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Fleabag Challenge: Fly plane from KSC to Island using Fleas only


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ALL HAIL THE VENERABLE FLEA!

 

T3bhScx.png

 

 

Very simple:

Like a shaggy dog in need of a bath, your aircraft will be covered in fleas. So, using ONLY Flea engines for propulsion, build an aircraft that takes off and lands horizontally on proper wheeled landing gear, fly it to the Island Airfield and land safely.  

 

RULES:

* Stock only parts.

* You must fly. No ballistics.

* You must land. No parachutes.

* You must takeoff and land horizontally with wheeled landing gear.

* You may use as many Flea engines as you like, and may shed them as you see fit once they have run out of fuel.

* You must have a pilot.

* You must land on the Island Runway.

* Keep to the spirit of the challenge. Don't go looking for loopholes.

 

Leaderboards for:

1. Efficiency: Getting there with the fewest number of engines. UPDATE: For participants with the same number of engines, the winner will be judged based on the weight of the aircraft.  Heavier with same # of engines = higher place.

1.@zolotiyeruki 1 engine 6,575kg (attempt 3)

2.  @Tapeta: 1 engine (6481 kg) (attempt 2)

3. @zolotiyeruki: 1 engine ( 5,955 kg)

4. @Tapeta: 1 engine (3302 kg)

5. @qzgy  1 engine (attempt 1)

6. @Pro100kerbonaut 2 Engines

7. @Brownie352 3 Engines

8. tied for 8th  @Rus-Evo 4 engines,  @Pds314  4 engines (attempt 1)

9. @Klapaucius   7 engines

10. @farmerben 18 Engines

11. @Pds314  24 engines (attempt 2)

12. @zolotiyeruki 25 engines (attempt 2)

2. Passengers: Delivering the most Kerbals safely.

1. @Pds314 100 Kerbals (attempt 2)

2. @zolotiyeruki 25 Kerbals (attempt 1)

3. @farmerben 24 Kerbals

4. @Pds314 11 Kerbals (attempt 1) 

5.  Tied for 5th:  @Brownie352@qzgy@Pro100kerbonaut, @Klapaucius@zolotiyeruki@qzgy@Pro100kerbonaut@zolotiyeruki, @Rus-Evo: 1 Kerbal 

3. Kerbals/Flea ratio: Delivering the most Kerbals per Flea.

1. @zolotiyeruki (flight 1) 25/4=6.25

2. @Pds314 100/24 = 4.167 (attempt 2)

3. @Pds314 11/4 = 2.75 (attempt 1)

4. @farmerben 24/18 = 1.33

5. Tied for 5th: @Tapeta@zolotiyeruki @qzgy  1:1

6@Brownie352  0.33333

7. @Pro100kerbonaut  0.5

8. @Rus-Evo 0.25

9. @Klapaucius  1/7 = .142857142571429....

 

 

 

**** HARDCORE BONUS ROUND:  Return to KSC after having landed! ****1.

1.  @Brownie352 1 Kerbal, 3 engines

 

Inspired by @Magzimum's Flea Jump Challenge of 2017.

 

 

Edited by Klapaucius
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1 pilot, 1 flea

Full Mission Below

Spoiler

Prelaunch. Flea is at 8% power for those interested.

ZRh55gU.png

I did roll somewhat along the runway before lighting up. This helps give me a bit of extra distance but I probably didn't need it.

YkRTnUu.png

Post ignition and ditching some landing gear used only for stabilizaition.

7zz0DMo.png

Climbing is done using the pretty good TWR. At launch its like .6 or so.

BQlDJL9.png

zfflPG6.png

After flaming out its basically gliding to a landing at the runway.

zfflPG6.png

lFxdCXH.png

BQk5wmb.png

Fu6ruqN.png

0NFOMp0.png

And stopped.

aHckPm7.png

She's happy to be alive.

dpblCmL.png

 

 

Oh and if it matters, this was done in 1.3.0

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Successful attempt, save for a tailstrike at the end.
Sadly no screens of the 2nd Flea in action. The first two stages don't last very long and flying energy-efficiently with that much off-center thrust isn't easy.

kiyg83A.png

X4mAMV2.png

5BF1GnU.png

luTP7a2.png



I believe so far I have the best Kerbals/Boosters ratio of any entry. 11/4 = 2.75 Kerbal per booster!

Compare farmerben's ratio of 1.33.

Edited by Pds314
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I fly planes mostly and don't play with solid rockets much and totally forgot you could adjust the thrust!  :confused:  Still, curious to see how big we can go. My own plane makes it on full thrust, so I am wondering if I back off if I can get it back to KSP. Stay tuned.

