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Kerbodyne SSTO Division: Omnibus Thread

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Wanderfound

Wanderfound

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Has the flight guide in the second post been updated for nuFar?

Not yet, no.

However, the flight profile is still fairly similar, with just a few changes:

1) The altitude ceiling for jet thrust is substantially lower. Level off to crank the speed at about 13,000m instead of 20,000m.

2) You now need to manage your heat. Kerbal Flight Data is very useful for this. Accelerate until you get a little bit hot, then climb. If the KFD heat warnings go red, cut throttle and immediately climb as steeply as possible (because you're about to explode).

3) It's no longer worth the trouble to gradually shut down engines. By the time you reach an altitude where that is necessary, your jet thrust is trivial. Instead of trying to squeeze out as much altitude as possible, switch to rocket mode as soon as you lose the ability to accelerate (usually at around 25,000m or so).

If you have a look at the Imgur albums of some of the recent ships, you can see the flight profile demonstrated there.

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Captain Sierra

Captain Sierra

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I see KerbPaint is back in rotation. :P

You think an airframe design like that'd fly under stock?

EDIT: on second thought, probably not as appears. Stock's too draggy at the moment for that little thrust to do the job (but maybe with Turbo-RAPIERs it'll go).

EDIT 2: How's FAR area ruling like a RAPIER-spike? Works quite well under stock. What's Ferram's code think of it?

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Wanderfound

Wanderfound

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I see KerbPaint is back in rotation. :P

You think an airframe design like that'd fly under stock?

EDIT: on second thought, probably not as appears. Stock's too draggy at the moment for that little thrust to do the job (but maybe with Turbo-RAPIERs it'll go).

EDIT 2: How's FAR area ruling like a RAPIER-spike? Works quite well under stock. What's Ferram's code think of it?

For stock, either swap the nuke for a turbo (and change the LF tankage to LFO) or change the RAPIERs and intakes to dual-mounts.

That RAPIER-spike trick might work in some circumstances, but in this case, no. The cross-section of the RAPIERs transition into the tail empennage nicely as is.

Minimising drag in FAR is about avoiding sharp changes in cross-sectional area; the jump from the flat face of a RAPIER to the rim of a small nosecone is still a fairly sharp change.

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Wanderfound

Wanderfound

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So I've been wondering -- with the wings, what is the root part? The base, or the leading edge of the wing? I've always had a hard time getting wings to stay as stable and solid.

I normally use whichever piece is largest as the root part (usually the base) and build off that.

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blowfish

blowfish

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I'm curious if it's practical (I know it's doable) to manage drag/heating in a way that allows you to hit mach 4.5 or even higher before switching modes. That extra mach on jets usually means a lot less rocket fuel and hence a greater payload fraction, but it does require some design compromises.

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Wanderfound

Wanderfound

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I'm curious if it's practical (I know it's doable) to manage drag/heating in a way that allows you to hit mach 4.5 or even higher before switching modes. That extra mach on jets usually means a lot less rocket fuel and hence a greater payload fraction, but it does require some design compromises.

You just need a ship fast enough to get you there before you cook.

tHz8k7Z.jpg

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