BagelRabbit

I believe there has been a misunderstanding. My initial design is still the Plover which is a SSTO. This rover is a side contraption, and does not pretend to be an SSTO or anything of the sort. As a matter of fact, if you find it useful, you're probably flying it wrong. It is merely an entertaining way to pass the time. By the way, what do you think of it?

Ay, MiniMatt! When you said 'BSC challenges make you build in the Spaceplane Hangar too much, causing your brain to spew silly ideas until you must make them a reality,' I thought nothing of it... until... AUGH! Well, that ends a couple of hours of attempted sanity. What a shame. .craft file to anyone who wants it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/er11ixbgpv06lpm/Dock-sun%27d.craft You may have free ice cream if you can successfully fly this with Kerbals in the command seats. Anyway, off to make a video about the Plover in action!

I don't think that some of you will be satisfied without a video, so here's an RCS-less docking from my own archives! [Edit: If you don't have time to spare, fast-forwards to the last two minutes of the video or so.]

Sorry to tell you this... but... My plane, which is the fourth in the back row, has been completely revamped. it now looks like... ...this. Very different. Would you mind flying my new plane over for a group shot instead? It's a bit better than the original. Vote for the NEW Plover!

That's what I love about the BSC challenges. You get to build something new! Your designs for that 'something-new' can influence your gameplay of KSP tremendously. And my favorite challenges are the ones that can help you with KSP in general. One little comment: You talk about how we should "Vote Mallard," when I think you mean that we should "Vote Plover."

Despite the clippy look of my craft, it didn't use any help from the debug menu at all. I would view it as having a small amount of clipping, but the clipping is only for aesthetics, so it's not quite as frowned upon. That being said, some entries (Spartwo, I'm looking at you!) utilize part-clipping to the extreme. These entries may be great in terms of flying abilities but they don't teach newcomers as much as they could. I would recommend to all newcomers to avoid non-aesthetic part-clipping if at all possible. Oh, and to Silverchain considering the "Great Spaceplane Derp": The plane wasn't thrown into the air, the Kerbal was thrown over a kilometer below sea level. Maybe the Kraken got 'im and was dragging him down like in The Europa Report. Also, I'm curious as to whether my spaceplane was one of the ones that you classified as having large amounts of part-clipping. I thought the clipping was pretty minimal, myself, and that I just used my parts in a compact way.

Granted. So many new words appear due to this that everything almost instantly becomes incomprehensible. I wish that more people would watch my YouTube channel.

Mainsail: Big Fire Spewer

[blazeFallow's Entry] An Emergency Escape Jet? Wow. I don't know how well this jet will stack up to others in the long run. But wow. That's really cool. By the way, has anyone tested my new Plover yet? I know it's kind of a long shot because of the sheer amount of entries being posted, let alone "secondary" entries, but... And can anyone explain what happened here? Please?! [i know I posted this before but it was rapidly lost on the last page, and I'm looking for ways (if any) to fix this sort of tomfoolery in a future plane.] Thanks.

Here's a teaser trailer of the many great adventures the Plover will have... ...exploding randomly is, indeed, one of them. (Don't worry, this is not a normal event for the Plover. And take a moment to note the perfect water landing, with no loss of parts!) Any idea of why this happened, by the way?

I'm not sure if some planes can reach orbit in five minutes! (Mine takes about 7:30 for orbit on a good day.) You're right, the number of entries is, quite frankly, insane. I was thinking of applying my infinite [read: very, very, very limited] knowledge and being a judge for the first time this competition, but I want enough time to judge every single entry. Which I won't have. Maybe next time. I'm currently in the midst of making a video for my spaceplane, which involves it docking and then travelling to the Mun with the additional fuel. I'll decide whether I can land when I get there. Wish me luck!

...and here is my improvement on the original Plover. It takes a little longer to get to orbit, and its parachute recovery is slightly less safe, but it can dock now! It can glide without getting into flat spins! It can fly unmanned! It can reach a higher orbit! I really like this guy. [edit: Do you like the aesthetics? I tried to make it look cool but...]

I'll post it in a few hours, after some final parachute tests. Here's a teaser of (basically) the finished plane:

Sorry, back in 0.21. I get the two confused far too easily. I've changed my original post - Thanks for the heads-up.

