pete.dakota
Donator
Hello all. I'm trying to find a semi-decent, potentially realistic flight plan for a sub-orbital jaunt to Habana from KSC in a DGIV.
So far, all of my trusty test pilots and passengers have had to experience around 7-9g on re-entry. This is due to the rapid thickening of the atmosphere bought about by a ballistic flight path. The hull doesn't get too hot, but the G forces would be unsatisfactory for a 'commercial' service.
I'm using the Mark IV engine, with the fuel set to 'realistic'. I vent the fuel down to 40% and the RCS down to 30%. I take off from runway 15, turn to a heading of around 195 degress, climb at 20deg pitch up until about 5km, go full throttle, hit the turbo pump and pitch up to about 65 degrees. I wait, holding 65, and then pitch accordingly to keep the PeA at 80-100km. I shut down with a slight, ballistic (MapMFD- no atmosphere) overshoot of Habana and set the entry AP for a 45 degree AoA. A short time after this, all of my passengers eyeballs are pushed to somewhere down near their shins and everyone winds up a few mm's shorter than they were when they boarded.
Is there any reasonable flight plan for hop of this type? One that would only perhaps encounter 3gs max? Without using the hover engines (cheating
), I doubt it. But I thought I'd ask anyway.
Cheers,
Pete.
So far, all of my trusty test pilots and passengers have had to experience around 7-9g on re-entry. This is due to the rapid thickening of the atmosphere bought about by a ballistic flight path. The hull doesn't get too hot, but the G forces would be unsatisfactory for a 'commercial' service.
I'm using the Mark IV engine, with the fuel set to 'realistic'. I vent the fuel down to 40% and the RCS down to 30%. I take off from runway 15, turn to a heading of around 195 degress, climb at 20deg pitch up until about 5km, go full throttle, hit the turbo pump and pitch up to about 65 degrees. I wait, holding 65, and then pitch accordingly to keep the PeA at 80-100km. I shut down with a slight, ballistic (MapMFD- no atmosphere) overshoot of Habana and set the entry AP for a 45 degree AoA. A short time after this, all of my passengers eyeballs are pushed to somewhere down near their shins and everyone winds up a few mm's shorter than they were when they boarded.
Is there any reasonable flight plan for hop of this type? One that would only perhaps encounter 3gs max? Without using the hover engines (cheating
), I doubt it. But I thought I'd ask anyway.Cheers,
Pete.
