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Race to the Island Airfield Tower...without reaction engines!

ManEatingApe
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ManEatingApe

ManEatingApe

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Get a Kerbal to the tower on the Island Airfield as quickly as possible

Easy right? There's just one catch...no reaction engines allowed.
For this challenge an reaction engine is defined as anything that consumes propellant and uses Newton's third law to generate thrust. That means no solid fuel boosters, no rocket engines, no jet engines, no RCS, no monoprop engines, no nukes and no xenon thrusters.

Rules:

  • Stock only
  • No engines
  • Reaction wheels and rover wheels are allowed
  • Stock props/bearings are allowed
  • Launch clamps are allowed (but see height limit)
  • Converting LF/OX to electricity in a fuel cell is allowed
  • Carrying fuel/ore for ballast or balance is allowed
  • Decouplers and docking ports are allowed as long as you don't gain significant propulsive thrust from them. Ideally they should be tweaked as low as possible and/or orientated perpendicular to your flight path.
  • Vehicle height limit - your vehicle should fit into the VAB (approximately 75 metres or so)  
  • Creative clipping for stock bearings is ok, but avoid spamming wings/rover wheels
  • No Kraken drives, debug menu or other shenanigans

Score:

Your score is the MET when you Kerbal/craft touches the tower on the island airfield. Lowest time wins.
(If you stage or bail out then be sure to add all the METs together)

You score is adjusted by the following style awards:

  • Point Break [-1 minute] Parachute your Kerbal onto the roof of the tower (exclusive with Top Gun, No Strings Attached)
  • Top Gun [-2 minutes] Land your craft on the roof of the tower (exclusive with Point Break)
  • Master and Commander [-5 minutes] Roll and then sail your craft to the island without leaving the surface (a few minor incidental hops are ok) (Exclusive with Point Break, Top Gun)
  • 20,000 Leagues under the Sea [-10 min] Travel the entire distance between the KSC and island shores underwater (brief transitions on the surface at either end are ok) (Exclusive with Point Break, Top Gun)
  • No Strings Attached [-1 min] Don't use a parachute at any point in the journey. (exclusive with Point Break)
  • The Breakfast Club [-1 min] Bring more than 1 Kerbal
  • Jaws [+1 min] Your Kerbal has to swim part or all of the way

 

As is customary my entry is in the spoiler below. I'm sure you can beat this thoroughly, so have fun!

Spoiler
 

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Album Direct Link

Score = 8:38 + 43:43 + 1:00 (Jaws) = 53:21

 

Leaderboard:

  1. @qzgy 3:19 (Bonuses: Master and Commander, No Strings Attached, The Breakfast Club)
    Pushing hydrofoil technology to the (sometimes explosive) limit, qzgy zipped along at peak speeds of 120 knots (that 62 m/s to you young whippersnappers)
     
  2. @foobar 4:25 (Bonuses: Top Gun, No Strings Attached)
    A sleek single propeller entry, foobar expertly landed on the postage stamp sized area on top of the tower, without breaking a sweat.
     
  3. @qzgy  11:28 (Bonuses: Master and Commander, No Strings Attached, The Breakfast Club) 
    With a vehicle looking like a cross between the Enterprise and a combine harvester, qzgy stormed across the ocean at peak speeds over 30 m/s and only lost a few inconsequential parts in the voyage!
     
  4.  @oAsAo 12:22 (Bonuses: No Strings Attached)
Proving a classic design still has what it takes, oAsAo sets a respectable time with a smoothly executed journey.
 
Edited by ManEatingApe
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ManEatingApe

ManEatingApe

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2 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

 All fine and dandy but I DROVE to the island. It took close to an hour but it withheld the crushing pressure at over 1000m

 

Nice, even making it there is tricky! Those links in the post are dead...could you re-upload the photos?

Without a photo with the craft at (or near) the tower with the MET visible I'm afraid I can't count you as an official entry, it'll have to be an honorable mention.

However even a photo of your craft on the shore with the time would be helpful. I wasn't quite sure how much to weigh the 20,000 Leagues under the Sea achievement, so this would help me tweak it.

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Tex_NL

Tex_NL

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1 hour ago, ManEatingApe said:

Nice, even making it there is tricky! Those links in the post are dead...could you re-upload the photos?

Without a photo with the craft at (or near) the tower with the MET visible I'm afraid I can't count you as an official entry, it'll have to be an honorable mention.

However even a photo of your craft on the shore with the time would be helpful. I wasn't quite sure how much to weigh the 20,000 Leagues under the Sea achievement, so this would help me tweak it.

Links are not dead they have been working just find for well over a year. You probably clicked the topic title in my post. Instead click the post link. 

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GoSlash27

GoSlash27

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26 minutes ago, ManEatingApe said:

Links 404 no matter what way I look at it - even if I view page source and follow them directly.

Weird. Works for me. There's no indication of time (a shame), but he's definitely traversing the sea floor and ending up at the hangar on the island airfield.

Best,
-Slashy

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ManEatingApe

ManEatingApe

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59 minutes ago, GoSlash27 said:

Weird. Works for me.

Bizarre, I tried again on my cellular data and now they show up. <shrug>

Next challenge coming soon "Fix Ape's DNS settings". :)

Anyhow, getting this thread back on track - now that we know it's possible at least 2 ways, who'd like to have a go?

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qzgy

qzgy

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Done. I decided a boat was better and the enormous time savings of not having to go through water significantly outweigh the coolness factor and the extra 1 minute bonus.

Album - https://imgur.com/a/2vSyp

Final time 18:27 - 7 min = 11:27

Edited by qzgy
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goduranus

goduranus

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I wonder if it is possible to move the vehicle in VAB far enough that it starts off on the island, I think Scott Manley once showed a trick like this, by shift moving and rerooting parts. 
Then you win instantly with Master and Commander bonus.

Edited by goduranus
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ManEatingApe

ManEatingApe

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11 hours ago, qzgy said:

Done. I decided a boat was better and the enormous time savings of not having to go through water significantly outweigh the coolness factor and the extra 1 minute bonus.

Album - https://imgur.com/a/2vSyp

Final time 18:27 - 7 min = 11:27

Awesome craft! I had no idea it was possible to build a ship that fast...you've set a high bar even for airborne entries. I've added you to the leaderboard straight to first place.
 

6 hours ago, [INDO]dimas_1502 said:

how about using a static rocket in the ground to launch your kerbal into the air and parachutes down to the island?

A static rocket using propellant (or a large stack of decouplers) would count as a reaction engine and is against the rules.

However you're on the right track...you could build some sort of reaction wheel powered whirling device to fling unfortunate Kerbals towards the island. :confused:
Even if they don't make it the results could be entertaining!

Edited by ManEatingApe
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qzgy

qzgy

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15 minutes ago, ManEatingApe said:

Awesome craft! I had no idea it was possible to build a ship that fast...you've set a high bar even for airborne entries. I've added you to the leaderboard straight to first place.

Thank you! I was also surprised how well it works, especially since I didn't even do much tweaking with the design and that it went even faster when some of the propeller blades broke. I'm heavily considering going even faster actually with refinements to the design, like prop blade number and angle and preventing spontaneous catastrophic destruction (which happened at high RPMs....)

Edited by qzgy
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