Jump to content

Plane under a ton


Recommended Posts

Planes in KSP usually weight a lot. Sadly the Kerbal goverment noticed that runways started to break due to the immense weight of the planes. He called up Wernher von Kerman and asked him to come up with a solution. The president expected a reinforcement method for the runways. He was wrong though and Wernher proposed new guidelines for aircraft. The president looked through them and was satisfied, making it a law.

The guidelines (rules for the challenge) were:

  • A plane must weigh under a ton without kerbals & fuel.
  • A plane must be able to carry atleast 2 kerbals.
  • A plane may only be powered by jet engines to not waste precious oxidizer.
  • A plane is not allowed to use custom parts (modded parts) and must stick with them provided by the Kerbal Space Center (stock parts)
  • A plane shall be flying with lift and not be a metal tube with a couple of chairs and an engine.
  • A plane shall be able to fly to the Old Airfield.
  • A plane shall not be using any mad tricks (Alt + F12 cheats)

To calculate score:

1000*  Number of Kerbals aboard / (Weight in tonnes * Time from take-off to land on the Old Airfield Runway in seconds) 

 

Scoreboard:

1. @foamyesque Score: 16.7

2. @Cunjo Carl Score: 12.80

3. @zolotiyeruki Score: 11.44

4. @Jetski Score: 10.75

5. @Panel Score: 7.74

(By the way, should I make a badge for this?)

Edited by hempa2
revising scoring system
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is my entry. It weighs 0.971 tons even with full fuel load. It was built in FAR and has some, uh, strange flight characteristics. It also has a 700 kilometer range. It is completely capable of landing on the other airfield but because of the strange stall profile it tends to come short every time I try to land there. I have however landed successfully at the main runway.

Edited by Gman_builder
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Gman_builder said:

Here is my entry. It weighs 0.971 tons even with full fuel load. It was built in FAR and has some, uh, strange flight characteristics. It also has a 500 kilometer range. It is completely capable of landing on the other airfield but because of the strange stall profile it tends to come short every time I try to land there. I have however landed successfully at the main runway.

That plane is so cute! :3

You need a time from take-off to Old Airfield runway landing to get a score though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

    My silly-caption-generator is apparently off tonight, so writing that Imgur album was tough! Oh well, I had a blast getting these two poor Kerbals out to the old airfeild. I managed to fit in 2 Junos, so the plane pushes at a TWR of 4! To boot, it weighs in at only .95 tons because I thought fuel needed to be included in the 1 ton limit. It has an Elevon 4 for its primary pitch control, and uses a tiny reaction wheel for its yaw and roll control. To reduce torque, I put the little Kerbals right over the COM, which unfortunately makes the craft highly "maneuverable" at speed (explosively so, in fact). The plane is designed to run out of fuel just before it reaches the island, so it can be maneuvered to glide in for its final descent. It launches VTOL and lands with creative crashing, my favorite way. Oh, and last up I wound up using FAR, because I had it on for another challenge. I present, the:

Tarmac-Friendly Tarnation

 

This was a fun challenge, thanks for hosting it, @hempa2! The score system is a bit confusing though... Time is in the denominator, so a high score is good. However, weight is in the numerator, so then a high weight is good? Instead, maybe this formula would be a good choice: Score = 1000*numKerbals/(Weight*time)  . This way, players are encouraged to design for many Kerbals, low weight and fast.

Example for this case: 12.80 = 1000*2/(.953*164)

Oh, here's the plane close up- I wouldn't suggest this design if you're aiming for score (in any system), but hoh-boy I love the 2 engine style!

Spoiler

255.png

The plane launches from the two defunct cockpits under its wings, which provide the Kerbals. Before takeoff, we wind up its engines on half throttle for a few seconds, then release and go full throttle to launch vertical and fast.

Edited by Cunjo Carl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Cunjo Carl said:

    My silly-caption-generator is apparently off tonight, so writing that Imgur album was tough! Oh well, I had a blast getting these two poor Kerbals out to the old airfeild. I managed to fit in 2 Junos, so the plane pushes at a TWR of 4! To boot, it weighs in at only .95 tons because I thought fuel needed to be included in the 1 ton limit. It has an Elevon 4 for its primary pitch control, and uses a tiny reaction wheel for its yaw and roll control. To reduce torque, I put the little Kerbals right over the COM, which unfortunately makes the craft highly "maneuverable" at speed (explosively so, in fact). The plane is designed to run out of fuel just before it reaches the island, so it can be maneuvered to glide in for its final descent. It launches VTOL and lands with creative crashing, my favorite way. Oh, and last up I wound up using FAR, because I had it on for another challenge. I present, the:

Tarmac-Friendly Tarnation

 

This was a fun challenge, thanks for hosting it, @hempa2! The score system is a bit confusing though... Time is in the denominator, so a high score is good. However, weight is in the numerator, so then a high weight is good? Instead, maybe this formula would be a good choice: Score = 1000*numKerbals/(Weight*time)  . This way, players are encouraged to design for many Kerbals, low weight and fast.

Example for this case: 12.80 = 1000*2/(.953*164)

Oh, here's the plane close up- I wouldn't suggest this design if you're aiming for score (in any system), but hoh-boy I love the 2 engine style!

  Reveal hidden contents

255.png

The plane launches from the two defunct cockpits under its wings, which provide the Kerbals. Before takeoff, we wind up its engines on half throttle for a few seconds, then release and go full throttle to launch vertical and fast.

