White Dart v0.24. Four 0.24-compliant SSTOs based on my best seller. Welcome 0.24!

[Rune]

As I promised, four more versions of the legendary (to me at least!) Dart are finally released! I was going to put them in the old Dart thread, but considering they were built from the ground up and share little with the original prototype, I thought they deserved their own place. So here they go!

First, a family overview. Basically, the stuff that they have in common is that they use the same wingform (the old one, slightly tweaked) and a single RAPIER. That is kinda important now, since it means you can put one of these one the runway for less than 45K Funds (Whatever those are!). Well, except the Science edition, those delicate instruments sure are expensive, but even that is <70K, and none of the part counts goes over 65 (or under 50). Most action groups work the same, so check them out in the description before flight.

As I said before, you get four models: from left to right, Duna edition, Laythe edition, Shuttle edition, and Science!â„¢ edition. Let's look at each one, shall we?

DUNA EDITION

Basically the best performer, it has the greatest fuel load with the least auxiliary systems mass. It clocks in at over 2.5km/s in the KER simulation when loaded with 100% LFO mix (standard load leaves some oxidizer out to account for the ride out of kerbin's atmosphere), which makes it capable of landing on Duna under rocket power and then taking off again to orbit, with a big margin. And I say "land under rocket power" because it is a rocket VTOL, with enough T/W to actually fly on kerbin, so lowering speed to safely put her down on Duna should be a breeze. The VTOL system also comes in handy to put her down on airless moons on its wheels, and the added weight is minimal.

The downside is that the craft does little else other than carrying a kerbal around, but that is what this game is about, ain't it? And that this does, in style.

LAYTHE EDITION

The most airbreather of them all. The VTOL system is completely overhauled, with the successive weight reductions in the family allowing a single jet to take the place of the rocket VTOL system, and giving unprecedented autonomy in hover mode. Explore at leisure the planetary surfaces with oxygen, taking as slow a look as necessary at interesting places and setting down wherever you want (if you are good at looking into the future, the jet engine lag takes a bit to get used to in VTOLs).

Seriously, it handles great. Sadly, all that performance in air comes at the expense of performance in space. It is the model with less delta-v in space, by far, and does little else than the Duna version at that, carrying the single kerbal and no payload of note. But have I told what a joy it is to fly? There is a reason I haven't uploaded a standard boring 100% airbreather plane in ages... they don't fly as good as this SSTO. (She can, of course, make all the bridges in KSC)

SHUTTLE EDITION

That is all good and proper, but sometimes you need your ships to actually do useful stuff. Like rescuing stranded kerbals, for example (my first fulfilment of a contract in 0.24, BTW ). In those cases you want an empty seat, and flying the ship there by remote control (all Darts are equipped with on board computers capable of autopilot) either feels cheaty, or you just want some extra room to roleplay extended missions or whatever. In any case, here comes the double seater, sporting an interesting passenger cabin arrangement (works without a hitch every time).

I especially like the way you get a side window on the plane which is actually functional. In all other respects, this version is functionally identical to the Duna edition, other than the added weight of the passenger cabin both decreases delta-v somewhat (Duna orbit-land-orbit missions are dubious if you have to dip into the fuel to land too much) and T/W to the point where this is the sluggiest one to get to orbit. Just leave it on a 45º climb and go for coffee.

SCIENCE!â„¢ EDITION

Now for a bit extra money (it's actually true now! ), you can take all that payload capability of these models, and use it for the highest purpose a kerbal can aspire to, the gathering of Science!â„¢ Sporting one of each scientific instrument available to kerbalkind, you will be able to get all that Science!â„¢ that you don't really need since this thing requires most of the tech tree already unlocked. But it is viable to hoard more for the mods that required extra points, or to complete it. And you know, crossing boxes, I need my surface samples from every body in the kerbol system.

