[0.15] Kerbal Parcel Service: Fastest delivery to KSC2 on one turbojet engine

[antbin]

So how much can MechJeb do as far as finding the fastest profile? That\'s a great time!

[purple100]

MechJeb\'s ascent autopilot does a good job with rockets, but it doesn\'t help with spaceplane launches. I have no idea what angles are best or how you should adjust the throttle.

[SanctionEnvy]

I\'m having a very hard time finding KSC2. Where did you say it was helpfully marked? I\'m using KSP .15...?

[Kryten]

I\'m having a very hard time finding KSC2. Where did you say it was helpfully marked? I\'m using KSP .15...?

The purple marker on the navball points to it now.

[SanctionEnvy]

I actually documented my whole flight to KSC2 from KSC1. It took me around 51:24 to get there as you can see in the video. I didn\'t do a very good job of the landing though. Anyway, I\'ve speed up the footage until the part where I arrive. Here\'s the video:

[HOC]

*Ahem* people!

So, have we decided for ourselves what the optimum altitude for this flight is then? I\'m just about to try it for myself, and after reading the past replies it seems a lot of people are maintaining around 13kms for the majority of the flight... so I guess I\'ll go for that!

Wish me luck, fellow kerbonaughts!

[antbin]

Good luck! I find cruising at the highest altitude I can reach in a slow climb (5 m/s) tends to give the fastest speed.

[Monkthespy]

Oh that\'s brilliant idea. Reserved. About to modify my MA-42 (a vtol) for this job.

[HOC]

Alright! First flight results are in:

I arrived on KSC2 campus at 25:23 (by campus I mean I was within 100m of the VAB, and was flying low enough for someone to plausibly toss out a package and have it survive). HOWEVER, as you can see, I failed the landing when I reached for Print Screen and so the crew didn\'t survive. Which sucks....

Something to note: Fuel ran out at 20:41 so I had to try and glide as fast as I could to get that time. I feel that with some re-runs and a change in cruising altitude (I maintained around 14kms throughout) I\'ll be able to make it there just as the fuel runs out. The ship, in its current form, is only fitted with one fuel tank. (I will be entering into the fuel efficiency one as well, antbin, with some major modifications )

The Pics:

^{I used empty fuselages as take-off feet. (They detached as soon as the engine was running enough to lift the ship)}

^{Eeeek! Out of fuel!}

^{Mission success! Sort of...}

I will be flying again later today, hopefully with great results! If anyone could recommend some modifications to the ship it\'d be a great help

Thanks guys.

[antbin]

Good time, HOC. I had to fly my ship at just under 100% throttle as well, to make it there on one tank.

FYI, the pics in your spoiler tags aren\'t showing up for me.

[antbin]

After adding a U-turn and tweaking my cruising strategy (15,500m), made 22:25 to keep the challenge alive...

Full album here

[HOC]

FYI, the pics in your spoiler tags aren\'t showing up for me.

Woah, that\'s weird, they aren\'t showing up for me anymore... let me try and fix that...

By the way, antbin, well done on the time! You say 15.5km cruising altitude seems to be optimal? I\'m really looking for a good altitude to try and maintain for my next run...

EDIT: Okay, Images should be working now! (I\'m using imgur)

[antbin]

imgur.com has been the best to me.

[HOC]

Ah, DAMMIT! I just had another shot at it, and got within 10kms of KSC2 when I stupidly decided to fly fully manually, lost control of the damn ship and it plunged into the ground. Looks like the time would\'ve been around 23:50....

[Dobrodav]

Somebody mentioned Mech Jeb`s Ascent autopilot, and i was eager to test that. So its possible. Orbit inclinitaion for KSC 2 is 208 degrees. When you saw last lake, you should make final corrections (Pilot is not to much precise). Height of the orbit 13 -17 km, depending on your apparatus TWR (lighter - higher). Start of the G-turn about 3 km. Thats depends on your craft abilities. Before engaging autopilot take an appropriate altitude, attitude , heading. For crafts with high TWR, its good idea to engage while in vertical flight.

