Wilkinson Fly-By Challenge

[something]

So, you got that brand new aircraft and shall deliver it to its destination. A lot of important guests are on board, not to mention the CEO of the airline. In order to impress them all and to honor the engineers who constructed that aircraft you do a low altitude fly-by at the KSC...

Well this is what more or less happened 6 years ago on March 6, 2008 when a Cathay pilot, Wilkinson, got hands on a new Boeing 777-300ER. At an altitude of just 28 ft (9 m) and a speed of approximately 57 m/s he flew by the airfield he just took of from - and got sacked. To celebrate the 6th anniversary of that event, I tried to do the same in KSP. It turns out, that it isn't as easy as it seems. So can you go lower and faster and impress as many Kerbals on board as possible?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/business/06pilot.html?_r=0

http://www.dailytech.com/No+Maverick+Airline+Pilot+Fired+for+Low+Flyby+in+Boeing+777300ER/article10846c.htm

 

The rules:

-Take an aircraft featuring space for at least 6 Kerbals. The pilot, Copilot, two Crew, the CEO and his secretary (you wanna impress somebody, right?)

-Any number of stock engines are allowed.

-In order to qualify as a low altitude fly by, go below 9m and maintain a speed of at least 57m/s.

-Take a screenshot or a video of your fly-by.

-You may do your fly-by anywhere close to the KSP as long as it (or the runway) is visible on your screenshot.

-As it is a fly-by and not a drive-by, your landing gear is retracted.

-In order to measure the height above the surface, I propose you use MechJeb's Surface Info as it gives you almost all the data you need. If you know any better mod to display that data, just tell me.

-Mods? Are ok with me.

-Do your fly-by manually. SAS is ok, but no translatron like keep-altitude....

-VTOL? Yes, if you wish, however, keep in mind, the limit is 57+ m/s to count as acceptable fly-by

 

Scoring:

Scoring will be done in three categories: Height, speed and number of Kerbals on board. Obviously, height shall be as minimal as possible, speed and the number of Kerbals as high as possible.

 

Notes:

I tested the Scan Instruments Mod and compared the altitudes with those of MechJeb. MechJeb seems to deliver lower values but appears more reasonable to me. Might be something of CoM vs MechJeb unit or whatever....

 

 

So, while this might be really low, I think it is too far to count as a fly-by:

http://postimg.org/image/lzu3j4h8j/

This, however, is close enough. 160m/s, 7.8m, 7 Kerbals....

http://postimg.org/image/onzejozrf/

 

 

 

Height

Randazzo 6.2m

something 7.8m

JW2016 8.2m

 

without true height measurement:

kapteenipirk 72m ASL

kapteenipirk 79m ASL (upside down)

(Val 5.8m - not enough Kerbals)

 

Speed

Randazzo 310.6 m/s

kapteenipirk 179.3 m/s

something 160 m/s

JW 2016 145m/s

kapteenipirk 144.5 m/s (upside down)

(Val 755 m/s - not enough Kerbals)

 

Kerbals

JW2016 416 Kerbals

Kapteenipirk 68 Kerbals

Randazzo 38 Kerbals

something 7 Kerbals

Val < 6

Edited March 9, 2016 by something

[Randazzo]

38 Kerbals on board the "Death Liner"

6.2m

310.6 m/s (according to in-game readout)

Stock except for the mechjeb unit

Spoiler

Proof of Kerbal Kount in the spoiler.

And finally, overly dramatic video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQN06YB5x4I

 

Edited March 8, 2016 by Randazzo

[Pds314]

FAR mach 2 2.2 at sealevel supercruise = yaw instability waiting to happen!

OMG. I just melted a Panther in level flight w/o afterburner.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Pds314

[Val]

Here's my would be entry. Except I forgot to put the 8 Kerbals in my plane and don't have time to make another try at the moment

5.8 m at 755 m/s.

 

 

[kapteenipirk]

Desided to have a go myself.

Durning this flight i carried 68 kerbals on board the Koeing 747. And i was going at a speed of 144.5 m/s while upside down and a 173.9 m/s while flying normally.

Unfortunetly i don't have an accurate altitude read out since i don't use mechjeb, but as you can see from the picks, i was about a meter or two off from the runway.

And seriously, if you are going to do a flyby, you need to do it with style.

And yes, i did both of these manouvers on the same flight.

If i would have really wanted to do this with style i would have done it like in the next pick but a little more close to the ground. Aka with a shuttle strapped to the back of the aircraft.

 

[JW2016]

416 kerbals!

8.2meters at 145m/s

 

[something]

I really love the way kapteenipirk ploughs the fields of Kerbin with the tail fin. If you think about it, this has to be the way Kerbals do it...

 

Gave it another shot with the aircraft I used the other day. After realizing the height on the runway was given with 2.6m, I had to go way beyond that. Turned out, I cut it in half. I was, however, not successful in going below the 1m threshold.

1.3m - 140m/s - 7 Kerbals

http://postimg.org/image/ukfuk5ec5/

 

Also note, the vertical velocity indicator is still in the negative regime, while MechJeb shows a positive value. Don't know if the in-game indicator isn't correct or just shows a lag...