[FAR] Fly a brick to the runway and back.

[Pds314]

The goal of this challenge is to make a plane which has:

1. A single Juno as its power source.
2. Masses in at a minimum empty weight of 3 tonnes.
3. Has the shortest wingspan possible.

And can still reach the Island Runway and return without using parachutes for any phase of the flight. This challenge is intended for Ferram Aerospace Research Continued and KSP 1.7.

Bonus: do other cool/crazy/impossible-seeming stuff with the plane.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Pds314

[Pds314]

When you realize your plane needs to not just fly straight but level in order to be semi-controllable and not go into some crazy stall. xD

(Above 18-degrees AOA, which it will almost inevitably reach, it is suddenly very unstable on about half the stability derivatives, below it, it is stable on all of them).

Edited May 26, 2019 by Pds314

[Mukita12]

Basically Space Shuttle on a steroid.

I'm gonna try it later though

[Klapaucius]

I'm close, but not quite yet. I need to add a bit more fuel (or just not fly flat out to get there).  I ran out about a third of the way back to the KSC.  But here is the progress so far.

 

This is Roald, which was actually my entry for the Micro-Airplane challenge.   It weighs in at 683kg fully fueled and is 3.5 metres wide, much of that due to the landing gear (2.5 metres from the end of one flap to the other).   

 

 

I have to admit this is a really difficult aircraft to land, especially on that narrow runway, and I had about a dozen tries (I quicksaved the approach) before my, uh, sort-of success. It's so light it just bounces like crazy, even with the spring strength set very low.  But hey, any landing you can walk away from, right?  And the plane was intact!  It took me ages to get the Val and Bob back on board.  I had to stand one of them in front of the plane to keep it from rolling away while the other attempted to board.  For some reason the climb icon did not want to appear.  The takeoff from the Island Runway is also the second attempt (after wisely quicksaving before taxiing). I got bouncing badly and wrecked the first time.  Here is a minute and half of micro, er, glory...

 

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by Klapaucius

[Pds314]

On 5/26/2019 at 11:34 PM, Klapaucius said:

This is Roald, which was actually my entry for the Micro-Airplane challenge.   It weighs in at 683kg fully fueled and is 3.5 metres wide,

Nice... so.. where will the extra 2.4 tonnes empty weight be? Ore tanks or????

 

And is that FAR because it doesn't look like something I would build in FAR but IDK.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Pds314

[Klapaucius]

20 minutes ago, Pds314 said:

Nice... so.. where will the extra 2.4 tonnes empty weight be? Ore tanks or????

 

And is that FAR because it doesn't look like something I would build in FAR but IDK.

Ahh, crikey, I misread the whole thing. This is what happens when you do challenges at midnight.  I'll just have to bow out. I don't have FAR.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Klapaucius