TheHengeProphet

Holy Bejeebus peeps! Several new entries! I've been rather busy, but I'll try to get the OP updated before this weekend is out. It's been a while since I've played, to be honest (being a busy adult with many "important" things to do), so I don't rightly remember, but if I remember correctly... F3? {edited to correctify my mistake} [Edit to avoid doublepost] Alright, folks, list has been updated. TTurchan1, I have accepted your entry. That thing is still horrifying. According to your maximum speed, you achieved 12.8 km/s, which is impressive. That would have certainly allowed you to kick out into solar orbit. I would have really liked an in-atmosphere reading, or at least one before you left SoI, but whatever. GraviTyKillz, what do you mean by "clipping"? Did you use the dev console to allow your intakes to stack like that, or did you fanagle them into position? p512, I'd love to see a full run of that! If you ever get around to it, throw it up and I'll add it to the leaderboard. peadar1987, nice run! I'm still not sure how you guys stack those intakes like that, but kudos! shael6636, I'm impressed you got that fast with radial intakes... those things are horrid for high speed. Truely, good job!

Not sure if I can count that... You left the sphere of influence, which alters the relative highest speed over land, considering you are now flying over the sun. Judgement calls anyone?

I'm looking forward to your entry! Also, IF enough people decide to make entries for a 1:1 subsection, I might make one exist, but I don't see much reason to make a category for one or two entries alone. The reason there ARE categories as such is due to that there were many entries of those categories before the forum setback. As it is, entries are somewhat stagnant, in general... Well, that solves #1.

1. I don't know how too do that and have never bothered to look it up. 2. I don't want to have to go all the way back through and link everyone. I should say no, but that means that I'll have to disqualify LeFudge. If you do, maintain your resource tab open during all screenshots (should be done anyways, but I've been slightly lax on that req.) and show when you stage them.

In .19 and previous (I am unsure about these latest versions), RCS drained from tanks in the order of placement, thus the first tanks were drained first, etcetera. I may have that backwards, but it was along those lines. I haven't tested to see if the current system is the same or has been adjusted.

It is possible that some part attatched to your extremities has duplicated. I have found this to happen when moving some wings with attatched bits, which can mess up your CoL. Also, keep in mind that your air intakes cause drag, so if you have them ahead of the center of mass, you might expect the effect of a CoL ahead of your CoM, even though the displayed indicators to not state such.

I would personally say that 600 m/s is on the edge of too slow for an attempted SSTO flight. I am generally in the region of 1000 or more at that height, which by velocity alone should push you to a higher altitude. Once you are above 13-15km, you should be able to use rocket engines to sufficiently nudge your way out of the atmosphere. Keep in mind that you don't need to blast out of the atmosphere, as enough speed will allow you to drift out on relatively low fuel usage. This is generally the process I use for both my FAR and stock game files.

When the pod is layed flat, as displayed, I have not figured out how it determines which way is forward, especially since I have a set of "pancake" rovers which would go in "reverse" when pressing "forward" and visa versa, seemingly on a whim. As for the direction of turning, I gather it is determined by a combination of pod orientation and center of mass.

Another thing to look at is if your struts are symmetrical, as thrust can torque outer stages, causing spin there.

Another option is to have the staging for that stage set to action groups, and set them so that the fairings (which don't way much of anything) do not come off. I had this problem on a spaceplane of mine, and that was the only solution I found without redesigning the whole thing.

Okay, so... one issue I see here is that your center of lift is ON your center of mass. This means your plane will be rather manoeverable (if it gets in the air), but not for long as it will lose aerodynamic stability as the CoM shifts stern. Judging by the parts used, that thing is obscenely heavy, and the surface area of your wings will not provide enough lift at the speeds you would be able to achieve by the end of the runway in order to perform liftoff. To my knowledge, that pod provides torque, which means you should probably move the reaction wheel module to the other side of the craft, or at least more toward CoM. Given the design of your craft, I would move the main wings back, sligtly, add more wing to them, and add a set of canards to the front. I would also move any exhaustible sources of mass (Liquid fuel, oxidiser, payload bay) closer to the rear of the craft, and non-exhaustibles (battery, cockpit, RCS fuel-exhaustible, but less likely to be used up) to the front of the craft. Doing so will help ensure continued flight stability. Also, that is a heck of a lot of RCS fuel you are lugging around, so I would suggest dumping that huge tank for some radial tanks instead, lest you intend on fueling something in orbit with it. Good luck on your venture, sir!

Though fuel drains backwards, which would mean it would be easier to pitch up, if anything. I cannot personally test the craft, as it has a kerbal engineer module on the nose, but from what I can see, it looks fairly good in design. I used to have this same problem when building spacecraft in .16, when trying for the K-Prize, and I determined that the cause was that I was not going fast enough. What speeds are you achieving at 10km?

Alright, your entry has been added! As for the launch clamp thing, I just can't have people getting the idea that they can plop a launch clamp down some significant distance above the runway and get around the difficulty of getting their plane off the tarmac.

Yes, you did fuzz the lines there, but... I'll accept it this once... Your final speed was the 2289 m/s, for the final record, by the way. You're really blurring the definition of horizontal takeoff from the runway there. Technically, this was from above the runway, and I unfortunately cannot set a precedent of people using launch clamps to gain a height advantage. I hope you understand. Steam Gauges do not modify the craft or allow any autopilot funcitonality, so I'll mark it as stock. I'm glad everyone's having such a great time trying this challenge out!

Wow! Thanks! Nope. Climberfx, your speedsteer has been entered! Congrats on getting over 2300!

Except you cannot have a maneuver node from the ground, so it's not quite accurate in that respect.

Alright, akshaypatil, you're in! Not a lot of people seem to be flying modded missions, these days.

Alright, searlefm, you're in! I always liked the idea of having a tail with intakes on it for stabilization.

KSP gave me a better understanding of orbital mechanics. And it has also destroyed the value of many space-involved films, to me, considering I know what is going on just... isn't really how things work. Cinematics... KSP has also driven me to research rocketry mechanics much in the same way that Dwarf Fortress drove me to research geology and metallurgy, deepening my appreciation for such subjects!

Sorry for the long delay, guys, I was off camping. veio, your entry has been added. That plane amuses me greatly, and that video was quite enjoyable to watch. LeadMagnet, your entry has also been added, despite you lacking an image of the plane on the runway, because you provided solid proof that you could take off horizontally by showing your landing gear. I'm sorry searlefm, but you lacked the obligatory runway shot (or the barely acceptable landing gear proof shot), so I cannot accept your entry. You do not need to re-do the entire run to complete, though, as you can simply display your craft on the runway and taking off. Good luck!

I have noticed an undo difference after .18-ish, in which undo did not undo the last action done, but instead started to undo chunks of time, often undoing major parts of the craft I have adjusted, rather than that last action I wanted undone...

To my knowledge, yes it does, and also, due to the mechanics of drag, it also affects the mass of your craft, as they have no mass when retracted. This is only for landing gear, and not landing legs. Hope this helps!

A screenshot of the craft you are working with would be helpful in telling you what's up with it. espm400, those are some impressive planes! Do I see an F-18, F-4, and F-5 in there with that F-15?

75km-95km. Stations are parked at ~100km, generally.

As above. On the other hand, my strategy for finding anomalies with a stock game amounted to flying insanely low orbits and looking for flicker. Though I did find one with it, don't expect to find munoliths with this stratgety, as they are very difficult to see and you have to be VERY close (often closer than the edges of any given crater might allow). I have found others mainly on chance (and a little research).