Kerbodyne SSTO Division: Omnibus Thread

[Wanderfound]

Want the aerobatic lunacy of a Kerbodyne Aero R, but got stuck doing sensible satellite delivery contracts instead?

Meet the new Kerbodyne Stratos. Tell the boss you need it for "safety" reasons.

Annotated test at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Stratos/story

Alternate format at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/slideshow/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Stratos

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/dba3a5pt6hpjw0e/Kerbodyne%20Stratos.craft?dl=0

- - - Updated - - -

Lol, just as I was wondering about trying some forward-swept designs I like the little Aero R - stick a 1.25m probe core in there and it could do for those orbital rescue missions.

Not sure about the control surfaces on the front of the dragonflies though... in my brain, the airflow would rip them off and/or flip the plane xD

The leading edge slats are tuned to stay parallel to the airflow except when actively changing direction; there's actually not a lot of force on them most of the time. They kind of act as if the control surfaces were the wing and vice-versa.

OTOH, since the slats let you hold it in a 45° stall all day long, the stress on the wings is rather extreme.

Oh, and the Aero R comes with a probe core as stock.

[Jovus]

And once again, Wanderfound shows his savant stripes.

"Make it look like a real plane," say the FAR gurus. Meanwhile, Wanderfound flies around a Dragonfly XR, having twice the fun they ever do with a plane at least as stable.

[Wanderfound]

Two bits of news:

1) Getting my laptop OS rebuilt and upgraded next week. Hopefully, this may give me a more stable game and therefore more ability to do stuff with mods.

2) I may, if lucky, get a telecommuting job that will require a fast 'net connection and an IT upgrade. Streaming possibilities if it happens.

[Volcanix]

Two bits of news:

1) Getting my laptop OS rebuilt and upgraded next week. Hopefully, this may give me a more stable game and therefore more ability to do stuff with mods.

2) I may, if lucky, get a telecommuting job that will require a fast 'net connection and an IT upgrade. Streaming possibilities if it happens.

Hey there, I guess you haven't heard from me in a while.

You've got some nice new planes here o.O Keep it up!

I've also built a few planes, I can show you some piccies later, I think.

And yes, please do a stream! I would love to watch you build a plane or fly it hehe

~Vol

[Wanderfound]

The Kerbodyne Peregrine.

High-tech high-efficiency orbital delivery.

Annotated flight test at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Peregrine/story

Alternate format at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/slideshow/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Peregrine

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/ddherowy2x7vrvc/Kerbodyne%20Peregrine.craft?dl=0

[Jovus]

Wanderfound...stream? Are you going to actually make me get a Twitch account?

[Wanderfound]

Another high performance interplanetary offering: Kerbodyne Stratos N.

Annotated flight (with ultralight probe demonstration) at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Stratos%20N/story

Alternate format at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/slideshow/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Stratos%20N

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/6z1znm6xfjf3b1l/Kerbodyne%20Stratos%20N.craft?dl=0

[Volcanix]

Wanderfound...stream? Are you going to actually make me get a Twitch account?

Yes, he definitely will, if he will be streaming

[Wanderfound]

BTW, folks: if you want to take one of the new aerobatic ships for a spin, why not try http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/106723-Kerbodyne-Aerobatics-Championships ?

[eddiew]

Hey Wander, I've been wondering - what's the longest range thing from Kerbodyne that doesn't need nuclear engines? My kerbals are pursuing a green agenda

[Wanderfound]

Hey Wander, I've been wondering - what's the longest range thing from Kerbodyne that doesn't need nuclear engines? My kerbals are pursuing a green agenda

Non-nuke spaceplanes to Minmus or the Mun aren't too hard; just shave the jets down to the minimum required for take off, and use the weight saved for extra fuel tanks. Having an Aerospike or LV-909 on board for high-efficiency space thrust doesn't hurt, either. It's massively out of date now, but the Longreach was built to do KSC-Minmus-KSC without refuelling (back when I was playing with my own self-imposed nuke ban). If you add a fuel stop in LKO, all but the smallest ships here should be able to visit Minmus.

But if you want to go interplanetary without nukes, you either need a gigantic ship that's horrible to fly or drop tanks. Personally, I prefer drop tanks.

Both the Impatienze and the Cacafeugo are designed to use drop tanks. The Impatienze demonstrates the conventional way to do it (and was also built to be able to lift its own tanks into orbit, albeit over a few trips), while the Cacafeugo was designed to show off some more complicated tricks. The basic key is to set the droptanks in line with CoM (so as not to disrupt the CoM/CoT alignment) and trailing behind the thrust (so that acceleration pulls them straight, allowing you to use an arbitrarily long line of docked tanks).

