Fastest Juno-powered aircraft

[ZLM-Master]

My entry with a manned craft

I think i can push a bit more with fine tuning ! 762 for now !

[The Minmus Derp]

3 minutes ago, ZLM-Master said:

762 for now !

Wow! Ermagerd.

[RealKerbal3x]

4 hours ago, ZLM-Master said:

My entry with a manned craft

I think i can push a bit more with fine tuning ! 762 for now !

Cool! 

I’ll put you on the leaderboard.

5 hours ago, Andetch said:

I know my next challenge. Gotta make a really aggressive styled pointy nose manned juno craft  that goes faster than Neistridlar's one.... No sleep for me tonight

 

Go! Do it!!

[Andetch]

My entry - so because I am a fool, I was trying to compete with the probe entries with a manned craft, but I hit my goal of faster than @neistridlar (probe entry) by 1m/s then I pulled out of the dive as water was fast approaching (and I wanted to beat him because I know how good he is at this sort of thing, it's a sign of respect mate!). I found in testing doing things like putting it on a cart for takeoff (so not having wheels on the plane), and changing the control surfaces did do things to the speed (but not much), as well as changing the engine layout (I know I could get similar speeds with fewer engines) but I like this design as it also functions well as a flyable aircraft. 

I promised the aggressive styling and pointy nose that is known for Andetch aircraft, and I feel I have delivered. @RealKerbal3x 785.3 m/s - #1, no?

https://kerbalx.com/Andetch/Juno-Speed

 

Edited June 16, 2018 by Andetch
Spelling, oh the spelling!

[XLjedi]

@Andetch ...an admirable design indeed!

[RealKerbal3x]

29 minutes ago, Andetch said:

My entry - so because I am a fool, I was trying to compete with the probe entries with a manned craft, but I hit my goal of faster than @neistridlar (probe entry) by 1m/s then I pulled out of the dive as water was fast approaching (and I wanted to beat him because I know how good he is at this sort of thing, it's a sign of respect mate!). I found in testing doing things like putting it on a cart for takeoff (so not having wheels on the plane), and changing the control surfaces did do things to the speed (but not much), as well as changing the engine layout (I know I could get similar speeds with fewer engines) but I like this design as it also functions well as a flyable aircraft. 

I promised the aggressive styling and pointy nose that is known for Andetch aircraft, and I feel I have delivered. @RealKerbal3x 785.3 m/s - #1, no?

https://kerbalx.com/Andetch/Juno-Speed

 

785 m/s...we have a winner!! Straight to the top of the manned leaderboard!!

[The Minmus Derp]

Hmmmm.

[RealKerbal3x]

38 minutes ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Hmmmm.

Hmmm?

[The Minmus Derp]

That'll be hard to beat.

[RealKerbal3x]

1 minute ago, The Minmus Derp said:

That'll be hard to beat.

Yeah....I found that even if you spam junos you still need the fuel and intakes for them all....so it’s pretty difficult

[The Minmus Derp]

Yea. 

[Andetch]

19 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Yeah....I found that even if you spam junos you still need the fuel and intakes for them all....so it’s pretty difficult

I tried putting a load of junos along the wing also, but you're quite right the air becomes an issue, small circular intakes don't take enough air at speed. Then supersonic intakes are either heavy or long, so they don't work with minalmist designs. Subsonic intakes choke at high speed.

21 minutes ago, The Minmus Derp said:

That'll be hard to beat.

Yeah, I am trying to squeeze 30 m/s more from it. 30 m/s doesn't sound a lot, but in these designs it is a huge amount. I guess I should be happy with my achievement here, and happier still that I misread the leader board initially causing me hours of frustration but ultimately making me push on until i got the results I was going for (notice it is only 1 m/s faster than target - no way I was waiting for even 2 m/s)

[neistridlar]

2 hours ago, Andetch said:

I hit my goal of faster than @neistridlar (probe entry) by 1m/s

Nice try Andetch! I'm very flattered, but of course both of us new it would not last .

Taking the best bits from all the submissions so far:

793.9m/s in level flight.

800.3m/s in a shallow dive.

Still have some possible Ideas on how to improve it, but it will have to take a fair bit of R&D to figure out which parts to use.

[Andetch]

3 minutes ago, neistridlar said:

Nice try Andetch! I'm very flattered, but of course both of us new it would not last .

Taking the best bits.....

Not functional as a plane though....

Yes, I was certainly expecting you to fire back. Now, if you wouldn't mind holding my beer.......

