Planes that can reach the North Pole fast

[Kerbalicious]

Hello all,

I'm looking for an airplane design that can get me to the North Pole for several surface EVA reports with tech tree developed to Supersonic Flight.

I've been stuck with finding a design for this mission at my tech level. Anyone with an airplane design suggestion?

 

Thanks!

[Van Disaster]

Mk1 cockpit, crew cabin, Panther on AB. If you want quicker than that without a Whiplash then you'll have to stick a rocket on & go suborbital, but overall it won't really save *that* much time.

[Kerbalicious]

 

I build the plane below with the MK1 cockpit and 2x Panthers. (What is AB?). 

However, the problem is, I need to manage this flight for the next 45 min which takes away the fun. I am limited to 4x time speed.

 

Is this what you had in mind as well?

When you do EVA report missions on the North Pole, what plane design do you like?

 

Here's screenshots of the plane I build:

 

http://imgur.com/dgpNqJf

http://imgur.com/TCsjpTV

Edited June 26, 2016 by Kerbalicious
Corrected link

[Van Disaster]

2 hours ago, Kerbalicious said:

I build the plane below with the MK1 cockpit and 2x Panthers. (What is AB?). 

However, the problem is, I need to manage this flight for the next 45 min which takes away the fun. I am limited to 4x time speed.

AB is afterburner( "Wet mode"), rightclick the engine & change mode.

I use a mod called Pilot Assistant which is basically just much better aircraft-oriented SAS ( well, it does hold a numerical course & height/vspeed ) but then I am a little disabled so I need it anyway - so I just point the plane in the right direction & just occasionally keep an eye on it to see where it is and when I need to start descending. Afterburner will get you there considerably quicker.

As for design, my aerial/polar lab craft is basically my first spaceplane this game with the space parts pulled off. Not very interesting so I don't have many pics of it.

The brown engine is a B9 engine which is the equivalent of a Panther ( a slightly heavier slightly more powerful one anyway ). Using a stock engine would make no real difference.

 

[HebaruSan]

I like Shuttle-inspired designs for this. This one dropped off a satellite in a polar orbit before landing at a point of interest near the north pole. Since it goes outside the atmosphere, higher time warps are available. It's stock and about as low-tech as you can get. Add jet engines, fuel, and landing gear to taste if you have multiple objectives.

[Kerbalicious]

Thanks for the inspiration! I discovered afterburn after you told me about it. Very cool and useful. I'll make sure to toggle different modes for everything in this game from now on. I came to speeds of 800 m/s which made the time shorter. I discovered that AB cannot handle more than 25K altitude so still limited to 4x time warp. Anyways, I completed my North Pole mission so I am satisfied!

Here's a bonus question:

I have a mission to perform EVA surface reports in mountain terrain on several spots scattered in the same area. Have you pulled off a helicopter concept that can land vertically and launch vertically. I am trying to avoid to launch a plane 5 times to that area (also destination is far away). What's your ideas for such design?

On 6/26/2016 at 0:43 AM, HebaruSan said:

I like Shuttle-inspired designs for this. This one dropped off a satellite in a polar orbit before landing at a point of interest near the north pole. Since it goes outside the atmosphere, higher time warps are available. It's stock and about as low-tech as you can get. Add jet engines, fuel, and landing gear to taste if you have multiple objectives.

Are you able to land that satellite on mountain/flat terrain?

 

[Van Disaster]

I never have much luck with VTOL ( although using the KAX helicopter rotors seems to work, but helicopters are painfully slow ) so I just build tough STOL planes & walk the rest of the way. This thing will land at ~40m/s & stop almost immediately ( takes a bit longer to take off ), so I just land it on hillsides & anywhere not too bumpy.

Would work fine with a jet also. Has literally every surface & atmospheric instrument I can fit on it...

[HebaruSan]

16 hours ago, Kerbalicious said:

Are you able to land that satellite on mountain/flat terrain?

Well with no landing gear unlocked when it launched, that craft "landed" by popping off the command pod and opening the parachute; the wings were just there to give some control while gliding. I wasn't saying that exact craft would be perfect for your needs, but just that going to orbit is a handy way to skip slow atmospheric travel, and that a staged rocket plane is significantly easier to make work than an SSTO spaceplane.