Around the world!

[Stevenator1]

I know this challenge has been done before, but I have yet to see it done quite like this.

The goal? I\'m glad you asked! You are part of a low-orbit observation craft team sent to monitor the equatorial region. Your goal is to fly a low-altitude , atmospheric-jet powered plane around the world, and land back at KSC for image collection.

As a recap:

Go due east, all the way around the world.

Stay at <6000 m altitude.

Only stock parts and mechjeb.

No parts my detach from the plane.

Only Atmospheric Jets may be used, no other types of propulsion is allowed.

HINT: You might need this: http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch/?v=s9MszVE7aR4

[GenJeFT]

I\'m quite sure its not even possible. Without drop tanks I can barely manage 750km, with drop tanks I get around 1,500km. But that\'s cruising around 9,500m.

[Stevenator1]

That\'s why it\'s a challenge my friend. My plane is attempting it right now, though it is only going to make it a little over halfway around. It should be done in about 2 hours...

[Stevenator1]

As a current update - My plane has used 3/11ths of its total fuel, and (going due east) has just finished crossing the first ocean.

[Dubstepcat]

I\'m currently attempting to go around the world with my jet, I will post the .craft file

It is very difficult to get off the runway, let it go all the way at the end, then pull up drastically after you go past the ramp, drastically being about a meter from the ground, then you will find yourself lifting

EDIT: Just crossed the first ocean, plenty of fuel left

[Monkthespy]

http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch/?v=WAeiqxNH3W0

I\'d rather use this.

[Dubstepcat]

Well..I\'m a little more than halfway around the world, running dry on fuel, need to get over water so I can deploy the parachutes and not asplodes

edit: asdfaksgasfggsdgsdaadsfakjg\' I stalled out.....

[Stevenator1]

I still can\'t get it either. My plane that I thought could do it, stalled out halfway around the world. about 1400km... Editing the design now...

[sneakeypete]

If you ignore the altitude part (hey just get better cameras =P) and allow yourself to fly at around 15000m you can get a much better range, i think. So far my best is 1400km, but i have another promising design that i need to set aside a few hours to fly. And half of those few hours will just be getting it into the air without exploding

[xclusiv8]

My plane gets around the world without fuel. When the fuel tanks are empty it just glides the rest of the way. Infinite glide glitch for the win =D And it does it at 130m/s

[sneakeypete]

I just completed a high altitude flight in my new design and managed to cover 1600km\'s in an hour. took off just before dawn and landed just before dark.

Doing this is going to call for something more ridiculous though

[Stevenator1]

My plane gets around the world without fuel. When the fuel tanks are empty it just glides the rest of the way. Infinite glide glitch for the win =D And it does it at 130m/s

And it can do this at low altitude? Please post the craft file - I can never really get the infinite glide glitch working...

[xclusiv8]

And it can do this at low altitude? Please post the craft file - I can never really get the infinite glide glitch working...

Haven\'t tried it at low altitude. Last time i tried it it was around 6000m. The plane is a little iffy to fly. Really stiff controls. The way i set it up before was to climb to around 5000m. Put on the ASAS. And then trim it until it was stable. It would then just continue on gliding =)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11003858/KSP/Sailer.craft

[Rich]

That\'s why it\'s a challenge my friend ...

I just wanted to say that I found this highly amusing. We need a like button on this forum, would remove a lot of the chaff posts.

[Stevenator1]

Haven\'t tried it at low altitude. Last time i tried it it was around 6000m. The plane is a little iffy to fly. Really stiff controls. The way i set it up before was to climb to around 5000m. Put on the ASAS. And then trim it until it was stable. It would then just continue on gliding =)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11003858/KSP/Sailer.craft

Dropbox download link isn\'t working... Just put it in an attachment on the forum post...

[Frostiken]

It\'s not hard to make a plane that can fly without fuel at all. Within the parameters of the challenge it should be to make a REASONABLE plane that can circumnavigate. Using a physics exploit defeats the point, does it not?

[xclusiv8]

Dropbox download link isn\'t working... Just put it in an attachment on the forum post...

Try now =) The link is working

[pushingrobot]

This challenge is all about going sloooow (well, that and building a plane you can walk away from for an hour and not worry about...)

I actually built a simple plane shortly after 0.15 came out that could circumnavigate Kerbin, though it flew at around 10,000m. I revised it a bit to ensure it would work at 6km, but shortly after I started I decided it wasn\'t sufficiently cool for a challenge like this. So I decided to go back to the drawing board, and build a replica of the GlobalFlyer plane that the late Steve Fossett flew around the world a few years back'

Unfortunately, KSP physics are a bit off, and I had to pack a bunch of wings together to generate the sort of lift it needed. KSP balked at that, and not long into the mission it just became too laggy to fly, not to mention the phantom forces that tended to send it off the sides of the runway.

So I went back, tweaked the design, spread the wings out, and beefed it up a bit:

And made the KerbalFlyer II:

More fuel, better balance, way better framerate. Flying was a breeze--I set MechJeb to maintain 'PRO GRAD' orientation, and all I had to do was come back every hour or so to reduce the throttle a bit so it wouldn\'t go over 6000m. The only harrowing bit was landing; it\'s such a good glider it took an hour of slowly circling just to get it down to the ground, and it was on the brink of stalling a few times.

How\'d it do?

Pretty darn well. I did the math and the remaining fuel would have been enough for an entire second trip around Kerbin. But no, it can\'t glide forever. I deliberately kept control surfaces to a minimum (which wasn\'t fun when landing...) and used a rocket engine in place of the jet during trials so I could test fuel flow and handling at a variety of fuel levels.