BagelRabbit

Thanks for the suggestion. Pictures here. (Oh, and it has two air intakes.)

I've gotten 2,135 m/s in a stock plane with a scant fifteen parts... From my personal experience, less is clearly more in this competition. Incidentally, I can't get my pictures to post, as I am a pathetic newbie who knows very little about forum-going. How can I upload some pictures of my tiny plane?

Brilliant! That's the spirit! The only thing that was a little off was the fact that you used the F3 key at the end of the flight, as opposed to right after you dropped the Kerbals off. However, I'd just take the total distance covered and divide it by two. That would yield a score of 500+(16x5)(~73.530/2)=3,441.2 points, unless you achieved this in Career mode, whereupon the score would be increased to 3,941.2. This score is more than I'll probably ever get. Time to make a leaderboard!

To provide those patient [read: more patient than me] souls who have completed Career mode with a little bonus. And to encourage those who are not yet done with Career mode to try to be innovative with what they have.

Thanks for the pointers... I'm editing the scoring and the requirements.

Please read all rules before posting! In this challenge, your goal is to create a plane that can drop off as many Kerbals as possible without landing, and then fly the plane back for a safe, controlled landing on the runway. No altitude limit; distance is determined by the F3 flight log the moment the capsule is dropped. Caveats: The craft must separate into two or more distinct pieces. Only jet engines allowed. No rocket power. No using External Command Seats. No Kerbals may die during the flight. No mods. Both the plane and the Kerbal-carrying bit must survive the flight intact. If either part of the craft disappears on account of being too far away, the flight is unsuccessful. (In other words, drop the Kerbals off at a low altitude and a slow speed.) Pictures/video or it didn't happen! Points: 500 points for a completed mission. 5 points for each Kerbal landed, multiplied by distance in kilometers. 500 bonus points if you do it in Career mode. An example: I flew a plane with eight Kerbals to the island runway, which is 32.7 km away from where I started. I dropped off the Kerbal capsule and returned safely to the runway. My score would be 500+5(8)x(32.7)=1808 points. Here is an example of a plane that can safely drop eight Kerbals (note that this would not be a qualified flight, because of the plane getting too far away from the Kerbal bit). I've succeeded at completing the challenge with this plane, now I just have to do it on camera. http://youtu.be/vldPAxdPdBw Good luck! Leaderboard: 1st place- Mr. Speed- 79,563 points 2nd place- Lions- 3,441 points 3rd place- Me- 1,808 points 4th place - - 5th place - -