*EXTREMELY OLD VIDEO* KSP V.21 -Vid#7- A flapping wing SSTO design. No Mods.

In video 7 i tried something new in my war against the BLANK loading screens! i hope you enjoy! :D Also i will be building a small SSTO that uses the power of wings alone to get into space, then uses its rockets for orbital insertion. And, i will be going over the X2 108 ton payload SSTO and showing you how it's coming along.

[vaos]

#1/2 Thank you for explaining :) Up until now i was under the impression that after passing the apoapsis, gravity was the force that was making the craft accelerate back down to the planet on its own. My idea was that if my altitude was high enough, i could burn into the now downward trajectory past the apoapsis and gain additional speed on top of the speed that i was already gaining from gravity pulling me back down. In the video i make ...

[oalessandroo]

Gravity is already factored into your current orbital projection, so it won't give you anything you don't already have. To circularize, you want a change in prograde velocity at apoapse: if you fire at the yellow marker anywhere else, you are getting a radial component (relative to apo/periapse) that changes your orbit in ways you don't want. The blue marker points at your prograde at the 'apse: that is why you are supposed to fire at it the whole time - before and after the 'node. HTH, etc.

[vaos]

OH awesome! i didn't know that! thank you! :D that should make things a lot easier.

[oalessandroo]

Addendum: if you achieved escape velocity, and kept it despite aerobraking effects, you would still not have SSTO relative to your current primary (i.e, Kerbin), since afterwards you would be orbiting Kerbol. On eventual re-encounter with Kerbin, you would either retain escape velocity or meet the atmosphere, aerobrake, and eventually fall back to the planet.

[oalessandroo]

A note on physics: you always want to burn as close as you possibly can to your maneuver node, which means firing *at your blue marker* for the same amount of time on either side of the node. You also want to burn pointing at your prograde marker (to avoid steering losses), which means you want your prograde/retrograde maneuver nodes either at apoapse or periapse. Bottom line: gravity is NOT helping you if it forces you to point away from your prograde marker as you burn. HTH, etc.

[TrxTheNubCake]

There actually is an undo button you have to hit control and then z. Nice video btw :]

[vaos]

#2/2 ... the burn with my nose pointed at the yellow marker and not at the blue marker in a attempt to gain more speed burning down toward the planet. After that, i pull up some to raise my orbital altitude. However, you seem very very knowledgeable about this subject so i will apologize to you and my subscribers. This was my error and I'll own up to it and not use it anymore. Thank you. :)

[oalessandroo]

Then I shall have to presume that your advice made him realize the title was incorrect, and so he fixed it. :)

[EddieRodJr]

My god the fan is your rig sounds like it's going to take off as well and goto space!! lol buy some better fans bro trust me it's worth it!!  :-)

[oalessandroo]

In fairness, it doesn't. It says, "A flapping wing SSTO design! NO MODS! v 0.21", and this is what this is. Flapping wings, check. SSTO, check. No mods, check. V 0.21, check. Even with KSP's broken aerodynamics, you cannot achieve orbit without a rocket engine (or RCS): your orbit must always return to the point where you last accelerated, and flapping wings (and jet engines) only accelerate inside the atmosphere.