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SOVIET ONLY?? | RP1/RO/RSS | Express to Orbit | S02E01

Firstly I would like to give my thanks to @swjr-swis and @Snark for the multitude of suggestions on my little journey. Thank you! Now, After taking in the advice given by those fine gentlemen(or ladies) I have constructed this- These are screenshots of several versions of the plane I made. The first iteration, S-32, was too unstable so I added vertical stabilizers and shifted the canards forward and the ailerons back. S-32.2 had issues with heat so I added the nose cones to act as an ablative heatshield. I also added heat sinks for the engines and the nose cones. S-32.3, I added batteries at first because the craft was running out of electricity too fast from the heatsinks. After another test or two, I added that third engine to put her over 1700 m/s. The next issue to be addressed is how to eke out more power from the Rapier engine. When that is done I need a new method of dealing with the temperature without sacrificing aerodynamics. Would any of you kind fellas have some suggestions to help me achieve my dream of being the fastest air-breathing jet around? Many thanks, -guy

After taking into account the wisdom of the last post I have created this- https://imgur.com/a/vAMcB4I I know she is small but she can reach a top speed of 1842 M/s before the wings disintegrate. That leads me to the present, the craft is far too unstable at those high speeds, and the pre-engine coolers are the first to be destroyed at those speeds. This is mainly because the plane likes to pull up but is highly responsive at the hypersonic speed she is moving at, so I am dammed if I correct and dammed if I don't. The issue with the Big S-2 elevons I am using as wings also need to be dealt with. I tried to fit heat shields in front of and in the middle of the wing but that seemingly does nothing. Here is the craft file for you to experiment or have fun with.(I made a few upgrades since those screenshots were taken.) https://kerbalx.com/JetGoFast/S-34 If anyone finds a solution it would be very appreciated if you could describe that you did the comments below. Thank you, -guy

Backstory The Kerbal Space Agency suddenly felt the urge to make money as fast as possible, once they heard that the government would start to decrease their annual budget funding in exchange for a better military in these wartimes. Initially, KSA employees were so infuriated that some of them were already working in secrecy to deviate some near Kerbin orbit asteroids to "end it all". Fortunately, Wherner von Kerman, Chief Rocketry Engineer at KSA, managed to stop this insane evil plan and change his co-workers mind stating that he had a plan: Raising 10M funds as fast as possible with the help of ... well ... you, in the position of General Manager, Mission Designer and Lead Flight Director at KSA. Objective This challenge is pretty straightforward: Get 10M funds and be the fastest (have the lowest in-game time) Rules Start a new career mode in normal difficulty and take a screenshot for proof (F1 key) Do NOT change any other parameter in the difficulty menu (such as rewards, penalties, ore abundance, etc) Cheats (alt + F12 menu, hyperedit, exploits, and other cheats considered to defeat the spirit of this challenge) are NOT allowed Mods that change intended solar system size, change celestial bodies science gains, add overefficient engines/overpowered parts are NOT allowed Accepting contracts just for in-advance contract money is allowed (even if you don't do them) (just keep in mind that not doing contracts won't refresh the available contract list) Informational mods such as Kerbal Engineer, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Mechjeb (as long as you pilot your rockets manually) are allowed and will be counted towards a stock leaderboard Aesthetic mods such as Scatterer, EVE, SVE, Astronomer's Pack are allowed and will be counted towards a stock leaderboard DLC's are allowed and will be counted towards a DLC leaderboard Rebalancing mods such as Strategia, [Any mod that adds new planets], Contract Configurator Packs, FMRS are allowed and will be counted towards a modded leaderboard Note: As a rule of thumb, any mod that gives you a slight advantage over other players (as long as it isn't crazy overpowered or unrealistic) is allowed to be installed. The reason being that I want to see how fast this challenge can possibly be done. Note: These rules are subject to change since I don't know yet how these will affect gameplay, therefore I'm open to suggestions to improve this challenge. Note: I might do a selective mod leaderboard in the future to make the speedrun feel more static and less mod advantageous (depends on feedback) Tips and Tricks Submition Describe every mod/DLC you've used Take a screenshot of the difficulty screen and of the 10M fund mark with the UT (universal time) [Optional] Take screenshots of pertinent missions you've done/strategies you've taken (any screenshot you consider cool in your way to 10M) Stock Leaderboard DLC Leaderboard Modded Leaderboard (Free to choose)* Selective mods Leaderboard * -> Check Rules Also, is there a difference in advantage of a DLC over the other in this challenge? If so, should I split the DLC leaderboard?

