Alaflux - Wings optional SSTO

[drewscriver]

Well, I've dropped a few mentions here and there, but I finally finished my video, and am ready for the grand reveal. Introducing the Alaflux, my latest wings-optional spaceplane.

Use with wings on for atmospheric ascents, or feel free to park the wings in orbit if you're headed for a non-atmospheric destination.

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With five docking attachment points, the wings will remain secure, even under time warp. The jets have enough fuel get into orbit with about a fifth of a tank left (on a good run). The main nuclear engine has plenty of delta V to make it to Duna, and I'm 75% sure that a better pilot than I can pull off a Laythe round trip.

For maximum efficiency, park a pair of wings at your destination, and then just pick them up when you need them - no reason to haul them around interplanetary like I did in the video.

At 286 parts and 33.4 tons fully fueled, the Alaflux is no lightweight, but it is very well behaved. Either with wings on or off, fuel is positioned symmetrically around the center of mass, so the center of mass does not shift (and flight characteristics do not change) as fuel is burned.

Action groups are as follows:

1) Jets

2) Nuke

3) -empty-

4) Undock 1

5) Undock 2

6) Landing legs

7) Front intakes

8) Rear intakes

9) Escape pod gear deploy / retract

0) Emergency parachute

Abort) Detach cockpit

Despite having a substantial number of intakes, the Alaflux has a ceiling of around 31,000 meters. A typical flight profile has a fast climb to 22,000 or so, leveling out at around 25,000 and then slowly following the apogee up to 30,000.

Air intakes are attached in the correct order to minimize asymmetrical flame-out, though docking and undocking the wings may well screw this up.

To detach the wings, hit both 4 and 5 (in that order). You may still have to manually decouple the bottom rear ports for some reason. Redocking is hard to make look easy, but not actually so difficult. Thanks to precise tolerances and angled docking ports, you should get a solid connection on all the ports almost every time.

As demonstrated, the Alaflux has a comprehensive abort system, functional at zero-zero, with monoprop reserves and thrusters for limited airless maneuvering, as well as good gliding characteristics and redundant parachutes.

Probably my last release until 1.0, but I hope you enjoy it in the meantime.

Craft download available here

-Drewscriver

Edited February 15, 2015 by drewscriver

[Validity]

This is absolutely amazing! +rep to you, love the idea.

[zekes]

wow, some seriously thorough work on that SSTO. They're the one thing I can't seem to build.

[Technical Ben]

Very very nice. Love the wing idea and the "snapping" of them into a dock for easy recovery.

I was toying with something similar for ages, but never got the docking right (mine was a 3 stage "abort" stage 1, "aircraft" stage 2 and "launch" stage 3, which could dock/land independently... might try revisiting it now tweakables are in ).

[drewscriver]

Very very nice. Love the wing idea and the "snapping" of them into a dock for easy recovery.

I was toying with something similar for ages, but never got the docking right (mine was a 3 stage "abort" stage 1, "aircraft" stage 2 and "launch" stage 3, which could dock/land independently... might try revisiting it now tweakables are in ).

I'm glad you like it! I've worked on similar projects before, and while they were possible, tweakables really do make a world of difference.