Kerbin Circumnavigation 1.0.4/1.0.5 - Aviator Challenge Continuation

[MunGazer]

I've got a work of my own!

http://www./convkey/6ac2/dow9yzc6kanz96zzg.jpg

Don't sigh too hard...

Yeah, still needs some revisions...

Lol. Whatever works for you. For me, the badge is fun but trivial. I mostly look forward to the really cool rocket planes that will likely emerge. Now we may start to see craft that truly are "hypersonic" (Mach 5.5 +). *cue flight of the valkyries music* Will the fastest craft utilize the fringes of the atmosphere as an aerodynamic grappling hook to achieve tremendous speed during their sub orbital trajectories without slinging themselves into escape from kerbin while seeking the fastest return to KSC? Will they simply shove through the thin air for the sheer purpose of optimizing the shortness of the overall distance traveled, balancing this with speed? Will they use the upper air for a more efficient hybrid design that somehow makes use of the air for additional thrust? Will someone find a way to exit the atmosphere entirely and take advantage of the vacuum of space to mount an incredibly fast course in their journey back to KSC on the equatorial or polar geometric plane? Will they take advantage of the new propulsion liberties to get crazy down below 30 km altitude and pull off a feat there? I think the diversity of possibilities is great.

Edited June 27, 2015 by MunGazer

[Xannari Ferrows]

We could either do both, or have a vote. It's all so interesting!

[MacGamer04]

Currently I am working on an aircraft capable of flying around Kerbin, however, I have come up with the tactic of refuelling my craft. As we speak, I'm setting up fuel tankers around the equator of Kerbin. Also, so that it counts, how do you put pictures into your posts?

P.S: For the pics, I'm on a 2012 Macbook Pro

[ExaltedDuck]

Turned my plane around like suggested by ExalterDuck and then swaped the turbojet for a rapier.

Then this happened...

http://i.imgur.com/bOhY7Qz.png

I love this game

lol. beautiful. =D

- - - Updated - - -

i am determined to get this to work:

http://imgur.com/gallery/NL6Cqy4/new

I hope you do. That's gorgeous!

[Xannari Ferrows]

Currently I am working on an aircraft capable of flying around Kerbin, however, I have come up with the tactic of refuelling my craft. As we speak, I'm setting up fuel tankers around the equator of Kerbin. Also, so that it counts, how do you put pictures into your posts?

P.S: For the pics, I'm on a 2012 Macbook Pro

Unless you can refuel while actively flying, I'm not sure how that'll work. That'll be an interesting thing!

The editor should have a picture frame-like thumbnail that reads "Insert Image" when you scroll over it. Enter the URL of your desired image to make it appear.

[MunGazer]

Currently I am working on an aircraft capable of flying around Kerbin, however, I have come up with the tactic of refuelling my craft. As we speak, I'm setting up fuel tankers around the equator of Kerbin. Also, so that it counts, how do you put pictures into your posts?

P.S: For the pics, I'm on a 2012 Macbook Pro

I'm not quite sure refuelling stations are within the scope of the challenge's original guidelines, but I don't see any harm in it. In my opinion it could fall under the standard circumnav or standard sod circumnav category but Xannari should clarify on that one.

To help you with posting forum pics, I use windows and am largely unfamiliar with mac, but perhaps this way is common to both. I simply registered with imgur for a free account, then if I want to post an uploaded image here, I simply copy and paste this code for the corresponding uploaded image in my imgur account into the forum post (which is also how I inserted the following image):

[Xannari Ferrows]

I'm not quite sure refuelling stations are within the scope of the challenge's original guidelines, but I don't see any harm in it. In my opinion it could fall under the standard circumnav or standard sod circumnav category but Xannari should clarify on that one.

Oh, you mean like a multi-step circumnavigation? The flight must be continuous, fair warning.

[MacGamer04]

I have made a way to stop and refuel, but based on what everybody is saying, guess I'll try to apply it to air-to-air refuelling. That's where MechJeb comes in handy!

[MunGazer]

Oh, you mean like a multi-step circumnavigation? The flight must be continuous, fair warning.

Yeah, I was just being nice to the fellow and recommending the challenge holder's official say on it. I went back and reviewed the rules again and although it may not have blatantly said no refueling (unless I missed it) I kind of figured it wouldn't qualify as an official entrant. Then again, there is the question of air-to-air refueling. Again that's the challenge holder's call

[ExaltedDuck]

IMHO, refueling breaks the spirit of the challenge in that it's quite a bit like having drop tanks and that with well planned logistics, flight becomes effectively indefinite.

[Kagame]

OK, there's a SOD now?

Can I use the Instell scramjets? XD

I'm working on an entry, they just keep exploding...

[ExaltedDuck]

And because my friends were dismayed that the desert we were going to camp in was actually really hot on a summer day, I'm back a day early.

So in the single engine top speed thread someone mentioned something about shock cones being fragile for speed. I got to thinking, maybe they could be used, if used with caution. So I came up with this craft.

It might be capable of a supercruise above 1700 m/s. At least, the first one I made and took out was and made it all the way around on a 90 degree heading with about 40 fuel left in a position to begin a descent to KSC at about 37 minutes. BUT, I forgot to throttle down and exploded spectacularly at about 16000 m altitude. Then I started making little adjustments (trying to add drogue chutes and/or airbrakes, looking into lower drag lifting surfaces, etc.) and somehow only managed to get myself to where I could hardly exceed 1680 and couldn't get my fuel consumption low enough to make it all the way.

