Jet Engine Speed Challenge.

[GenJeFT]

Hi everyone.

The challenge here is to get as fast as possible only using air breathing jet engines.

I have done two tests with the basic jet engine and then the turbo jet engines.

The basic jet engines peaked at about 310m/s or around 1,118kph, best speeds achieved between 6,000 and 7,250 meters.

The turbo jet engine peaked at around 742m/s or around 2671.2 kph at around 15,000 to 16,000 meters.

Lets see how fast you can get.

Rules are.

Only air breathing engines.

Tell us the m/s you achieved (I can do the math for kph later if anyone is interested).

Post a screenshot of the plane so others can try to replicate using the same plane.

If you want to provide screenshots of the peak speed or video you can but not required.

Edit, my conversions were way off.

Placement so far.

1st place goes to khyron42 with a top speed of 959m/s

2nd place goes to G Addict with a top speed of 733m/s

3rd place goes to GenJeFT with a top speed of 722m/s

4th place goes to 0muffins0 with a top speed of 663m/s

[antbin]

Does it have to be in level flight?

[0muffins0]

First attempt ... MOAR BOOSTERS!

Better attempt.

[GenJeFT]

Does it have to be in level flight?

No, I was in a shallow dive. But level flight was not all that slower. Also, once you get to a high speed its rather hard to maintain level flight because Kerbin is so small, at Mach 3.94 you cant maintain level flight since the ground curves under you so fast. You have to have constant down elevator.

[GenJeFT]

The most recent tests with my Turbojet aircraft. The engines cut out around 19,000 meters.

That speed was once again done with the aircraft below.

[cardgame]

You guys can do better than this.

I got 660 m/s on a single engine.

[khyron42]

Here we go.

Nasty craft to fly at low altitude. Take off routine: Turn on ASAS. Set throttle to about 25 percent and stage to start the engines. Start holding S and tapping the F key for the smallest possible nose-up when you reach 60 m/s, and keep very carefully tapping nose up until you have about a 20 degree pitch up on the runway. It should take off at that point. Retract gear and stage to ditch the front gear.

At this point enough up-pitch will be happening that you can tap F to nose up without hitting any other keys; do that until you\'re at 30 degrees - TAP, don\'t just hold down. A degree at a time. Climb out to about 8000 m and up throttle to 33 percent. At 12 km up throttle to 50% and start using W + tapping F to angle nose back down to about 20 degrees; at 14 km go to full throttle and then just manage nose angle to level off around 17 km. Hold there until you run out of fuel; the 6 tanks draining at first will be followed by one final tank powering all 7 engines for a final speed burst.

[cardgame]

That\'s what I\'m talking about! Nice job and good work fine tuning that thing to fly ???

The math translates it about Mach 3.14 ;P

[dogon11]

Can we use nosedives from 20,000 meters to assist?

[khyron42]

I\'d say any craft that needs a nosedive to break a record set in level flight, can be beaten by the previous record craft doing the same nosedive?

I did a 'X-2 Demon' design based on my first one that got a little faster (959 m/s,) but it\'s definitely reaching the point of diminishing returns. The Demon is almost as stable as the Monster was, you just have to be a little more careful during the pitch-up part at low altitude.

Views during initial climbout showing the design:

Approaching engine burnout:

Flight results shortly after burnout:

[Tim_Barrett]

For a real board of records, you need a maximum altitude limit.

[GenJeFT]

For a real board of records, you need a maximum altitude limit.

Not really. The Jets must breath air, that is an altitude limit in and of itself since even the turbojet quits at 18,000 to 19,000 meters. I did not say fastest speed using rockets (someone broke light speed), but fastest speed with jet engines. Those only work so high.

[GenJeFT]

Can we use nosedives from 20,000 meters to assist?

If you want, I\'m going according to highest speed over ground (level flight). If its interestingly high I will add a dive category.

[G Addict]

733 m/s with proof, about 750 max speed on this plane, but no screen of that:

[thec0w]

Managed to get up to 852 m/s with this one. Was using mechjeb at the time to keep it stable just because I was busy and didnt feel like babysitting it while it flew faster and faster in a straight line. As an added bonus, it lands pretty well too when it is out of gas. Though in this case I had to ditch it in the water. It would go quite a bit faster if i were truly watching it as I lost a good bit of gas and speed at one point when I stopped paying attention to how mechjeb was flying and ended up at 20,000m. Probably not good enough for first place, but faster then this at least.

[G Addict]

Aww yeah, 860.7m/s. Do I get bonus points for basing it on Thunderbird 1, complete with wing pivots? 8) : I\'ve even got some dead weight on there in the form of a weaponised laser. That\'s the red line in the screenshot. Don\'t think I\'m ever going to get close to khyron42 though!

[Frostiken]

Your Kerbals are not enjoying that whatsoever.

[Railsmith]

I got up to 877 m/s last night testing this design, after noodling about and wasting half my fuel.

It was still accelerating when I ran out of fuel, so I\'m going to try to break that record later.

[stucker]

Here is my first attempt. 855m/s

[Haldane]

Max speed of 875m/s

[shhhilent1]

Not really. The Jets must breath air, that is an altitude limit in and of itself since even the turbojet quits at 18,000 to 19,000 meters. I did not say fastest speed using rockets (someone broke light speed), but fastest speed with jet engines. Those only work so high.

HAHAHAHAA

sss made a mod called creeper corp, and with the enterprise engine, he broke light speed

[Sean Mirrsen]

734m/s. Should\'ve packed a rocket fuel tank.

[Markus Reese]

Pics and proof, no magic boosters, very easy flying as well.

[Excalibur]

I had a good go at this challenge for the Kerbal Book of Records. I found that less is actually more; after making a few behemoths with 20+ engines I decided to try low-weight, low-drag craft and these are some of the results...

Here\'s my entry in the previous challenge. I\'ve yet to see someone beat this speed in absolutely level flight with 0.15\'s atmospheric engines only.

Here\'s my record with only one engine...

Not the prettiest looking aircraft. I found that such small vehicles can manoeuvre solely on the cockpit SAS so I removed all control surfaces to reduce drag. Hell, there aren\'t even any intakes or nosecones as all they do is increase drag. Drag is your primary enemy in this challenge, hence why the smaller craft with fewer drag-inducing parts are more efficient.

[Phoenix Aerospace]

Not the prettiest looking aircraft. I found that such small vehicles can manoeuvre solely on the cockpit SAS so I removed all control surfaces to reduce drag. Hell, there aren\'t even any intakes or nosecones as all they do is increase drag. Drag is your primary enemy in this challenge, hence why the smaller craft with fewer drag-inducing parts are more efficient.

I can agree with you on that. Once we get a proper drag system implemented, (ie. one that doesn\'t give 20 horizontally arranged LFTs the same drag as 20 inline LFTs,) this\'ll get much more interesting. If it allows for the implementation of shockwaves...

Waveriders, here I come.