UKSN Knife. SSTO fighter.

[Rune]

Hello there! The last time I asked people what they would prefer to see me build, they were requesting weapons a lot. So the skunkworks have been pretty busy lately! This is a bit of a small addition, but since I'm about to release a couple of carriers soonâ„¢ (yes, a couple, and only one of them is the B9 monstrosity I previewed elsewhere), it is kind of an important one. A compact carrier-based fighter! Featuring stock armament but easily converted to something else (you have space for missiles where they are now, and you can always put a turret under it), more T/W that you know what to do with, stupendous maneuverability, and a rather limited autonomy in an incredibly compact package, the Knife looks exactly like what it was designed to be: a fast short-range interceptor capable of taking out ships many times it's size.

I say "a rather limited autonomy", but that is mostly regarding in-space maneuvering. As a SSTO, it is astounding. It is a true speed demon, climbing vertically at close to terminal speed before getting to orbital speeds terrifyingly quickly adn being able to get apoapsies of ~140kms if you milk the engines properly... then glide to the ground and do it again faster with the other half of the fuel tank. After circularization, though, you will have only a bit over 500m/s to play with, but considering by then you should be considering which ship is going to work as carrier to carry additional ammo and monopropellant (no oxidizer in the whole ship! Minimizes subsystem complexity, and I make all my auxiliary vessels burn mono now) and get you places, so that shouldn't be an issue. >500m/s is more than enough for any engagement in close orbits, I think, and this way the sortie to drop a couple of "lance torpedoes" end up being quite cheap in delta-v for the mothership.

Oh, and speaking about that. What is a "lance torpedo"? Well, my favorite stock weapon, because an I-bean going at >650m/s down your throat must hurt:

Being spin-stabilized, the spread as you can see is pretty much non-existent if you fire both of them at the same time, so they are accurate at medium ranges if you can line up the target right. But if you launch only one at a time (there are action groups for that), go for the close kill because recoil will throw you off somewhat. Don't worry, the missiles have such high T/W that they can get up to effective impact speed in terrifyingly short distances.

As to flight notes, well, all I can say is that the ship was balanced to fly without missiles and does it's best like that... but you can still glide her to a landing at full load, or get a takeoff at less than 60m/s, or go to vertical climb before the end of the runway. And she will be more stable the more loaded it is, so it may be actually easier to fly. The hard part is controlling vertical speed on the climb to orbit, it tends to go too high too fast to get the most out of it, so keep an eye on the vertical velocity indicator (next to the altimeter) and try to keep it under 100m/ once you are on your speed run at about 25kms. BTW, it is a clippy design, I won't deny that, and you have to move the camera around to get to some monoprop tanks inside the intakes. But you can see all of the four intakes, and they actually make the ship prettier. That's good in my book. Oh, and only 50 part loaded with missiles, so yo know, you can actually play with it next to the carrier and the enemy ships, even if they hide under a lag shield.

That is all about this somewhat wimple but cute and well rounded fighter, expect a couple (or more!) releases kinda soon, since a lot of military pieces are coming together to round up the military catalogue of the skunkworks. And mods will return there with a bang, too!

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http://www./download/lqglthlkm41d2rn/UKSN+Knife+SSTO+Fighter.craft

Rune. Making fireworks.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Rune
clarified my horrible grammar

[Majorjim!]

I like it Rune. Really neat and compact. Is it designed to join a mothership?

[Rune]

I like it Rune. Really neat and compact. Is it designed to join a mothership?

Most definitely, hence the talk abut carriers and that big honking docking port (I reserve the Jr. docking port for ordnance and probes, but you can stick one under, there is some free fuselage directly opposite the big one). Otherwise it is a one-shot wonder to LKO, though that is also a possibility: if you want to blow something up in a low orbit, few things will get you there fastest than this, and the ordnance chews through most armor like tissue paper.

I'm working on a stock carrier, but the B9 humongous ship I previewed yesterday is coming next, once I put them together in the same orbit for some screenshots... which is not trivial, since the B9 install is Interstellar's install, and airhoggers and interstellar are not a thing that goes together. I might end up using other kind of fighters for that one, launched by regular disposable rockets.

Rune. It was a rude surprise to see the engine blowing up due to overheating on the first test on my mod install, I had forgotten abut that.

[andrew123]

Most definitely, hence the talk abut carriers and that big honking docking port (I reserve the Jr. docking port for ordnance and probes, but you can stick one under, there is some free fuselage directly opposite the big one). Otherwise it is a one-shot wonder to LKO, though that is also a possibility: if you want to blow something up in a low orbit, few things will get you there fastest than this, and the ordnance chews through most armor like tissue paper.

I'm working on a stock carrier, but the B9 humongous ship I previewed yesterday is coming next, once I put them together in the same orbit for some screenshots... which is not trivial, since the B9 install is Interstellar's install, and airhoggers and interstellar are not a thing that goes together. I might end up using other kind of fighters for that one, launched by regular disposable rockets.

Rune. It was a rude surprise to see the engine blowing up due to overheating on the first test on my mod install, I had forgotten abut that.

I love the militarization of space! I'm embarking on further naval militarization by making an USS Wasp, or at least when I have time.