Mr Monkey Pie

You have a good point. But in fairness to the competition the number of control points should be low enough to not have an impact on the height. As a guide my plane has 10 control points and is achieving 16,500m (Working on getting it to >17000m).

New record set for the Single jet with 16867m Set by my humble Trainer MK3 modified for high altitude maneuvering.

Im not sure if this has been attempted before... But how deep can you get your craft into the atmosphere and get out enough to form a stable orbit. Stock parts only. eg Apoapsis of 150,000,000m Periapsis of 40,000m After exiting atmosphere Apoapsis of 500,000m /w a burn to form stable orbit. Have fun EDIT: Hmmmm should have looked harder... sorry