[Kerbal Express Airlines - Regional Jet Challenge (Reboot Continued)]

21 minutes ago, neistridlar said:

Le snip

I used burn rate at below 1000m by accident.

It's about 0.6 at cruising.

 

 

 

 

A lot of replies came in at once on my end, hope nobody scrolls over my submission, doubt they could though, I wrote a freaking book XD

Would be my luck though.

[Kerbal Express Airlines - Regional Jet Challenge (Reboot Continued)]

Executive Transport presents: Ultra-class Liason Mk. 2 (W/APU)!

 

LINK TO CRAFT: https://kerbalx.com/TheTripleAce3/Ultra-class-Liason-Mk-2-W-APU

 

Category: Supersonic Liason

A design made for speed and survivability more than comfort (not to say it lacks the latter), it features dual transponders and 2 snack containers inside of a service bay should they be needed, as well as a state-of-the-art autopilot system just behind the service compartment, allowing the pilot to rest for a few minutes should he need to. It features an auxiliary Juno engine atop the tail section and detaching mechanisms inside of the wing pylons to allow for emergency detachment if needed. 

It is a deluxe flying platform that will climb very quickly and, once at altitude (18km-21km), it will have a cruising speed of at least 1100m/s and a fuel consumption rate of 0.67 on average between the two Whiplash engines. These factors combined give it a quite conservative estimated range of 2,000 km 

While not the easiest to maintain, with three engines and multiple intakes, it is easier than quite a few regional jets to maintain and very well suited to long range flight, it is of worth noting its custom thickened leading edge to the delta wing to augment its glide slope on landing, as well as the 10 drogue chutes for quick landings.

Specs:

4 Passengers

$42,141,000

Cruising speed @17km: +1100m/s

Est. Range: 2,000km

Max alt: 25km, will have near-0 thrust.

Powerplant: Main: 2 Whiplash engines

Auxiliary: 1 Juno, doubles as taxiing engine.

Crew: 1 Pilot and 1 Attendant (Attendant optional, Pilot can handle most things w/ Autopilot active to cut on crew costs)

4 Landing gear , 3 mains and 1 tailwheel

Surprisingly clear views landscape from all crew compartments, and a lower amount of vibrations from the engines, being wing-mounted. We doubt you'll be hearing much of the engines seeing how far back they are.

As for takeoff speeds, our test pilots have gotten the takeoff speeds as low as 60m/s, which the craft will reach in no time at all.

Landing speeds are a sluggish 70m/s with flaps and airbrakes (normally unpowered, very flat trajectory) and can get as low as 40m/s on touchdown with chutes and airbrakes w/o flaps.

To take off: AG1 for flaps, Hold brakes and activate only the main engines until it reaches 2.3m/s with active brakes, then release. Plane will accelerate to 70m/s, upon which time you may start pulling up. Plane will lift up past 80m/s with or without flaps.

To land: come in very fast at first, over 200m/s. This is to keep a flatter trajectory, and have the juno engine preactivated with mains optional. Once at 1km from runway, activate airbrakes and flaps. This is also where gears will need to be deployed (structurally reinforced to resist high pressures). Once directly above the runway, you may choose to activate the drogue chutes or land solely on main gears. If you activate drogue chutes, you will not need to brake as hard. Flaring is standard for this craft, just don't go below 40m/s until on ground. With brakes only, land on the two aft mains first preferably and tap on the brakes to slowly set down the nose (this will require a slightly faster approach). Once all mains are on the ground, switch all engines (AG2 and 3) and hold brakes.

To taxi: All gears have steering enabled, however front steering only is an option (AG5 to disable aft gear). Use Juno APU to taxi.

To ditch: In the event a ditching must take place, get as close as you can to the water while maintaining lift, activate abort AG, and glide until at 20m above water. Have APU activate AS SOON AS pilot commits to ditching. activate flaps and manually set them to 150% authority (at own risk, 52 is normal.) and wait to slow down as much as possible before activating gears. This will create a deceleration force of 8G minimum so be careful. Flaring is the most important part of this procedure along with detaching main engines. Airbrakes have been helpful in all tests.

[Kerbal Express Airlines - Regional Jet Challenge (Reboot Continued)]

Quick question:

Range = Fuel / Burn rate * speed /1000m for range in KM.

1390 /4 * 6 *1200 (which is lower than actual top speed) /1000 = 2,502KM.

