Turbofan Speed Run

[sevenperforce]

Using only pure-turbofan engines (that is, the Juno, the Wheesley, or the Goliath), transport at least 13 Kerbals from the KSC runway to the island runway and back, as fast as possible. You must land on the island runway and come to a full stop before taking off for the return trip. You may not stage; no part of your craft may be broken.

There is no multiplier for additional Kerbals. Lowest round-trip time wins.

Leaderboard:

1. @Rosvall with four Goliaths and 2:59!
2. @sevenperforce with two Goliaths and 4:28!
3. @Benjamin Kerman with three Wheesleys, coming in at 4:40!

Edited July 1, 2017 by sevenperforce

[Benjamin Kerman]

Im in! Give me ~20 minutes, I'll enter!

[sevenperforce]

1 minute ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

Im in! Give me ~20 minutes, I'll enter!

If it takes you 20 minutes to get to the island runway and back, I think you may be using an underpowered design.

(Kidding, kidding. Looking forward to your entry!)

[Benjamin Kerman]

All right!

So, just a simple design with three wheeslys and a large wingspan.

Pictures:

Top speed that I saw was around 450 m/s. 

Nice challenge! If mine is easily beaten, I might have to pull out the little guns!

Edit: i see i was ten minutes late.  

Edited June 29, 2017 by Benjamin Kerman

[sevenperforce]

1 minute ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

All right!

So, just a simple design with three wheeslys and a large wingspan.

Pictures:

Top speed that I saw was around 450 m/s. 

Nice challenge! If mine is easily beaten, I might have to pull out the little guns!

Love the design!

However, I think you might have missed the "and back" part of it all.

[Benjamin Kerman]

22 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Love the design!

However, I think you might have missed the "and back" part of it all.

Wut?

ok, loading up now

lets see how fast i can get back...

can i just add up the times? I didnt recover the ship.

Edited June 29, 2017 by Benjamin Kerman

[sevenperforce]

4 minutes ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

Wut?

ok, loading up now

lets see how fast i can get back...

can i just add up the times? I didnt recover the ship.

As long as your plane hasn't moved from the 2:17 mark.

[Benjamin Kerman]

16 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

As long as your plane hasn't moved from the 2:17 mark.

No sir! 

Pictures of the way back:

http://imgur.com/a/lV8YO

2:17 + 2:23 = 4:40 minutes. 

Thank you again for the challenge.

Edit: darn, the images are out of order and lost the titles. Hold on...

Edit2: Ok, should be good now!

Edited June 29, 2017 by Benjamin Kerman

[Benjamin Kerman]

@sevenperforce i belive thats 4:40, not 4:04...  

[sevenperforce]

Just now, Benjamin Kerman said:

@sevenperforce i belive thats 4:40, not 4:04...  

Haha, good catch. Thanks! Fixed it.

I have a dual-Goliath-powered bird that can make the run to the island in 1:25 (top speed of 602 m/s) but I have thus far been unable to stick the landing.

[Benjamin Kerman]

57 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Haha, good catch. Thanks! Fixed it.

I have a dual-Goliath-powered bird that can make the run to the island in 1:25 (top speed of 602 m/s) but I have thus far been unable to stick the landing.

Yeah, that was a problem for me also. I did about 10 quicksaves, each one coming in slower then the other...

[Skylon]

30 minutes ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

Yeah, that was a problem for me also. I did about 10 quicksaves, each one coming in slower then the other...

VTOL? Or is that too slow?

Edit: I guess it would be tricky with a 13 kerbal craft

Edited June 30, 2017 by Skylon

[Benjamin Kerman]

Just now, Skylon said:

VTOL? Or is that too slow?

Edit: I guess it would be tricky with a 13 kerbal craft

I would not recommend VTOL, but if you can get there quick, sure. 

[sevenperforce]

23 minutes ago, Skylon said:

VTOL? Or is that too slow?

Edit: I guess it would be tricky with a 13 kerbal craft

VTOL is certainly allowed, if you can pull it off. I did 13 kerbals intentionally, to make sure that it was a substantial amount of plane to build.

[sevenperforce]

@Benjamin Kerman

Well, let's see here. After about a million quicksaves, I made it...barely!

Gear down for the island landing.

Used reversible thrust on an action group to slow down, though I spun at the end like you.

Barely made the takeoff...

Highest speed coming back.

Making the approach...believe it or not, this is where I had to put gear down in order to slow enough.

Reversible thrust, spinning out of control for a while (this is NOT stable at low speeds), but made it to the desired 0.0m/s with 12 seconds to spare.

 

[Benjamin Kerman]

What even are wings?

Do we really need them?

Edited June 30, 2017 by Benjamin Kerman

[sevenperforce]

11 minutes ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

What even are wings?

Do we really need them?

Well actually there are wing strakes barely visible between the body and the engines. But the body did provide the majority of the lift.

[Rosvall]

I made an abomination xD

http://imgur.com/a/G8jko

4 goliaths plus a lot and radiators and airbrakes. I still had to toggle the engines when getting too hot.

Time was 3:42  

Edited July 13, 2017 by Rosvall

[Rosvall]

Btw Very nice challenge!

I'm working on an mk2 version with 4 goliaths as the mk1 kept blowing up. Are launch clamps allowed?

[sevenperforce]

5 hours ago, Rosvall said:

I made an abomination xD

4 goliaths plus a lot and radiators and airbrakes. I still had to toggle the engines when getting too hot.

Time was 3:42  

Beautiful!!

5 hours ago, Rosvall said:

Btw Very nice challenge!

I'm working on an mk2 version with 4 goliaths as the mk1 kept blowing up. Are launch clamps allowed?

Launch clamps are absolutely allowed!

[Rosvall]

On 7/1/2017 at 5:57 AM, sevenperforce said:

Launch clamps are absolutely allowed!

Sweet!

mk2 definitely seems like the way to go because of the heating issue (the lift is nice aswell).In launch clamps pointed right for the Island!

http://imgur.com/a/Y5G8r

I used 4x XL landing gear for hard landings + 2 medium in the front so it was possible to turn around on the Island runway.

Time was just under 3 min at 2:59

Edited July 13, 2017 by Rosvall
Imgur link broke? For some reason I can't embed imgur albums anymore

[sevenperforce]

6 hours ago, Rosvall said:

Sweet!

mk2 definitely seems like the way to go because of the heating issue (the lift is nice aswell).

In launch clamps pointed right for the Island!

I used 4x XL landing gear for hard landings + 2 medium in the front so it was possible to turn around on the Island runway.

Time was just under 3 min at 2:59

Very nice! I used launch clamps pointed exactly the same way. I just kept having trouble with burning up the Goliaths. Plus the hard landings.

[Rosvall]

6 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

Very nice! I used launch clamps pointed exactly the same way. I just kept having trouble with burning up the Goliaths. Plus the hard landings.

With this design I only had heating trouble on the return trip when the engines were already hot. In the return run I have to cut the engines every time I go over about 600 m/s.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Rosvall