Search the Community

It's the near future and Jeb found himself a hobby to kill some time between launch windows. In a corner of the SPH, he threw together some parts from an old Karley-Davidson together with one of his crashed business jets, and hauled the kit out to the runway to have some fun. Challenge! Build a micro-sized craft that can fly to the island runway and back. The conditions are straightforward: The craft can have no wheeled landing gear and must carry at least one Kerbal in a command seat. Carrying more Kerbals is allowed, as long as they are carried in command seats or EVA. No command pods, probe cores or cockpits. There are no strict size restrictions, but no bonus points are awarded for bigger craft either. If you want to build a hover railway locomotive and fly it over there, your bragging rights for is all your own to carry. Stock parts only, but Tweakscaling is allowed. I will allow part clipping but I would recommend doing it for cosmetic reasons only, because clipping other parts into each other will only make the craft heavier and impossible to fly. Any other mods are up to you, I would highly recommend installing Kerbal Flight Indicators which is a very useful mod if you fly VTOL aircraft. Scoring / Achievements "Eye of the Needle": Complete the challenge of flying to the island runway and back. 1000 points awarded. Achievers: "How's the weather up there?!": Fly your craft to a service ceiling of 12.000 meters or higher. +100 point bonus. Achievers: "Hop on!": Carry a second Kerbal to ride in tandem with your driver. +100 point bonus. "Shotgun Rider": Carry another passenger alongside your driver. +100 point bonus. "Meep Meep": Hold the record for the fasted recorded speed in the challenge. +100 point bonus. "Look Out Below!": Hold the altitude record in the challenge. +100 point bonus. "Long Ranger": Hold the record for the longest distance travelled in the challenge. +100 point bonus. "Jet Ski": Build a craft that can sail on water. +100 point bonus. "Wet Nellie": Complete the challenge with a craft that is submersible. +500 point bonus. "Boom!": Achieve supersonic speed with your jet bike. +500 point bonus. "Chasing the Sun": Circumnavigate Kerbin. +500 point bonus. "Are we even supposed to be up here?": Escape Kerbin's atmosphere with your jet bike. +500 point bonus. "Loud Pipes Are Useless Here": Achieve orbit with your bike. +1000 point bonus for anyone who achieves orbit, +500 additional for the largest orbit record holder. "West Koast Kustom": Have the best looking craft in the challenge. +500 point bonus. Penalties Of course, the challenge wouldn't be very challenging if there were no penalties, right? "Rolling Thunder": Complete the challenge with a wheeled craft. 250 point penalty. "Lift Hiker": Have wings, elevons or other airfoils on your craft. 250 point penalty. "Lazy Robot": Use automation mods (other than SAS) to control your craft. 250 point penalty. "Gamma Ray Hazard": Use RTGs or nuclear engines. 500 point penalty. "Physics Defiant": Use excessive part clipping. 250 point penalty. "Points for trying": Try to compete with a craft that is obviously not a hover vehicle, e.g. a rocket, jet aircraft, or an SSTO spaceplane. 2500 point penalty. Disclaimer: Scoring is for entertainment purposes only and I am still looking into a more progressive scoring system, without placing too much focus on craft performance, but rather on "doing fun stuff" with your craft. If anyone wants to give me a hand, drop a DM. And of course, for good measure, kicking off with my own entry which is pretty much the bare minimum of what you would need to get to the island, and back: The HoverSpeeder 1000 was thrown together as a hobby project by Jeb, out of some jet parts, duct tape, and the old vacuum cleaner that was sitting in the broomcloset. The craft has enough fuel to get to the island runway and return to the KSC. It has a service ceiling of 12.000 meters and its fastest recorded flight speed is 146.5 m/s. This craft would give a total score of 1100 points. Records / Leaderboard Highest recorded altitude: 12.050 meters. Highest recorded airspeed: 146.5 m/s. Lightest craft in the challenge: Heaviest craft in the challenge: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.