Was curious how fast others can complete the docking tutorial. I found it a great practice for when I ever get anything large into orbit lol. Currently takes me 27 minutes. I made some mistakes today though so I have to try some more. Streamed the entire tutorial if interested. Here is the hightlight of my final approach. Check out this video "Highlight: Kerbal Docking Tutorial Speedrun" http://www.twitch.tv/kinslayer125/v/575860847?sr=a&t=1s

6 Minutes to Critical 5:59 ... 5:58 ... ... KSC interns thought they could turn the pool into a spa by collecting all the RTGs and tossing them in. This bad situation will get a lot worse in 6 minutes when the water finishes evaporating. Build a car and get out of there! The farther the better. Time ticks down while you build (use a stopwatch or similar). Then when you launch, you can use the ingame timer to continue tracking the time while you drive maniacally away. At/Before the 6 minute mark, come to a complete stop and use F3 to find the distance with which you escaped. 10km should be a safe distance, but why not go for better? I'll write a 1-liner for each entry for the Hall of Fame, and order them by distance escaped. Good luck! Playing KSP on a toaster? No problem. If you want, apply these multipliers to your building time based on your system's memory (proxy for power): 16+GB 1.0x 8GB 0.8x 4GB 0.7x 2GB 0.6x Literally a toaster 0.5x Nitty Gritty: Sample Entry My sample entry. I was timing by the music, and may have found the challenge enhanced through Splashdown's rocking bass. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hall of Fame 61.2 km @xendelaar brought it back to basics and blasted by the competition with a manueverable whiplash one-seater. The craft wanted to do a surprising amount of flying given it had I-beams for "wings", but Xendelaar kept it firmly planted when not blasting off the backsides of moguls. The experience kept Jeb in "cackle maniacally" mode the entire trip, a good sign it went well. 51.5 km @Ragingdonut shot forward with an exquisitely pared down tricycle design which managed stability, to my amazement, at up to 175m/s with only a single rudder and pair of reaction wheels! 26.2 km @Darren9 rescued the interns, the purchasing department, and even the entire KSC Accidents Investigation Board with a panther powered rocket bus. This party bus did surprisingly little rocking as it eased its way through the foothills, a testament to its solid I-beam construction, enormous wheels and careful aerodynamic balance. 24.6 km w/mods@Tidus Klein proved once and for all that fasty pone is best pone with a zippy fire gouting behemoth, which rescued the entire KSC staff by combining the passenger carrying ability of a 747 with the ground covering ability of a rocket powered monster truck. When asked by reporters how they came up with the brilliant design that saved all KSC from the eminent disaster, Jeb and Bob reportedly looked at each other and asked "what disaster?" 23.5 km @tsgaerospace wore sunglasses at night with a solar powered night-time run utilizing the challenge's first active motorized wheels to give an extra kick to the Juno engine. The low-slung car is especially impressive with its concept and design work occurring _during the 6 minute challenge_! That's style. XX.X km Cunjo Carl escaped by flexing the muscles of Untitled Space Craft's mighty Juno engine and only lost a few little bits along the way. (How far did it go? It's a total secret . Wow us with your design!) Amphibeous Kerbals (They were having so much fun, nobody had the heart to tell them they were going the wrong way) 73.3 km With a devilishly simple design, @Numerlor dashed to the open waters and made wakes with Kerbals Safety Nightmare's twin whiplash powerhouse. The moment of contact was a tour-de-force of Kerbal engineering mastery, combining staging, emergency braking and pyrotechnic display into a single moment. Sunday Drivers (They were heading out for a drive anyways. What's all this fuss about? Crafts built off the clock) 17.1 km @aerodis enjoyed the classiest ride of all, making the mad dash away from KSC as part of a leisurely morning sprint in an enviable Jaguar mkIV. The attractive automobile jaunted at a realistic 30m/s, but managed the escape all in good time! Good show for Degrid Kerman and her outing of 4.

