Helicopter Altitude Record

[sevenperforce]

This one is pretty simple. Build a craft which can only gain altitude by aerodynamic lift and see how high you can sustain flight. Infinite fuel and infinite electricity are permitted on a separate leaderboard albeit with a 10% score penalty. It doesn't have to be a true helicopter, but the critical thing is that you cannot apply vertical with reaction engines at any point. Should be pretty common-sense.

Note that the scoring is based on sustained altitude, not maximum altitude.

Here's a quick-and-dirty example, just to show what can be done:

Just a capsule and a bunch of reaction wheels with fins on the outside. 17.4 km and still climbing.

EDIT: Made the rules a bit clearer/better.

Leaderboard:

Spoiler

Infinite Fuel/Electricity:

• @Sivonen: 33,819 m
• @sevenperforce: 20,484 m
• @Azimech: 8,525 m

No cheats:

• @Azimech: 8,284 m

 

Edited June 20, 2017 by sevenperforce

[Azimech]

Quote

but the critical thing is that you cannot apply anti-radial thrust with reaction engines at any point.

Guess I'll have to start my own challenge.

[sevenperforce]

2 hours ago, Azimech said:

Guess I'll have to start my own challenge.

I don't follow?

I meant thrust with the engine plume pointed down.

[Azimech]

I don't have the fantasy I can compete with something like your device, Juno's won't even run at that altitude. But it is interesting to see how one of my helicopters will do.

[Red Rocket Robert]

Quite impressive, It leaves me in wonder as to how much further the helicopter could reach.

[sevenperforce]

9 hours ago, Azimech said:

I don't have the fantasy I can compete with something like your device, Juno's won't even run at that altitude. But it is interesting to see how one of my helicopters will do.

I'd rather have your submission than not! How about I do two separate leaderboards: one with infinite fuel/electricity, and one without?

[Azimech]

Allright, did a testflight, Ill put up the pics in a few minutes.

[sevenperforce]

7 hours ago, Red Rocket Robert said:

Quite impressive, It leaves me in wonder as to how much further the helicopter could reach.

Probably nearing its limit -- I don't know how many rotational gees I'm pulling but it's high. It gets very unstable at high RPMs; even though it is fully autostrutted, the parts start slipping out of place and it makes the control surfaces pull out of alignment. I might be able to do a better job of it if I used a single part as the fuselage.

Protip for testing: throw the whole thing inside a fairing and slap an SRB underneath it. That'll save you the trouble of climbing slowly through the atmosphere.

27 minutes ago, Azimech said:

Allright, did a testflight, Ill put up the pics in a few minutes.

Looking forward to seeing it!

[Azimech]

This is the 77I-Azi20 Selene, stock turboshaft helicopter. It's powered by an Asura II engine, 50 blowers, 8 turbine blades. Only modification from standard is I added a probe core and RTG to the turbine shaft for controlling rotor RPM at high altitude.
As you can see I was out of fuel while climbing after roughly 45 minutes. The last test was using the fuel cheat. After a nap it was hovering at the final altitude. Interesting to note is the engine started to run a little hot, something it doesn't do below 3500m or during forward flight.

 

[Azimech]

48 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Probably nearing its limit -- I don't know how many rotational gees I'm pulling but it's high. It gets very unstable at high RPMs; even though it is fully autostrutted, the parts start slipping out of place and it makes the control surfaces pull out of alignment. I might be able to do a better job of it if I used a single part as the fuselage.

 

The cause is your craft is trying to spin faster than the 51rad/s limit, faster than that and physics go gaga. It's a limitation in either Unity or KSP, we don't know.
The solution is to use more lift.

[Sivonen]

 

 

I can do better, but here's a start. Infinite energy.

[Sivonen]

Better.

Infinite energy.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Sivonen

[DaveTheFish]

Would Hank Green's "Helicoptopodes" design count as a helicopter?

 

[Deddly]

That's some great stuff right there, everyone. Nice challenge and entries!

As a general reminder, please don't reserve posts for future content. Just post it when it's ready

[sevenperforce]

On 6/20/2017 at 4:01 PM, DaveTheFish said:

Would Hank Green's "Helicoptopodes" design count as a helicopter?

Yes, it would, right up to the point that it separates and kicks its engines into gear.

[sevenperforce]

Sneak peek of another attempt: 

 

[DaveTheFish]

On 6/23/2017 at 7:56 AM, sevenperforce said:

Yes, it would, right up to the point that it separates and kicks its engines into gear.

Ok, thanks! Will do once my KSP is fixed.

[ModerndayLink]

Is hyper edit allowed? (For increasing atmospheric pressure via planet editor)