[RealKerbal3x]

36 minutes ago, neistridlar said:

Nice try Andetch! I'm very flattered, but of course both of us new it would not last .

Taking the best bits from all the submissions so far:

793.9m/s in level flight.

800.3m/s in a shallow dive.

Still have some possible Ideas on how to improve it, but it will have to take a fair bit of R&D to figure out which parts to use.

Wow, 800 m/s!!

Up to the top!

[The Minmus Derp]

yep.

[Andetch]

Even by shamelessly copying @neistridlar I can't break 800..... yet again, I yield....

**takes beer...

Meh, this is warm now. 

**grabs a cold one 

[RealKerbal3x]

1 hour ago, Andetch said:

Even by shamelessly copying @neistridlar I can't break 800..... yet again, I yield....

**takes beer...

Meh, this is warm now. 

**grabs a cold one 

Eh, in my opinion the real goal is 1km/s powered only by Junos.

[Andetch]

22 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Eh, in my opinion the real goal is 1km/s powered only by Junos.

It will take a better ksp engineer than me to do it. Even climbing to nearly 20km and nose diving didn't work.

[RealKerbal3x]

4 minutes ago, Andetch said:

It will take a better ksp engineer than me to do it. Even climbing to nearly 20km and nose diving didn't work.

Like what someone said on the first page, we are fast approaching the limits of juno engines.

[neistridlar]

45 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Eh, in my opinion the real goal is 1km/s powered only by Junos.

1km/s simply is not possible, the juno engines flame out around 840 or something at sea-level, and slower further up.

1 hour ago, Andetch said:

Even by shamelessly copying @neistridlar I can't break 800..... yet again, I yield....

**takes beer...

Meh, this is warm now. 

**grabs a cold one 

Did you copy the 4.3 degree angle of incidence as well? You know I go on and on about it, but when it comes to planes it all comes down to the drag, and with stock aero that means use stack attach as much as possible, and minimize AoA of the fuselage. You will notice in my 800m/s attempt AoA is less than 0.1 degrees, and that really is the key to getting those last drops of performance out of any plane)

[Andetch]

1 minute ago, neistridlar said:

1km/s simply is not possible, the juno engines flame out around 840 or something at sea-level, and slower further up.

Did you copy the 4.3 degree angle of incidence as well? You know I go on and on about it, but when it comes to planes it all comes down to the drag, and with stock aero that means use stack attach as much as possible, and minimize AoA of the fuselage. You will notice in my 800m/s attempt AoA is less than 0.1 degrees, and that really is the key to getting those last drops of performance out of any plane)

No, I simply put moar engines on it. I initially used a Mk1 capsule also to try and claim I wasn't copying but ditched the idea. 

I am still learning the finer points of ksp drag. For example it is only recently that I have started putting anger onto wings etc. (After reading a guide in the original KEA thread)

[RealKerbal3x]

16 minutes ago, neistridlar said:

1km/s simply is not possible, the juno engines flame out around 840 or something at sea-level, and slower further up.

So essentially if you can reach that speed powered only by junos you have basically won this challenge.

[swjr-swis]

This has been done before:

That said, since it has been a while (and somehow those craft don't seem to perform quite as well in 1.3.1), a new attempt is warranted.

I present the JunoSpeeder-3b, a manned aircraft with a recorded max speed of 808.3m/s in level (slightly climbing) flight.

Spoiler

Just over 6 tonnes, 40 parts, manned (command seat inside fairing), 13 junos.

Lifts from and lands on the runway, quite stable in flight, but really just built for a speedrun. Single air intake to feed all 13 junos at minimal drag cost.

808.3 m/s was the max speed in level flight I managed to capture.

Edit: the craft has been upgraded, the share link now offers the 820 m/s 3c model.

 

Edited June 18, 2018 by swjr-swis
3b upgraded to 3c, link updated

[RealKerbal3x]

9 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

This has been done before:

That said, since it has been a while (and somehow those craft don't seem to perform quite as well in 1.3.1), a new attempt is warranted.

I present the JunoSpeeder-3b, a manned aircraft with a recorded max speed of 808.3m/s in level (slightly climbing) flight.

  Reveal hidden contents

Just over 6 tonnes, 40 parts, manned (command seat inside fairing), 13 junos.

Lifts from and lands on the runway, quite stable in flight, but really just built for a speedrun. Single air intake to feed all 13 junos at minimal drag cost.

808.3 m/s was the max speed in level flight I managed to capture.

 

So this isn't exactly a new idea for a challenge, but the last post there was in 2016 so I guess this is sort of a reboot.

But, 808 m/s! Great job!