Since Drains can produce thrust when attached to intakes, This calls for a new speed record challenge!

[boomchacle]

I hope you've all seen Scot manley's video about getting in to orbit using just drains. Now, About the speed record. There's a few categories I am going to propose. There's going to be the Fastest air speed record, land speed record, and then boat speed record.

 The main rules: No cheats or infinite fuel please, and no modded or craft file edited parts. Because it's all screenshot based, there's no way to prove any of these, so just be honest.

Air speed record rules;

You must get 100 percent of your thrust from drains connected to air intakes, with no modded parts. It's also measured in orbital velocity, because that's what the game automatically tries to put you in at these speeds and altitudes.

Land speed record rules: You must get 100 percent of your thrust from drains, but they do not need to be connected to air intakes, with no modded parts.

Boat speed record rules: You must get 100 percent of your thrust from drains, and they don't need to be connected to air intakes, with no modded parts.

Multi stage creations are perfectly fine, and the only reason I say they must be connected to air intakes for the air speed record is that otherwise, they're essentially rocket engines, and you can fly at 69999 meters and say that it's technically an air speed record.

I'll start it off with my submission, a very light plane with 30 of the drains, one small intake, and one cone intake. Max speed achieved was 3051 meters per second. You will find that once drains get up to extreme altitudes, and speeds, they actually begin to outperform jet engines! *edit* I just realised that I measured the speed in orbital speed. I guess you all should do that as well. (lol an air speed record measured in orbital velociy!)

Leaderboard 
Pds314, with an incredible 3843.5 meters per second!
Boomchacle, with                3050.1 meters per second.

Klond, with                            2914.7 meters per second
 

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by boomchacle
Updated leaderboard

[klond]

 We should do this while we can (1.9.0) cuz I got a feeling this will feature/bug will be buttoned-up quick.

[Box of Stardust]

Um, doesn't the whole intake air "fuel" count as infinite fuel anyways?

This all rather seems more like it'll end up being a thermodynamics management challenge than a speed challenge, also. As we've had many experiences in "high speed challenges" before, it ends up being how to keep your craft intact more than how much faster can you go.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Box of Stardust

[boomchacle]

3 hours ago, Box of Stardust said:

Um, doesn't the whole intake air "fuel" count as infinite fuel anyways?

This all rather seems more like it'll end up being a thermodynamics management challenge than a speed challenge, also. As we've had many experiences in "high speed challenges" before, it ends up being how to keep your craft intact more than how much faster can you go.

That is quite true, however at 38000 meters, thermodynamics allow you to go much faster than you'd expect. Drag begins to be one of the leading forces against you instead of thermodynamics, but overheating will also be a problem.

 

On 2/17/2020 at 2:01 PM, klond said:

 We should do this while we can (1.9.0) cuz I got a feeling this will feature/bug will be buttoned-up quick.

Hopefully not

[Pds314]

Wow. 3500 is insane. That's escape velocity.

Time to design something for this challenge..

Edited February 21, 2020 by Pds314

[Pds314]

Wait.. drains can S U C C? Time for deep space missions I guess???

Edited February 21, 2020 by Pds314

[Pds314]

Air speed record
On the way up, using only intake air (which is constantly sucked in by reversing the polarity on drains while spamming drain every 0.05 seconds): 3843.5 m/s:


Peak altitude using only intake air:


On the way down, using only intake air: 38846.0 m/s.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Pds314

[boomchacle]

2 hours ago, Pds314 said:

Air speed record
On the way up, using only intake air (which is constantly sucked in by reversing the polarity on drains while spamming drain every 0.05 seconds): 3843.5 m/s:


Peak altitude using only intake air:


On the way down, using only intake air: 38846.0 m/s.

Wow that's an insane top speed. what altitude do precoolers cut out?

[Pds314]

3 hours ago, boomchacle said:

Wow that's an insane top speed. what altitude do precoolers cut out?

Oh the precooler is being used entirely as an air tank for the 4 forward-facing drains to suck vast amounts of intake air into under control by the KAL-9000 (where the drains are getting this intake air from is anyone's guess). So I guess ~70 meters? It was generating constant 12 G thrust for the entire 15 minute run, of which 14 minutes was in space. It generates full thrust even half way to the Mun.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Pds314

[Box of Stardust]

@Pds314 uh, you got a craft file or some pictures on how you accomplished that reverse polarity goofiness? Because that whole ordeal seems rather fun to experience.

[klond]

 Going off of all the info and photos in this thread, plus a few hours of testing, I want to share some info.

 

 I built a lil drone plane.  The body is made of intake ramps.  At one point I had over 200 drains and 27 intakes.  I still had trouble getting over the mach hump.  Frustrating.

