Kerbin Circumnavigation 1.0.2 - Aviator Challenge

[Fengist]

Please let me know if I got something wrong somewhere.

I'm not sure anyone else would take the time to do the calculations to prove you wrong. I won't

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I'll bite . Since my first entry was just a bunch of parts crumpled together and tucked into a cargo bay, I figured I should do a proper circumnavigation anyway.

Nicely done juzeris, on both counts. I suspected early on in V1.0+ that rapiers would replace turbojets. I suspect this pretty much closes that argument.

[Red Iron Crown]

The Turbojet has a better fuel efficiency (Isp 8000) than the Rapier (Isp 6400) for a given thrust level. The Turbojet also uses a higher proportion of air to fuel (15:1 vs 12:1), which leads to even better efficiency than the Isp would indicate (I calculate that as using 60% of the fuel a Rapier would use). Both jets are still very fuel efficient however.

Great analysis, but I think you made an error here. You might note that 8000/15 is the same as 6400/12, the way airbreathers calculate effective Isp has been corrected in 1.0.x to only account for LF used. So the RAPIER consumes 125% of the fuel of the turbojet for the same thrust; or put another way the turbojet consumes 80% of the fuel of the RAPIER for the same thrust level.

[PHO3NIX_F1RE]

After a 'can I actually complete this' flight, I have found that my craft is capable of flying around Kerbin. However, I burnt off two Barometers (need science yo), and didn't get my halfway screenshot. Looks like another run is in order...

[Overland]

Hmm, while everythings on hold pending 3701's dispatch and bringing her upto speed on the ground based circumnavigation I was fortunate enough to discover the airliner wings float like a butterfly when empty in an ultralight configuration.. sadly it uses the same Sam-Hall Kn2 cockpit the trains do and KAX for the rear propeller

they do nothing to change the aerodynamics though..

would it be acceptable? top speed is a little over 70 m/s

craft file if needed to look at it in person to verify -

http://kerbalx.com/Overland/Ultralight-Trike

She also has a longer range yet smaller sistercraft using the same set of mods but smaller stock delta wings.. able to fly with 300 units of fuel filling the wings unlike her larger sistercraft above

Edited June 6, 2015 by Overland

[redsh]

That's my basic entry (i.e. one lap). Maybe will try for more somewhen later...

Craft: ranger-2

Route: polar (south)

Spd: 800-900 m/s (max 1105 m/s)

Alt: 20-21km (max 22.8 km)

Time: 1h 18m

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[GDJ]

Welcome to the polar bear club redsh!

Neat plane! Need more pics!

[Triop]

Keep it simple. less is more.

Edit: See what I did here ? #flags

Stock, no mods, no warp, no saves.

450 Fuel, 6.60 left.

I got into a spin while landing, pointing me back to the mountains:

I could have done it faster, but hey, that's life

Edited June 7, 2015 by Triop
I'm a newbie ;)

[CaptainApollo]

I want to try this, but I am a bit confused! What does it mean by:

• You must not exceed 30km. 30,001 meters and you're disqualified.; in the rules? Thanks!
  

Edited June 7, 2015 by CaptainApollo

[CaptainApollo]

And also, I suppose you cannot use pre made planes, can you?

[Triop]

And also, I suppose you cannot use pre made planes, can you?

I do not see why not, you still have to fly the plane yourself.

But for me there is no honour in that.

[sj176]

All right just finished my attempt

Total Flight time:1 hour 40 minutes

1 Circumnavigation

90 Degree heading

Edited June 7, 2015 by sj176

[Triop]

@ sj176 Total distance traveled 2,277,172m.

Did you used F5 to save ?

Is this a bug ?

[sj176]

I did save, but I never loaded. I think it's a bug, which is why a mapmode screenshot is necessary.

Edited June 8, 2015 by sj176

[Triop]

Ok, so saving does mess up the end result...

Anyway congratz, I also posted a run today, hope we both get to display that badge

[sj176]

yep good luck

[BlueCanary]

I was wondering, (and sorry if this has been asked before), has anyone ever tried this in RSS? It was doable in real life, so I guess it should be possible in pretend real life?

[BurningLegion]

This one doesn't count, but I came so close I want to post it. I threw together a little plane and threw it into the sky. I don't like flying with Kerbals at all, so I threw together a probe plane to circumnavigate Kerbin, powered by the J-33 alternator. All went well, flew around the world, keeping the engine in continuous operation for four straight hours, and approached the runway from the West with a little over 110 fuel left. I disengaged the engine to descend for an unpowered landing.

You should see the problem now. The batteries gave out right before setdown, but to my engineering credit, this little beauty basically flies itself and landed no issue. The problem? I didn't engage the brakes before the core stopped responding. So my circumnavigator landed, rolled onto the runway, rolled straight off the other end and splashed itself with no recoverable components.