I still prefer to use mid-body intakes. Axial and nose-mounted pieces just aren't slippery or hungry enough. But this does show that with the new aero in this version, a single shock cone can keep 2 rapiers running as long as speed is maintained. During ascent, there's not much room between terminal heating and adequate acceleration but it is possible to get it there and if you can walk that knife's edge, it will perform.

Edited June 28, 2015 by ExaltedDuck

[MunGazer]

OK, there's a SOD now?

Can I use the Instell scramjets? XD

I'm working on an entry, they just keep exploding...

Well as far as I can tell as of the time that I'm making this post now, we've only just talked about it but Xannari seems to be enjoying the prospect of the badge for it. In the rules, he's got [coming soon] in the additional challenges section and that might refer to the upcoming SOD. So I'd guess he's just getting his ducks in a row with the rules for it plus allow time for his unknown daily or weekly schedule. He also may be further pondering what particular badge to go with etc.

[MunGazer]

And because my friends were dismayed that the desert we were going to camp in was actually really hot on a summer day, I'm back a day early.

So in the single engine top speed thread someone mentioned something about shock cones being fragile for speed. I got to thinking, maybe they could be used, if used with caution. So I came up with this craft.

https://youtu.be/I6HT4rBi-jY

It might be capable of a supercruise above 1700 m/s. At least, the first one I made and took out, made it all the way around on a 90 degree heading with about 40 fuel left in a position to begin a descent to KSC at about 37 minutes. BUT, I forgot to throttle down and exploded spectacularly at about 16000 m altitude. Then I started making little adjustments (trying to add drogue chutes and/or airbrakes, looking into lower drag lifting surfaces, etc.) and somehow only managed to get myself to where I could hardly exceed 1680 and couldn't get my fuel consumption low enough to make it all the way.

I still prefer to use mid-body intakes. Axial and nose-mounted pieces just aren't slippery or hungry enough. But this does show that with the new aero in this version, a single shock cone can keep 2 rapiers running as long as speed is maintained. During ascent, there's not much room between terminal heating and adequate acceleration but it is possible to get it there and if you can walk that knife's edge, it will perform.

Yes and I wish that there was some kind of additional incentive to use shock cones for particular applications instead of just looks. For instance, if they'd have better performance than other intakes at mach 1.2 - 5 or something. And the same goes for the airliner looking ones. I wish they'd be more ideal than the other intakes for low speed subsonic work.

[ExaltedDuck]

Xannari -

Sub-40. Just barely.

:-*

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Xannari Ferrows]

Xannari -

Sub-40. Just barely.

:-*

http://imgur.com/a/fyHAo

Ohhhh... It. IS. ON!​

Took out the ol' Mk3 for another spin, but 2 added surprises. I will admit, it kinda bends the rules a bit, but I have made sure not to violate anything.

I just barely matched your time! I can't get this thing to go any faster. I may have hit a limit.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited June 28, 2015 by Xannari Ferrows

[ExaltedDuck]

lol, nice.

[Triop]

Xannari -

Sub-40. Just barely.

:-*

http://imgur.com/a/fyHAo

LOL ! Looks like my Rapier 1700, haven't reached 1720 m/s yet doh...

Cruises at 1700 +/- don't mind the overheating, it doesn't get hotter then this...

Maybe it is time for me to use some mods to help me fly around Kerbin, what are you using ?

Edited June 28, 2015 by Triop

[nicky4096]

mods im using: pilot assistant, mechjeb, and kOS.

pilot assistant does a great job of keeping your plane at exactly such-and-such altitude and such-and-such heading etc, but you often have change some parameters to get it to work. for example, if you have a very heavy plane that can't maintain speed at high pitch, pilot assistant will go bananas if you are using altitude control because it tries to maintain a constant vertical speed up until close to the set height limit. so sometimes it will even point your plane straight up in an attempt to get 50 m/s. of course, that doesn't always work so well .

but sometimes pilot assistant is not gentle enough with the controls. mechjeb can be incredibly good at keeping a course using TF autotuning if given the right values.

and if you're really bored, messing around in kOS can be fun (and even help )

anyway, hope that helps! i kind of felt bad for you for always coming so close

[ExaltedDuck]

I've been using pilot assistant. It's useful for helping to maintain steady flight and hold a course. When I started in the first thread, I had a very similar opinion to yours on mods. I have flown completely organically with times into the low 50 min. I even bought a flight stick to try out in the thoughts that analog control might let me compete better (it didn't. Huge deadzones in the stick made it worse than keyboard input. Or, rather, about as bad in terms of fine control but with the added disadvantage of the amount of time it took to move the stick side-to-side).

I tried mechjeb first, but found pilot assistant to be a little more precise and way more tune-able (The PID approach they've used in its design is pretty handy).

The way I use it is to lock the heading at or shortly after take-off then limit the ascent rate as I approach my top speed/operating altitude. The fun and exciting parts are still controlled manually, and the nod-off's that almost killed my first velocity contender on the first thread at about the 35 minute mark are no longer a problem.

Edited June 28, 2015 by ExaltedDuck

[nicky4096]

sorry to be a bit spammy, but i must correct myself!

so, i said i used MJ when pilot assist is not gentle enough.

as duck said, pilot assistant is also adjustable. but i am more used to MJs system, so i used that

[Triop]

@ nicky4096, ExaltedDuck. Thanks for that info, very helpful.

Hope to set a new time soon (when I have time)

[nicky4096]

hehehe me too...

[Triop]

Fiddling with my Rapier 1700 got me 1.724 m/s, for me now this is more a speedchallenge

All still in testfase...

Edited June 28, 2015 by Triop

[RixKillian]

How close to KSC do we have to land? (i.e., can one land in the water within, say, 1 km offshore?)