What is the largest/longest range aircraft you've built?

[A35K]

Mine is this:

It is a huge transport plane, built in a slightly older KSP version, it uses wings and fuselage and engines from the B9 mod. The engines are turbofan engines, so they have lower thrust than the stock turbojets, and stop working at about 15000m altitude, but they have a spectacular fuel efficiency. Now, this plane carries over 10000 units of liquid fuel, giving it a run time at full throttle of (as you can see) 1 day and 19 hours! Now given that it averages at around 150m/s in speed, it should be able to travel 23,220 km, or travel around Kerbin more than 12 times! Fully loaded with fuel it weighs around 140 tonnes. So what's your largest/longest range aircraft?

[Mikki]

no comment.

 

Edited December 12, 2015 by Mikki

[HoloYolo]

Damn I wish I had a screenshot, but my computer got wiped due to viruses. I built an O'Neill Cylinder to transport kerbals to Pol to save their lives. 70 kerbals, 100 meters long x 20 meters wide. 630 parts on launch and 300 parts in low orbit. I peaked at 20 FPS with it.

[A35K]

11 hours ago, Mikki said:

no comment.

 

Impressive... But why?!?

Anyway, has anyone ever built a plane in KSP that matches the specs of the Airbus A380? Is it possible? That means a plane that weighs over 540 tonnes fully loaded, can fly at Mach 0.89, and can fly over 15,000km up to an altitude of around 12000m. Bonus if it actually looks like an A380 and not some contraption of struts and wings, and bonus if it can carry over 500 kerbals (even though the real A380 can carry nearly 900 people in full economy class configuration).

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by A35K

[Snarfster]

This one is in the long range category. It uses a nuclear reactor from USI and 6 electrical engines.

I don't know how long it could stay airborne, but at least a year or so.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I once had an aircraft that used the E-Prop from KAX and was powered entirely by solarpanels...
It was pretty small and not the fastest but it was going places. 

Knock yourself out:
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/69426-105-kerbal-aircraft-expansion-kax-v261/

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[cantab]

This contraption is my largest to date.

The Dirty Rascal 3 by cantab314, on Flickr

It was built for my ISRU Space Program, and is designed to fly out to a Kethane deposit, mine the fuel to fill up those three orange tanks, and carry it back to KSC. VTOLs when empty but is only STOVL operation when full. I flew it to a deposit north of the deserts, but never got round to making the return trip. Whole thing fits in the tier 2 SPH limits as well.

As for range, well I've made a few with electric props so they can fly as far as I like. My furthest actual flight on Kerbin was in my science drone from that same save.

Make Science Not War 1 by cantab314, on Flickr

Over the course of several contracts I flew it north from KSC, then east over the edge of the ice cap (that was tough in a solar plane), then south and back west over the eastern continent, ending up somewhere southeast of Kerbal Korea I think.

Edited December 13, 2015 by cantab

[A35K]

4 hours ago, Snarfster said:

This one is in the long range category. It uses a nuclear reactor from USI and 6 electrical engines.

I don't know how long it could stay airborne, but at least a year or so.

Well, if you use nuclear reactors it's not hard to have ridiculous ranges. But what's the longest range anyone has achieved using 'normal' jet engines (no electric stuff either)?

[cantab]

There was a circumnavigation challenge and I think the record there was round Kerbin seven times without refuelling. At 26,000 km, that's further than the record for a real-world commercial airliner (21 Mm in a special flight of a 777-200LR) or strategic bomber, but is still some way off the 40 Mm required to circumnavigate the Earth, something achieved only twice IRL.

[Guz]

my big shuttle

[Pecan]

2 hours ago, A35K said:

Well, if you use nuclear reactors it's not hard to have ridiculous ranges. But what's the longest range anyone has achieved using 'normal' jet engines (no electric stuff either)?

Well, you know, since you're including other versions of KSP and mods I'd say the longest-range I built with pure jets was a spaceplane that spent a lot of its time outside the atmosphere and managed 70-odd orbits before its Pe degraded too much, IIRC.

Or is that cheating too?  Are we just meant to agree that, yes, using only your favourite combination of version, mods and engines, you've made a big plane?  How much payload can your 'transporter' transport over its range, by the way - you don't seem to have mentioned that?

[A35K]

12 minutes ago, Pecan said:

Well, you know, since you're including other versions of KSP and mods I'd say the longest-range I built with pure jets was a spaceplane that spent a lot of its time outside the atmosphere and managed 70-odd orbits before its Pe degraded too much, IIRC.

Or is that cheating too?  Are we just meant to agree that, yes, using only your favourite combination of version, mods and engines, you've made a big plane?  How much payload can your 'transporter' transport over its range, by the way - you don't seem to have mentioned that?

Well, I wasn't trying to discredit anyone, all I'm saying is that with nuclear reactors it is VERY easy to have pretty much infinite range. This is not a challenge either, so nothing is cheating. All I was asking was the longest range plane anyone has built in any version of KSP with any mods as long as it was conventional propulsion and flew like a real life 'airplane', a.k.a. a craft that uses jets or non-electric (electric ones do exist in real life but are only experimental for the moment) props to maintain constant aerodynamic flight, inside an atmosphere. I'm not saying mine is the best ever and no one dare say otherwise, in fact the range I gave is with 0 payload, and the cargo bay is pretty small so you won't fit much in there either. And my plane is pretty small, as you have seen the first reply weighs over 500, while mine weighs only 140.

[SuicidalInsanity]

Made this for the K-prize challenge a while back, but it certainly qualifies as above average in size:

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by SuicidalInsanity

[Ehco Corrallo]

This is the largest plane I've built. It's not terribly big, but it produces a gratuitous amount of lift. And it's shaped like a triangle. I built it some time ago; for what purpose, I have absolutely no idea.

This is not my biggest plane, but it is the biggest plane I've built that maneuvers well. Initially, it was supposed to be a boat, but it turned into a low altitude cargo plane/dropship with similar maneuverability to the Aeris 3A. Large fuel capacity and way too many engines give it really good range. I don't have the patience to figure out how far it can go, so I'll just assume it goes "far enough."

Edited December 13, 2015 by Ehco Corrallo
Discovered a missing period. (Gasp!)

[A35K]

18 hours ago, SuicidalInsanity said:

Made this for the K-prize challenge a while back, but it certainly qualifies as above average in size:

 

Awesome! Do you know how much it weighed?

Quote

was supposed to be a boat, but it turned into a low altitude cargo plane/dropship

And the award for the most Kerbal design process goes to you!

[SuicidalInsanity]

@A35K: Takeoff weight was 1260 tons, give or take a few hundred kilos. I think it ended up carrying something like 150 tons of fuel to LKO.

 

[pandaman]

The longest range I achieved was with a fairly simple mk1 design several versions ago.  Circumnavigated Kerbin and landed back at KSC with about half my fuel left so could almost certainly have gone round again.  Not impressive by some of you guys standards, but it did it's job.

[SR]

My longest range aircraft is a solar aircraft.