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The Rocketplane Challange

CyclonicTuna
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CyclonicTuna

CyclonicTuna

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So, I'm guessing pretty much everyone on these forums is known with the North American X - 15. For those less familiar with this aircraft, it basically was an experimental rocketplane build in the 60's to reach new speeds on the edge between earth's atmosphere and space. I'll include a wiki link at the end.

My challange is to (sort of) re-create the flights of this aircraft. Mostly because till this day the cold war, and all its experiments it brought forth, personally still fascinates me a lot. And the X - 15 flights were one of the first milestone's to be made public of that time. Secondly, because the (as of now) recently passed away spaceflight pioneer Niel Armstrong put his life on the line in this aircraft, reaching unknown zone's and establishing the foundation for space flight as we know it today.

The Challange? Go as fast as you can!

Here are the rules:

- The aircraft must be carried by another craft that will take it to release altittude. Just like the B-52 carried the X-15

- The carrier craft must be jet powered, so no rocket engines.

- The rocketplane that will be launched must be a rocket powered. You can decide for yourself wether it will be a solid rocket motor, or a liquid motor.

- The rocketplane cannot go into full orbit, because that would make it a spacecraft.

- The speed must be recorded untill a cieling of 70.000 meters. Beyond 70.000 meters is considered space, and therefore it is no longer a rocketplane, but a spacecraft.

The following is allowed:

- The rocketplane does not need active landing gear, but does have to survive the flight.

- I used some parts from the NovaPunch remix pack, so those parts are allowed.

- You can use any amount of kerbonauts flying your rocketplane. But it does have to be manned.

- The rocketplane and carrier can be as big or as small as you like.

This will earn you more respect and recognition from your fellow kerbonauts ;)

- Landing the craft back at KSC.

- Reaching hypersonic speeds: the hypersonic range starts at mach 5, or 1701,45 meters per second.

- Making sure that the carrier craft survives the fall back to the ground.

MISSION FAILURE!:

- When your kerbal(s) die(s).

Note: I'm not such a math wizard nor a cold war expert so I don't know wether these rules are calibrated to the right size in relation to kerbin. Any comments on rule changes to more closely mimic the X-15 flight to the size of kerbin would be appreciated and implemented.

I already build my craft and its looking pretty good if I do say so myself ;). I still have to do my run. When you do your's attach some pictures of your craft, I'm very curious as to see what kind of creative things will be thought up. And we can also learn from each other. Knowledge is hour greatest posession.

Also attach a screenshot from the post flight results.

Finally here's the X-15 wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15

And some pictures of my craft:

Edited by CyclonicTuna
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CyclonicTuna

CyclonicTuna

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Alrighty, wasn't my best run but it wasn't my worst either :D

I almost lost control when I realized my apoapsis was about 97.000 meters but I managed to correct before breaking 70.000 meters so the recording is still valid. I reached a speed of 2.056 m/s, that's roughly mach 6.042. So I was hypersonic! YAY!

Max amount of gee's was 7.1 so very survivable. I didn't however spare my carrier craft, and I didn't land back at KSC so no bonus points for that. But still, a pretty decent flight.

Here's the after action report:

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CyclonicTuna

CyclonicTuna

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I might give it a go. tho the carrier craft thing is kinda hard for me :P

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard". Easy assignments would've never gotten us where we are now ;). I'm sure you'll find a way.

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robsr3v3ng3

robsr3v3ng3

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This looks like a fun challenge, I have played around with carrier craft for quite a bit, i.e. have a jet carrier and a single SRB with wings which glides back down. My attempts haven't been hugely successful so far though because I don't make the carrier big enough and so the X-15 equivalent causes too much change in centre of mass and drag.

Does the rocket powered ship have to be a single stage? I.e. could it break away from the carrier, fire up a LFE to get it to speed and then gun it with a couple of SRBs attached?

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SasquatchM

SasquatchM

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<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vHOnXH7ve_c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If I had aimed my launch a little better I could have made it back to the KSC. Maybe I'll try again when I have another half an hour.

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SasquatchM

SasquatchM

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Mach 8.99, 3059 m/s @ 20,000 meters and I sort-of landed at the KSP.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1W89rS1grog" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Edited by SasquatchM
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CyclonicTuna

CyclonicTuna

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Does the rocket powered ship have to be a single stage? I.e. could it break away from the carrier, fire up a LFE to get it to speed and then gun it with a couple of SRBs attached?

The rules didn't say anything about stages, though I'd personally prefer if you keep your rocketplane to be single stage because the X - 15 was just a single stage too. But don't feel too restricted by my personal taste.

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CyclonicTuna

CyclonicTuna

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Mach 8.99, 3059 m/s @ 20,000 meters and I sort-of landed at the KSP.

Damm 0.0, I'm getting my ass thoroughly kicked in my own game. Great run, I might even adapt the rules slightly because of your flight. Nah, just kidding ;), this actually really motivates me to try and build a solid booster rocketpalane. But there's no doubt your run is the best so far.

I also really liked your first run, it never even occured to me that you could also put the rocketplane on top of the carrier. Very creative and intuitive, that's what I love about this game.

Edited by CyclonicTuna
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CyclonicTuna

CyclonicTuna

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Hey, just curious, but shouldn't you be able to go into space? The X-15 could get into space, if my memory is correct.

Well that's why I set the maximum height limit to 70.000 meters. The kerbin atmosphere stops at about 60.000 meters so 70.000 meters is just about the edge of space. Just like the real X - 15 flew high and fast enough to make the pilot experience zero g for a minute or so, on the edge of space. The challange here is to keep the craft below that altittude, and not letting it go into full orbit. Those are just the rules I made up based on the real X - 15 flights to mimic them as closely as possible.

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CyclonicTuna

CyclonicTuna

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Just recorded this for my LP! Yesterday I reached a speed of 3200 m/s, but today my max speed was about 2300 m/s inside the atmosphere.

I'm in a bit of a dilemma wether I should allow for the mechjeb addon to be used. When I made the rules I said that the only addon/mod allowed was the NovaPunch remix pack, as I used some parts from that addon. But as this isn't a skill driven challange, rather a construction driven challange. So I think I will allow mechjeb.

Nice run, very cleverly build craft.

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robsr3v3ng3

robsr3v3ng3

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No offense but I think the claim of "I can land this so I'll end here" is a bit hopeful. Because as soon as that chute opens fully you'll loose almost all forward momentum and effectively faceplant the ground, and one parachute is not gonna be enough to get a craft that size slow enough to survive without at least half the craft exploding.

Otherwise very good effort, it has given me a new idea to try out now as the fastest I've been able to go so far is around 2.4km/s at around 20km altitude.

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