Heading: 90 Degrees

Time: 4:10

K-1 Circumnavigator Parts list:

1x Shock Cone Intake

3x Mk.1 Liquid Fuel Fuselage

2x Advanced Inline Stabilizer

2x Big-S Wing Strake

4x Advanced Canard

2x Elevon 2

2x Delta Deluxe Winglet

3x Small Landing Gear

1x Engine Pre-cooler

1x J-33 Wheesley Jet Engine

1x RC-001S Remote Guidance Unit

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EDIT: Tried again with the K-2K, a variant with a Z-1K battery and a turbojet instead of a J-33. Surprisingly, got a lot better fuel efficiency, circumnavigated the world only to encounter the biggest problem with the K series: The wheels are positioned in a way that even the slightest imbalance in landing terrain causes it to flip and explode on landing. Not going to bother uploading those images, took about an hour and a half for that circumnavigation.

Edited June 8, 2015 by BurningLegion

[ExaltedDuck]

New to the forums, my first post.

This challenge looked like fun. I happened to have built a craft a few days ago I call the Longhaul mk II. It bears a superficial resemblance to the SR-71 but it wasn't meant as a clone or tribute or anything. It just happens to be an efficient shape for high speed. The mk I looked a little more traditional and kinda like a B-1. But it had some serious technical issues I guess also like the B-1. So I scrapped the traditional wing/elevator format for the exotic Big S Deltas used here.

Its intended purpose was to survey the mountains on the far side of Kerbin. It managed to do so quite effictively and on its maiden flight, no less. It took only 20 minutes to get to the ranges north of the desert and I was able to fly low over 5 or 6 major ranges before turning back home and landing safely.

This challenge looked like fun but I wanted to build something new for it. I tried a variety of craft, opting for the large chassis parts and up to 15 or 20 thousand kilos of fuel. Needless to say, they didn't exactly take to the skies. With traditional wing formats, I was having trouble getting airborne at all. I even tried strapping a kickback to the bellies to try to brute force it skyward. The strongest contender was a flying canard design with the airplane wings on the back and the low level swept wings as canards. It could climb and it handled quite well for such a behemoth but it just didn't have the guts to get up to speed. Bottom line is, they were all just too heavy and too draggy unless I was willing to strap so many motors to them that the huge amounts of fuel would burn out sooner than the modest 3400 or so in my Longhaul. So, mildly defeated but unashamed, I wheeled it out to the strip last night, took to the skies and turned north. It was smooth sailing. Made it to the ice shelf in like 10 minutes. Then started getting dizzy at the awkward motion below me. I saw the navball spinning but chalked it up to being not quite centered over the pole. Kept flying, checked my map a few minutes later, and saw I was headed southbound maybe 15-20 degrees west of of the KSC. No dice. Called it a night.

Finally, I got back home from work tonight and sat myself down after dinner and got ready to go. I decided on a 270 heading to avoid last night's problems. Everything went smooth until I reached the west coast. I had chosen a poor climb profile, started overheating, and melted my shock cones as I tried to brute force it over 20 km with not enough speed. I reverted to take off, spooled up my engines, let off the brakes, let myself get up to about 120 m/s then yanked back about a 140 degree rotation from the runway. I never strayed more than a degree north of the 270 heading and kept the nose below 40 degree on the horizon. Got myself up to speed and altitude (900-1100 m/s, 18-23 km) and rode parabolas as needed to keep airspeed and altitude where I found the best running. I flew into the most epic sunrise I've seen in KSP and just kept on going through the day and back into the black night. Almost an hour later, I almost missed the Space Center. I had to take a radically steep path down to get myself lined up for arrival and while it wasn't my most graceful decent or landing, I got to the ground with all people and parts intact. Final time, just under 68 minutes. I would bet that I could improve it by a few minutes and that a good pilot could get this thing back in under an hour. But if I run another, it will be in a new craft. (I would try to limit myself to just enough fuel and a tighter cross section to allow higher/faster flight.)

Here's the mission gallery:

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The craft is a very basic setup with not very many parts. What you see is what you get. Well, with some fuel lines to connect the supplies. But otherwise, nothing extraneous and all as little clipping as possible (done really for asthetics and not for cheesing) Funny side note, When I disembarked the pilots for the final pictures, I completely forgot that I had installed a ladder. And Jeb's departure sent the female up in the air on a double somersault which she landed gracefully while his own clumsiness left him plummeting straight down from the hatch and onto his head. Anyway, enjoy. I did.

Edited June 9, 2015 by diomedea
adjusted imgur link

[Triop]

So I did this circum-thingy a few days ago and I knew I could do it faster, so here we go !

