The Aircraft Endurance Challenge

[Gman_builder]

The Aircraft Endurance Challenge

 

This challenge is exactly what it sounds like in the title. A challenge to see who can fly an aircraft the farthest. The challenge will be split up into 2 categories, distance travelled, and flight time.

RULES

1. Your aircraft must be completely stock.

2. No cheats. At all.

3. No mods except for FAR and any other plugin you see fit. Like Pilot assistant.(which is highly recommended)

4. Your aircraft must be powered by air breathing engines and it must stay within the atmosphere at all times.

5. It must takeoff and land like a conventional aircraft.

6. Your aircraft may fly at any speed and any altitude below 30k meters, so you don't fly off into space.

7. FAR gives you an estimated range for your plane, but you must actually do the whole flight for it to count as the estimates are not always accurate.

8. You must safely land at the KSC, KSC 2, or Island runway.

In my attempt I used Pilot Assistant to keep the plane on course while I did stuff on my other computer. If you are doing a flight that could last several IRL days you don't want to be sitting there at the controls for that long.

If you can some how stage a air-to-air refueling when you run out of fuel mid flight, I shall allow it.

DISTANCE WINNERS

1. @Van Disaster124,000 kilometers

2. Me: 35,000 km

3.

 

FLIGHT TIME WINNERS

1. @Van Disaster79 Hours

2. Me: 43 Hours

3.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Gman_builder

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Hmm.

[Dman979]

9 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Hmm.

Hmmmmmm.

[Mjp1050]

2 hours ago, Dman979 said:

Hmmmmmm.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

Joking aside, this seems like an interesting challenge. See how long you can keep something in the air.

Am I allowed to use MechJeb? It wouldn't violate Rule # 3 but it would violate Rule # 1...

Actually, I ended up NOT using MechJeb because it had a tendency to wobble while under autopilot. I flew this manually.

 

My first (and second) attempt.

I present to you, the EnduriGlider.

It flies surprisingly well.

And I got it to about here before spiraling out of control.

(Yes, I know Jeb's in the pilot's seat while Sonwin was killed. I had two different attempts because the first one didn't have MechJeb)

1280.886 Km and 1:21:28 in the air. I still had about 2/3 of a tank left, too... I probably could have circumnavigated Kerbin had I not lost control.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Mjp1050

[Gman_builder]

@Mjp1050Mechjeb is allowed as it is more of a plugin than a part pack. When I said no mods except plugins I meant any mods that add new engines and structural parts and whatnot. If I can give you a hint to the secret of ridiculous ranges, install FAR. Also, the circumference of Kerbin heading east is 5,750 kilometers. So even if you didn't lose control you wouldn't have made it all the way around and like I said, if MJ doesn't work well, Pilot Assistant is highly recommended.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Gman_builder

[Adelaar]

Is FAR optional or manditory? If optional, I'll give this thing a go.

[Gman_builder]

8 hours ago, Adelaar said:

Is FAR optional or manditory? If optional, I'll give this thing a go.

Definitely optional bro.

[DoctorDavinci]

This was just a test run but here's the CANUKWorks Arctic Turn ... I only did 1 lap around Kerbin but only used half of the fuel I was carrying so could have done a second go

I landed just off of the runway at the KSC

Ground Distance:  8 161 878m
Total Distance Covered:  8 182 315m
In Game Time: T+ 0y, 0d, 04:36:25

[Gman_builder]

1 hour ago, DoctorDavinci said:

This was just a test run but here's the CANUKWorks Arctic Turn ... I only did 1 lap around Kerbin but only used half of the fuel I was carrying so could have done a second go

I landed just off of the runway at the KSC

Ground Distance:  8 161 878m
Total Distance Covered:  8 182 315m
In Game Time: T+ 0y, 0d, 04:36:25

The circumference of Kerbin is 5,750 kilmeters the long way around, and you say you only did one lap. Yet the total distance covered is over 8,000 kilometers? Hmm...

[Aetharan]

When performing circumnavigations, the total distance covered is different depending on both your direction of travel and your cruising speed.  You have to keep the planet's rotation in mind, as a west-aimed circumnavigation results in the KSC coming around to meet you so you'll travel somewhat under the full circumference while seeing the entire surface, but an east-aimed circumnavigation requires you to go more than a single time around the circle to catch up to it.

The Circumnavigator Challenge (link in my sig to my entry) had similar rules with different goals, and my entries to that were aimed at a fast return to the runway rather than maximal time in the air.  I'll be giving this one a shot shortly.

Edit: In regards to DoctorDavinci's post below mine: There's that, too.  Even so, my point stands where equatorial circumnavigations are concerned.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Aetharan

[DoctorDavinci]

@Gman_builder

Ummm, I didn't travel straight around the equator ... I took a detour north to see if KSC 2 was still there and then set a heading of 270 until I was close to the big crater where I set my heading to 235 or so and flew until I hit the southern continent at which point I went due west for a bit then I angled a bit north to hit close to equatorial and then went back to due west until I saw the KSC

All the evidence is there in the pics ... FAR and Flight Assistant windows are all open as well as the resources tab so there is no way you can accuse me of cheating

Edited July 4, 2016 by DoctorDavinci

[Gman_builder]

57 minutes ago, DoctorDavinci said:

@Gman_builder

Ummm, I didn't travel straight around the equator ... I took a detour north to see if KSC 2 was still there and then set a heading of 270 until I was close to the big crater where I set my heading to 235 or so and flew until I hit the southern continent at which point I went due west for a bit then I angled a bit north to hit close to equatorial and then went back to due west until I saw the KSC

All the evidence is there in the pics ... FAR and Flight Assistant windows are all open as well as the resources tab so there is no way you can accuse me of cheating

I was not accusing you of cheating. I was just confused. So if you went that far and still had half a tank of fuel you can go around Kerbin 3 whole times! This is the most promising entry I've seen so far.

