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The Falcon III K-Drive Spaceplane


Should the Falcon IV (aka the successor to the Falcon III) have rocket engines?  

  1. 1. Should the Falcon IV (aka the successor to the Falcon III) have rocket engines?

    • Yes
      2
    • No
      1


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UPDATE 3/5/14 This plane is hereby obsolete (in my fleet). Here's the replacement (certified by Shuttlecraft Systems Inc. as a K-Drive Shuttle).

UPDATE 3/4/14 The Falcon IV is in public testing! PM me to get the link to the final prototype. Please reply with good (and bad, if necessary) comments and your used flight path.

UPDATE 3/3/14 This plane will be replaced soon by the Falcon IV, which is basically a fixed Falcon III with a visual facelift. It is awaiting certification by Shuttlecraft Systems Inc. as a K-Drive Shuttlecraft.

THE FALCON III

After the success of the Hermes K-Drive Light Spacecraft, the Design Bureau was tasked to design a new spaceplane - with a K-Drive built in.

Introducing... The Falcon III!

Much lighter and faster than it's two predecessors which were liquid-fueled conventional SSTOs (not posted), it has the Archer Mk. IV drive built in. It also has 2 liquid fueled engines for fine maneuvers (docking, precise landing, etc.) and a jet engine for conventional flight.

--FLIGHT INSTRUCTIONS--

Right after takeoff, pitch up to 45 degrees.

At about 10km altitude, pitch down to 20 degrees.

At about 16km altitude pitch down to 10-15 degrees. Remember to airhog here; you WILL need the jet during landing.

Once the jets cut out at about 30-35km, use Action Group 1 to activate the K-Drive and get you to orbit.

**WARNING!**

If you activate the drive below 750m/s, spontaneous dis-assembly is guaranteed.

Do not do sharp turns while the drive is active. This can cause the drive to break and/or an uncontrollable spin.

The jet engine is a tailstrike hazard. Be careful during takeoff and landing.

The plane has a tendency to tip over and explode on braking. Press B to brake and let go if it tips a little. Do NOT click the button on screen to brake AT ALL COSTS.

--IMAGES--

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--ACTION GROUPS--

01 - Toggle Kraken Drive

02 - Toggle jet engine and intakes

03 - Toggle rocket engines (liquid fuel)

04 - Toggle ladder

--CREDITS--

COMRADE JENKINS - For creating the general idea of a K-Drive

LEVELORD - For giving me the general design of a 1m K-Drive

INIGMA - For giving me the idea to make an SSTO Spaceplane

Download link is here.

Download link for the drive's subassembly (so you can screw around with it) is here.

Edited by FCISuperGuy
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I'm going to have to try your flavour of K-Drive, it's promising nice stuff! 95% reliability is across several instances of quickloading, or just a "once it works, it will continue to work unless you reload" thing? Because if it is the former, this may be the most reliable K-Drive yet... and the best among the ones I use thrust at ~2G's with worse numbers. The "once it engages once, it'll keep on engaging without issues until you reload" behaviour, however, is pretty common around single leg models.

Rune. I also have to show off a few things on the showcase, but I lack the time to fly them! :(

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I'm going to have to try your flavour of K-Drive, it's promising nice stuff! 95% reliability is across several instances of quickloading, or just a "once it works, it will continue to work unless you reload" thing? Because if it is the former, this may be the most reliable K-Drive yet... and the best among the ones I use thrust at ~2G's with worse numbers. The "once it engages once, it'll keep on engaging without issues until you reload" behaviour, however, is pretty common around single leg models.

Rune. I also have to show off a few things on the showcase, but I lack the time to fly them! :(

Rune checking out my ship?!?! My life is complete. *faints*

Back on topic!

The 95% reliability is across several instances of quickloads. It can easily survive many rapid deactivations and reactivations, and the legs rarely break. I took Levelord's promising K-Drive design and did a crapload of refinements. It uses only 2 legs, however. You're not alone in the thrust issue, however; it usually uses 2gs of acceleration though sometimes it's been recorded to use 6-8 (I dunno why).

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SSI is checking out your ship too. :) Let us know when you get the Falcon IV up.

*has a heart attack*

Sure! If you want, I can PM you a link to the final prototype of the Falcon IV. It's not yet fully refined, though.

EDIT 1: The Quark Mk.I, the successor to the Falcon series of spaceplanes, is up here. It's also up on the SSI thread here.

Edited by FCISuperGuy
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