It is actually difficult to see, but trust me, everything sciency is there, and you still get almost 2km/s in the tanks on pure LFO, so it could do a Duna science run from LDO. The only places it wouldn't be able to explore would be the usual suspects, i.e. Tylo and Eve.

Aaand that's pretty much it. Here go the dowloads and a link to a very cluttered album (the last thread's pictures are also there, so in case you see differences in the last pictures, ignore them)

IMGUR ALBUM

Javascript is disabled. View full album

DOWNLOADS

-Duna Edition

-Laythe Edition

-Shuttle Edition

-Science!â„¢ Edition

Rune. Hope you guys still like it and welcome 0.24 indeed!

Edited July 18, 2014 by Rune

[Woopert]

Awesome work! I'll be using these once I start my career save.

[Halban]

Ha ha, if it were up to me all four of those would be in military conscription by now!

[eorin]

Rune this craft is really a classic! Maybe squad should add this to the game planes list...

[HafCoJoe]

Rune this craft is really a classic! Maybe squad should add this to the game planes list...

[Rune]

Ha ha, if it were up to me all four of those would be in military conscription by now!

[biohazard15]

Nice planes! They looks like F-69 VTOL from Saints Row The Third:

[Koth]

These look amazing! I was wondering if someone could help a newbie out and explain the take off procedure? I've tried to fly these but I'm clearly doing something wrong!

[Rune]

These look amazing! I was wondering if someone could help a newbie out and explain the take off procedure? I've tried to fly these but I'm clearly doing something wrong!

Takeoff? Well, they can tailstrike if you are careless, but around 60-70m/s, if you pull up 5-10º, they will lift off without problems and with some margin. Right after that you can do the sharp pull to 45º, and having the camera looking form an angle and not directly behind helps. Note you turn on and off the engines with action groups (1 main engine, 2 switch RAPIER mode, 3 VTOL system), otherwise the VTOL system is in the same stage as the main engine. I'm actually not sure what is your problem... ^^'

Edit: it seems the problem was more of a "first time SSTOer" than anything else, and since that is something I get asked a lot, I will leave this copy-paste of myself here in case anybody needs it or wants to refresh on the basics:

Oh, you mean a SSTO guide! I get asked that so much I should write one:

Lets see, up to about 20 kms it is really easy, leave it in a 45º climb with ASAS on and don't touch a thing. But form there to around 30 kms is where you pick up speed, so you have to pitch down when you get to this point, in order to lower vertical speed to give time for the plane to accelerate. You should get to at least 1,500m/s on jets alone before you think of using rocket power, and there is a handy indicator for vertical speed a lot of people miss to the right of the altimeter, keep an eye on that and consider its scale is logarithmic! Settle for something like 50m/s vertical speed and go for a speed run on those ten kms. By the time you get to 30,000m, though, a couple things have happened:

-You are going so fast you have to pitch down all the time to keep a stable heading, because the planet curves below you so fast (>1,500m/s surface speed).

-Air is getting thin, the intake indicator reads 0.01 or less but it is sort of stuck on that number. This is the reason you can go so fast, the thin air, but you will flame out soon since the only thing keeping air on your engines is the fact that you are going so fast, and soon not even that will work, because your drag/thrust ratio keeps getting worse for sciency reasons.

At that point, you reach serious diminishing returns by staying longer in the atmosphere, so let the plane pitch up by itself until you get the RAPIERs automatic switching to rocket power (No flameout on that puppy unless you set it to manual!), at which point you can close the intakes to cut drag, though that's not necessary. Pitch a bit down to prograde once your vertical speed is above 100m/s to be very efficient, and go to map view to take a look at your apoapsis and time to it, because from then on you are flying like a rocket. Once apoapsis is outside the atmosphere, coast to it adjusting for drag as necessary, and circularize afterwards.

Rune. Well, you could also takeoff as a VTOL, then engage the RAPIER. Or do STOVL operation even!

Edited July 20, 2014 by Rune