[eddiew]

Interesting, thank you Aerospikes are an option, as well as a Vesta engine from KW Rocketry - 400 ISP with better thrust than a 909. Delivering scientists to/from my Kerbin SOI stations is a first priority, beyond that is a 'would be nice' more than anything. I guess the curse of spaceplanes is that they have to lug all their empties around with them, unlike a conventional rocket and lander where half of it never comes home.

I could of course do LKO refuels as you say - made myself a launcher at the weekend that puts a full orange tank into orbit. Combined with a stage recovery mod, it's surprisingly cheap, if inelegant

[Wanderfound]

Another option for budget Kerbal crew delivery:

1) Launch any of the light-cargo spaceplanes to LKO.

2) In the cargo bay, stick together a few Mk1 lander cans or capsules, along with an RCS tank and a pair of monoprop engines. A crewed version of my standard satellite, basically.

3) After taking your spaceplane to LKO, send your passengers off to their final destination in the minimalist space taxi.

[steve_v]

Vesta engine from KW Rocketry

Ahh, my favourite small spaceplane engine, inconveniently long at times but excellent performance

[WhiteKnuckle]

I guess the curse of spaceplanes is that they have to lug all their empties around with them, unlike a conventional rocket and lander where half of it never comes home.

The way I reconciled my love of spaceplanes with the long range efficiency problem you pointed out was to build a large SSTO that tows an interplanetary spaceplane behind it to orbit.

Send it up as a package, separate in LKO, land the lifter SSTO back at KSC, then the interplanetary ship can go out and do it's thing without lugging a bunch of worthless jet engines around the solar system. Once it's done it lands back at KSC too.

While as a package it's not a proper SSTO, I figure as long as all the parts take off from and land on the runway it's close enough. And it's nice to be able to take a spaceplane to Duna or further without having to refuel along the way.

Wanderfound, I just wanted to thank you, I've be lurking in this thread since .90 got me back into KSP. Just looking at some of your designs helped me work through some issues I was having with my spaceplanes and VTOLs. Keep up the good work dude!

[Behemoth1702]

The way I reconciled my love of spaceplanes with the long range efficiency problem you pointed out was to build a large SSTO that tows an interplanetary spaceplane behind it to orbit.

Send it up as a package, separate in LKO, land the lifter SSTO back at KSC, then the interplanetary ship can go out and do it's thing without lugging a bunch of worthless jet engines around the solar system. Once it's done it lands back at KSC too.

While as a package it's not a proper SSTO, I figure as long as all the parts take off from and land on the runway it's close enough. And it's nice to be able to take a spaceplane to Duna or further without having to refuel along the way.

Wanderfound, I just wanted to thank you, I've be lurking in this thread since .90 got me back into KSP. Just looking at some of your designs helped me work through some issues I was having with my spaceplanes and VTOLs. Keep up the good work dude!

Would you mind sharing this aircraft? It must be huge!

[Wanderfound]

Okay; just got my laptop back, with all the crap scrubbed off and a shiny new 64-bit OS installed.

I'm still running x86 KSP due to the total borked-ness of the Win64 veraion, but regardless: my game should now be much less crash happy and much more mod tolerant. It's also coping with much higher graphics settings than it would previously.

So, a reversal from the usual position here: recommend me some mods.

Already installed:

Kerbal Flight Data

Kerbal Flight Indicators

Kerbal Pilot Assistant

RCS Build Aid

Scansat

TAC-LS

Goodspeed

FAR

Mechjeb (with FAR plugin and Mechjeb Embedded)

Enhancd Navball

Environmental Visual Enhancements (anyone wanna recommend a good config pack for that?)

Hyperedit

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Chatterer

Would be installed if they were working at the moment, but apparently aren't:

Kerbpaint

Raster Prop Monitor (with Hyomoto's MFD)

Firespitter

Already considering:

Kerbal Construction Time

RemoteTech

B9

MkIV Spaceplane System

What else?

Edited January 15, 2015 by Wanderfound

[Darren9]

The latest B9 has working raster prop and firespitter.dll, I'd have a look at B9 procedural wing as well.

[blowfish]

RPM has an unofficial patch which makes it work with 0.90 IIRC.

