Smallest SSTO ever? The Bullet!

[Redshift OTF]

Jebs personal little runabout...the Bullet! He keeps this in a cleaning cupboard so he can escape the wrath of his bosses whenever they learn of one of his latest stunts. This is not just a jet engine on a fuel tank, (inside a cockpit), but a fully functional, fly like a plane, get into orbit and dock SSTO.

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A triumph in miniaturisation, this craft has multiple control surface clipped into the body allowing it to be flown like a real plane and also making it easy to glide and land at very low throttle. Also includes RCS for docking and a control ring below the nose for remote piloting and has plenty of spare fuel for doing whatever you want to do in orbit around Kerbin and returning to the KSC. Only one fuel tank used!

Stats:

Part count = 63

Starting Mass = 5.1 tons

Starting Jet TWR = 4.46

Starting Rocket DeltaV = 1091 m/s

Fully fuelled Rocket DeltaV = 1564 m/s

Hotkey 1 = Toggle Jet engine

Hotkey 2 = Toggle Rocket engine

Hotkey 3 = Toggle ladder, (although it doesn't need the ladder if you raise the gear)

Craft file download

I've only just started playing around with this but if you were any good at making carriers you could attach a load of these on. I hope it's of use.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Supernovy
Fixed album embedding

[inigma]

You do know eventually you're going to clip yourself into a singularity...

Nice ship.

[Blue]

We're not all that far away from taking that level of compact usefulness awesome and then shaping it like a cupola.

[inigma]

I bet someone could clip a cupola module to the max and make one awesome UFO.

[Redshift OTF]

You do know eventually you're going to clip yourself into a singularity...

Nice ship.

Thanks. Some of the previous versions ended up as singularities if I landed them too hard.

[inigma]

If Kerbin is swallowed up by a blackhole localized in the once existing SSI SPH building, I'll know who to blame.

[Rainbow-Dashie]

But...But... They told me bigger was better... they told me the mainsails were the best around... they told me it always needed moar! They...Lied to me... Everything I know is a Lie!

[Exothermos]

Cute! Looks just like my Tiny Tot, but we clearly solved some things differently. Just a case of convergent design.

More info here.

I agree that something like this format must be the smallest fully functional SSTO.

p.s. The term "Convergent Design" must give Biologists the willies.

[Pds314]

Does 1 load of jetpack fuel to stabilize a jet-powered trip to Low Kerbal Orbit count as an SSTO?

If so.... I have a 3.06-tonne plane that can get to Orbit in FAR as long as one instance of "get-out-and-push" is acceptable.

I'll try making it fully functional and we'll see.

[Markus Reese]

Definitely is cute ^.^ What is it like without parts clipping though?

[Redshift OTF]

Cute! Looks just like my Tiny Tot, but we clearly solved some things differently. Just a case of convergent design.

http://i.imgur.com/idXG80V.png

More info here.

I agree that something like this format must be the smallest fully functional SSTO.

p.s. The term "Convergent Design" must give Biologists the willies.

Oh damn! I downloaded your mini SSTO pack as well but didn't try all the ships. I'll have to compare them when I get the chance.

[Redshift OTF]

Does 1 load of jetpack fuel to stabilize a jet-powered trip to Low Kerbal Orbit count as an SSTO?

If so.... I have a 3.06-tonne plane that can get to Orbit in FAR as long as one instance of "get-out-and-push" is acceptable.

I'll try making it fully functional and we'll see.

I think the cockpits in 0.23 come with 2.5 units of RCS so you might run out.

Definitely is cute ^.^ What is it like without parts clipping though?

It looks like someone threw a magnet in a box of cubic and octagonal struts.

[Redshift OTF]

OK, I've looked at the Tiny Tot and yes it would be hard to beat this kind of arrangement for size although I think you must have built your plane a few versions before 0.23 as I don't think you had the advantage then of using the Rockomax 48-7S which offers more thrust with significant weight savings. I also managed to put a double sized fuel tank in the cockpit and clipped the Jet engine in further by using octagonal struts. I like how you did the wings though. I see we placed the ram intakes in very similar places as well. Putting them on the bottom is the only way to do it as they have quite a large hitbox around them and it either blocks eva or disrupts fuel to the engines if I put them any where else.

[inigma]

OK, I've looked at the Tiny Tot and yes it would be hard to beat this kind of arrangement for size although I think you must have built your plane a few versions before 0.23 as I don't think you had the advantage then of using the Rockomax 48-7S which offers more thrust with significant weight savings. I also managed to put a double sized fuel tank in the cockpit and clipped the Jet engine in further by using octagonal struts. I like how you did the wings though. I see we placed the ram intakes in very similar places as well. Putting them on the bottom is the only way to do it as they have quite a large hitbox around them and it either blocks eva or disrupts fuel to the engines if I put them any where else.

You got a post from Exo! Welcome to the club of KSP Minniaturization Masters, Red.

[Redshift OTF]

You got a post from Exo! Welcome to the club of KSP Minniaturization Masters, Red.

Woohoo!

Ahem...permission to go "Full Kerbal" to celebrate?

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Craft file.

It flies pretty well although I wouldn't do any full pitching manoeuvres as it is quite wide and lack of tail means you can get yaw creep. Gets into space easily enough. Obviously each plane is a fully usable SSTO in it's own right.

(I hope the album posts OK this time. )

[inigma]

Woohoo!

Ahem...permission to go "Full Kerbal" to celebrate?

http://imgur.com/a/uPMB0

Craft file.

It flies pretty well although I wouldn't do any full pitching manoeuvres as it is quite wide and lack of tail means you can get yaw creep. Gets into space easily enough. Obviously each plane is a fully usable SSTO in it's own right.

(I hope the album posts OK this time. )

Ooh I think you've just hit upon an awesome and inspiring design idea. Multiple independent ships to orbit. Hot diggity. Could make for some awesome video... reminds me of Voltron.

Edited January 9, 2014 by inigma

[Redshift OTF]

Yes, It's interesting because each SSTO is basically each engine of the mothership. The only way I could think it would work with multiple rows would be if each SSTO was angled so their thrust wouldn't hit each other. I've got another project on the go so I'll have to come back to that.