My fuel capacity is 1390, burn rate is between 4 and 6 (chose 6 intentionally to lower my range, could go all the way to 8 if I piled on the low alt thrust) with my high-alt cruising speed of 1200m/s (tempted to redo with 1100 but 1200 yields more consistent results w/ game) and then since that was in meters I divided by 1000 to get range in KM.

Did I get this correct or am I wrong?

For reference: My craft uses 2 Whiplash engines and 1 Juno APU.

(another thing, the flight that I did only used about 66.7% fuel, hence the discrepancy)

[High speed stock Aircraft challenge.]

2 minutes ago, Andetch said:

What is the OP's opinion on mod parts? Like the scramjets that you need to be going mach 2 before they even fire up...

No modded engines. I did this entirely stock, no reason why others can't. 

Modded cabins like the one @CrazyJebGuy used are a tough spot since they can be really heavy and draggy but I'll understand if someone just uses a cabin that looks a little nicer. I said in the rules (#10) that only KER was allowed for getting screenshots and later I said not to clip in extra engines. 

Just be reasonable with it. I'm really trying to push hard on what stock engines are capable of and I know this can be done.

[High speed stock Aircraft challenge.]

Here is my proof of a category 6-7 run.

Rounding up to 25500m for easier maths indicates that my score is 2015 m/s / 25500m = 0.07 with the initial scoring method.

@CrazyJebGuy if we use the sqrt of 25500, 159.6871 (round up to 160), the score = 2015m/s / 160 = 12.59375 rounded up to 13.

[High speed stock Aircraft challenge.]

9 hours ago, Andetch said:

I see the exploit of the maths there. It is the issue with equation scoring like on my challenge. It makes your KEA subjective scoring based on judges personal preferences a lot more attractive.

 

I intended for extremely low alts to have very high scores. I can hardly even get to these speeds below 10km but I can do it.

If you can do it, you deserve a high score.

1 minute ago, CrazyJebGuy said:

You sure pure jets can do that? Turbojet thrust falls off spectacularly over about mach 5.

Yes, I have done so before. I'll start fishing on my harddrive for the screenshot of it.

[High speed stock Aircraft challenge.]

To apply for this challenge, crafts must go at least 2000m/s in the categories.

@CrazyJebGuy @Andetch

[High speed stock Aircraft challenge.]

5 minutes ago, CrazyJebGuy said:

Think you meant m/s there.

Aye, thanks.

[Kerbal Express Airlines - Regional Jet Challenge (Reboot Continued)]

Can there be a liason category? 

4 passengers @200 m/s minimum for 700km? I have TONS of planes that would perfectly fit this category and have amphibian capability.

 

 

... Not that I could post them since my PC internet is KIA...

[High speed stock Aircraft challenge.]

Scoring will be done in velocity/ SQRT of altitude at time of top speed ( or in screenshot).

Ex:

If your alt was 10km and velocity was 2100m/s then you would take sqrt of 10, which is roughly 3.16, and do 2100 m/s / 3.16 = 664.55 points

[Launch site concerns.]

Just now, Greenfire32 said:

There is no free-to-play version of KSP...

This whole posts approved by mods thing seems to be delaying the edit I made.

It has already been amended.

[Launch site concerns.]

Just now, Thiagobs said:

Wait.. what?

Free-to-play?!?!?

Since when KSP is/became free to play?

That was a mess-up on my end. Thanks for pointing it out.

Meant people who didn't buy the DLC.

[Launch site concerns.]

25 minutes ago, HeliosPh0enix said:

This is probably the most relevant place for a post like this, yes.  I do not think anyone aside from Squad employees know the answer to this, but it would be cool if the extra launch sites made it into the stock game.  However, I think DLC features will, for the most part, stay DLC features.  Most of this is probably because the ability for players to make launch sites on other planets relies on the mission builder, which I can assure you will remain exclusive to the DLC.  As for the Woomerang launch site, I really cannot say if it will be added to the base game, but I don't really use it at all, since it is kind of boring.

In the patch 1.4.3 post it said that all modes of DLC will have access to auxillary sites soon to be introduced.

[High speed stock Aircraft challenge.]

I've been trying to make SSTOs for quite the while, some successful, the vast majority not.

What I have discovered however, is how easy it can be to make stock planes go excruciatingly fast at low altitudes.

Iirc, my fastest plane @10km was a near-orbital bomber project that had been partly, maybe halfway, drained of fuel that went 2104m/s or something like that. It burned to a crisp soon after doing so (at least it was unmanned!) but it was cool to see that it would at least go over 2km/s after dropping payload.

