Altitude Records

[RRoan]

This is pretty simple; go for the maximum altitude you can with the new air-breathing engines in 1.5. Due to differences in engine performance there will be separate categories for basic jets and turbojets. Obviously, zoom climbs are your friend. I\'ve hit 9,000 meters with jets and 20,000 meters with turbojets, so you can consider that the baseline.

Rules:

-No rockets. Jets and turbojets only. Since it was brought up on IRC, rocket-assisted takeoff is okay. But only takeoff. D:<

-Post a screenshot of the maximum altitude.

-Make sure to post whether you\'re using jets or turbojets.

-You need to take off via the runway. Horizontally.

Jet records:

1. Mr Monkey Pie - 16,867 Meters

2. keptin - 13,516 Meters

3. OstermanA - 11,990 Meters

4. ornitorrincos - 11.529 Meters

5. Xiren - 10,377 Meters

6. andrewthecool - 9735

7. RRoan - 9,000 Meters

Turbojet records:

1. Keptin - 38,008 Meters

2. woland - 35,696 Meters

3. danielw8 - 35,274 Meters

4. OstermanA - 26,593 Meters

5. RRoan - 24,979 Meters

6. Nematrec - 24,636 Meters

7. SteevyT 23,973 Meters

8. Xiren - 21,762 Meters

[ornitorrincos]

got to 9.400 with jet engines, unfortunately I was a microsecond late hitting the screen capture button

EDIT: second parabola: 10.400

I also reached 10.400 with a rocket assisted take-off, but this way was more fun 8)

ok, increased to 10.750 meters, the three altitudes were done on the same launch, I don\'t think that more that this altitude can be reached with only two jets, as having an altitude a little higher than 8.000 meters makes the airflow to decrease.

[woland]

Turbojet 32 590m

Jet 12 350m

Even took off from the runway!

[RRoan]

Added ornitorrincos\' altitude.

Woland: I think you know what I mean. Besides, if you want to play that way I can do it better:

[Xiren]

Jet

- 10377 meters

Turbo Jet

- 21762

I used the same plane for both challenges, just switched to regular jet engines for the jet challenge.

[OstermanA]

Personal best to date: 24,446m on a single turbojet engine.

New personal best to date: 26,593m on the same turbojet.

Two submissions for regular jets. The first is only 11,589m, but was accomplished without ever leaving the runway. The second is 11,990 and was done later on the same flight.

[Nematrec]

Turbo Jet

24636

Used Mechjeb to control pitch, hope you don\'t mind.

[keptin]

High-aspect baby; riding the edge of space here. All v0.15 vanilla parts.

The SpaceScraper, discarding its landing gear on takeoff

Turbojet (Unlimited) - 38,008m

SpaceScraper I Lite

SpaceScraper II

Jet (Unlimited) - 13,516m

Turbojet (Single) - 26,178m

Jet (Single) - 12,114m

*edit* added single and unlimited classes for number of engines used

[andrewthecool]

Isn\'t much, but so far I have gotten to 9730ish on a Jet.

There should be a listing of how many engines where used.

[woland]

Turbojet 35 696m

Now with horizontal takeoff!

[Mr Monkey Pie]

New record set for the Single jet with 16867m

Set by my humble Trainer MK3 modified for high altitude maneuvering.

[danielw8]

I reached 35274m with 5 turbojet engines.

It took of horizontally, but shortly after takeoff I dropped the gear and the wings.

[ornitorrincos]

11.529 meters on my radial class fighter

EDIT: I must also say that this plane landed successfully, although in the middle of the grass as the KSC was too far away

[keptin]

Dropped some weight in SpaceScraper II, 38,008m and it has wings + can glide land! Updated my post above w/ pic.

[SteevyT]

Well, doesn\'t seem to be the best in the thread, but I managed to hit 21,932 meters on my first attempt, single turbojet.

And yes, this one did take off horizontally from the runway, I just shed everything that I could shortly after take off. Still not the best though.

[keptin]

However the game calculates lift, I think wings help. I tried to pop the wings off and push up in a capsule in a few tests, but it wasn\'t as successful as using wings and having 100-200m/s forward speed at a 70-80 degree angle. Even in that thin air up there they\'re generating lift.

Weight is definitely an issue, including the ejectable connectors. I shed all non-essentials right on takeoff except for the Adv SAS, which I might be able to exclude.

*edit* Yep, removing the Adv SAS helped. Tricky to control, but it took off 0.8 mass.

Turbojet - 38,008m

[dogon11]

Can you use simple mods?

On my attempts, I used Mk2 bicouplers and stronger struts, would they count?

[RRoan]

Updated. Also, since I couldn\'t bare to be in last place I did another run.

Can you use simple mods?

On my attempts, I used Mk2 bicouplers and stronger struts, would they count?

I don\'t see a problem with using something simple like that (provided, of course, that it\'s balanced) as long as its mostly stock.

Mechjeb is fine too.

[dogon11]

Allons-y!

http://imgur.com/a/vcJwI#0

Highest altitude for this flight was 26,428 meters, I flew earlier to test the altitude, reaching 27,459 meters. Whatever.

[avan]

I\'ve actually gotten higher than what is in the screenshot here, though because of the nature of this plane (read on/view images), getting beyond 10000m (Getting to 10000m is pretty easy, getting to 5000m can be done at accelerations that can put a good number of rockets to shame: it has absolutely no assistance on takeoff, for the record) is something of a chore, and it gets exponentially more annoying the higher you go. Theoretically, you could get up to ~17000m, based on an extrapolation of the change in height between each dive & return. I was going to try to just get to my prior record of over 15km in this plane (which I had done previously, before knowing about this thread, mostly to see how broken the glitch was: it could have gone further, but I got bored), but my keyboard jammed and I lost control and fell back down to 10000m before regaining control. I didn\'t want to go through the process of going back up again... so I just decided to settle for the 13330m as posted here (among jets, it would land in 3rd place, by a tiny margin); it was a sufficient altitude to prove my point.

So why is this plane so annoying to get beyond 10000m? It is powered by glitchy control surface physics, not engines. In fact, it has no engines or fuel what-so-ever. Yet it manages to remain competitive with the standard jet engine. I\'m not sure if that speaks more volumes about jet engines or the control surface lift glitch...

Highest screencapped altitude:

As you can see, no engines:

[Mr Monkey Pie]

-Snip-

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).

[avan]

My point was actually regarding glitches/balance of the game\'s parts, as opposed to the competition.

[keptin]

Avan, that plane looks frickin\' awesome and the fact that it\'s powered by glitching components makes it one of the coolest things I\'ve ever seen made in this game. Any plans on sharing it in the near future?

[samstarman5]

I\'m reminded of Tommy Lee Jones\' character from Space Cowboys, when in the opening segment he pushed the jet to its altitude limit.

[Extemporary]

It\'s not the best by a long shot, but I got to 28109 with a single turbojet. I wasn\'t expecting it to do so well; the design was just an experiment in wing shape.