The Dove... A small six-seat SP+ SSTO

[RoboRay]

The Dove is designed to operate as a personnel-carrier for local ground-to-orbit operations at Kerbin, in as small and efficient a vehicle as possible. Its normal missions are crew-taxi services for space-stations and interplanetary craft in parking orbits.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

The craft can attain an altitude of 32km and speed of 1575 m/sec on air-breathing jet-thrust without requiring careful throttle-management to optimize use of the available intake air (going higher and faster on the jet may be possible for pilots with more patience). It arrives in a 100km circular orbit with approximately 300 m/sec of rocket delta-v remaining, with an additional 280 m/sec of RCS capability, making rendezvous with any destination in LKO feasible. After reentry, nearly half of its total jet-fuel is still available for atmospheric flight to a suitable runway.

If the Dove is flown to not exceed Mach 3 until approaching 25 km altitude, high-velocity thermal effects can be completely avoided during the ascent. Likewise, reentry heating can be kept to negligible levels (no visible effects) by maintaining a high angle of attack and flying a sequence of steeply banked S-turns to safely decelerate to well below orbital velocity in the upper atmosphere, before descending past 35 km.

While the craft is positively stable, it is fairly close to neutral. This permits an extreme angle of attack to allow for aggressive braking maneuvers (flight-tested at up to 70 degrees off the velocity vector). The craft can be forced to depart controlled flight, but is not expected to do so without a deliberate attempt by the pilot. Recovery is possible from every tested spin mode. The craft is extremely maneuverable while subsonic and can even perform advanced aerobatic maneuvers such as the Pugachev Cobra. The Dove does exhibit noticeable Mach tuck, so do not plan to perform any significant pitch maneuvers around Mach 1.

During the takeoff roll, accelerate to 80 m/sec before attempting to lift the nose. The nose wheel can be raised off the ground at 70 m/sec, but doing so may result in a tailstrike.

During landing, the recommended approach speed is 100 m/sec. Cross the numbers at 80 m/sec and touch down at 70 m/sec.

Wet mass is 15 tons. Crew capacity is six. Unpiloted remote operation of the vehicle is included. A single rear-facing Size-0 docking port (with target illumination) is provided. RCS-balance is a little off (slight roll moment during lateral translation and slight pitch moment during vertical translation), but I got tired of fooling with it (and it's fuel-level sensitive, anyway). Turn on SAS while operating the RCS and let the reaction wheels compensate for you.

While the only required mod parts are from Spaceplane Plus, the craft is designed to operate in a FAR environment. It has not been tested in the stock KSP atmosphere. The Dove can also survive Deadly Reentry if properly flown. Putting the nose down and plowing into the lower atmospheric at hypersonic speeds voids the warranty.

Craft download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sml4fs4fqyhaopq/Dove.craft

Action Groups:

1 - Start/Stop engine

2 - Switch engine operating mode

3 - Open/Close air intakes

Edited June 21, 2014 by RoboRay

[Exothermos]

I like it! Especially your intake placement.

[FleshJeb]

Beautiful aircraft, and great writeup!

[TheReaper]

GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME ,

its so awesome looking, thank you for sharing