ihtoit

No, it's a car, as in something with at least two powered wheels, right? Anyone can make a rocket sled and go supersonic overland. That's why I did a rolling start and showed the steering at the beginning of my video, so you could see that any corrections on land were due to the wheel traction and not the eight control planes. Ref, can we score a fail for those using aircraft wheels, please?

nah, altitude, you could get 2km just on the runway without taking off, that'd be a bit cheaty. Hard to get altitude on electric wheels. Good distance tho, how much of that was actually on the runway?

the trick to this, as I've managed to work out, to a 60 degree ascent angle for altitude, 30 degree for speed and distance. I've used AV-R8 control winglets and found the control ceiling under power is 1900m (using several approaches to altitude), that's when you start tumbling. Once you do start tumbling, that's it until the SRBs burn out and you're then a ballistic missile or a glider, depending on how fast you can halt the tumble. I wonder how high I can get if I keep my altitude below 1900 until the SRBs burn out (thus gaining the maximum possible speed advantage while still keeping control) and then throw it into an unpowered ballistic curve...?

Dude, parachutes?? And you only got to 1.5km

OK, readded the BACC boosters, and came up with: I won't post another video, the same thing happened as with the RT-10 ship, only bigger better and higher (and a more spectacularly failed landing where stuff exploded right on the runway but the Kerbal still walked away! So, maximum altitude: 4686m vehicle: destroyed kerbal: annoyed

hm, wonder what's happened to that then? 'Cos I can't find it on mine (0.20)... Guess I'll have to re-add it from my regular install, strap a couple onto my bullet and watch it go into solar orbit...

Not on mine, I did a vanilla install yesterday and nope, no BACC.

fair enough, but just to point out that starting and final fuel quantity is indicated in the "Resources" tab at the top of the game screen. Jussayin'

The RT-10 is the only stock SRB in the game. So I claim "shenanigens" on pxi for using a non-stock part.

My entry: the JATO Bullet Ballistic Car. Stock, built on a vanilla (no addons WHATSOEVER) KSP 0.20 install How it went: From a standing start: wheels down to 20m/s, then fired the SRBs, take off speed was probably just over 100m/s, top speed 236m/s, vessel was fairly stable until I hit 2000m then it went nuts. Altitude achieved: 2694m Survivability: Vehicle - NO (screwed up the abort landing) Kerbal - YES OK, score me I make it 260pts.

I have a problem: big SRBs aren't stock.

ah, the retort of one who has nothing relevant to add to the conversation... who's the troll again?

I build my own systems. This little beauty(! little? It's two pounds of pure copper) sits on my museum piece of a P4: It would be silent except for the case fan I've got in there. I could go into the theory of case design and cable routing, thermal zoning and just exactly how many fans to put where, but I think that might be bordering on off-topic.

thankies!

where did you get those wheels??

I'll have a think Slay, you've given me some very valid points to consider here...

yes I have - and it doesn't seem to work with just three control surfaces on a three and a half ton ion jet

odd... I'd just been sat there on the runway and tried flapping the flaps... and ended up falling off the back of the runway. So how does a control surface contribute to a shy-of-three-ton aircraft's thrust capability, exactly? Also: I tried with no control surfaces and ended up doing vertical stalls on takeoff - every time. So if anything, the control surfaces induce drag not lift or thrust.

it's not ridiculously overpowered, the Mainsail is ridiculously overpowered.

yeah it's challenges like this that make me want to install a vanilla instance... there'd be no debate about what part's from where then, or whether it'd been fiddled with...

New design: I call it the Thunder Tank. 18.87ton on the runway (staging area), 118 parts, 8 driving wheels in roll recovery configuration, top speed: 10.3m/s, 5 Kerbals. Start altitude: 67m (look I know it says 69 but that's accounting for the elevated position of the cabin. Take two off the end height if that makes you feel better ) Didn't even make it to the mountains (note to self: don't warp with Rovers): I make that attempt 186 points. I'll try again later with the exact same rover. It doesn't half bounce good off the end of that runway...! EDIT: PLEEEEEASE relax the MechJeb rule! Even this behemoth is ... hard to control without it, and it steers like a Sherman!

I wonder how high my 40-someodd ton Caterpillar would get? First challenge: turning the thing around... oh, strike that, the Cat's a freewheeler - fan driven. I ain't changing out the wheels.

.craft file in the VAB: ...and for those who know how, please feel free to check the stats on my Super Atomics with that as supplied by Luvodicus and you will see that I have NOT tampered with it.

They're the Super Atomics, they came with the Luvodicus pack, I haven't done anything to them - nobody's shown me how.

you read that right. I've used a variation on Scott Manley's solar powered ion-driven plane to get into a 70x70 orbit (it took fifteen (real!) hours but hey!), I wonder if anyone else can improve on time-to-orbit or come up with a better design philosophy? The slowest horizontal takeoff speed I've ever achieved: 16m/s! This puppy has five ion engines and LOTS of wing. No restrictions except no ridiculous TWR cheats/mods, no infiniglide, no null gravity or any of that rubbish. NO BOOSTER STAGES ALLOWED. In fact, let's make it interesting: only permitted means of propulsion is the stock ion engine. Scoring is 0 (didn't make orbit) or 1 (made orbit). You will need both solar panels and batteries because I guarantee you at least some of your ascent will take place at night. I'm looking for interesting solutions, folks.