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As we all know here, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to achieve powered flight on Mars. It also became the first rotorcraft to fly on another celestial body. NASA, however, did consider winged aircraft first. There was ARES proposal that was ultimately abandoned in favor of Mars Phoenix program. There were Earth high-altitude research drones with adorable name "Mini-Sniffers" (pictured below) that could theoretically be adapted for Mars flight. And there is also a prototype solar glider Sky-Sailor developed by ETH Zürich that could be developed into a fully fledged mission if funding is provided Thankfully, we are not limited by either budget or feasibility of such missions in KSP and, therefore, for this challenge, we will develop a Duna airplane Mission Profile: The plane will be stored inside a fairing and launched from Kerbin towards Duna. After reaching Duna, the plane will separate from main rocket and enter the planet's atmosphere and glide as far as it can before it either crashes or lands softly on the surface Construction Rules: Only Stock parts are allowed, for both Plane and the Launch Vehicle Plane must be able to fit inside a 3.75 meter fairing. Fairing can NOT be made wider than its base, which means you will need to get creative with wing shapes or robotics in order to make the Plane fit Plane must be either an unpowered glider or be powered by electric props. Depending on that, your submission will be labeled either Unpowered or Powered Plane can be either Manned or Unmanned, that is up to your preferences If the Plane is Manned, the Kerbals aboard must survive the landing. Whether you choose to bail out and pull the parachute, attempt a soft landing or use the plane as an impact absorber is up to you, as long as all kerbals survive If the Plane is Unmanned, your save file must have CommNet enabled like on Normal difficulty. Don't forget to put an antenna on the Plane and couple of relays around Duna beforehand Plane cannot have any means to recharge its batteries: no solar panels/fuel cells/RTGs and whatnot With that being said, you can keep the Plane fully charged for the transfer from Kerbin to Duna. Just make sure all recharging means are discarded before atmospheric flight phase Launch Vehicle must use 3.75 meter fairing to store the Plane Significant part clipping is only allowed for Plane fuselage optimizations. Minor part clipping of wings and control surfaces of the Plane is allowed, but don't overdo it. No part clipping for Launch Vehicles EDIT: I think the thread name already makes it pretty clear, but just in case: the Plane must have wing parts. Wingless gliders won't be accepted Specific requirements for Powered submissions: Plane can only use no more than 100 electric charge to power the props. Rest of the flight must be performed unpowered Props can NOT be offset in any way. Prop offsetting can significantly reduce energy usage to the point of actually generating electric charge, essentially making an infiniglider. So, for the purpose of fairness, props can only be placed "normally" without additional fine adjustments Challenge rules: The whole stack must be launched from KSC Only the Plane is allowed to enter Duna's atmosphere: non-essential equipment like transfer stages must be detached before atmospheric entry. You are, however, ALLOWED to do a braking burn and even enter Duna's orbit altogether if you want to, as long as you don't skim the atmosphere while doing it. As soon as you're ready for the Duna flight, all non-essential equipment must be discarded After entering the atmosphere, you are NOT allowed to escape back to space: once you're in - you're gliding through the air until the end There will be three scoring criteria: weight of the Plane, weight of the entire Launch Stack and Distance travelled. You must include a screenshot of the first two criteria from VAB/SPH with data shown, some screenshots from the mission itself and a final screenshot of the landing site. Third criteria might be tricky to measure in pure stock KSP, so I recommend Persistent Trails that can track your flight trajectory and distance : just start logging your glide as soon as you hit Duna's atmosphere and then make a screenshot of your travelled distance. Alternatively, you can try out @linuxgurugamer's edit of Persistent Trails: this one will start recording automatically as soon as you enter the atmosphere! Third option, if you prefer to play without mods, is to use KerbNet to mark your entry point and then calculate the distance by hand (check @18Watt's submissions for an example on how to do it) Speaking of mods: Mods that affect gameplay (physics changes or new parts) are not allowed. Information mods like KER and graphics mods are allowed Submissions: OJT Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 931 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 66.439 tons; Distance - 596.421 km Unpowered, Manned (2 Kerbals). Plane Mass - 1722 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 62.794 tons; Distance - 754.295 km Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 707 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 61.325 tons; Distance - 24478.43 km 18Watt Powered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 804 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 125.562 tons; Distance - 1189.709 km Powered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 804 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 125.662 tons; Distance - 1509.905 km Unpowered, Manned (1 Kerbal). Plane Mass - 1188 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 126.188 tons; Distance - 12593.132 km Powered, Manned (1 Kerbal). Plane Mass - 1435 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 66.82 tons; Distance - 1946.392 km linuxgurugamer Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 4330 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 418.639 tons; Distance - 1808.855 km Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 4330 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 418.639 tons; Distance - 2792.045 km kerbalboi Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 1065 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 235.333 tons; Distance - 9148.058 km Good luck!

