there an SSTO variant?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55615-Payload-Fraction-Challenge

[Hodo]

Thank you for the compliments, I love the B9 mod the SABRE engines in it are not over powered as many people think. They are a bit like the RAPIER engine, but bigger.

I don't think there is a SSTO variant on that challenge.