Airfield Mass Transit

[Van Disaster]

Just for fun I took a craft I built for another challenge & added extra stopping power. This is using B9 pWings and FAR which makes life *considerably* harder - FAR has much less low speed lift, and I think a couple of SXT bits between the front wheel & the fuselage which could be any structural part, really.

So, uh, 676 Kerbals including crew. 320.89t

Very close to stalling:

All the brakes ( the first run it took all the runway & rolled off the end at 50m/s

And stopped.

320.89 / 676 = 0.475

Stock aero run next. This is a wonderfully fast challenge!

 

Edited August 25, 2016 by Van Disaster

[DualDesertEagle]

I just tried stuffing as many kerbals as I could into a long Mk3 cargo bay on a plane that only weighs about 26 tons. There would PROBABLY have been enough room to get all kerbals in there that I already flew to the island with my big, heavy Kerbus K276 but the ratio would've been about 26 / 276 = 0.094, which would probably be hard to beat.

 

The problem is that u have to drop them from a second vehicle with a passenger module right above the open cargo bay, pooping them out one by one. Not only is that pretty much as tedious as it would've been to EVA all the kerbals from my big plane but the kerbals also tend to fall through the bottom of the cargo bay, which also tends to happen when the plane starts taxiing.

So mission "ridiculous load" failed badly and I'm afraid I don't have any idea how I could make it work.

 

EDIT: I might have an idea that could work tho, using an MK2 cargo bay that opens both at the top and the bottom!

Edited August 25, 2016 by DualDesertEagle

[Van Disaster]

And just to show that thing is flyable in stock ( with care )
 

Spoiler

 

 

Bit heavier ( more fuel too ) in stock

336.2 / 676  = 0.497

I'm not going to try replacing those wings with stock panels, I'll be here all year

[Stoney3K]

1 hour ago, DualDesertEagle said:

I just tried stuffing as many kerbals as I could into a long Mk3 cargo bay on a plane that only weighs about 26 tons. There would PROBABLY have been enough room to get all kerbals in there that I already flew to the island with my big, heavy Kerbus K276 but the ratio would've been about 26 / 276 = 0.094, which would probably be hard to beat.

EDIT: I might have an idea that could work tho, using an MK2 cargo bay that opens both at the top and the bottom!

EVA Kerbals have some weight as well. 276 Kerbals with a weight of 90 kilograms each would add a weight of 24.84 tonnes. giving you a ratio of (26 + 24.84) / 276 = 0.184.

Carrying them in EVA is the most mass efficient option but it is a pretty tedious task putting each one of them in a cargo bay (or any other flying box). Of course, you CAN load them using the cargo ramp.

The absolute rock bottom would be 0.09 ton per Kerbal, ie. a lone Kerbal in his EVA suit swimming all the way to the island.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Stoney3K

[DualDesertEagle]

10 minutes ago, Stoney3K said:

EVA Kerbals have some weight as well. 276 Kerbals with a weight of 90 kilograms each would add a weight of 24.84 tonnes. giving you a ratio of (26 + 24.84) / 276 = 0.184.

Carrying them in EVA is the most mass efficient option but it is a pretty tedious task putting each one of them in a cargo bay (or any other flying box). Of course, you CAN load them using the cargo ramp.

The absolute rock bottom would be 0.09 ton per Kerbal, ie. a lone Kerbal in his EVA suit swimming all the way to the island.

I don't think the weight of the kerbals counts for the OP.

 

Anyway, after having my game crash multiple times coz it only supports a certain number of kerbals in a cargo bay I decided to try and take off with those I had loaded so far. But after one of them glitched through the bottom at one spot I was like "f**k this, I'm gonna bomb-drop 'em!" So I opened the rear of the 2 cargo bays which was facing down and let 'em all fall out. I think I dropped like 15 or so, 8 or 9 of which survived their impact! And I wasn't exactly flyin' slow!

[Stoney3K]

13 minutes ago, DualDesertEagle said:

I don't think the weight of the kerbals counts for the OP.

Well, the 'weight per Kerbal transported' was calculated assuming all Kerbals were transported in pressurized cabins. These weigh the same regardless of their payload, so I suspect the weight of a pressurized cabin is the weight of a *crewed* pressurized cabin.

Counting the weight of their EVA suits when transporting them EVA seems fair, as it would, in theory, also allow command chairs in the equation. Otherwise the 'transport weight' of an EVA Kerbal is zero.

[The Optimist]

Just sent a little electric propeller plane with 17 kerbals over. Took a whole 8 minutes and definitely slower than a jet, but propellers are cool and somewhat practical, so it was worth it.

Proof of 17 kerbal capacity:

Edited August 25, 2016 by The Optimist