Woohoo, made it to suborbital flight with a turbojet!

[MrUberGr]

So I was playing around with various mods, and thought I'd build a F-104 Starfighter. After launching hundreds of rockets to the VAB and the Astronaut complex I'd thought I'd test how it does. I was using the firespitter tail engine so it did poorly above a height. A few modifications later, I was going 2.158m/s

Adjusting my climb rate and throttle I managed this. The periapsis is about 38.8km

And here is the spaceplane

I know it's not something amazing, but it's the first time I've actually done this so I thought I'd share. I could've used two of the hybrid engines on the side fuel tanks and it would've been a proper SSTO!

Mod's used for the construction of this:

Firespitter

Spaceplane Plus

TweakScale

Edit: Naturally, since it never was meant to be a SSTO, I just ran out of electricity...

Edited August 28, 2014 by MrUberGr

[Pecan]

Congratulations :-) Anyone's first time is an achievement.

Problem - the plane looks sleek in silhuoette but I'd like to see it in daylight too! More pics please ;-0

I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Despite doing quick trips with this a lot of times I only really tested it a few days ago. I overdid the intake-spamming and its performance surprised me a bit.

Crew Shuttle In Orbit

[Wanderfound]

Congrats!

Keep cranking; add some rockets or mod-pack Scramjets and it's possible to reach escape velocity while flying below 30,000m.

[GreeningGalaxy]

mod-pack Scramjets

Scramjets?? Back when mods were still on Kerbal SpacePort I searched long and hard for a scramjet mod and all I found was some sleazy config edit that added a few zeros to the stock turbojet's thrust. Is there something better out there that I missed / came out recently?

[MrUberGr]

No idea what a scramjet is ^^.

Congratulations :-) Anyone's first time is an achievement.

Problem - the plane looks sleek in silhuoette but I'd like to see it in daylight too! More pics please ;-0

I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Despite doing quick trips with this a lot of times I only really tested it a few days ago. I overdid the intake-spamming and its performance surprised me a bit.

I'm trying to make a video of it, to get use to my new program as well, I'll upload and post it as soon as I manage it. If I don't, screenshots will have to suffice!

[MrUberGr]

Didn't make it with the video thingy after all, so voila.

It looks sleeker because it is! You can notice how it gets rounder to the back cause that is the normal 1.25m part. The fuselage is the firespitter's "oblong" shape.

[Wanderfound]

MrUberGr: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet

I haven't used any of the scramjet mods myself, but some of them look okay. Google "kerbal scramjet mod" and you'll find a bunch.

For escape velocity with stock engines, see http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90747-Kerbodyne-SSTO-Division-Omnibus-Thread?p=1370535&viewfull=1#post1370535

[Jebidiah005]

Nice job! Getting a spaceplanes into even a semi-orbital flight is very difficult. I would like to see the plane in daylight though.

[mythic_fci]

Congrats! Turbojets into suborbital flight is pretty hard to do, considering most planes need room for other stuff (ex. rocket engines). Try making a new plane with a few more intakes and 2 LV-909s. Probably will make it into orbit.