The KSP Unlimited Race

[Halsfury]

This year while all the staff are away from the KSC on holiday Jeb decided to host a race, but this race is unlike anything anyone would ever approve of, requiring small nimble aircraft to get in between all of the narrowest corridors between the KSC buildings.

This challenge is inspired by 1930's air races and modern drone racing and is a combination of the two, with tight drone racing style corridors but with an emphasis on improving aerodynamic design rather than the rather crude bricks which constitute drones.

Each race is a single lap around the course starting at the runway, pilots then guide their craft as fast as possible over the SPH, as close to the tower as possible. The second marker is the launch pad water tower, each pilot must pass to the right of the water tower and head to the east side of the runway which is the third mark. Rounding the third mark, the next mark is the cylindrical fuel container with the blue stripe which is between mission control and the VAB. The player then continues through the corridor past the administrative building and makes a left turn around the R&D complex and flies behind the VAB avoiding obstacles. The course ends when you cross the midpoint of the runway. Record your time at this point and land safely for a valid entry.

This is the course, the red outlines the boundaries of gates with reference to buildings. 

The Rules:

1) Ferram Aerospace Research is necessary

2) Passing under gates is necessary, flying above the highest point of a structure is considered passing over a gate

3) You must add 5 seconds to your time every time you pass over a gate

4) One should consider an entry invalid if the course is not followed (cutting inside a gate, flying over corridors)

5) Your power plant of choice will be included on the leaderboard, I hope to see some interesting choices

6) Flying above the VAB while racing renders the result invalid.

7) And I almost forgot, absolutely no torque reaction wheels or cockpit torque!

Suggestions:

1) Wings may be helpful

2) The aircraft/rocket should not be wider than a corridor

3) Stay subsonic, this challenge is all about cornering, precision and speed is last in terms of concerns

4) you need about 1 minute and 30 seconds of fuel, no more is necessary.

Leaderboard:

Edited December 21, 2015 by Halsfury

[Darren9]

I have one that qualifies if AtmosphericAutopilot is acceptable in place of SAS, and it looks like I may have bagged first place as well Started at 2.22 and ended at 3.10 for 48 seconds if we agree there's no penalties. It's a difficult course to fly fast, I couldn't get around a that speed without AtmosphericAutopilot enabled.

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by Darren9

[Wjolcz]

Wish my computer wasn't crap and I could record an entry. Looks fun.

[Halsfury]

Nice, I thought that this challenge fell flat, when it was first posted

 

It's very hard to get a plane to do all this, even very good designs can fail this challenge

 

[Streetwind]

5 hours ago, Halsfury said:

Nice, I thought that this challenge fell flat, when it was first posted

You're usually supposed, as per the challenge submission guidelines, to present your own attempt at your own challenge. Perhaps the lack of such made people less eager to participate.