Drone Making Challenge

[Ardy]

Well, here's to hoping my first post is fun and exciting!

Welcome, I have a challenge for you! (An interesting one at that.) I Challenge you to make a drone to the best of your abilities.

The rules are:

1. No cockpits
2. Length of drone has to be less than or equal to 8 meters
3. Thickness of fuselage has to be around the size of the Oscar-B Fuel Tank (It's okay if some extra parts are making it a little bigger)
4. Make it as cheap as you can
5. Flies well
6. Has landing gear and can land correctly without problems
7. No other mods than BDArmoury, AviatorArsenal, KAX. (I may consider allowing more if there are good mods I was unaware of)

 

What I would like to see in a drone (but not important):

• Able to maneuver efficiently
• Can ferry from runway to island runway without the use of external fuel tanks
• Can maintain a very slow speed without losing altitude
• Able to carry munitions from BDArmoury (again, not important)

I think that's it, if you have any questions, please comment below, and I will do my best to answer them!

Provide a download link of your drone, please!

 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Ardy

[stickman939]

Shame, I made a drone while back but it's almost 100% mod parts (Procedural parts, firespitter, B9 pwings). Oh well, I'll be making my entry soon.

Also people should upload their crafts to KerbalX.com. It's a dedicated KSP .craft file sharing site. Useful af

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

5 hours ago, Ardy said:

 

• Can reach Mach 1 (Able to see airfoil vertices)
• Can reach Mach 2 on a dive (Able to see fire)

There is a much more definitive way to determine the mach number you're getting, even at higher altitudes at which these effects don't show themselves at reasonable speeds. Open the Alt-F12 menu, click the physics button, and then check "display aero data in action menus."  Now you can right click on a part (for example, your nosecone) and determine your mach number down to the hundredths place.

[Ardy]

35 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

There is a much more definitive way to determine the mach number you're getting, even at higher altitudes at which these effects don't show themselves at reasonable speeds. Open the Alt-F12 menu, click the physics button, and then check "display aero data in action menus."  Now you can right click on a part (for example, your nosecone) and determine your mach number down to the hundredths place.

Ah, thank you. Your information is useful to me!

1 hour ago, stickman939 said:

Shame, I made a drone while back but it's almost 100% mod parts (Procedural parts, firespitter, B9 pwings). Oh well, I'll be making my entry soon.

Also people should upload their crafts to KerbalX.com. It's a dedicated KSP .craft file sharing site. Useful af

Send a picture of your other drone with the firespitter and B9 mod, I'd like to see! Also, thanks for thinking about adding an entry!

[stickman939]

2 hours ago, Ardy said:

4 hours ago, stickman939 said:

Shame, I made a drone while back but it's almost 100% mod parts (Procedural parts, firespitter, B9 pwings). Oh well, I'll be making my entry soon.

Also people should upload their crafts to KerbalX.com. It's a dedicated KSP .craft file sharing site. Useful af

Send a picture of your other drone with the firespitter and B9 mod, I'd like to see! Also, thanks for thinking about adding an entry!

Here's my other drone:

Spoiler

(Psst, you can get it here)
http://imgur.com/a/u5MTz

(I attempted to embed the album but it didn't work out lol)

And here's my submission:

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/a/H1o4X

It wasn't able to break Mach 2, unfortunately. It did get a little under Mach 1.5
The slowest speed I was able to keep it in the sky without loosing altitude was 307-310mph (138m/s)

You can get it here

Edit: Forgot to test whether it can go to the island without drop tanks  lol, so here's the F3 menu (see Ground Distance Covered)
 

Spoiler

 

Edited September 27, 2016 by stickman939

[*MajorTom*]

my drone. stock. 

Edited October 1, 2016 by *MajorTom*

[SasquatchM]

Well, you get to put up with the weird shakiness because of the "stabilization" I tried, t make me feel like I have motion sickness, but here ya go.

 

Edited October 2, 2016 by SasquatchM

[Torquimedes]

Delta Dirk D306 is a very efficient, long-range drone with a long loiter time on station and a high payload fraction.

 

Rules compliance:

1. Probe core plus full SAS functionality, including target tracking.
2. Size 3.0 x 3.44 x 7.08, 20 parts and 3 tons fully fuelled without payload
3. Core fuselage is 0.625m diameter
4. Costs <16k kerbucks.
5. Flies well enough for a drone, just don’t touch the rudder control.
6. Cheaper landing gear had to be replaced with more draggy ones and the addition of an expensive speed brake in order to shed enough airspeed to land.
7. Pure stock, no cheats.

Additional features:

• Able to maneuver effectively even at very low speeds.
• Can ferry to anywhere on Kerbin, not only without drop tanks, but while carrying a ton of payload.
• Loitered at 6k and 60 m/s for more than an hour of flight time.
• Max speed ASL (clean) is 275 m/s, cruise speed is 200 ASL, service ceiling is 6k.
• I don’t have BDArmory, but there are a pair of pylons under the wings where up to a ton of munitions can be carried.
• Engine exhaust is blended with air from the ventral intake to reduce thermal signature.
• Effort was made toward a low-radar-observable shape with angled surfaces, which was somewhat undone by the square ventral intake.

  

KerbalX link

 

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by Torquimedes

[Ardy]

Very good job, I enjoy this drone!

[DustInTheWind]

So are we going for lightest & cheapest? I have a wingless design at just under 700 Kg and around 2040 funds that will make it to the island with plenty of fuel to spare. It relies on reaction wheels for takeoff, steering, and landing on one gear. There is no lift, it is kept airborne by thrust and attitude control alone. This one is really tricky to land.
I also have a winged trike landing gear version that weights 763 Kg and costs 2390 funds that is a whole lot easier to fly and land.

Both can get up to mach 0.97 below 1000m and are perhaps the most maneuverable aircraft I have ever built in KSP due to the reaction wheels being completely overpowered for the craft's mass

 

[TheEpicSquared]

Hold on, I think I have a plane just right for this... It'll be up tomorrow, Sunday at the latest!

[Tex_NL]

I've got a nice little Micro Drone doing roughly Mach 2 at sea level.  But it doesn't carry any weapons.
Will post pics soon.

Mach 2 over the island.

And even flies well under 100m/s.
Stats:
16 Parts
Mass 1.040t
Height 1.3m
Width 2.5m
Length 2.8m
Cost 4945

Edited November 17, 2016 by Tex_NL

[DustInTheWind]

@Tex_NL, very similar to my minimalist design. Pics later today.

[Tex_NL]

On 17-11-2016 at 9:44 PM, DustInTheWind said:

@Tex_NL, very similar to my minimalist design. Pics later today.

Wheesleys Junos are weak. If you want to go fast you MUST go minimalist. Go small and lightweight.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Tex_NL

[DustInTheWind]

This is my minimalist winged design. It is not the lightest or cheapest I have built, but it is the best compromise between cost and weight while being easy to land. It has enough thrust and lift reserves for a small payload.

• 10 parts 
• 2390 funds 
• Mass: 0.763t 
• Height: 1.3m
• Width: 2.5m
• Length: 2.3m
• Min Speed to maintain altitude at 15^o AoA: 59m/s
• Max Speed below 1000m: mach 0.97
• Max Speed in level flight: mach 1.07
• Range: 800-1000 km at 20% throttle, 500 km at mach 1

Imgur Album