Kylon-2: The Re-SSTOening

[SofusRud]

When I was a kid, wide-eyed and at constant risk of choking-hazard toys, my great-grandpappy used to say that, "the true value of an SSTO spaceplane is directly proportional to both the mass and volume of the cargo it can put into orbit". I reflected on these words of wisdom today as I, with not much better to do and slight headache, threw together the latest pride of my launch fleet.

This new craft can be called an evolution on my Kylon (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79535-The-Kylon-my-best-high-capacity-SSTO-so-far?p=1149327#post1149327), and as such has been inovatively, after a long and taxing brainstorming session, named Kylon-2!

Fans of the original Kylon will note a number of similarities between that craft and this one. The main fuselage is basically the same, except for a significantly lengthened and reworked cargo bay. The engine pods are also similar, but now feature three turbojets instead of one, and the layout and number of intakes has been altered. The wings, tailplane and frontal-delta-wing-canard thing have also been custom built for the craft. an effort was also made to reduce the number of easily visible struts.

The Kylon-2 needs the drop at the end of the runway to take off, but from there handles beautifully. With the Jumbo cargo I got it up to about 1500 m/s before the Rapiers switched over. After that its pitch up until the turbos start giving out and then shutting both them and the intakes off. It makes it into orbit with a comfortable margin.

After a deorbit burn, the oxidiser is pumped into the front of the central fuselage as balast, whilst the liquid fuel gets pumped to the front of the engine pods. My decent fell a bit short, but I blame my own piloting skills for that, and anyway it has enough cross-range capability to make it without a problem.

One of the coolest things about this, in my opinion, is that I managed to do this on the maiden flight. This is the first time something as complicated as a heavy cargo SSTO has worked flawlessly for me on the first try!

Anyway, here are some of the important details:

Action groups:

1 - toggle jets

2 - toggle RAPIERs

3 - RAPIER switch mode

4 - toggle intakes

Part clipping was not enabled during the construction of this craft.

The Kylon-2 is a Subassembly

Part count: 253

The DL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vkj2htamdar0cg4/Kylon-2.craft

Feedback/constructive criticism is appreciated

Edited June 12, 2014 by SofusRud

[Jeb Cubed]

Well you certainty got the mass and volume. I love seeing these replicas mainly because I can't make them