Fine tune your (thats actually needed mostly for records ETC) in flight attitude by turn angle slider in ascent path graph. Doing my second trip around Kerbin now with this technique, and my hands is free

for about an hour now. Wish you luck.

Drop of time - 29 minutes.

Not a record, but well, thats was about using ascent autopilot .

Report :

http://imgur.com/a/Ub0Kw#0

[Praitaq]

Once I saw that there was a KSC2 I had to try this challenge so here is my entry.

MET: 25:48

Start:

END:

I accidentally pressed the ss button twice, so I ended up with the VAB in the bottom left corner as I passed it. If this doesn\'t suffice Ill make another run and get a better pic. I may do it anyway to see if I can land a bit better(This time around I was going too fast and crashed >><<). I have a feeling I may have made the landing if Jeb was in command...oh well.

Also as a side note, I had a mechjeb on the craft but was only using it for the surface info.

[Joost]

Did it! Cruising around 14.5km seemed optimal for me, also the final descent is a bit tricky, as you want to maintain cruising altitude for as long as possible.

Also landed the plane, a first for me ;D

Pre-takeoff

Takeoff

Final descent

Crossed the line in 25:01

Landed!

[antbin]

Hey Joost, congratulations on your first post! 8) And good job for landing it, you join a fairly elite club...

[HOC]

That\'s a nice looking plane there Joost, surprisingly NOT minimalistic as I\'ve come to expect good planes for this challenge to be... well done!

[Joost]

Second, and improved result. I guess if I fly just under max throttle like antbin, it would save me a little of time as i ran out of fuel around 15km before the target.

15,8km altitude for me. Due to jettisoning the landing gear, I crashed. And died.

[Saaur]

I made it in 25:47 but I don\'t have imgur so I\'m not going to bother with screenshots (not a record anyway).

I used MechJeb to fly most of the way, so I set it for a 75-degree climb right off the runway and was able to loop over to a 285 heading quickly and then level off at about 13 km.

[antbin]

So Joost, that\'s minimalistic, all right! How did you rotate the wings 5 degrees on the body? YOU CAN HOLD SHIFT WHEN YOU ROTATE PARTS? ??? I just tend to fly nose-up, but that makes more sense.

My title time is looking beatable... :-*

[Joost]

I figured that putting the wings at an angle would be better, as wings on real aircraft are also put at a small angle and designed such that the fuselage is horizontal in cruise (to minimize drag, and maximize passenger comfort). The physics system in KSP does not seem to work that way. I guess angle of attack is simplified by measuring between flight path vector and main body axis, not separately for the wing.

Also, does flying at a high AoA result in a higher drag? Or is drag simplified to a single constant that does something with air density and speed?

Will try to beat the record tomorrow or so

[Parabellum]

It\'s far from perfect, but...

Weighing in at 8.93 tons and designed to minimize crew survivability, I present the Kamikaze I.

Time: 28:30

Sitting in the hanger.

Your package is our number one priority! Crew survivability is a distant 4th, behind speed and fuel capacity.

This thing is seriously squirrely. I have to tap F while goading it where ever I want it to go.

I brought the power back up a little after the pic, since I was losing too much speed.

There it is!

I honestly thought that she was going to shake herself apart.

Dagnamit! I said she was squirrely, remember? You can just see the corner of the tower in the very left of the picture. After this, I crashed into the ground, since there was no landing gear.

[Karppikala]

Yay! My first post ever! And my first completed challenge ever!

With a few attempts I managed 24:19

I hope drop tanks and vertical launch are ok. I ran out of fuel in my previous attempts, even though I kept the throttle a little down. So I used a droptank for launch and getting to cruising altitude. I dropped the tank when it was about 2/3 full. The fuel ran out just before landing, I could use full throttle the whole time.

Outrunning the sun. I kept the altitude at around 15 km until I was about 40 km away from KSC2

Objective complete!

Lost the engine on touchdown but managed a 'safe' landing.