Thunderlane Mk-3, the cargo SSTO

[SofusRud]

Well, I guess couldn't avoid posting my craft forever, and I have now played enough that I am at least partially sure that I now have some craft worth posting

This is the first of these craft.

Thunderlane Mk-3

The Thunderlane Mk-3 is cargo ssto, capable of carrying up to 3.44 tons (maybe more, that's the highest I've tried) into LKO, as shown here, putting a Minmus mission into orbit.

The ship is designed in such a way that the engines on either side feed their fuel from either end of the middle section. Fuel flow is blocked by the panels (as you know they don't crossfeed), and this ensures that COM stays where it is during atmospheric flight

I have used it for 5 missions so far, here it is putting an ion probe into orbit

How to Fly It

Note that the cargo being carried can cause the flight path to vary.

Action groups

1- toggles jet engines

2- toggles LV-909s

3- toggles all intakes

4- toggles most intakes

Start by pressing 4 and then 1 to turn on the Jets. The craft requires the dropoff at the end of the runway to take off. The craft is stable when taking off, though there might be slight leftward yawing that can easily be countered. Begin a steep ascent immediately, then level off at between 10-15km, depending on the weight of the cargo and whether or not the amount jet fuel has been tweaked. The heavier you are, the sooner you start leveling off, so as to burn as much of that excess jet fuel off (this is what i sometimes do when can't be bothered to be exact about how much jet fuel i need). Remember to press 4 again. Start throttling down when your intake air approaches 0.1 before you switch over. You should be going around 1600-1750 m/s when you switch over to rockets. then its just a matter of putting your Ap where you want it a circularising.

The craft has RCS to separate from the cargo once the docking port has decoupled.

When coming back down, pump as much liquid fuel from the wing tanks into the middle tanks as possible and the rest + oxidizer into the forward wing tanks. this will balance it out nicely.

Craft file

The craft is a subassembly, 97 parts, 23.3 tons, part clipping was not enabled during construction. There is an unattached strut at the front of the cargo bay to secure payload

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3ytef2acc8h6073/Thunderlane%20Mk-3.craft

what do you guys think?

Edited January 7, 2014 by SofusRud

[wasmic]

Wow, that's impressive. I think that's one of the first stock cargo SSTO's that I've seen.

[SofusRud]

Wow, that's impressive. I think that's one of the first stock cargo SSTO's that I've seen.

Thanks, it did take me a while to figure out how to do it, my biggest problem was the COM shifting around.

At the moment I am working on a similar design that I hope will have double the cargo capacity

[Rune]

Wow, that's impressive. I think that's one of the first stock cargo SSTO's that I've seen.

Then you haven't been looking this forum much ;( I have a few, the last one of which gets 10mT and three kerbals to orbit.

But it is a good looking Skylon lookalike, and my gut tells me it'll fly pretty good. Nice fuel balancing. I would clip the wings more and make it look better (IMO, of course), but the suggestion that jumps to mind first is to switch to RAPIERS! Yeah, too much rocket thrust, but if you leave them on automatic switching, the ride to orbit is much more user friendly (no flameout spins). Two might do for the payload you use now, with perhaps a bit less fuel, and you have enough fuel to have four (eyeballing it, it has the same payload potential fuel-wise as my Broadsword, and that is the one that takes 10mT modules using 4 RAPIERs, but would do even better with just two and two turbojets). Intake-wise, it's not as important as it used to, you have more than enough to milk a couple of RAPIERS at high altitude.

Rune. Good job and welcome to the SSTO shuttle club! We give cookies

Edited January 7, 2014 by Rune

[MARINEav8r]

First off, what is the part on the tail? (It looks like the gimballed A/B on an F-35) Second, is the name of this bird a reference to anything?

Edited February 10, 2015 by MARINEav8r

[Yukon0009]

1. That's the AV-R8 winglet. Stock.

2. I don't know.

3. This was based off the old pre SP+ parts (and has been dead since a year ago) so presumably it won't work. (Also, don't necro.)

Sorry for sounding mean.