I made it to 2km/s again in another similar craft but the cargo bay housed 2 small TCS systems and I was at 15km this time. Lasted slightly longer before I pulled the airbrakes and ripped the plane back into subsonic speeds once again.

 

Anyways, the main challenge is to make a plane with jet engines (my 2 planes used rapiers only, of which there were 10) go 2km/s, hopefully even 2.3km/s, and keep it in Kerbin's atmosphere. Sub-orbital hops don't count unless you're just burning of fuel to get TWR up.

CATEGORIES:

1. Jets only, low altitude. Air breathing engines only, <15km

2. Jets only, medium altitude. Same as 1, but between 15 and 21km.

3. Jets only, high altitude. Above 21km on airbreathers only.

4. Hybrid, low alt. Jets + one aerospike (or any allowed LFO engine) at or below 15km.

5. Hybrid, medium alt. Same as 4 but between 15 and 19km. 

6. Hybrid, high altitude. Jets + aerospike (or any allowed LFO engine) between 19 and 21km.

7. Hybrid, very high altitude. Above 21km.

8. Rocket only aircraft at low altitude. LFO engines only at or below 13km.

9. Rocket only, medium alt. Same as 8, but between 13 and 18km.

10. Rocket only at high altitude. Between 18km and 23km.

11. Rocket only at extreme altitude. LFO only between 23 and 27km.

12. Jet-Ion hybrid. I just want to see someone do this, surprise me!

13. Limbo. Go +2km/s as low as you can, no cheating, and keep thrust below 1000kn.

RULES: 

0. MINIMUM QUALIFIER SPEED IS 2000M/S SUSTAINED FOR 3 SECONDS FOR ALL CATEGORIES

1. Must be a plane, as in it uses primarily aerodynamic controls and wings. Mk 2 parts are preferred for fuselage in my experience.

2. RAPIERS, for jets only submissions, these engines are not allowed to go into closed cycle at any point. If they do, they are classed as rocket engines rather than airbreathers. This means your run will be counted as a HYBRID category run.

3. Apoapsis height when at top speed should not exceed 30km unless you are doing a power-dive, in which case I ask it be below 40km.

4. Submissions are to be classed by the altitude they are at when they reach top speed, if you reach top speed twice in the same flight, use the lower altitude.

5. Proof of completion is to be in the form of screenshots. If you are not aware, it is possible to have your navball open on the map screen by clicking the arrow at the bottom of the game window. You should also right-click your apoapsis to have it "bookmarked" while setting up your screenshots.

6. For all categories, speed is to be determined with the surface reference on navball only.

7. TCS systems are frowned upon but allowed, it would be hypocritical of me to ban them as one of my designs used them.

8. Bonus: Survival with a manned aircraft at these speeds and altitudes (MUST use stock cockpits, no chairs in service modules!) is likely to be challenging, I encourage you to try it. Detachable cabins are allowed for this subsect of the challenge, although airbrakes are more likely to help.

9. Engines should be of the Small size, or 1.25 meters like the rapiers. Vector is not allowed for this competition for the sake of pushing designs as far as possible, the vector would arguably make this challenge extremely easy at the extreme or high altitude categories.

10. The only mod allowed to be used is Kerbal Engineer Redux for gathering proof of apoapsis height and surface velocity in screenshots. All altered or modded engines or parts are disqualified as are autopilot mods. If I can do it with standard SAS, so can you. 

10b. If you have a question about a modded part i.e. cabin, then ask me. Don't use insanely powerful modded engines or scramjets, that would remove the true challenge from this if you did.

11. Ablative heat shields are allowed, but only one, and it must be at the tiny, or 0.625m size, the same as the small circular air intake. It can not be jettisoned after the material is burnt off.

12. No part clipping of engines. You may put fuel tanks inside the wings and attach engines there, but this will mostly add stress to the wings.

13. Have fun, make any suggestions you feel warranted and I will think about altering the challenge.

Thanks for reading this book of a challenge.

[Launch site concerns.]

Will stock auxillary launch sites be locked exclusively to DLC customers or will players like myself, who did not purchase the DLC, be unable to access them without mods?

Just a little concerned of mine, not sure where to put this (made account about 3 minutes ago), hoping a mod can sort that out with me if this isn't the right spot.

Thanks for reading.