[gridghost]

I think this is rather fun to see the difference in cirucmference between people... i did one run, rather straight eastwards and got this: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0dll0wykofjo53c/screenshot161.png?dl=0

Edited July 4, 2016 by gridghost

[Gman_builder]

7 minutes ago, gridghost said:

I think this is rather fun to see the difference in cirucmference between people... i did one run, rather straight eastwards and got this: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0dll0wykofjo53c/screenshot161.png?dl=0

11 thousand kilometers! That's over double the circumference of the planet!

[gridghost]

Ya, i know... and it's only one circumference, at 90 degrees heading all the time... But it was fun... i forgot to take screens of the whole trip so, i'm doin it again, just to be sure there's no bug.

[Gman_builder]

Just now, gridghost said:

Ya, i know... and it's only one circumference, at 90 degrees heading all the time... But it was fun... i forgot to take screens of the whole trip so, i'm doin it again, just to be sure there's no bug.

Only one full circumnavigation? That doesn't make sense, unless your using a planet re-scale mod.

I'm going to post my own entry to this challenge. I hope this doesn't discourage anybody from taking a go at it.

In my "Endurance record plane" I flew 35,000 kilometers over a 43 hour period. That's 6 whole circumnavigations without landing or re-fueling with about an 8th of the tank left to spare.

 

[gridghost]

No mods other then FAR, BD Armory and VesselMover, so no... no planet rescale mod.

[gridghost]

Ok, so i'm pretty much 3/4 into the circumnavigation and i'm standing at 7,5 kkm so far...  As i said, i'm going east at a speed of around mach 2.3 - 2.4 on average (ground speed), using version 1.1.3. 

[Aetharan]

Sadly, the plane that I'm flying can't even hit mach 1 (at least, not with a full load of fuel plus drop tanks), so it's going to be a long time before I complete circumnavigation.  Going prograde, like gridghost, at a cruising altitude of about 9.6 km for the moment, and have only used 220 out of 1,780 units of fuel on board as of time of posting (plane runs on just a pair of Junos.)  This baby just barely got airborne off the end of the runway, but is looking to be able to fly for a day and a half or more at altitude.

Edit: To clarify, I mean a Kerbin day, not an Earth day.  A little over an hour into the flight, Mechjeb is reporting estimated atmospheric burn time of 2h on the second pair of drop tanks, followed by about 8h on the plane's internal fuel.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Aetharan

[Cunjo Carl]

12 minutes ago, gridghost said:

Ok, so i'm pretty much 3/4 into the circumnavigation and i'm standing at 7,5 kkm so far...  As i said, i'm going east at a speed of around mach 2.3 - 2.4 on average (ground speed), using version 1.1.3. 

I wonder if somehow Kerbin's Sidereal rotational velocity (the speed the ground spins at) is getting added in? I know the Highest Speed Achieved is affected by it, so if you simply put a plane on the runway it's already considered going 175m/s.

If this is the case, then going west should result in less distance traveled than would be expected. Might be worth a try?

 

Edit: Also, @Gman_builder, what's your take on engine clipping for this competition? I'm considering making a high flier that largely uses centrifugal force in lieu of lift. I'm happy in either case, just asking!

Edited July 4, 2016 by Cunjo Carl

[The Optimist]

2 hours ago, Gman_builder said:

I was not accusing you of cheating. I was just confused. So if you went that far and still had half a tank of fuel you can go around Kerbin 3 whole times! This is the most promising entry I've seen so far.

Don't worry, he gets triggered occasionally. 

[Gman_builder]

5 minutes ago, Cunjo Carl said:

I wonder if somehow Kerbin's Sidereal rotational velocity (the speed the ground spins at) is getting added in? I know the Highest Speed Achieved is affected by it, so if you simply put a plane on the runway it's already considered going 175m/s.

If this is the case, then going west should result in less distance traveled than would be expected. Might be worth a try?

 

Edit: Also, @Gman_builder, what's your take on engine clipping for this competition? I'm considering making a high flier that largely uses centrifugal force in lieu of lift. I'm happy in either case, just asking!

I don't know what centrifugal force in lieu of lift means on a plane but as long as it isn't cheating you should be fine. Just fly for as long as possible without cheats.

[Aetharan]

Your total distance traveled will be based not on your surface position, but on your sidereal angle.  This was tested pretty heavily during the circumnavigation race before.  Since we're going for total distance traveled and time in the air, rather than number of circumnavigations completed, and the OP doesn't require that we land back at the runway, it shouldn't really matter much which direction you travel.  Still, for those intending to land safely at KSC, a prograde run will result in more distance covered per lap because your target is running away from you, while a retrograde run is shorter because it's spinning up to meet you.

[Gman_builder]

19 minutes ago, gridghost said:

Ok, so i'm pretty much 3/4 into the circumnavigation and i'm standing at 7,5 kkm so far...  As i said, i'm going east at a speed of around mach 2.3 - 2.4 on average (ground speed), using version 1.1.3. 

Still, that makes no sense. I am very confused. Going straight east at any speed would yield 7,500 give or take kilometers from start to finish for one circumnavigation unless you take a ton of detours going north and south.

@AetharanThat reminds me, I have some adjustments to make to the rules. Nothing major though don't worry.

[Aetharan]

@Gman_builder if you're going to forbid drop-tanks, please make the change before my first set runs dry so I can just complete the flight without staging!