I really like the idea of seeing the range of the antennas. In my opinion something like this should be in KSP2 (of course the circles should be spheres). This is from the KSP1 mod called Antenna Helper.

Airplane Range on 100 EC (Electric Charge) Challenge How far can you fly an airplane with only 100 units of Electric Charge to work with? Let's find out! NOTE: This challenge requires the Breaking Ground expansion pack. The Basic Idea: Build and launch an electric powered airplane from the KSC runway. Plant a flag next to the airplane on (or near) the runway. Fly as far away from the flag as you can. How far did you get? For entries covering more than 100 km, great-circle distance from KSC should be used. If you're not sure how to calculate that, submit your coordinates (lat long) where you land or splash down, I should be able to do that for you. Thanks to @camacju and @OJT for pushing things this far! Airplane Construction Rules: Stock parts only. Airplane must have at least 2 Kerbals. They may be seated in lawn chairs (external seats), or in pods., Airplane must have no more than 100 EC at launch. Airplane must not have ANY means of recharging batteries. No solar panels, no RTGs, no fuel cells, no engines with alternators. Anything that produces additional EC is prohibited. Airplane must be propelled by electric rotors ONLY. Any other propulsion is prohibited. No Turbo-Props, no jets, no rockets, no RCS. Anything other than electric rotors and propeller blades that produces thrust (or any force) is prohibited. There are no restrictions on part clipping or parts which are offset visually. Must use stock parts, but beyond that you are free to place them anywhere the stock game allows! Autopilot mods are allowed. Please note that to be valid, they must not alter the physics of any stock parts. Also, if you use an autopilot mod, please indicate that in your submission. It doesn't disqualify you in any way, but helps inform other players. ( @OJT ) General Challenge Rules: Pushing the airplane with the Kerbals to gain additional distance is prohibited. Using the Kerbals to push a flipped over airplane so it's right-side-up again is fine though. Mods that alter the functionality of parts, or which alter game physics, are not allowed. Other mods are fine. Specifically, visual or information mods are allowed. Also, Autopilot mods are specifically allowed. See the Airplane Construction rules above. You must launch and start from the KSC runway. You may travel any direction you want though. Entries should ideally have a few screenshots: One showing the airplane on the runway with no more than 100 EC, and another showing your distance from the runway (flag) after your airplane lands/splashes down. If you are posting a large number of screenshots, I request you put them inside a spoiler window. You can launch horizontally or vertically from the runway, your choice. How well do you need to land the airplane? At least one Kerbal needs to survive the impact, so you can get a screenshot of your distance to the flag. If the airplane survives the 'landing' that's great! But not required. Also, water landings are fine. The easiest path would probably be just take off heading east, and just keep going till you splash down somewhere east of KSC. Planting the starting flag: Some aircraft designs make it difficult to EVA Kerbals and get them back inside. It is absolutely allowed to plant a flag just off to the side of the runway before you launch your aircraft. The flag needs to be several meters away from the runway, so that when your airplane is loaded on the runway it doesn't erase the flag you previously planted. I'm not sure how far away the flag needs to be to be safe. Hope that makes sense. How far did I get? Leaderboard: 4,923 km @OJT 30 May 2022 Getting ridiculous! Even so, @camacju still has suggestions for further optimization! 2,083 km @OJT 17 May 2022 Further weight and drag savings, but the big change was a new flight profile and engine/prop settings. Great circle path over the isthmus northeast of KSC, where 800 m altitude was more than adequate. 1,047 km @OJT 15 May 2022 Optimizations include new flight profile, a few weight improvements, and rotor/blade settings. Oh, and using shorter Kerbals to reduce drag! 373 km @camacju 13 May 2022 Wow! Experimenting with a single-engine design, after seeing @OJT's success. You guys are taking this to the extreme, single-engine props are not easy to fly! 370 km @OJT 13 May 2022. Jumping into the lead. We think. Actually, we think @camacju might have bumbled his last estimate, and perhaps underestimated his range. We'll sort it out tomorrow! (sorted it out- @camacju missed a digit in his calculation, he's actually in the lead. Currently..) 262 km @OJT 13 May 2022 At these distances, we need to calculate great-circle distances. A more optimized run with a similar craft to a previous run. Another single-engine entry, so the pilot has more work compensating for torque. 258 km @camacju 13 May 2022 The bar is raised. Another entry which cleared 10 km altitude. This entry didn't ditch any parts (I think..) but that's being considered. 231.4 km @OJT 13 May 2022 The mission director allowed the Kerbals to put their helmets on approaching 10 km altitude. A single-rotor entry- those take extra skill to fly! 109.9 km @OJT 13 May 2022 Passing 100 km on the first attempt!

