My best VTOL SSTO ever

[Sabe042]

I've been on a real space plane binge and I've come up with something I like a lot. I call it the Starling 3 VTOL (versions 1 and 2 failed). It's the best plane I've ever made. Don't take my word for it though. Please try it out and tell me what you think. Maybe I'm just blowing smoke. I'm up for criticism and suggestions.

Here's the link to the craft file. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9iq5ZI1pHIhWGRzQ0lfYnVfOTA/edit?usp=sharing

[Exothermos]

No pics; no clicks!

Upload some screenshots and you will get a better response.

[Sabe042]

No pics; no clicks!

Upload some screenshots and you will get a better response.

Well that's terrible because I did post pics! I linked my imgur album. Perhaps I didn't do it right. It's my first post, hehe. It showed when I pasted the link in the window, but now it's gone. Here's the link to the pictures at least.

http://imgur.com/a/70Iyb#0

[Overfloater]

Yeah... some of us are at work and don't get to be with their gaming computer everyday ;-)

I want pictures too.

[speedboiae86]

Calling it your "best" is kinda like calling a gas guzzling car "fuel efficient". What is it's effective range? If it can get to Minmus on it's own, I'll be impressed.

[Sabe042]

Calling it your "best" is kinda like calling a gas guzzling car "fuel efficient". What is it's effective range? If it can get to Minmus on it's own, I'll be impressed.

Ahh yes you are right. Still getting the hang of this. Let me describe the features that I've worked into it. I'll try to include this in future posts as well.

1. Stable VTOL hovering. I took great care in balancing the VTOL engine so that you can hover with SAS off. It only slightly veers off and requires little taps of control to keep straight.

2. Symmetric fuel drain from all tanks and all engines. This ensures the center of mass doesn't change with fuel consumption, so it will keep the same flight characteristics no matter what the fuel level is, hovering included.

3. Short, easy take-off roll. The rear landing gear are very near the center of mass so that you can start pulling back under 30 m/s. The landing gear are raised slightly to allow more pitch without hitting the engine.

4. Slightly unstable within 10 degrees or so of prograde, but completely stable outside that region. This give it the feel of "taking itself off" once you pull up off the runway on takeoff. With SAS turned off, it will climb all on its own. This also helps when going 1500 m/s in the upper atmosphere trying to reach orbit. There is less resistance to pitching up. However, you can pull up hard and it will never flip around.

5. Single engine prevents spinning on flameout, so you can push it all the way to the end. I can get it to around 2000 m/s orbital velocity just using the jet engine. It still has the majority of fuel left in the tanks after reaching orbit using the rocket.

6. Lots of air intakes so you can keep using the jet up to like 40 km altitude (with reduced throttle). I also didn't clip any of the intakes together, if that makes any difference (feels like cheating to do that).

7. Lots of lift! It can actually take off with 1/3 throttle in the turbojet while fully fueled (not using VTOL engine). When fuel tanks are about empty, it can take off with just the second little tick of throttle (maybe 10% or so).

I haven't tried getting to minmus, but I have a feeling that might be possible. I'll try that out tonight!

[Sabe042]

Ok I figured out how to post pictures! Here's a hovering shot near the heliport.

Here's the plane making its way up to space.

It's got about 1200 delta-V after it reaches orbit. I was able to make it to a 20km circular orbit above Kerbin, which is a little beyond the mun. Unfortunately I couldn't get to minmus.

Here's the craft file link again for you. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9iq5ZI1pHIhWGRzQ0lfYnVfOTA/edit?usp=sharing

I'd love to hear what you think about it.