 

 So I copied boomchacle's plane in a smaller version.  I think I remember seeing a chart where the shock cone intakes were the best at high-speed AND high-altitude by far.  I hit 2900m/s before the core overheated but it took awhile to get to that speed by skimming the top of the atmosphere, bouncing between 34 and 38000m.

 

 I read Pds314's new posts, looked up overclocking as it relates to KSP (using controllers to go above or below the operating parameters of parts), and set out for testing with my new-found information.  Also shoutout to Pds314 as he's been innovating since before I got involved here.

 

  I thought maybe since he said we can go negative and suck in air, maybe we can suck in fuel and/or ore too.  Sure can! (this is 100% cheating BTW).  I think draining ore gives more thrust than air (I would think so, cuz we're ejecting more mass).

 I put 8 drains on negative ore, and ONE on positive.  So only ONE drain for thrust.

 So by manipulating a controller you can get it to produce wild curves (add a point, force a long straight line, then drag it around) that go above and below the max limits of the item in question (see pic below).  The maximum/minimum points on the curves seen below are well off the scale, at 25% and 75% respectively, which gives me a maximum for me of about 911 drain units instead of just 20!  I tied the controller position to the main throttle so I could achieve/tweak this positioning myself.  I added a second controller to re-enable draining every 0.1 seconds as they shut off automatically constantly (thanks again, Pds314).  When it's enabled it fills the ore tanks, then nearly instantly drains it, but it repeats this multiple times a second.  Essentially infinte fuel anytime if used for ore/fuel  .

'Had to add a heat shield here to prevent explosions.

 

 Also, look at this awesome plume when using intake air at 900-some units output instead of 20 (I'm zoomed way out here, looking at a plane similar to the first picture up above).

 

 These screenshot are for informational purposes and not meant to be competitive.  I hope others can use this info to best the current air-drain record, with or without controller manipulation.

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2020 by klond

[boomchacle]

20 hours ago, klond said:

 Going off of all the info and photos in this thread, plus a few hours of testing, I want to share some info.

 

 I built a lil drone plane.  The body is made of intake ramps.  At one point I had over 200 drains and 27 intakes.  I still had trouble getting over the mach hump.  Frustrating.

 

 So I copied boomchacle's plane in a smaller version.  I think I remember seeing a chart where the shock cone intakes were the best at high-speed AND high-altitude by far.  I hit 2900m/s before the core overheated but it took awhile to get to that speed by skimming the top of the atmosphere, bouncing between 34 and 38000m.

 

 I read Pds314's new posts, looked up overclocking as it relates to KSP (using controllers to go above or below the operating parameters of parts), and set out for testing with my new-found information.  Also shoutout to Pds314 as he's been innovating since before I got involved here.

 

  I thought maybe since he said we can go negative and suck in air, maybe we can suck in fuel and/or ore too.  Sure can! (this is 100% cheating BTW).  I think draining ore gives more thrust than air (I would think so, cuz we're ejecting more mass).

 I put 8 drains on negative ore, and ONE on positive.  So only ONE drain for thrust.

 So by manipulating a controller you can get it to produce wild curves (add a point, force a long straight line, then drag it around) that go above and below the max limits of the item in question (see pic below).  The maximum/minimum points on the curves seen below are well off the scale, at 25% and 75% respectively, which gives me a maximum for me of about 911 drain units instead of just 20!  I tied the controller position to the main throttle so I could achieve/tweak this positioning myself.  I added a second controller to re-enable draining every 0.1 seconds as they shut off automatically constantly (thanks again, Pds314).  When it's enabled it fills the ore tanks, then nearly instantly drains it, but it repeats this multiple times a second.  Essentially infinte fuel anytime if used for ore/fuel  .

'Had to add a heat shield here to prevent explosions.

 

 Also, look at this awesome plume when using intake air at 900-some units output instead of 20 (I'm zoomed way out here, looking at a plane similar to the first picture up above).

 

 These screenshot are for informational purposes and not meant to be competitive.  I hope others can use this info to best the current air-drain record, with or without controller manipulation.

 

 

 

Holy crap klond, I didn't realise how insane that stuff can get. Also, about your first plane. Those small intakes have a ridiculous amount of drag compared to how much intake air they produce. it's almost absurd how bad they are.

Edited February 24, 2020 by boomchacle

[klond]

14 hours ago, boomchacle said:

Those small intakes have a ridiculous amount of drag compared to how much intake air they produce. it's almost absurd how bad they are.

 Thank you.  I was wondering what the heck I was doing wrong.  That's too bad cuz I like their 2400 degree max temp.

Edited February 24, 2020 by klond

[boomchacle]

7 hours ago, klond said:

 Thank you.  I was wondering what the heck I was doing wrong.  That's too bad cuz I like their 2400 degree max temp.

I'm honestly not sure if they're bugged or if they're really just that bad.