Need I say more? More below if the answer is "yes." I bet lots of you are curious about how far your planes can go from their starting point when their tanks are full. However, I doubt all of you want to waste time just taking them out for test runs - one plane at a time. This thread is to finally know, once and for all, how to calculate your planes' range? In the spoiler below, you'll find SPH shots of a few of my aircraft - none of which are SSTOs. What bugs me is that the delta-V count for the engines don't really give a clue. If they are, then I obviously missed it. Could someone point that out, please? I also noticed that the Regional Jet Challenge had the range equation as the following. However, I don't know if it's accurate. Speed in this equation is the given cruising speed at the recommended altitude. Is there any way to calculate the range of my aircraft without needing to download any mods? Thank you.

Last night I decided I should write an application for calculating antenna strength of vessels. I know there is the Google Docs one that many people use, but I wanted an application to do it. Thus was born Kerbal Antenna Kalculator! Click on the plus and minus buttons to add or remove antennas and you will get immediate results in the green area below. The little question mark button in the lower right will open a small window with additional information. This is for Windows. You may need to download and install the .NET Framework v4.5.1 in order to run it. Download (v0.1 for Kerbal Space Program v1.4.5.2243) DOWNLOAD LINK REMOVED UNTIL I FIGURE OUT A SOFTWARE LICENSE TO APPLY TO THIS

Greetings! KSPAntenna.jar: A small programm written by me for calcualting the possible ranges between probes/stations equipped with different antennas. Installed Java Runtime is necessary to run it. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0HPkVkOJdZAVXpfS2N3cG1xN2c?usp=sharing regards, stk8472

Hi guys! I love KSP (as I'm sure most people here do), I have over 1040 hours on it, yet I can't build to my full potential because of the render physics distance!! I have built a Low Earth Orbit Station (80km) with the 'USAF Airborne Laser' from the BD Armory Mod and I REALLY want to strike the KSC with the Lazers :D. Unfortunately, the KSP physics render range is not that far. Would ANYONE know of a mod that can help me with this? I'm not too good with coding and stuff so I can't really edit the game's....laws of physics. Any help would be much appreciated!! Cheers James.