Long Range Spaceplane Endurance Challenge - Can you beat my current record?

[KillerQueen]

I know there are a couple similar challenges posted currently, but I don't like the specifics of either. One is the circumnavigation challenge, which honestly A. it's too easy to simply circumnavigate and B. I didn't like all the restrictions that challenge has. There's another "long range planes" challenge, but I don't like the wacky scoring system or lack of restrictions, so I decided to make my own. Anyway, for my first post:

The rules are simple:

• I'm going to have two record categories, one for distance and another for the amount of time in the air, as separate but related contests, your score in each is simply your distance traveled or time in flight
  
• No rockets of any kind, jet engines only and your aircraft has to launch horizontally off the runway on wheels (just make it a real plane, essentially)
  
• Stock parts only; no parts addons or custom parts (with the one exception of a mechjeb component to enable autopilot)
  
• No decoupled bits or drop tanks; whatever you take off with you land with (or crash land with), on that note:
  
• Landing doesn't matter, you can land your plane to be cooler, haha, but if you crash the run still counts
  
• You can fly with mechjeb, but no other gameplay-changing plugins
  
• No console commands
  
• No parts number limit
  
• For proof submit a screenshot of the plane on the runway before you take off, a screenshot of the plane in flight at cruising altitude, and a screenshot just before or after landing/crashing showing your total distance traveled
  
• UPDATED RULE: A flight ceiling of 30km is being instituted to avoid people getting into orbit; no flying above 30km. The idea of the challenge is to keep the engines continuously running inside of the atmosphere for as long/far as possible. If you go a bit over the cap for a second, say 30,500m, I won't invalidate your entire flight, but please don't try to be sneaky and cruise at 30,500m.
  

---

Leaderboards:

Distance (m):

1. 21,887,182 - KillerQueen
   
2. 07,789,897 - the_bT
   
3. 07,641,219 - Coneshot
   
4. 
   
5. 
   

Duration (hh:mm:ss):

1. 22:35:23 - Coneshot
   
2. 06:34:55 - Alooohaaa
   
3. 05:02:27 - KillerQueen
   
4. 02:08:13 - the_bT
   
5. 
   

Certain records (including my own) were invalidated for having cruised above the previously nonexistent height restriction.

Edited July 16, 2013 by KillerQueen

[KillerQueen]

*Sigh*

I was on track for the triple circumnavigation with a bit of fuel to spare when I lost control, spun my plane, and snapped my wing off. Now I'm slowly spiraling down into the ocean as I type this. :[

After two hours of flying, that sucks. Anyway, I did break my old record. With some plane tweaks and changes to how I was flying I believe I can do a quadruple circumnavigation. (no messing up next time!)

Proof:

Aircraft design:

Edited July 8, 2013 by KillerQueen

[Alooohaaa]

I just started to build the plane for this BUT I dont get how you received the distance on the leader-board. Flight result shows 9 154 650m. I am just asking ... Anyway I doubt I can beat the flight but will definitely try

[adammada]

So infinity glide counts? FTL egg for example?

[Flixxbeatz]

it's too easy to simply circumnavigate

I would love to see you attempt my challenge then.

B. I didn't like all the restrictions that challenge has.

Oh whyyy? Can't circumnavigate below 25,000m without MechJeb doing it for you?

I would give your challenge a try though.

[prshrf]

With ion engines you can do very long flights I think. I haven't tested how long. But with jet engines I tried to go around kerbin once and I was still left with 30-40% of fuel tank so I could probably go for 2 full orbits. And the time it took wasn't very long either considering that I was flying very high and very fast (I think I did it in about an hour).

[Vaisman]

2 or 3 times around Kerbin will not be a problem. Even small plane can make it. In fastest atmo flight challenge i've done it with suborbital hops. So, i will try this.

[1096bimu]

I would love to see you attempt my challenge then.

Oh whyyy? Can't circumnavigate below 25,000m without MechJeb doing it for you?

I would give your challenge a try though.

because some people like the engineering challenge, not something that could be done by a monkey or a few lines of code, like manual auto pilot for 3 hours.

[GROOV3ST3R]

Im interested in the ''No Console Commands'' - I presume that means no debug console and by extension, no ''Disable clipping in editor'' cheat. I used that to make a neater craft that flew around kerbin 4 times but I guess it won't really qualify. Hmm let me bring up some screens and see what you think.

BTW I never actually managed to land it, every time it crashes and I ''overshot'' KSC by ... an ocean.

On the side:

Vaisman, it's always nice to see an Elite Circumnavigator wearing my badge proud

Oh and I would love to see an Ion entry. If you can make one that gets off the ground on it's own that is.

