OF-7 Orbital Eagle SSTO (MechJeb, B9, FAR)

[ayhc]

Warning: Lots of pics.

A heavy SSTO fighter that looks just vaguely like an F-15 Eagle, if you squint a bit. Carries 6 Javelin missiles (all stock), fired in 3 volleys by staging. Plane has retro-rockets for final deceleration and parachutes, because a conventional landing off-runway is best not attempted (I certainly haven't succeeded, but I'm a pretty terrible pilot).

2014-01-11_00001 by ayhc, on Flickr

2014-01-11_00004 by ayhc, on Flickr

2014-01-12_00002 by ayhc, on Flickr

Action groups:

1: Toggle turbojets

2: Toggle RAPIER mode

3: Toggle intakes

4: Toggle RAPIER engines

[5 deliberately left empty]

6: Small airbrakes

7: Large airbrakes

[8 deliberately left empty]

9: Ladders

0: Docking port and illuminator

Flight profile:

Stage and lift off. AoA of 45 degrees until 10km, then reduce rate of climb to <100m/s and accelerate. At some point the turbojets will lose thrust; when turbojet thrust reaches nil, turn them off and continue on RAPIERs. (Because I'm lazy, I use MechJeb to prevent flameouts.) You should be able to get to about 29-30km before switching RAPIER modes and closing the intakes; after that point the nose to 45 degrees and throttle down to conserve fuel. Get Ap to about 75km, then circularise.

Here it is, docked to my LKO space station (complete with preview of another SSTO fighter):

2014-01-13_00001 by ayhc, on Flickr