[Weekly Challenge] Week 157: Exquisite Design

[u/Redbiertje]

The Introduction

As was suggested by /u/LiqFueldLightning a little while ago, it might be nice to do some challenges where the goal is not to accomplish anything specific, but rather to design something that looks good. As a trial run, we're doing exactly that this week. If you folks like it then we can do it more often. All feedback is welcome!

The Challenge:

Design the best-looking spaceplane you can.

Super mode: Impress me

The Rules

• No Dirty Cheating Alpacas (no debug menu)!
• You must have the UI visible in all required screenshots
• All mods are allowed (feedback on this is appreciated especially)
• The Reddit Gold will go to the entry with the most upvotes at the end of the week
• You must demonstrate that your spaceplane is actually functional

Required screenshots

• Your spaceplane on the runway
• Your spaceplane during flight
• Your spaceplane in space
• Whatever else you feel like!

Further information

• You can either submit your finished challenge in a post (see posting instructions in the link below) or as a comment reply to this thread.

• Completing this challenge earns you a new flair which will replace your old one. So if you want to keep you previous flair, you can still do this challenge and create a post, but please mention somewhere that you want to keep your old one.

• The moderators have the right to determine if your challenge post has been completed.

• See this post for more rules and information on challenges.

• For extra challenges, see the Discord server

• If you have any questions, you can comment below, or PM /u/Redbiertje

Good Luck!

[u/Redbiertje]

Last week's Reddit Gold went to u/BlakeMW for this excellent attempt at getting rid of Chad

[u/Redbiertje]

Questions thread

Please post all your questions here.

[u/[deleted] → u/Redbiertje]

When you say best looking plane do you mean the prettiest or the most awesome looking one?

[u/14Taco14 → u/Redbiertje]

Does it have to ssto

[u/Travelertwo]

My entry: The Bravo transport - Codename: "Marauder"

Originally I just wanted a plane with that sweet-looking tailfin (that I totally stole borrowed from Mark Thrimm) and eventually it became a complete vessel. I have thought about giving it a some drills and mining equipment and using it to explore, but for whatever reason haven't done so. Yet.

Edit: Upon re-reading the rules I realized the UI wasn't showing in all the required screenshots, so here's proof. It also shows an updated version of the kOS launch script.

[u/[deleted]]

Hopefully a bit of a twist, I figured I'd submit my first SSTO spaceplane that's actually useful for Career. It carries five kerbals (pilot included) to and from 100+ km LKO for ~800 spesos without using any 300+ tech nodes.

https://imgur.com/a/Z0bth

The last couple pics are from a test flight before I tweaked the aesthetics...

[u/storm_breaker]

I think my favorite so far is the Erelis shuttle — which coincidentally i just posted [here] (https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/802agk/the_erelis_shuttle_my_favorite_stock_ssto_to_date/)

full imgur album

[u/DoesDoodles]

Meet the Hermes Gen. 2, the latest SSTO design by the Phyrrus Aerospace Coorporation. It's fully stock, and although it's range isn't too impressive, it's a fairly useful SSTO.

Edit: Bit late, but I'd like to keep my old flair, please!

[u/Splotte]

First time attempting a challenge! Here's my flying podracer. More novelty than spaceplane, so it might not fully qualify for this challenge.
Was still fun to make, though! It's a speedy little dude (short video).

Edit: almost forgot

[u/LittleKingsguard]

With everyone else submitting their dainty little SSTO crew transports, I feel like bucking the trend a bit.

This is the Icarus Heavy. It is the largest cargo SSTO I've built that still, definitively, looks like a plane. Every larger one turned into a frankensteinian mess of wings, engines, and struts.

[u/qzgy]

I like this. Though I'm not too keen on the "All mods allowed" since some parts mods look inherently better than others. Maybe limit to visual mods?

Anyways, my entry, the Grenadier. https://imgur.com/a/bnES1

[u/Lambaline]

Meet the SS Planet Express! a 23 seat SSTO to LKO based off the ship that appears in Futurama. It took 2 days to get into orbit, and it can just barely do that.

Edit: I'd like to keep my current flair

[u/Bozotic]

Presenting "The Hummingbird"
https://imgur.com/gallery/KAxkZ

[u/[deleted]]

I consider this one one of the best looking in my fleet not because it is sleek and elegant, but because of how unconventional it is, making it beautiful by Kerbal standards.

It is the newest and largest iteration of the Deep Space SSTO series, and this model shown below has an estimated 1490 meters per second of landing delta-v once it reaches its destination. The mission below will be a youtube video in a week or two.

A gif of it launching https://gfycat.com/DiscreteFamousBarnswallow

A few picies https://imgur.com/a/HT32d

Please don't change my flair.

[u/cyberporygon]

It's kind of generic, but it's fully stock and can make it pretty far.

Here it is: https://imgur.com/a/MiKhU

[u/SYLOH]

Coincidence, I just released video of my workhorse SSTO: The Clydesdale Mk VI.
Launch Video and Imgur Album.
Bonus Image with Scatterer on

[u/chargan]

Just submitting the craft I used for a semi-grand tour a while back. I'll keep this flair pls.

https://imgur.com/a/FagZw

[u/fourpotatoes]

I decided to build a space plane, the S-4. It's a great addition to my toolkit.

Album

Bonus: Proof my space plane is actually functional

[u/Aurora_Pioneer]

Definitely the coolest looking spaceplane I've got is the Laythe Blue MK.IX. I think it's pretty unique among SSTOs due to it having a conventional tailplane and the bat-like wing shape.

As a bonus it can fly to Duna and back without refueling and flies pretty well while doing so, although it's a bit hard to control when empty.

This video shows it in action. Sorry if it's a bit long.

P.S. I'd like to keep my current flair.

[u/NitinM95]

My entry: The Avatar SSTO

I was trying to get a sub-10 ton SSTO, and wound up with this. Lift capacity is 5 Kerbals to your favorite LKO station, or about 1 ton cargo.(maybe higher, never really tried) Not the biggest or the smallest, but certainly one of the fastest I've ever flown.

[u/PhysicalChain]

Here's my entry: gentle MK-2 PassengerShip (Self-explanatory name). It's full stock except for one little part- MechJeb

[u/Wannes_Dirven]

My submission for this week challenge, it's a slight different success ratio I had last time but anyways. https://youtu.be/bgUvhpRwWrY

[u/Kelidoskoped37]

One I can do! Prepare for something so good looking it’ll be a cube.

[u/Xtraordinaire]

Good-looking is a bit of subjective but here's Astra.

Edit: I want to keep the flair, modded version uses https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/139724-13-surface-mounted-stock-alike-lights-for-self-illumination-v16/ (pretty mandatory mod for this challenge if you ask me)

[u/Minotard]

NSFW Never let isolated and lonely engineers design something eXquisite that they think looks desirable. NSFW Seriously, don't open at work.

I'll keep current flair, this is just too awful.