KSP A-14 Raptor

[Shaggy]

So yeah, I built an A-14 Raptor in Kerbal Space Program just to see if I could get it to fly and it does. I don't know if anyone has tried this yet, but I built it all with stock parts, no mods, and it seems to work alright.
I had to stick the R.A.P.I.E.R. Engines on it to give it enough speed to actually fly so it might be able to make it into orbit, I haven't tried yet. Consequently, this makes it extremely fast but its turning radius is roughly the size of Texas. Okay it's not quite that bad, a little ruddering helps.
Anyway here's a pic of the end result:

 

[Star Rider]

The Raptor was known for being a bit sluggish handling wise, but it wasn't as bad as the Scimitar. Looks good Shaggy.

 

[centaurianmudpig]

Do you have a ladder long enough to get in to the cockpit?

 

[capi3101]

Good looking ship, Shaggy. Stock or FAR? What's your mass and delta-V?

 

[Shaggy]

Do you have a ladder long enough to get in to the cockpit?

I hadn't thought about that.
I just finished it yesterday and have only been interested in just getting it to fly, so there hasn't been much need to get the Kerbal out. I'm going to fly it some more today or tomorrow and see how fast it will truly go and maybe try to get it up to at least a suborbital altitude.

The build is completely stock no FAR or any other mod.

 

[Shaggy]

Good looking ship, Shaggy. Stock or FAR? What's your mass and delta-V?

So I got my Delta V\speed up to about 1,300 m/s before things started burning of the ship, I was up over 1,406 when vital stuff began exploding. It doesn't seem to have the umph to get suborbital, whether it be the engines or lifting ability, kind of feels like both.
Anyway.
If there's a file I can copy, and somebody wanted to host it, I could pass it along to share with the community if anyone's interested.

P.S.
I added a ladder

 

[capi3101]

That's not exactly what I meant by delta-V...really, what's the craft's SPH mass and what kind of fuel tanks do you have on it? And what was your altimeter reading when the ship blew?

 

[Shaggy]

The mass is 19.647 tons, according to the engineer's report in the SPH.
I'm not sure where to read my Delta V, I usually just go by that m/s reading on the nav ball.
The fuel tanks are the standard jet engine fuel tanks, so no oxidizer onboard.
When I did my speed run, where everything began to overheat and explode, I was in a fairly level flight path with my nose just up enough to avoid losing altitude. So I don't think I made it above 10,000 meters.
I'm thinking about sticking some liquid fuel tanks on it in a way that I can switch between the fuel types as I fly, but I won't be able to do that for awhile because tomorrow I'm going camping and next weekend I'm heading to California for vacation, so that probably won't happen until close to the end of the month.

 

[capi3101]

Stock air......try putting her up above 20k and try again. Maybe 25k, up high where she's not fighting atmo so much but not so high the RAPIERs want to switch over to rocket mode.

One thing's for sure, she ain't gonna make orbit without some oxidizer...to keep her at 20 tonnes, you'd need roughly eight tonnes of dedicated rocket fuel (for 1,500 m/s of delta-V; you can get the rest of what you need in jet mode pretty easily). Try swapping out the two outboard engine pods with FL-T400 tanks (better yet, use a single FL-T800 each), and see what that gets you. You'll need to run fuel lines from the centerline fuel tanks to feed the engines, but I'm assuming that's part of your setup already. If it is, I might suggest swapping out two of the centerline fuel tanks with structural fuselage, assuming you don't need the additional weight for ballast. The Isp of a RAPIER in atmo is way high - you can get pretty far with a single tank of jet fuel, let alone three.

Now, as far as your neutron cannons are concerned...you.........oh, never mind.