Salutations from Canada!

[Evans310]

Greetings fellow Kerbalnauts,

Been mucking about with KSP for a few months now, off and on. Since .22 came out I've started from scratch to work through the tech tree.

I'm not a hugely active forum type; mostly I lurk searching for info, but I'll probably jump in now and again if I think I can contribute to a thread.

Just finally got my first SSTO in to orbit tonight, so I'm calling it off while I'm ahead. Took hours to get it to work right. Tomorrow, I'll worry about landing it.

So that sums things up I guess. Take care all!

[Specialist290]

Welcome to the forums!

Nicely done on the SSTO. It's definitely an achievement to be proud of. Care to share pictures?

Feel free to take the forums at your own pace, and don't be afraid to ask questions if you need help. I also run a small project called the Drawing Board, where I attempt to gather useful tutorials into one handy reference spot; if you feel the need to look at anything in there, you can find it through the link in my signature, or in the Tutorials section of the forums.

Hope this helps

[larsmaehlum]

An SSTO is a major milestone. Congratulations, and welcome!

[Evans310]

Thanks Specialist,

I did find the drawing board, and drew a bit on the SSTO tutorials I found there by buzz66boy. I already had an idea in mind based loosely around the SR-71, but with a science package, and his advanced SSTO helped me iron out some details that I was having trouble with. Sadly, I don't have the cubic strut unlocked yet, so I couldn't double up my intakes, but I managed to limp it in to orbit anyway. Pictures as soon as I have time to upload them!

[turbo917k]

Welcome.

SSTO, very nice, it's on my list of things to do. Mine jet/planes usually don't even make it down the runway… I won't even begin to discuss the "landing".

T

[James_Eh]

I hope it was pretty. My only successful SSTO was a squat, awful looking thing with rocket engines pointing both up and down and some air-breathers hanging from cubic struts. Landing after re-entry always involved a momentary head-first dive at the ground...

[Specialist290]

I did find the drawing board, and drew a bit on the SSTO tutorials I found there by buzz66boy. I already had an idea in mind based loosely around the SR-71, but with a science package, and his advanced SSTO helped me iron out some details that I was having trouble with. Sadly, I don't have the cubic strut unlocked yet, so I couldn't double up my intakes, but I managed to limp it in to orbit anyway. Pictures as soon as I have time to upload them!

Glad to hear you found my little list helpful, and I'll be looking forward to seeing those screenshots!

[Evans310]

Alas, with .23, my SSTO became horribly unstable. I don't know why. Due to the science changes I've decided to start a fresh career mode since the way I was progressing up the tech tree was sub-optimal for the new non-spam system.

[Evans310]

A further note on my SSTO success story: Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat!

So, being that this was my first SSTO, I didn't have any experience at all with judging re-entry to end up at the space centre. I came down too early and subsequently ran out of fuel trying to fly to the space centre. I thought it was going to be all she wrote for Jeb, as I was coming down over water.

Well, I called up all my real-world glider pilot experience and managed to bleed off enough velocity (stock parts only, so no air brakes or spoilers) to belly-land it on the water. The plane broke up a bit, but the cockpit - and more importantly Jeb - stayed intact. A stroke of good luck.

Now of course, because I'm a total forum NOOB, I missed a great opportunity to take pictures. I'm going to rebuild her in Sandbox and get an imgur account going so that I can show you the design.

[Evans310]

SSTO Images as promised!

I call her the XR-81, after the SR-71 Blackbird, which was my formfactor concept. Unfortunately game mechanics necessitated many more air intakes.

I still think she looks pretty good.