[eddiew]

Kerbal Construction Time is great, especially paired with Stage Recovery - although if you actually play with all-spaceplanes it probably won't affect you much

RemoteTech, only if you want a proper hardcore game... I respect it's realism aspects, but it adds a lot of problems (controlling probe landings being top of the list) without adding solutions to those problems. I've been using Antenna Range as an alternative, which still makes you think about communications for transmissible science, but isn't as brutal about the control of probes.

Transfer Window Planner is nice if you're playing with life support, since you can pre-plan the entire trip and return, and know exactly what you need to provide for.

DMagic Orbital Science is a great addition, as long as you turn science income down to match the fact you have new ways of getting that technology. Some of it's deep in the tree, which can give reasons to re-visit places.

Modular Kolonisation Systems is fun if you want to do permanent bases elsewhere in the solar system. Back it up with Karbonite for some in-situ refuelling options - which I can imagine working very well for an SSTO fan, actually, since you can send a fuel refinery ahead of your manned mission, then top up once you get where you're going; no need to have enough fuel for the round-trip anymore

Lack Luster Labs' SXT adds a lot of plane parts and engines that you might find use for.

Station Science gives you a good reason to put heavy things in orbit, although I'm not sure they'll fit into an MK3 bird.

And of course Kerbal Engineer Redux!

I'd normally suggest KW Rocketry, but I don't think it's your style - although you might find use for the Vesta class engines early on (good efficiency, better thrust than a 909).

...yeah, I'm one of those guys who runs with 70+ mods, but they're all cherry picked like the above, and most of them aren't too brutal about memory requirements. Everything you listed is in my GameData already

[Wanderfound]

A quickie to celebrate my rejuvenated computer: Kerbotrainer.

Just an updated version of my standard fast jet trainer. Friendly to novice pilots, and a bit of aerobatic fun for the more experienced as well.

Story at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Kerbotrainer/story

Alternate format at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/slideshow/Kerbal/Beta/Kerbodyne%20Showroom/Kerbotrainer

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/eqo5b7v5ef89g8s/Kerbotrainer.craft?dl=0

- - - Updated - - -

BTW: my laptop has gone from being so dodgy that I needed to remove both the NASA and Squad parts folders just to get it to install properly [1] and crashing almost every time I quickloaded or reverted [2], to now happily running B9 and E.V.E. without crashing or needing to wind the graphics down at all.

Yay for having mates who are IT professionals.

[1] Remove parts, start game, wind graphics to minimum, restore parts; without that, it wouldn't start at all.

[2] And often whenever I changed scenes, or switched vessels, or sometimes just for no reason at all; I spent almost as much time restarting the game as playing it.

[Yukon0009]

Wow wanderfound these are some damn good planes!

[WhiteKnuckle]

So, a reversal from the usual position here: recommend me some mods.

Kerbin-Side

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82785-0-90-Kerbin-Side-v0-41-Go-For-Multi-Launch!

If you like flying, it is sooooo nice to be able to start from areas other that KSC. Got a new VTOL to try out? Take it for a spin from a mountaintop helipad! Got some 200-ton monster that needs a huge take-off roll? Use the Area-51 runway that's like 3km long!

After FAR it's my favorite mod.

[Engineer of Stuff]

Kerbin-Side

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82785-0-90-Kerbin-Side-v0-41-Go-For-Multi-Launch!

If you like flying, it is sooooo nice to be able to start from areas other that KSC. Got a new VTOL to try out? Take it for a spin from a mountaintop helipad! Got some 200-ton monster that needs a huge take-off roll? Use the Area-51 runway that's like 3km long!

This mod is awesome. One of the best out there.

[Behemoth1702]

So, a reversal from the usual position here: recommend me some mods.

I'm glad your system is working nicely! It's a treat, isnt it?

Blizzy's Toolbar - small icons -> profit

Distant Object Enhancement - shows you flares for planets, debris and stuff. Atmospheric!

PlanetShine - really pretty and makes sense from a realistic standpoint!

Editor Extensions - really useful stuff if you want advanced editor controls!

Improved Chase Camera - you're a pilot, you'll enhoy a proper cam!

ISP Difficulty Scaler - makes good sense with FAR

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement - makes sense for planes & rockets

Procedural Fairings

Active Texture Management - helps you cope with many mods, x86basic is enough, use agressive when in RAM trouble

RealChute - it has a stack shute (round thing you can stick between fuel tank and engine), finally drag chutes in KSP! No more chute cut off when touching the ground!

I think that's pretty much all I love.