Here is my MiG-like plane, gave it some shutes for landing.

First attempt

Second attempt

Thirth attempt

On the runway:

Worst take off ever...

Fast climb slurping lots of fuel:

I've put a plane next to the runway and a flag on each of the poles, now kerbin looks like a clock !

So round we go :

21 minutes, 299 fuel left, looks good.

Halfway:

Getting hot!

On schedule.

3/4

F3 shows me this ??? incorrect data, I did not save or warp

Almost home:

Time to turn our view:

Mun rising over the mountains

Time to slow down:

Getting very close and scared...

Runway were are you going !!!

Chutes ! Chutes ! Chutes !

Full stop at 55:40

F3 info:

Distance looks a bit short ?

160 fuel left !

My next plane is going to be smaller...

Ow and a small detail, I never went over 25.000 M

This was scary but great fun !

Edited June 10, 2015 by Triop

[Triop]

Lol. I had to do it:

300 Fuel, 51.47 left, total time 56:34 AND landed on the runway this time

Edited June 10, 2015 by Triop

[t3hJimmer]

I'm going to go ahead and submit now, but I might make an attempt at 2 circumnavigations later. I think I can make it with a few tweaks and a little more fuel.

I used "Speed 13" a single turbojet drone that weighs 5.1 tons at takeoff and uses 15 parts (craft file here http://pastebin.com/X7JgMtty ).

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I followed the equator (90°) and cruised full throttle at ~23,000 meters. I performed a manual take off and landing, but I let mechjeb handle the tedious hour of cruise.

I was able to finish in 1 hour 6 minutes and 6 seconds [1:06:06] and I went through 360 units of fuel.

Overall it was a fun challenge, and I look forward to seeing all the interesting designs people come up with.

Cheers!

[Fengist]

Would it be acceptable? top speed is a little over 70 m/s

If it's stock, it's good.

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I want to try this, but I am a bit confused! What does it mean by:

• You must not exceed 30km. 30,001 meters and you're disqualified.; in the rules? Thanks!
  

Your altitude. Stay below 30,000m

- - - Updated - - -

And also, I suppose you cannot use pre made planes, can you?

If it's stock parts and it flies? Why not?

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I did save, but I never loaded. I think it's a bug, which is why a mapmode screenshot is necessary.

Yep, it's a bug. Discovered that pretty early on in this challenge

- - - Updated - - -

I'm going to go ahead and submit now, but I might make an attempt at 2 circumnavigations later. I think I can make it with a few tweaks and a little more fuel.

I used "Speed 13" a single turbojet drone that weighs 5.1 tons at takeoff and uses 15 parts (craft file here http://pastebin.com/X7JgMtty ).

http://imgur.com/a/x7EDj

I followed the equator (90°) and cruised full throttle at ~23,000 meters. I performed a manual take off and landing, but I let mechjeb handle the tedious hour of cruise.

I was able to finish in 1 hour 6 minutes and 6 seconds [1:06:06] and I went through 360 units of fuel.

Overall it was a fun challenge, and I look forward to seeing all the interesting designs people come up with.

Cheers!

Ummm Jimmer? Where's your pilot?

Congratulations to all of our new circumnavigators and especially to ExhaultedDuck who's just joining the forums. Well done to all of you.

And to Triop, for posting a time of under an hour, welcome to the velocity club.

Sorry it's taken me a few days to get this updated I've been a tad distracted the past week or so but, it's all caught up now.

I'm especially surprised to see the return of the small single engine jets. I was thinking with 1.0.2 that their days were numbered.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Fengist

[t3hJimmer]

Ummm Jimmer? Where's your pilot?

I didnt see anything about requiring a pilot anywhere :3

I guess I'll have to try again and bring Jeb along for the ride.

Ohh well.

[ExaltedDuck]

Thanks Fengist.

It's funny you mention the single engine trend. My next one will be single engine and with a little luck, should be under an hour. A quick test flight turned into a full blown attempt earlier tonight but I ran out of gas about 300 km short and had veered 6 or 7 degrees south by the time I was over the last ocean.

I also started looking at gigantic planes again, to see if I get one around twice. I had a 195.5 ton behemoth packing over 27000 fuel on a pretty solid run but I messed up the fuel distribution then hit some turbulence that pulled my nose too far off course to correct and it broke spectacularly over the big desert. And my fuel consumption rate would have only given me about 80-90 minutes. Turns out a dozen ramjets running wide open at mach 3 get a bit thirsty. =D

[Fengist]

I didnt see anything about requiring a pilot anywhere :3

I guess I'll have to try again and bring Jeb along for the ride.

Ohh well.

I could have sworn I had that in the rules. Sorry, it was intended to be that way.