Edited July 8, 2013 by GROOV3ST3R

[Alooohaaa]

OK looks like I am nowhere close to meet the distance part of the challenge but I did pretty good with the time flown part I think. Anyway here is my first try to do a challenge in history(took me a whole day at work...):

START:

On the go:

And seconds before crashing:

Will now go and try it with higher altitude and slightly changed plane design

[KillerQueen]

I would love to see you attempt my challenge then.

Oh whyyy? Can't circumnavigate below 25,000m without MechJeb doing it for you?

I would give your challenge a try though.

I did, but I crashed on the landing and decided that was a silly requirement, and realized I had enough fuel for a second circumnavigation so I tried that next time. :/

[sturmstiger]

The first flight of LRJ-1 a while ago flew around Kerbin 3 times and landed. LRJ-1 is derived from my 3 man orbital SSTO shuttle.

A very simple & conventional 3-man jet. 41 parts, 14.08 tons.

F3 screenshot just before descending for landing. If I keep flying until it runs out fuel it could most likely get over 13k km.

Aligning for runway.

The max possible range for the plane should be >15k km, but being the first flight I wasted quite a bit of fuel testing its speed & altitude limits which resulted in many flameouts. MechJeb is used for keeping a level flight.

[KillerQueen]

So infinity glide counts? FTL egg for example?

Take off horizontally on wheels and use only jet engines. Don't use anything game-breaking or exploitative. I'm not sure why so many people want to cheat on technicalities in these challenges instead of going with the spirit of the competition. :/

Edited July 8, 2013 by KillerQueen

[KillerQueen]

Im interested in the ''No Console Commands'' - I presume that means no debug console and by extension, no ''Disable clipping in editor'' cheat. I used that to make a neater craft that flew around kerbin 4 times but I guess it won't really qualify. Hmm let me bring up some screens and see what you think.

You should be able to more or less reproduce that craft without clipping cheats.

[adammada]

> No altitude limit except the functional limits of air-breathing engines

So i can go suborbital? (AP over 70 km)

[adammada]

Right no i have over 3 hours of flight, 72% fuel left, for sure went around kerbin over 5 times.

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Edited July 8, 2013 by adammada

[KillerQueen]

*sigh*

You're in orbit...

To be fair, I didn't know you could get into orbit with just jet engines. I'm not sure how this affects the competition.

Did you really not use rockets? How can you get to 120km altitude with jets?

[adammada]

No, i'm not in orbit, because PE is below 70 000. How i got there? 7 air intakes + one jet engine + low throttle setting (MechJeb AutoThrottle to prevent flameout can do it automatically) = some thrust practically to the 70 000 meters. Completly no cheating.

Any additional thrust above 70 000 (RCS or Ion) probably would give me orbit. But since jet is only option, i cant. Mabe if i could rise AP high enough to reach Mun? .

Edited July 8, 2013 by adammada

[KillerQueen]

Well ****, with a minor redesign I guess anyone could fly practically forever. :/

Does anyone have any ideas on how to prevent this? Flight ceiling of 40km?

[adammada]

If you want to set ceiling, it should be to the edge of atmoshpere, so 70km. Because why 40, not 30, not 50...

And i must say, that it will seriously make it harder, because spaceplane ( you will need to rename chalenge, because with ceiling set to not reach space, it will not be spaceplane challengee ) has just tendency to reach suborbital speeds. I was practically forcing it to not have AP higher than 70 km, and lost .

[KillerQueen]

Well, I was intending for people to have the engines engaged the whole time and fly inside the atmosphere, not spend 2/3 of an orbit outside of the atmosphere with the engines off. I didn't even know you could do that with jets (I'm new to the game).

[zekes]

Il do a real record later, but here's a short flight for now....

[zarakon]

Well ****, with a minor redesign I guess anyone could fly practically forever. :/

Does anyone have any ideas on how to prevent this? Flight ceiling of 40km?

Literally forever if you switch focus to something else. The game won't simulate air resistance for vessels that are not in focus ("on rails" as people commonly call it), so an orbit that passes through the atmosphere won't actually decay.

How to prevent it? More restrictions. A 30km flight ceiling, or a 2000m/s speed limit would do it. A limit of no more than two intakes per engine would make it harder to orbit, but probably not impossible.

[KillerQueen]

Yeah, I think I'll institute a 30km flight ceiling to prevent drifting out of the atmosphere. That's totally unintended.

Everyone following the thread please be aware of the rule change. I have edited the original post.

Edited July 8, 2013 by KillerQueen

[GROOV3ST3R]

30 is easily doable but the higher you go, the more fuel efficient jets become. I think 40 or 45 would be a better limit just to see what people will come up with.