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Three Swoopy Cargo SSTOs!

Exothermos
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Exothermos

Exothermos

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Those who follow the SSTO showcase thread will recognize these three craft. Iv'e been sitting on them for a while as I never took the time to polish them up for release. There are so many new parts and new opportunities that I can scarcely keep from building 3 or 4 proof of concept craft per night, then rarely revisit them. I figured I'd 'slow my roll' a bit and share some of the more successful ones.

First up is the Asp, a mk2 cargo SSTO meant to share some design with the SR-72 Concept.

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It is a standard airhogging type (as are all these designs) and is very stable and simple to fly.

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It will effortlessly lift anything that will fit in the bay.

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Next up is the Arcus .

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I wanted to design an SSTO that was very nimble, and totally overpowered (efficiency be damned!). The cranked forward fuselage results in an unstable and highly maneuverable craft. Just make sure to fly with SAS on!

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Being over-engined, it will lift anything that fits in the bay (and more) straight to orbit very quickly.

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Last is the Auriga.

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When the Mk3 parts fell into our hands I died and went to heaven. This is the first thing i made.

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It is designed for a max payload of a single "Orange Can." This is quite tedious however, so it isn't something I'd recommend. My main use of it is delivering space station parts to LKO, which is a much more pleasant affair.

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Thanks for looking!

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Rune

Rune

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Yup, awesome indeed. The Auriga in particular looks like it has a lot of promise! Maybe lose a couple of jets (looks like ou have TWR>1 in there), but then again with so little rocket thrust, maybe don't. In any case, your aesthetic sense is unwaveringly great.

Rune. Kudos!

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Exothermos

Exothermos

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Thanks all! Glad you like them. Let me know if there are any issues (I posted this pretty late last night). :)

Rune, you are probably right. I think swapping a set of jets for Rapiers might be a good decision, but I don't like having all that extra rocket thrust. It seems wasteful. I could be wrong though, the rapiers breathe longer on thin air so their reduced thrust rating in that mode might be compensated by actually staying lit longer. I'll play around with it on the next versions. (So many more in development that it is overwhelming, haha)

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Great aesthetics! Almost makes me want to venture into the realm of SSTOs.

Do it! It's a whole different world of technical problems to solve (paradise)!

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Yakuzi

Yakuzi

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Very nice spaceplanes, I do approve indeed! I particularly like how you gave the SR-72 based SSTO those trademark Exothermos aesthetics...

Edit: "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Exothermos again." You and your crafts be damned :) It appears I will have to be somewhat more promiscuous in the field of rep spreading...

Edited by Yakuzi
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Fearless Son

Fearless Son

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Great looking designs. I especially like the Asp, and I may need to try building myself an Auriga (I have been struggling with a Mk. 3 cargo spaceplane for a while now.) I wish there was a way to do it without airhogging though. How many intakes do these things have?

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And it looks like we had the same idea for a cockpit ;)

Am I the only one who's first thought upon seeing that cockpit was "Quack!"? ;)

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So I tried duplicating the Asp as closely as I could without the airhogging assembly on the bottom of the wings (I prefer to avoid airhogging so I am exploring other intake methods) and that thing just does not have enough lift to get it off the runway. How do you manage to take this thing off?

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Exothermos

Exothermos

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*Arceus* FTFU.

Great crafts!

Darn Latin! Thanks. Lets pretend I made an aesthetic naming decision here rather than fumbling my conjugation.

Incredible...I presume you based the design of the Arcus off of the XB-70 supersonic test bomber?

I do have an old design that is an homage to the xb-70 (maybe it's time for an updated one). I think in this case, I saw something around the forums here with a similar "goose neck", and just decided to try it my self.

Great looking designs. I especially like the Asp, and I may need to try building myself an Auriga (I have been struggling with a Mk. 3 cargo spaceplane for a while now.) I wish there was a way to do it without airhogging though. How many intakes do these things have?

To be honest I have no idea! Many. Most of the time it is around 3 to 4 intakes per engine. I should be more precise, but after building so many SSTOs I can eyeball it and get close. If my minimum climb performance isn't met, I add a few more and test. There is no way to build this style of SSTO (with large payload fractions, high performance and compact, attractive lines without airhogging. One can certainly build non-airhogging large SSTOs, but they will necessarily carry MUCH more internal fuel, and will balloon in size and complexity while losing payload performance. It's definitely a divisive subject, but I fall firmly on the pro-airhogging side because it allows me to play with spaceplanes in a way that I find fun.

So I tried duplicating the Asp as closely as I could without the airhogging assembly on the bottom of the wings (I prefer to avoid airhogging so I am exploring other intake methods) and that thing just does not have enough lift to get it off the runway. How do you manage to take this thing off?

Are you very heavy on fuel? The Asp has very little in the way of sneaky hidden wings, maybe one or two for aesthetics, mostly. It doesn't need them because a full load of fuel is only 25% of the available tank space (those fuselage parts are all empty). If you are avoiding airhogging, you are definitely going to need a lot more fuel than what I designed it for. It will need a lot more wing.

Would you be interested in becoming Head Spaceplane Engineer for Interstellar Innovations? We are currently a one-man company.:sticktongue:

I'm really flakey with this game. I'll gladly build spaceplanes for any reason, but sometimes i burn out and disappear for weeks at a time. Be warned! #BitterVet

I'm very glad that these designs have struck a chord with some. Building Spaceplanes is a much easier affair with the new parts and tools, but if you don't know how they are made, rip them apart and "steal" ideas. I do it with everyone's craft. :D

Edited by Exothermos
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