I've been taking a break from KSP for awhile, but over the last couple of months, there's been some mods that have been released that show a lot of space plane love. Nertea's Mark IV spaceplane set and the OPT Large Spaceplane Parts mods are most notable, but a really nice accessory to those is a big fuck you to Procedural Wings done by Bac9 of B9 Aerospace. Basically, he made his own, and went all out. Different leading/trailing edge shapes and sizes, switchable textures, dyeing, etc.
So I decided to whip up a little something for a sandbox game I'm playing. Right now, I've got a couple of outposts orbiting Kerbin and the Mun. I hauled up a habitat package and hub to the Kerbin one and figured I'd do the same for the one around the Mun.
I based this, in part, on the Boeing 787, at least the wing shapes. I couldn't come up with a witty name, so REMLiner it is. (REM sleep? Get it? Eh? .... oh, piss off...) I should mention that 1) I run a shit-ton of mods, and 2) I use engines with hacked ISPs, so I get ridiculous fuel economy.
Here we are in the hangar, ready to taxi to the runway. I've got a long cargo bay filled practically full (shot of the payload further down), but the weight still isn't enough to counter the fuel tank and engine cluster. Having the wings so far back makes it look weird, but eh... Ferram Aerospace says it'll work.
Ready for take-off. The spoilers on the wings are tied to the brakes. I've also got flaps in the inboard trailing edge, tied to action groups as seen. They come in handy, along with the handful of air brakes I have on the empennage, for re-entry.
Graceful liftoff about 3/4ths of the way down the runway.
Ascending and gaining speed. The contrails make it look like I'm going down, but I'm pushing about Mach 2.5 and with the velocity vector sitting right on 15 degrees up.
Like a flaming dick with wings... BTW, the engines are a B9 Sabre M (unmodified) in the middle surrounded by 4 high efficiency rocket engines from OPT, made even more efficient with my ISP cfg hacks.
Orbital insertion completed just in time for sunrise. Cargo bay doors opened to (LARP ALERT!) radiate heat built up during ascent.
Precious cargo. 2 habitat modules and a 5 way hub assembly, plus RCS tank, battery, TAC life support container (procedural), and solar panels. It's autonomous, with a probe core at the top, and will maneuver to dock with the outpost once released from the shuttle. It's secured with a docking port and quantum struts lining either side of the cargo bay.
Munar transfer and orbital insertion burns, respectively.
Precious cargo released, maneuvering towards the outpost (not pictured. Don't know why I forgot to get a shot of the outpost prior to docking)
Once the module is docked and powered up, the shuttle docks via the dorsal docking node, while both crews share a beer.
Might post the return trip and landing in a few days.