 

Will update leaderboard tomorrow when I have a bit more time. Nice stuff so far!  

48 minutes ago, Pds314 said:

I believe so far I have the best Kerbals/Boosters ratio of any entry. 11/4 = 2.75 Kerbal per booster!

I am going to add this as a leaderboard category.

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34 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

I fly planes mostly and don't play with solid rockets much and totally forgot you could adjust the thrust!  :confused:  Still, curious to see how big we can go. My own plane makes it on full thrust, so I am wondering if I back off if I can get it back to KSP. Stay tuned.

 

Will update leaderboard tomorrow when I have a bit more time. Nice stuff so far!  

I am going to add this as a leaderboard category.

*Looks at Mk3 parts enviously*

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Second entry. Beats two records at once.
1. ONE HUNDRED Kerbal capacity. This thing is pretty much a proper airliner.
2. Only 24 boosters even so, for a 4.167 Kerbals / Booster ratio.

fOpj7TI.png

First successful flight:

It has excellent ground handling and landing control capabilities thanks to massive flaps and landing gears.

Spoiler

sqrgID0.png
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5XNFFjt.png

 

Despite its weight, my plane can pretty easily touch down at as little as 35 m/s thanks to the sudden increase in lift and drag caused by deploying flaps right as it stalls.

h6hpUQY.png

Edited by Pds314
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4 minutes ago, Flying dutchman said:

I think i'll go huge like i always do

 

@Pds314 i think two is the minimum. I would try to make a glider. You boost it up with the flee ( if you can get maybe 1500m that wil be enough) return should be even easyer since by then you wil have decoupled one engine.

Yeah I think two *should* be doable. All my runs have involved climbing once I'm almost out of fuel or at a speed where I am hitting a lot of drag and would do better trading speed for altitude.

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1 minute ago, Flying dutchman said:

@Pds314 i once glided from the mountains all the way past the ksc to the island runway so this "should" be easy. ;)

 

But ksp can be a cruel mistress..

Or.... I could do the opposite, say "screw efficiency and return-ability" And go for a 1000-Kerbal triangular sky brick.

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I will have to leave my PC for now. I shall leave with a screenshot of the brick's wing in progress.
4agsL3w.png

 

Current speculative blueprint calls for a capacity of about 2000 Kerbals, with room to add a few hundred Kerbals more cabins. It will need probably over 300 fleas. Perhaps even as many as 500 depending on aerodynamic performance.

 

It will literally be dropping an average of 2 fleas per second of powered flight.

Edited by Pds314
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21 hours ago, Pds314 said:

I will have to leave my PC for now. I shall leave with a screenshot of the brick's wing in progress.
4agsL3w.png

 

Current speculative blueprint calls for a capacity of about 2000 Kerbals, with room to add a few hundred Kerbals more cabins. It will need probably over 300 fleas. Perhaps even as many as 500 depending on aerodynamic performance.

 

It will literally be dropping an average of 2 fleas per second of powered flight.

R.I.P. framerate

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DlkEaTz.jpg

Specs:1 kerbal command pod ,3 fleas.

Target: To island and back.

 

After having removed one stage and second stage is dry ao2LTQK.jpg

1 rough landing later omjs2F6.jpg

Aproaching the runway:T1ZEvPG.jpg

Landed back ! j6EzDrt.jpg

Ps:The last flea is inside the fairing

 

 

Edited by Brownie352
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The first landing test of the Flea Dorito.

It was not Flea-powered in this test. I seem to have some issues.

As for stats, 2000 Kerbals, 961 tonnes without anything broken.. It lands fine. It's the slowing down that's difficult. I think I will need to use the front sections as airbrakes by opening them. Or possibly add actual airbrakes. Or maybe even Flea-based thrust-reversers.

yd1k3oX.png

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Flea propulsion experiments.

I swear it's for "civilian use." :wink:

Staging 168 parts as 84 separate craft to saturate saturate the ground with explosions? Whatever do you mean?

eTOODNC.png

Edited by Pds314
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Here is my entry for Category 3.  The rules state that you have to take off horizontally, but they don't state that you have to go directly down the runway!  So I pointed directly at the island first, *then* fired the engines.

I transported 25 kerbals to the island using 4 Fleas, for a ratio of 6.25 kerbals/flea.

JcKsDjQ.jpg

Full album here: https://imgur.com/a/GMtfYCW

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15 hours ago, Pds314 said:

Flea propulsion experiments.

I swear it's for "civilian use." :wink:

Staging 168 parts as 84 separate craft to saturate saturate the ground with explosions? Whatever do you mean?

eTOODNC.png

Nuts! (Use parachutes on the landing if you haven't tried that already)

Edited by Brownie352
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