Ideas on building a small, fast, transport to get to the North Ice Shelf?

[JJ2_pro]

I recently downloaded ScanSat and with it, I have been able to locate a lot of anomalies. I am planning to visit these anomalies, in particular, one on the North Ice Shelf. I have tried going via air, but all my planes, while they have range, lack speed (I don't really want to wait too long during flight). I have considered rovers, but again, the speed is rather pitiful. I have the maritime pack, so a boat or float plane is another option. Does anybody have an idea for the design of such a craft?

Thanks.

[Val]

Moved from Tutorials as this seems more like a question

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

If you don't have the engines to make a high speed long range plane (panther, whiplash, etc..) yet, just take a normal plane, strap it to a rocket (shuttle style, or small enough to be inside a fairing), and send it on a short sub-orbital hop to roughly the location of the anomaly, then you can detach the plane and fly around a bit to pinpoint it. (You could also do the same with a rover and some parachutes but the plane is faster.)

Edited November 26, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[bewing]

There are a lot of tricks to reduce drag and make a fast plane. But once you have a low-drag design for your fuselage, it's just a matter of swapping out the engine (and then rebalancing the CoM/CoL).

For example: this simple MK1 plane uses tailfins for canards (and also for a tail), and a couple of Type B wings -- in this pic it has a Whiplash engine. Max speed = 1400 m/s. (After an extended flight, it gets hot. )

It gets to the North pole on only 200 units of LF.

Rebuilding that plane with a Juno gets a top speed of about 200 m/s, a wheesley gets you to 600, a panther to 850, and a rapier to 1600 for a while until you blow up.

 

[swjr-swis]

13 hours ago, JJ2_pro said:

Does anybody have an idea for the design of such a craft?

You might want to try this fast and easy to handle Mk3 transport: https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/Transport-3a. It can circumnavigate Kerbin in under an hour, so getting to the iceshelf should take less than 15 mins flying at normal time.

Spoiler

 

It's an evolution of one of @Hotel26 designs, helping to make it leaner and balance it out. Turned out quite useful... I've been using it regularly since then.

There's plenty of notes in the plane description to reuse the ideas in other planes of your own design if you wish. Check out the forum thread as well - there's more planes and advice offered by others.

 

[Klapaucius]

17 hours ago, JJ2_pro said:

I recently downloaded ScanSat and with it, I have been able to locate a lot of anomalies. I am planning to visit these anomalies, in particular, one on the North Ice Shelf. I have tried going via air, but all my planes, while they have range, lack speed (I don't really want to wait too long during flight). I have considered rovers, but again, the speed is rather pitiful. I have the maritime pack, so a boat or float plane is another option. Does anybody have an idea for the design of such a craft?

Thanks.

What mode are you playing in?  Are you in career or science with limited tech or in sandbox?  That will affect the answer.

[XLjedi]

If I need to get somewhere fast, I just take one of my SSTO's and fly a suborbital arch in the direction I want to go.

[Thor Wotansen]

Build something light  with a whiplash and balance it good for both full and empty fuel.  You can travel at around 20km altitude and 1000+m/s burning very little fuel, like 0.05 units per second.  You don't really have to worry too much about lift, since the ice shelf is as flat as the runway and a lot longer, so you can pretty much land at mach 3 without bouncing (if you're really careful).

[Klapaucius]

Take a look at the aircraft built for this challenge:

 

 

[Orc]

Greets all, 

 

My efforts to explore the Northern (and Southern) Ice shelf biomes have largely been restricted to two types of craft. 

Number one is a variation of the same rocket I use for early pre-orbital, and orbital science gathering. Launch it northward instead of eastward and cut the throttle when your trajectory hits the 'far-side' of the ice shelf you are aiming for. When you are over the ice shelf use any remaining propellant to slow down and make a landing. 

 

Alternatively I build a sturdy airplane with lots of science stuff attached and two J-33 Wheesleys. Its not Kerbin's fastest trip but you might be able to harvest a few temperature scans on the biomes you fly over on the way there. Typically I find that with the initial 30-part limit, and an un-upgraded runway, and sufficient science stuff to make the trip worth while that I'll run out of fuel on the way back, so I end up recovering the plane from a random piece of grassland. 

 

By the time better jet engines come along most of Kerbin's biomes have been thoroughly explored, and the more lucrative contracts are all off world, so it doesn't make sense wasting time chasing down anomalies or taking temperature readings on distant Kerbin biomes. 

YMMV.

REgards

Orc

[JJ2_pro]

On 11/27/2018 at 11:50 AM, Klapaucius said:

What mode are you playing in?  Are you in career or science with limited tech or in sandbox?  That will affect the answer.

I am currently in a Science Mode with my furthest technologies being Science, Basic rocketry and Aviation. Thankyou everybody for the help.

Edited December 26, 2018 by JJ2_pro

[Triop]

https://kerbalx.com/Triop/Small-Rover-Shuttle

Edited January 1, 2019 by Triop

[Klapaucius]

6 hours ago, Triop said:

https://kerbalx.com/Triop/Small-Rover-Shuttle

You should enter my latest challenge. That is the perfect craft for it.