Five man SSTO barely can't make it into orbit.

[WhiteWeasel]

A one man SSTO would be kinda pointless, they can't lift all that much cargo, so they could transfer kerbals. But if it's a one man it would be a waste. This on can almost make it into orbit, but not quite. Any help refining the design? It flies fine, It's more a matter of fuel, weight and ascent profile.

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Edited December 15, 2013 by WhiteWeasel

[Smidge204]

Only think I can suggest is to add lightness. Believe it or not, the Hitchhicker Crew Cabin is the best Kerbal/Mass ratio part in vanilla, so you can actually save 0.7t by using one of those and ditching the four command capsules. That, of course, would require a redesign.

Other than that, use ram intakes instead of the radial scoops for better breathing and therefore higher operating altitudes.

=Smidge=

[Rhomphaia]

Only think I can suggest is to add lightness. Believe it or not, the Hitchhicker Crew Cabin is the best Kerbal/Mass ratio part in vanilla, so you can actually save 0.7t by using one of those and ditching the four command capsules. That, of course, would require a redesign.

Other than that, use ram intakes instead of the radial scoops for better breathing and therefore higher operating altitudes.

=Smidge=

The Mk1 lander can is even better than the hitchhiker, you could switch the Mk1 command pods for those and mount the ram scoops to them.

[WhiteWeasel]

The Mk1 lander can is even better than the hitchhiker, you could switch the Mk1 command pods for those and mount the ram scoops to them.

Hitchhiker would have me redesign the whole thing and MK1 for plains is just ugly. Note it says 8 in roman numerals. Kinda tired of restarting from scratch.

[arq]

I doubt you are using all that jet fuel, I often find that I can run two turbojets from a single tank, or at least 3 from 2. Shaving off that excess mass might help some. Also, the Mk1 fuel tank is universally inferior to the Mk2 (heavier, less fuel), though you may really want the Mk1 shape. I don't like to encourage excessive airhogging, but adding air intakes is the simplest way to make getting to orbit easier (unless you don't have enough thrust/lift to get to 20km).

[LethalDose]

Easiest solution is probably to wait until Tuesday and refit the whole thing with RAPIERs.

Cool design, though.

[WhiteWeasel]

Also what's the proper ascent profile? Liftoff, pitch up 45 degrees level out at 18-20 km get up to 1.2 km/s then turn on spike and off two air engines, pitch up to 45. At 25-ish kill all jet engines. Now when do I level out after that or do I stay at 45 until near space?

[WhiteWeasel]

Solved! I ditched the two extra jet fuel tanks for a fuselage, changed some of the air intakes and it flies great!