Breaking 2000 m/s at sea level.

[xoonZG]

Hey folks,
Me and my friend had a crazy challenge to go as fast as possible below 1000m.

 

We managed 1984 m/s. 

(Yes, this is a poor image. ) 

 

The issue we faced is everything overheating and exploding around 1800 m/s, which seems to be a almost hard limit without shenanigans.  

 

Does anyone know if this is possible without cheating? 

[Geonovast]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

 

Good luck with this challenge.

[Guest]

That is insane. If you ever break 2000 m/s somebody needs to design you a badge.

This us a great idea for a challenge too, except that your result is so good it would likely discourage most of us from even trying. 

[Redacted]

The trick to breaking 2000ms is the run with a heat-shield instead of a nose-cone. The rest of the craft, wether it be it a rocket or SSTO of some sort, needs to be only as wide as the heat-shield. This way the brunt on the aero forces are concentrated at one point, rather then across the body / wings.

 

Side note: I have a rather unorthodox SSTO on KerbalX that can break 4000ms while transitioning to orbit. Its named “Redshift” and uses a combination of ACS thrusters and Scramjet (above 1250 ms). It can easily launch itself from Kerbin’s SoI using 200-300 liquid fuel.

[AHHans]

3 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

This us a great idea for a challenge too, except that your result is so good it would likely discourage most of us from even trying. 

Well... I did try... But only managed 1800-something m/s.

My last try had an interesting failure mode: once the leading fairing exploded due to overheating, everything else went in an instant due to excessive g-forces.

If you are going fast enough even air becomes as soft as a brick wall!

P.S. How about moving this to the challenges subforum?

Edited October 8, 2019 by AHHans

[magnemoe]

Don't think any has beaten this. 

[Duck McFuddle]

I've tried a similar thing, only my problem was not having a long enough space to drive down. I would have to transport my craft down to one of Kerbin's poles and that seems like a lot of work. 

[xoonZG]

4 hours ago, AHHans said:

Well... I did try... But only managed 1800-something m/s.

My last try had an interesting failure mode: once the leading fairing exploded due to overheating, everything else went in an instant due to excessive g-forces.

If you are going fast enough even air becomes as soft as a brick wall!

P.S. How about moving this to the challenges subforum?

I created a challenge thread, feel free to participate: