g00bd0g

I am trying not to be nit-picky, but can you please define "primary lift"? I don't want want to put a bunch of effort into a design only to have it DQ'd. Maybe some sort of ratio of total lift rating of all lifting surfaces divided be total mass? i.e. 10 total units of lifting surface decided by 10t mass is a ratio of 1. 20 units of lift would give you a ratio of 2. So maybe 1 or less? .5? And to be even more of a pain, lifting bodies can be somewhat effective with FAR, and I'm not sure how you regulate those... Cool challenge and lots of really neat entries.

I'm sure you are joking, but just to make sure, no RTG's in the SOLAR perpetual flyer challenge For the circumnavigation challenge, no landing en-route is allowed.

What motors/engines/props/rotors are allowed for the "main" rotors? Specifically, can I use the "nose mounted" props for the mail VTOL engines?

All allowed. Remember you have to fully re-charge, so a 1-time dump of the capacitors will not help you in the long-run. Though maybe a mix of bats and caps could prove beneficial? I'm not sure but I'd love to see someone try

Great suggestions. I didn't circumnavigate, but I flew Eastward through the night from sunset to sunrise, and fully re-charged demonstrating that I could repeat this cycle and circumnavigate or fly anywhere on the planet perpetually, if I had the patience ;p

They are not the same challenge. They are fundamentally different. How about you actually try them before *****in?

I'm done feeding the trolls... Anyone interested in participating please ignore these two ^^^. I will no longer be responding to them.

I appreciate your feedback and I may construct a points system as you have suggested. But I really want to maintain this as a solar electric plane challenge. Not nuclear, or kethane reactor or whatever. Your argument that my SOLAR POWERED PLANE isn't truly perpetual because it can't fly forever AT NIGHT is stating the obvious and ignoring the point of the contest. Specifically a SOLAR POWERED AIRCRAFT challenge. Additionally, as I previously stated, my plane only used approx 20% of it's energy throughout the night. It would have no problem taking off at night and completing a circumnavigation. This is not the nuclear, kethane, antimatter or whatever powered challenge. If I am stifling your creativity or this to easy for you, why would you even bother responding? Seriously, either one of you could/should go start your own challenge "the right way". Go right on ahead, but please stop picking on my challenge, seriously, WTF?

Same could be said of any challenge. Please get your judgmental subjective opinions out of this thread, you have yet to contribute one constructive criticism.

Hakari, one of the most popular challenges in this forum is the "Kerbin Circumnavigation Challenge". I enjoyed it a lot and it inspired me to create some "solar powered challenges". Climbing to extreme altitudes and riding the verge of stall to store as much kinetic energy for the night flight is hardly "slow and boring" to me. Again, you might not see the point or enjoy it, but that does not mean you have to poop in my (or anyone else) sandbox.

Energy can be stored both electrically and kinetically, so no altitude limit. Though if you can get something over 15k I will be very impressed ;p

Hakari, OK, I get it, you think this challenge is stupid, you probably think all my other challenges are stupid, but some people seem to like them. The 2 planes (and challenges) to which I am assuming you are referring to are different. Each is optimized for it's role. Please refrain from posting in my thread any further if you don't have any actual constructive criticism (such as specific rule changes). You are welcome to start a challenge yourself if you don't like mine.

This challenge is for the aero geeks This challenge requires the Firespitter mod, FAR is recommended. You can use any of the common mods including FAR, procedural wings and fairings, etc... Mechjeb is allowed. To complete this challenge you will need to build a very efficient aircraft fast enough to "chase the sun" and/or with a enough batteries and solar panels to enable you to fly through the night. We can add additional sub-challenges like max payload, battery size restrictions, or even other planets/bodies if we want. If someone wants to make a completion "badge" that would be cool... The Challenge Make an Electric Solar Aircraft capable of Circumnavigating Kerbin The Craft Must use electric motors from the Firespitter mod Must use Solar and Battery for energy Must be capable of reasonable takeoff/landing from airstrips No liquid fuels allowed, No RCS, No Jets, No rockets, No Ion drive, etc... No user "modified" parts No dev console or ridiculous parts clipping The Flight Takeoff Circumnavigate the globe Landing is optional ;p Judging I'll maintain "stock" and FAR physics leaderboards And possibly Manned and Un-Manned (Un-Kerbaled?) Must provide sufficient photo/video proof (Video Preferred) Craft files must be available for verification of performance upon request I will maintain a leaderboard. Unlimited parts counts, tonnage, altitude, etc... I want to see what people will come up with. We'll refine the rules to "keep in the spirit" of the challenge if we need to. My Entry Name: Solar Sustainer I was only able to time warp 2x without losing control so this required over 2.5 hours of actual game time. Mods: FAR and Firespitter

Dude, if you don't like it then don't compete. I found it an interesting challenge and thought others might as well. Making an efficient plane with enough panels and batteries to fly through the night is not easy. It has useful implications for exploring/mapping other planets/bodies without having to provide fuel. If you think it is so trivial an exercise, I'd like to see your entry

Sorry, by "stock" I mean the physics model. You have the "stock" and FAR aero physics models to choose from. You can use parts from any popular mod. The only restrictions are there to keep it defined as a somewhat believable solar electric aircraft. FS is the only "required" mod because it has the electric motors necessary for this challenge. FAR is recommended for realism, and procedural wings because you can make super efficient wings. Otherwise it's a very open-ended challenge. As stated, this is a challenge for the aero nerds, so it's really more about aero design than component selection.

This challenge is for the aero geeks This challenge requires the Firespitter mod, FAR is recommended. You can use any of the common mods including FAR, procedural wings and fairings, etc... To complete this challenge you will need to build a very efficient aircraft with a bunch of batteries and solar panels to enable you to fly through the night, re-charge, and repeat this cycle for as long as you wish. We can add additional sub-challenges like max payload, battery size restrictions, or even other planets/bodies if we want. If someone wants to make a completion "badge" that would be cool... The Challenge Make an Electric Solar Aircraft capable of Perpetual Flight The Craft Must use electric motors from the Firespitter mod Must use a Solar and Battery for energy Must be capable of reasonable takeoff/landing from airstrips No liquid fuels allowed, No RCS, No Jets, No rockets, No Ion drive, etc... No user "modified" parts No dev console or ridiculous parts clipping The Flight Takeoff Fly through at least 1 night cycle and fully re-charge to demonstrate "perpetual flight" capability. Landing is optional ;p Judging I'll maintain "stock" and FAR physics leaderboards And possibly Manned and Un-Manned (Un-Kerbaled?) Must provide sufficient photo/video proof (Video Preferred) Craft files must be available for verification of performance upon request I will maintain a leaderboard. Unlimited parts counts, tonnage, altitude, etc... I want to see what people will come up with. We'll refine the rules to "keep in the spirit" of the challenge if we need to. Perpetual Flyers MaverickSawyer g00bd0g (initial post) My Entry Name: Perpetual Flyer This plane has an L/D of 35:1 and 32085 units of energy. I used only about 20% of my total battery reserves and could have spent much more time and energy in the darkness. I was only able to time warp 2x without losing control so this required about 1.5 hours of actual piloting. I wasn't patient enough to fly back and land, though in truth, there's no need to, ever... Mods: FAR and Firespitter

That thing is awesome. Now stick 2 of them together

Sorry for the hiatus, changing my subscription notifications now Thanks for putting the leaderboard together. Copy/Pasting now... What amazing aircraft you guys have built! I thought my plane was near the the theoretical max, but apparently not ;p Any of you going to enter in the battery powered speed challenge? What do you guys think about listing multiple entries per entrant? I am tempted to only allow 1 entry per person to keep things cleaner. Obviously newer/better entries would supersede previous ones.

Please do, I'd love to see what other people come up with...

I think the props overlapping as shown qualifies as "ridiculous parts clipping". Let's try to keep the designs "realistic", at least by Kerbal standards What battery packs are those? Looking forward to seeing your entry.

I removed FAR as required and we will run a category for stock and FAR.

This challenge is for the aero geeks This challenge requires the Firespitter mod, FAR is recommended. You can use any of the common mods including FAR, procedural wings and fairings, etc... The Challenge Make the fastest pure Solar Electric Airplane you can! The Craft Must use electric motors from the Firespitter mod Must use Solar Panels for energy No energy storage beyond what is built into command pods No liquid fuels allowed, No RCS, No Jets, No rockets, No Ion drive, etc... No user "modified" parts No dev console or ridiculous parts clipping The Flight Takeoff Accelerate to max speed (at any altitude) Must hold sustained speed in level flight (must make a a best effort for pure level flight (+/- 10m/s vertical speed for 10 seconds) (must "average" to level flight) Must show electric resource to validate no use of battery energy during speed-run. Land in one piece on an airstrip Judging I'll maintain "stock" and FAR leaderboards And possibly Manned and Un-Manned (Un-Kerbaled?) Must provide sufficient photo/video proof (Video Preferred) Craft files must be available for verification of performance upon request I will maintain a leaderboard of entries "Max Speeds" for each category, whoever is at the top is the current champion. Unlimited parts counts, tonnage, altitude, etc... I want to see what people will come up with. We'll refine the rules to "keep in the spirit" of the challenge if we need to. LEADERBOARD *Updated Jan 23rd, 2014 Stock Board -------------- No Entries Yet ______________ FAR Board --------------- Darren9's Unnamed2 : 262 m/s @ 8000m(kerbin atmosphere as others unless stated) - Features 'hang tight' external control, low cost, forward swept localsol's SolarScreech : 248.9999 m/s - Features semi-replica, reactionwheel-free slightly unstable flight Darren9's Unnamed : 239 m/s @~6185m - Features recessed fuselage, two engine G00bd0g 's Solar Speeder : 238 m/s - Features very high aspect ratio, stable localsol's Cynoid Stork : 224 m/s - Features birdlike wing, moar yaw control m1sz's electric speedor 2 (yep. crappy name ): 215 m/s - Lots of solar panels My Entry Name: Solar Speeder Max Speed: 238m/s Mods: FAR v0.12.4, Firespitter v6.1.1 Craft File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zLBUio4kInY0JLcEJnVG5MMzQ/edit?usp=sharing

No worries. I guess I wasn't clear. I will maintain a leaderboard of entries "Maximum Speeds", whoever is at the top is the current champion. Unlimited parts counts, tonnage, altitude, etc... I want to see what people will come up with. We'll refine the rules to "keep the spirit" of the challenge if we need to.

This challenge is for the aero geeks This challenge requires the Firespitter mod, FAR is recommended. You can use any of the common mods including FAR, procedural wings and fairings, etc... The Challenge Make the fastest pure battery electric airplane you can! The Craft Must use electric motors from the Firespitter mod Must use a battery for energy No liquid fuels allowed, No RCS, No Jets, No rockets, No Ion drive, etc... No user "modified" parts No dev console or ridiculous parts clipping The Flight Takeoff Accelerate to max speed (at any altitude) Must hold sustained speed in level flight (must make a a best effort for pure level flight (+/- 10m/s vertical speed for 10 seconds) (must "average" to level flight) Must show electric resource during speed-run. Land in one piece on an airstrip Judging I'll maintain "stock" and FAR leaderboards And possibly Manned and Un-Manned (Un-Kerbaled?) Must provide sufficient photo/video proof (Video Preferred) Craft files must be available for verification of performance upon request I will maintain a leaderboard of entries "Max Speeds" for each category, whoever is at the top is the current champion. Unlimited parts counts, tonnage, altitude, etc... I want to see what people will come up with. We'll refine the rules to "keep in the spirit" of the challenge if we need to. My Entry Name: Battery Speeder Max Speed: 292m/s Mods: FAR v0.12.4, Firespitter v6.1.1

I like the new elliptical wings. My solar motor-glider gets better than 40:1 L/D in FAR