The Kylon: my best high-capacity SSTO so far

[SofusRud]

Well, after a long and troubled development, with many misses, failures and suchlike, it has finally arrived!

Rejoice ladies and gentlemen, for here it is, the Kylon cargo SSTO:

after the previous version, which was only tested with a 5.78 ton science payload, has been substantially reworked, and most, if not all, outstanding design flaws have been fixed. This new Kylon has proven itself capable of lifting up to 19 tons of cargo into LKO. Weight reductions and wing optimizations mean that it now flies significantly better in atmosphere as well.

It gets up to around 1400-1450 m/s before the RAPIERS switch mode on their own (love that feature). The turbos can keep up a little longer now that they're not using the intakes.

The spacious cargo bay lets me take large (2.5m) parts into orbit, something with which i have previously struggled. I do have SSTOs that would have been able to carry the weight of your standard space station parts into orbit (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/65968-Thunderlane-Mk-5-Becausethe-old-one-needed-an-upgrade) but for the longest time I was unable to design a craft with a large enough cargo bay. The Kylon solves that problem quite nicely.

(note that canards at the back of the cargo bay have been moved slightly back since I took the picture)

It is very stable on reentry and handles very well in atmo once most of the weight is gone. The craft has slightly more Liquid fuel than it needs in order to get into orbit, this was a deliberate decision, as I sometimes undershoot KSC and I prefer to have the cross-range capability.

A tip for you if you if you want to fly it: The center of mass moves a further back than i the center of lift once you are in orbit. To correct this, after you have done your deorbit burn, transfer the liquid fuel in the wing engine segments forward (but still in their wing segments), and then transfer all oxidizer into the foremost tank in the middle. This unevenly distributes the oxidizer among your engines, but by this point you shouldn't be running on rocket mode anymore.

coming in for landing

and landed

As with all of the other SSTOs that I have shared, the fuel is pumped in such a way that it first drains symmetrically from the middle into the wings, preventing the COM from moving around much during flight and making it very stable.

I admit that it doesn't look much like the real Skylon, what with the wings being as large as they are. In my defense, it did look a lot more like the Skylon in the early versions, but the aesthetics had to be compromised in order to make it work, and I never got around to changing the name (in retrospect it wasn't that original a name anyway).

The whole thing is a Subassembly, since I find it easier to fit the craft onto a payload than putting the payload in (annoying tendency to not attach where you want it to inside the cargo bay).

Some specs:

Part count: 201

Engines: 8 RAPIERS, 2 Turbojets

Payload: over 21 tons

Action groups:

1: toggle Turbojets

2: toggle RAPIERS

3: switch mode on RAPIERS

4: toggle some intakes (12/20)

5: toggle all intakes (20)

Part clipping was not enabled for the construction of this craft

There are no lifting surfaces hidden inside the body of the craft.

While I did have the Stock Rebalance mod when I made it this makes very little difference, since it only means that the adapters and nosecones have fuel in them which I tweaked out anyway. In fact it may fly even better stock, since the structural components wouldn't be lugging around empty tanks. The parts themselves are stock. If this becomes a compatibility issue when downloading the craft, please tell me and I'll make a totally stock version.

The Kylon, and all of the other cargo SSTOs that I have previously shared can be downloaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g5toine4cjtxh3q/AAAO2nZhBP6Ei4aJ6CIl_nYDa

Feedback is much appreciated

Edited June 11, 2014 by SofusRud

[Woopert]

This is awesome! Plus rep.

[iDan122]

Looks nothing like the Skylon, but I like how much cargo it can take.

[SofusRud]

Looks nothing like the Skylon, but I like how much cargo it can take.

I know, it used to, but then Mr.Functionality kicked Mr.Aesthetics in the head and threw him in a river.

Edited May 10, 2014 by SofusRud

[Overfloater]

Wow. good work!!!

I don't suppose you've concealed a bunch of control surfaces on the front of the ship, as I'm guessing that's what all the SAS is for... xD

[SofusRud]

Wow. good work!!!

I don't suppose you've concealed a bunch of control surfaces on the front of the ship, as I'm guessing that's what all the SAS is for... xD

There are no control surfaces clipped inside the the ship. What you see is what's there.

All of the reaction wheels are there for three reasons: 1) the COM is slightly lower than the center or thrust, so the torque helps keep it straight whilst in orbit. 2) it spaces the fuel tanks on the wing blocks, giving more control over the COM when shifting fuel around before reentry, and 3) it helps make the wing blocks look nicer

[SofusRud]

A recent flight has confirmed that the Kylon can take over to 21 tons to orbit rather than just 19!