Hypersonic Science (Guy) race

[Guest Space Cowboy]

• Launch off Space Center runway relying on wing lift.
• Fly in or out of atmosphere.
• Land on Nye Island runway, relying solely on wing lift (engines running at any setting is fine)(drag chutes are fine).
• Single stage / no drops
• Whining is not allowed.
• Taking this seriously is not allowed.
• Video coverage preferred.
• Stock
• Shortest time wins.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Space Cowboy

[Guest Space Cowboy]

24.5 Space Minutes is the time to beat.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Space Cowboy

[18Watt]

17:40

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Pretty simple plane.  One LF tank, one LFO tank, 2 wings, Rapier.  Delicate parts are attached to a girder inside the fairing.  It has wheels.

I traveled westbound.  Not sure why, or if that's faster or not.  I figured with the rotation of Kerbin etc.  Probably overthinking it.  Here I'm trying to adjust my course a few degrees during reentry.

I actually overshot the island by about 10 km, and had to turn around to get back to it.  So could probably get a better time.  17:40 from brake release at KSC to landing at the island.

I planted a flag next to the dish earlier, to help me navigate to the island.  The intake is still glowing red.

Paging @camacju  

[Guest Space Cowboy]

nice!

[18Watt]

I made a few runs going eastbound, and wasn’t able to get my time under 18:00.  So westbound might be a tad faster, at least it was for me.

Now I’m wondering if going north over the pole would be faster.  KSC and the island are both slightly north of the equator..

[18Watt]

16:22 - New personal best.

Spoiler

I shaved a little over a minute off my previous time.  This was another westbound run, I still haven't tried going over the North Pole.  For this run I kept my AP lower.  I was shooting for an altitude of 60 km, I think the highest I ever got was around 63 km.  The lower orbit allows the speed to be higher, without shooting off into space.

Here's a shot showing the antenna.  I landed on the south side of the island, it's a little flatter there.  My biggest challenges were heat related.  The intake explodes during climb-out if you get too fast.  Same during reentry.  There's a way to use fairings to trick the game into protecting stuff, while still allowing the intake to function properly- I just haven't figured out how to make that trickery work.

Believe it or not, there's really no significant clipping or trickery on this plane at all.  The batteries are clipped:  I mounted them to the girder in the nose, and turned them so they are mounted inside the girder, which seems reasonable to me.  The landing gear is clipped to some extent to get them positioned where I wanted them.  And the control surfaces on the tail are probably clipped a tad into the engine.  

A single solar panel probably would have worked fine for electricity, but I was worried about it blowing up- so I used a pair of RTGs inside the fairing.  A single fuel-cell would also work, I have plenty of LFO to spare for the short flight.

Here's a run that did 16:22.  Added airbrakes to help slow down later.

1

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by 18Watt
New time.

[camacju]

On 2/9/2022 at 8:11 PM, 18Watt said:

Paging @camacju  

I would... except you've already got a great time! 16 minutes is faster than what a jet-only craft can do, and I don't really want to mess with rockets for this challenge

[Guest Space Cowboy]

I've been reading about the Pluto SLAM missle and it gave me an idea. I wont beat your time though.

[Klapaucius]

On 2/10/2022 at 11:44 AM, Space Cowboy said:

• Launch off Space Center runway relying on wing lift.
• Fly in or out of atmosphere.
• Land on Nye Island runway, relying solely on wing lift (engines running at any setting is fine)(drag chutes are fine).
• Single stage / no drops
• Whining is not allowed.
• Taking this seriously is not allowed.
• Video coverage preferred.
• Stock
• Shortest time wins.

I am not understanding what you are asking here.  Do you mean no control surfaces?  Can you clarify exactly what you mean by "wing lift" in this context?  The way it reads to me it sounds like I simply need to fly a plane.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Klapaucius