Omnidirect - ssto space plane of peculiar design

[diegzumillo]

Hey all

Not sure if anyone tried this before (is there anything that hasn't been done already?)

There are three thoughts that led me to design this: 1) a single turbo jet engine is the best way to really get the most of the atmosphere, as you can go all the way until it flames out, lower the throttle, repeat, until you have no more throttle. And 2) If you can get a nuclear engine on a space plane you can really go places, but more than one is a waste of mass. 3) Given how planes work you usually have to choose between 2 jets and 1 nuke or 1 nuke and 2 jets. Both solutions violate items 1 or 2.

So I made this guy:

I call it Omnidirect. I think it's a fun idea! and solves the problems I mentioned. It's a little tricky getting him to orbit, as there's this very tense moment where you have to spin, and you're still inside the atmosphere (slightly). But it works. This screenshot is from its first test flight, on a 72km approximately circular orbit with ~2600m/s of dv.

[Space.exe]

Nice man when you turn does the prograde go with the nose or is it like as if you were in orbit?

[diegzumillo]

What do you mean?

[Space.exe]

When doing your intense spin to switch to nuclear does the plane change direction, or are you really high in the atmosphere?

[diegzumillo]

Oh, it's really high. I thought the atmosphere was making it hard to turn but it really doesn't do anything. But it's still a race against your apogee, you have to turn as fast as you can before you reach it and hope the nuclear engine will have enough time to push it forward before starting to descent again. I added a bit more fuel on the new version and it's harder to get it to orbit but I got plus 200m/s dv (not sure if that's worth it)

[Space.exe]

You could use it to get to a station and make it a interplanetary plane.