That is true, I am currently switching it up to your format. Thanks for the feedback!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Time to island landing = 4 minutes 9 seconds. Plus the plane is under a ton with full fuel load, it was built successfully in FAR, and it has a 700 kilometer range.     #rekt

I like this challenge but I am kind of confused on how the scoring works. If I did the calculation correct I should have 233 points which doesn't seem right. I suggest having 2 categories. One for lowest weight and one for fastest travel time.

Edited by Gman_builder
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2016-07-05 at 5:29 PM, Gman_builder said:

Time to island landing = 4 minutes 9 seconds. Plus the plane is under a ton with full fuel load, it was built successfully in FAR, and it has a 700 kilometer range.     #rekt

I like this challenge but I am kind of confused on how the scoring works. If I did the calculation correct I should have 233 points which doesn't seem right. I suggest having 2 categories. One for lowest weight and one for fastest travel time.

That would make sense however the amount of people doing the challenge will be too little to have 2 leaderboards. This is my first challenge though so the rules & score system might not be that good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, hempa2 said:

That would make sense however the amount of people doing the challenge will be too little to have 2 leaderboards. This is my first challenge though so the rules & score system might not be that good.

In my challenges the same person can win both challenges. Like, one person can win both parts in the same flight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 Kerbals to airfield.  Exactly 1 ton, 9 mins to landing.  1000*5 kerbals/(1000kg*540secs) = 0.0092.  I think it's safe to say this scoring method favors a fast light run.  Not ideal to maximize Kerbal passenger capacity I guess.  But hey, I made it!

Edit: OP is meant to read weight in tons, not kg.  THis gives me 9.2, more in line with @Cunjo Carl entry.

 

Here's another, 1 kerbal, going for speed.

1000*1 kerbals/(.712t*226 secs) = 6.214 I guess.  

 

Edited by Jetski
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, I think I have the hang of the scoring.  Here's an improved version with 3 kerbals.  (1000 * 3 Kerbals) / (.762t * 366 secs) = 10.75

More research is clearly needed.

Edited by Jetski
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Jetski said:

5 Kerbals to airfield.  Exactly 1 ton, 9 mins to landing.  1000*5 kerbals/(1000kg*540secs) = 0.0092.  I think it's safe to say this scoring method favors a fast light run.  Not ideal to maximize Kerbal passenger capacity I guess.  But hey, I made it!

Edit: OP is meant to read weight in tons, not kg.  THis gives me 9.2, more in line with @Cunjo Carl entry.

 

Here's another, 1 kerbal, going for speed.

1000*1 kerbals/(.712t*226 secs) = 6.214 I guess.  

 

I just noticed the problem, it should be fixed by now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's my entry for now.  2 kerbals, 857kg dry/empty, 3:34 at touchdown. The cloud of smoke is from one of the wings collapsing.

 

Didn't launch until 0:10, so 1000 * 2 / (.857 * 204) = 11.44  Spent way too much time at the end floating down under the chute.

I had a time of just over 3 minutes on another attempt, but the craft crashed (although the kerbals survived!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/12/2016 at 4:50 PM, zolotiyeruki said:

Cunjo Carl, how did you get the nose cones on those engines?  I can only node-attach them, and then I can't stick a nose cone on the front of them.

Ah, that's an odd one, and it involves some gentle clipping. Because of how KSP handles drag, it doesn't actually improve aerodynamics much, infact it may be a detriment! It looks good though, so I did it :).

1. Place a cubic strut on the back of your fuselage. You can use symmetry to put in however many struts->engines you'd like. Use the rotate tool to twist it out a bit.
2. Place an engine on the bottom node of this cubic strut, and a nose cone on the top.
3. Wiggle things around using the rotate and translate tools until they look good. It's handy to know that turning off angle snap also lets you rotate/translate more precisely.

Here's a picture where I opened up the assembly so you can see the pieces. If you have additional questions, I'm happy to help. Have fun flinging kerbals at the island!

310.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@hempa2  I'm noticing that most people are landing their planes legit (wheels, chutes), while I deposited my Kerbals through 'creative crashing.' If you feel like promoting controlled landings, feel free to toss an asterisk next to my spot on the leader board! Not a suggestion, just a thought. I'm happy to see the challenge getting a lot of entries!

Edited by Cunjo Carl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Creative crashing, you say?


 

 

My plane is 750kg w/o fuel or Kerbals (999kg with fuel :v), and it carried six Kerbals to the island in ~8 minutes (exact time not known due to not getting a screenshot on craft disintegration :( ).

 

55B0F63F6B5E5E3EE839A47CDC994347F4E3F389

003F656EE4F032C7D2745832F153AAE1EB3F9965

D2C65D770578CEF5DBE7DCC02120940B69AED376

76C9F3AC6B4F018B31AE8E5F9ABBC20E6DD20415

E18F11FFF82EBA1C5EF19C04C9A609C02BC47FE4

 

Rough score: 16.7, assuming the weight in the calculation is the dry one; 12.5 if you use wet but exclude Kerbs.

 

In principle, I should be able to land it, but I'm too tired to bother trying :v

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is my entry. Despite, or perhaps because, it's a deathtrap, it manages to go 109 m/s in level flight. I guess that's why they wear space suits. If I calculate correctly, my score is 5.54.

EDIT:

Here's an improved entry, with a slightly better score of 7.74.

 

Edited by Panel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...