Mk3 SSTO VTOL craft

[Chris_2]

This is my design of an SSTO VTOL shuttle with Mk3 parts. The design is capable of vertical takeoff and hovering (with full and empty fuel load), rolling short take off and conventional (no hover jets) aircraft takeoff when only carrying a little jet-fuel, and is very maneuverable and easy to fly. There are some vertical rocket engines (rockomax 48-7s) for vertical moon-landings. Also, this craft can be launched on the back of a shuttle-stack, and then will have so much fuel reserve in orbit that it is capable of going to the moon or anywhere in the solar system without even refueling... This is the most practical and elegant craft I've ever created...

Pics!

[longbyte1]

Looks quite robust. How did you make that refueling crane on the last picture?

[Tangle]

It may be the most elegant craft you've created, but it needs to be the most elegant craft I've ever flown! Gimme download! ...please?

[Joecool]

But what about the .Craft? this is an actual kerbal engineering marvel!

[Wjolcz]

How come it uses only 6 basic jets? I did the same thing but with NEAR and 6 was clearly not enough for a half-empty MK3 aircraft. I guess they just get nerfed in modded aero.

Nice craft. Glad to see someone finally menaged a VTOL SSTO with those parts.

[Chris_2]

Thanks for the comments everybody. Here is an updated version (craft: http://kerbalx.com/crafts/682), one that has actual margin to orbit and is NEAR and deadly reentry compatible (as well as stock)! The big change is that it is now much lighter (launch mass decreased from 95 to 49 tonne!), and that it now actually can 'fly' as an conventional aircraft (so using the turbojets and winglift only). The trajectory is much more like an traditional spaceplane, so gaining as much speed in the upper atmosphere instead of the much more brute force rocket ascend of the previous version (can now get up to 1300m/s in airbreating mode instead of only 400m/s of the previous craft). This was also the key to be NEAR-compatible, because with NEAR, the hover jets lose power shortly after gaining only a little speed, so the craft had to be able fly on the wings.

Only 2 hover jets per side now due to lighter craft, and also some moon-landing engines (engaged just for demonstration) (action key 6), action key 0 toggles the payload bays. (I have ven's part revamp installed, which is a visual mod only. Those are in fact regular jet engines for hovering and turbojets on the back).

The ascend procedure is as follows:

Takeoff using the hover jets (action key 1 opens the payload doors and toggles the jets), like a conventional aircraft using the runway (action key 2 toggles the turbojets), or a 'short takeoff' using both the hover jets and the turbojets. Whichever way you like

Activate the turbojets if not already activated, pitch up to 30° and ascend to 14km (with NEAR, you can disable the hover jets soon as they do not produce any power). At 14km, level off, gain speed, and make a steady ascend to ~24km and 1200m/s.

Then, move all the fuel to the rear tank! Engage the rockets (action key 4 for the Nerva's and action key 3 for the stack of rockomax 48-7s on the back. Pitch up as much as you can (might use RCS) and proceed to orbit.

When apogee is 70km, disengage the Rockomax 48-7s and circularize using the nerva's.

You will reach orbit with some fuel to spare. With NEAR, you will have even more fuel left (might get you to the moon or something)).

For re-entry (with deadly reentry and NEAR), use a shallow reentry profile with a periapsis of ~20km right above the KSP. Then it is possible to bleed off energy by pitching the nose up, effectively generating lift and drag and skipping over the atmosphere! Then, when lower in the atmosphere make some S-turns to bleed off more energy without overheating (like the space-shuttle!). Fly back to the KSC and land using you favorite method

^ Look, my apogee is in front of me, I am bouncing over the atmosphere! (And look how much fuel was left with NEAR)

^Pull some high-gee turns!

Edit: uploaded new version with balanced RCS thrusters. (use action key 6 to enable/disable the front vernier thrusters that can be used to pitch up the craft during transition from airbreathing to rocket power).

Edited December 29, 2014 by Chris_2

[waterlubber]

Awesome, great work!

Mk3 parts were always a bit of a pain

[longbyte1]

Awesome, great work!

Mk3 parts were always a bit of a pain

Did you intentionally necro this thread?

[Chris_2]

Did you intentionally necro this thread?

An update of this thread will come tonight, as I have a working 1.0 version (SSTO VTOL capable!) version of this craft!

[SHiftER2O]

Looks very.. aggresive

[Chris_2]

Still working on such a craft; has become somewhat harder in 1.02... But this test flight made it all the way to the mun!

(https://vimeo.com/126754294)

[Errol]

I haven't gotten much into designing crafts again yet, I'm still waiting for a few mods to get updated and want to go through the tech tree as I design crafts for the new aero. Question for you as you've been building since the update:

I know that supposedly they killed the infiniglide bug, do you know if air hogging is gone too?