Kerbodyne Scattershot: a simple and easy to fly beginner's SSTO spaceplane

[Wanderfound]

Presenting the Kerbodyne Scattershot. If you can't get this one to orbit, you should probably stop designing spaceplanes and spend some time at flight school.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/llbar6fk64yo0yo/Kerbodyne%20Scattershot%20Stock.craft

As usual, check the action groups; it's not designed for staging. There's an abort system (backspace) and a substantial suite of scientific instruments (all triggered by action group 0), as well as a probe core buried in the fuselage so it can be flown as a drone (handy for landing practice and rescuing stranded Kerbals).

Takeoff speed is about 120m/s. It can climb vertically to 20,000m, but once you get there you should level off and crank it up to Mach 4 before slowly climbing to 30,000m. Turn the turbojet off once you run short of air, then switch it back on (action group 1) once the RAPIERs flick to closed cycle.

Do it right and you should hit an 80 x 80 orbit with the tanks still half full.

(note: designed to fly under the latest version of FAR, with the 50% power nerf on the engines. Performance will be substantially sharper in stock aero)

(note 2: now updated from original with enhanced yaw authority, in order to ease handling at hypersonic speeds)

Edited August 2, 2014 by Wanderfound