Hi guys, as you probably know, the thrust output of all air breathing engines is modified by two factors in KSP 1) the atmospheric density curve, specified in the config file. With all stock engines, thrust gets less the higher you go, though the Rapier does well in this regard since thrust loss with altitude is slow up to 20km. 2) the velocity curve specified in the config file. With some subsonic designs like the Wheesley and Goliath, the trend is only downward with increasing speed, but most actually gain thrust initially, before tailing off as you go faster still. The Rapier again does best here, peaking at a higher speed (mach 3.7) than any other engine and tailing off in power more slowly above optimum. So, the goal of air-breathing flight is to reach the highest possible speed and altitude before engaging the lower ISP closed cycle engines. This is where the tradeoff comes in. If you accelerate to mach 3.7, the velocity at which Rapiers produce maximum thrust, then you will be able to reach a higher altitude before your specific excess power reaches zero. On the other hand, I've noticed that thrust declines VERY quickly above 23km, halving between 24km and 26km for example. Given that power holds up pretty well , is it worth going over your max power speed, and accepting a lower peak altitude instead? Can anyone remember the equation that shows what altitude can be reached from a given velocity in a vertical climb, assuming no drag. Eg. an object moving 100m/s straight up, how far will it reach before falling back ? With this info, the total energy (kinetic + potential) of each speedrun method can be calculated to find the best. eg. i can plot a graph of thrust vs speed and air density, calculate "total energy" to get the optimum?

Think you're pretty smart? Think your uber-fast plane can outrun a wall of flak? Think you can do it at 1,000m? Here's my challenge: build a plane that can dodge ground-based flak at an altitude of between 900-1100m while flying directly over it. The Rules: - Game Version: 1.0.5 - Stock parts only. - BDArmory Weapon Manager required. - minimum of 400LF to be carried per engine. - Aircraft must be crewed by a Kerbal. - Aircraft will be flown at full throttle at all times. - Send link to your .craft file here. The video below will show you what you're going against, and my challenger entry using a stock aircraft with a slight modification to the engine (using a Panther TF in wet mode). I'll fly the plane over the turrets from a 5km approach and from random directions until it either runs out of fuel or it gets hit by flak to the point where controlled flight is impossible. For those interested, link to mobile flak turret (AKA CIWS-x) .craft file: https://rbfi.io/dl.php?key=/deoI/CIWS-x.craft (Note: to use it, you do need RemoteTech). Leaderboard: 1. ihtoit in a stock Aeris 3A (modified) carrying 600LF, 2 passes

This is a simple challenge. Drop four Kerbals off on the Island, and return the vehicle to KSC as quickly as possible. The catch: You must do it in a VTOL aircraft. RULES: - Craft must take off and land vertically. - Craft must use airbreathing engines. Rockets not an option. - Stock parts only with the exception of informational mods such as KER and MechJeb. - Stock atmo. Default heating settings. - Passenger Kerbals must travel in enclosed pods. - Vehicle must be piloted by a Kerbal at all times. - No bits dropping off. - Passengers must be dropped off at or near the relic barn on the Island. - Normal physics and fuel rules apply. SCORING: Completion dependent on successful deployment of four Kerbals on the Island and safe return of vehicle to KSC. Time taken from when the vehicle comes to a complete stop on the KSC runway after deployment.