So very close to finishing my new design. It has a lone jet engine and two little liquid-fuel engines to boost it up into orbit. So far, I'm quite happy with it... Should I delete my initial substitution page and make a separate one, or should I just transfer the new aircraft over to that page?

Well, it looks as if the competition has died down a little. I think that so far, my favorite entries have been the elevators. They're so very Kerbal! And they take some ingenuity to build. So... can anyone make it further than a Minmus encounter? Can anyone come up with any more methods of completing the challenge?!

...I'm actually kind of ashamed of this... ...Four of the modules went on okay but the fifth ran out of ElectricCharge. Very humiliating, and because I have pledged not to do-over any of the missions, it's just going to have to drift around next to the grand-tour craft. Now, I am confident that we can get to Eve on the fuel this thing has... any opinions? It has ~4,800 gallons of fuel.

Yeah, the original Plover goes into spectacular flat spins. That's one of the things that I really want to change. I almost killed a Kerbal or two when the plane was undergoing one of these, but I've always managed to recover just in time. Regardless, not good for beginners. Almost done with my new spacecraft design (It's much, much better!).

Augh! This extension of the challenge means I must create a better SSTO! I though mine was 'good enough' but had more than its fair share of design flaws. NO! I must push onwards, in the Eternal Quest for Perfection! To those who have tested my first SSTO, whaddaya think? What must I change?

Sorry for not posting for a while. Don't worry, the Kerbal Station is still alive and well. Here's the first part of a video chronicling my attempt to dock a total of five modules to the station with one grand multi-part ship! The remainder of the ship is currently merrily bobbing along about seventy meters away from the station. I'll dock it in the next episode.

4/10 I've seen you once, somewhere. I'm kind of new though.

Edited my original post. Rest assured, the only reason why I didn't include the craft file the first time was because of a parachute bug. It's fixed now.

Eh. This is the fastest narrated video I've ever done, way back in 0.21, which shows the smallest and 'shortest' reliable manned craft that I have ever created. (Note: This was made before I had screen recording software. Sorry for the poor quality.)

...I'm done. I can't go any further without overworking this. The Plover Features! >Super simple! Only 52 parts, and every one counts. >Intuitive flight path to orbit! You can flub up and still have fuel left to do the job. >Good at gliding! It can land at under 40 m/s at sea level. I'm not making this up. >A wonderful plane, in general! Effective and wonderful to fly. >No intake spam! Only two ram air intakes. >Easy to reverse-engineer! Almost no part clipping. It has a docking port on top. It has plentiful RCS. It has a probe core for unmanned flights. It has a ladder for Kerbal EVA ease (seriously, some people don't have this.) It is very, very compact. It can fly to a 150x150km orbit and return safely, without refueling, and without using ANY action groups except for SAS and the spacebar. The Plover is specifically aimed at beginners. It is reasonably easy to launch it to orbit. It is built so that beginners can see every single part, and have a better idea of how they fit together. Its not-too-clippy nature makes it a cinch to build (or reverse-engineer) and its surprisingly powerful thrust system is quite effective at launching to orbit. It has limited range - it can only reliably return from a 150km orbit. But it's a joy to fly, at all altitudes and at all times. It glides astoundingly well and is exceedingly stable in all layers of the atmosphere, and its landings are smooth and gentle regardless of terrain. Its docking skills are also very good. While it requires a smaller docking port than most entries, it accelerates at a respectable rate with the RCS. This allows beginners to dock with the precision of a pro. Once docked, the Plover can fill its tanks until they are truly full. I would say (rough estimate here!) that this bestows 1,500 m/s Delta-V, enough to orbit the Mun or Minmus. In addition, the Plover is the safest SSTO I have ever built. It not only has a working abort system but also a full-body parachute system. This allows it to safely land on water, safely resolve dangerous situations and encourage beginning pilots to try again. [No other craft on in challenge has both of these. Some call it overkill. I call it Progress! Landing on water is especially nice for beginners, who may find themselves landing over an ocean.] .craft file! https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1nl9xmdei9b8fc/Plover%20SSTO.craft

Does this work?