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ES-102 SWIFT II

Once a cancelled military hypersonic tactical platform, the project was taken over by ESA and developed into an SSTO LKO/MKO passenger shuttle, filling the gap between ES-94+ DART II and ES-97 SWIFT.

Pure stock, no mods, no DLCs. 91 parts, root part is the cockpit.

- That shape. It’s built for that shape.
- 700m/s dV @ 85x85km LKO, 400m/s dV @ 300x300km MKO. Abundant Monopropellant for orbital maneuvers.
- Balanced and almost constant CoM regardless of fuel consumption. No need to transfer fuel.
- CoT in line with CoM for better orbital maneuvering accuracy.
- Atmosphere-skipping and great gliding capability.

Ascent: 8 Degrees to Space
- Rotate at 80m/s, keep roughly 8 degrees pitch, until you reach 1500m/s @ 22km.
- Press [1] to switch RAPIERs mode. Keep 8 degrees pitch.
- Push AP to desired value, shut down engines, lock prograde, coast till circularization.

Descent: 40km PE Aerobraking
- Burn PE to 40km roughly over landing zone.
- Lock radial-out and use belly to aerobrake, until estimated impact area reaches landing zone.
- Then use 10-40 degrees AoA for a controlled gliding. <20 degrees AoA pushes impact area further, >30 degrees AoA brakes harder and draws impact area closer. Enable RCS if necessary.
- [Brake] deploys airbrakes which are rather powerful. Usually, they are only required shortly before touchdown.
- Touchdown speed ~80m/s.
- MouseAimFlight[forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com] mod is strongly recommended for flying aircraft, but I’ve managed to land this thing with keyboard only and without SAS.

- As the designation suggests, this is a pretty old project that was almost abandoned. I can only make this wing configuration work with new building techniques that I later acquired. Ah, progress!
- The reason why I decided to revive this thing is that I saw a picture of the Chyeranovskii BICh-26[www.google.de]. It is charming. And it reminds me of this design. I’m glad I finally made it work.

Wish you enjoy and happy landing!