ThunderBirds Interplanetary Transport Circumnavigation Challenge

[halocon720]

Hello, dalies and mentlegen of Kerbin. I pose a challenge that possibly only Jeb Kerman can accomplish: to circumnavigate the planet Kerbin. This daunting challenge has strict guidelines that must be followed, such as:

1. NO ORBITING. This is to be an atmospheric (i.e. jet-powered) flight. Altitude limit of 50 km.

2. You may use the following mods: NovaPunch Remix Pack and MechJeb (for Avionics Package).

3. Limit of 3 rocket motors per plane. The rest of the engines must be jets.

4. Limit of 65 fuel tanks per plane. I extend thanks to NetBlitzer for correcting me here.

5. No using the debug console. this must be legitimate.

6. No taking advantage of bugs.

I wish you good luck.

-halocon720

ThunderBirds Interplanetary Transport Founder and CEO

Leaderboard:

1.Mindofscience3 completed in 3 hours 25 minutes with Magellan III.

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Edited September 15, 2012 by halocon720
Corrected

[NetBlitzer]

Halocon, I think you should for sure look at your fourth rule. In the other circumnavigation challenge, it took someone 58 fuel tanks and aerospike engines to be able to do this. No why? Because Kerbin isn't 1200km in circumference. That's its diameter. Kerbin is actually around 3700 to 3800km. Quite a bit further.

And anyways, why DID you post this challenge when you knew about the other one?

[halocon720]

I feel idiotic right now... how aboot I change the rules?

[iplop]

Halocon, I think you should for sure look at your fourth rule. In the other circumnavigation challenge, it took someone 58 fuel tanks and aerospike engines to be able to do this. No why? Because Kerbin isn't 1200km in circumference. That's its diameter. Kerbin is actually around 3700 to 3800km. Quite a bit further.

And anyways, why DID you post this challenge when you knew about the other one?

Sure about those numbers?

I just went 45% around kerbin using only 1/3 of my fuel (6 tanks).

I quit when I realized it'd take me ~45 minutes. ;D

Edit:

I completely misread the post I quoted.

Edited September 7, 2012 by iplop

[Archangel Lucifer]

Sure about those numbers?

I just went 45% around kerbin using only 1/3 of my fuel (6 tanks).

He's most definitely sure about those numbers, looking at your mission results your ground distance traveled was 543km (or there abouts) which is nowhere near a third of the way around Kerbin. Taking off from KSC and traveling in the 90 degrees direction it takes around 4000km to make it back to KSC so it's more like 1/8 of the total trip you made. This challenge doesn't have the 500m/s by 5 mins rule so imo fuel consumption overall would be lower for the entire flight compared to the other Pan Kerbal challenge which I managed to complete with great difficulty.

I had to use aerospike engines meaning that most of my fuel was consumed getting through the first 29km of the atmosphere after takeoff. Even with the fuel bug I still used 58 fuel tanks in that build but I am working on another model with only 3 aerospike engines and around 40 fuel tanks (avoiding the 200L and 400L LFT's where I can as they are overpowered compared to the MK fuselage parts imo. Although I used them in my drop tanks.) and it is also capable of reaching the Mun!

Using jet engines this challenge would take well over 2 hours to complete although there is no altitude requirement other than you can't go above 69km or so. With 3 rockets and an altitude of say 60km I imagine this challenge could be completed rather easily.

[iplop]

He's most definitely sure about those numbers, looking at your mission results your ground distance traveled was 543km (or there abouts) which is nowhere near a third of the way around Kerbin. Taking off from KSC and traveling in the 90 degrees direction it takes around 4000km to make it back to KSC so it's more like 1/8 of the total trip you made. This challenge doesn't have the 500m/s by 5 mins rule so imo fuel consumption overall would be lower for the entire flight compared to the other Pan Kerbal challenge which I managed to complete with great difficulty.

I had to use aerospike engines meaning that most of my fuel was consumed getting through the first 29km of the atmosphere after takeoff. Even with the fuel bug I still used 58 fuel tanks in that build but I am working on another model with only 3 aerospike engines and around 40 fuel tanks (avoiding the 200L and 400L LFT's where I can as they are overpowered compared to the MK fuselage parts imo. Although I used them in my drop tanks.) and it is also capable of reaching the Mun!

Using jet engines this challenge would take well over 2 hours to complete although there is no altitude requirement other than you can't go above 69km or so. With 3 rockets and an altitude of say 60km I imagine this challenge could be completed rather easily.

Woops, I read 1200km at a glance.

You're right, that would require many tanks of fuel.

*Should read more carefully before posting*

[Mindofscience3]

I completed this challenge with a max height of ~12500m. 30 fuel tanks on the plane although I landed with ~2.25 tanks left so I could cut down by probably 3 tanks and be ok. Used mechjeb to fly since it's pretty unstable (understatement of the century) as the fuel burns front to back. Highest speed was 400m/s. Stats and plane pictured below.

[EndlessWaves]

I completed this challenge with a max height of ~12500m. 30 fuel tanks on the plane although I landed with ~2.25 tanks left so I could cut down by probably 3 tanks and be ok. Used mechjeb to fly since it's pretty unstable (understatement of the century) as the fuel burns front to back. Highest speed was 400m/s. Stats and plane pictured below.

7 turbojets uses 2.8L of fuel per second at full throttle. Assuming all the fuel tanks are identical 400L models you're carrying 30*400 = 12000L of fuel in total. That's just over an hour and ten minutes of fuel.

So assume you've got the fuel bug fix installed and you're flying at 1/3 throttle which would give you the endurance. 315m/s average on 350 thrust? That's a pretty good result.

[Mindofscience3]

7 turbojets uses 2.8L of fuel per second at full throttle. Assuming all the fuel tanks are identical 400L models you're carrying 30*400 = 12000L of fuel in total. That's just over an hour and ten minutes of fuel.

So assume you've got the fuel bug fix installed and you're flying at 1/3 throttle which would give you the endurance. 315m/s average on 350 thrust? That's a pretty good result.

I drop the jets once the tanks associated are empty. I ran at full throttle to avoid the fuel bug since I have not installed the fix. I burned ~20 of my tanks getting half way then burned the last ~8 in the final half. I'm not trying to use fuel line bugs or anything. If it is accidentally, then perhaps it'll be better to see it in 0.17 when that is fixed. The calculation is more like this: 6x400L @ 2.8L/s then 6x400L @ 2.0L/s then 10x400L @ 1.2L/s then 8x400L @ 0.4L/s. This gives a flight time of approximately: 3 hours 43 mins. This is more than I needed as I landed about 3 hours 25 mins (a bit sooner actually since I was looking around for a couple mins before I ended the flight).

Edit: A secondary note: the leftover time is ~20 mins. @ 0.4L/s this translates to 480L or just over a tank. Any fuel-line glitch is responsible for the extra tank of fuel I had leftover at the end. Either way, I would have made it.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Mindofscience3

[halocon720]

I completed this challenge with a max height of ~12500m. 30 fuel tanks on the plane although I landed with ~2.25 tanks left so I could cut down by probably 3 tanks and be ok. Used mechjeb to fly since it's pretty unstable (understatement of the century) as the fuel burns front to back. Highest speed was 400m/s. Stats and plane pictured below.

Jeebus Crispies! How in the name of cheese balls did you even get off the ground in that thing?

Also, can you give me the name of your plane? I need it for the leaderboard.

Edited September 13, 2012 by halocon720

[Mindofscience3]

Jeebus Crispies! How in the name of cheese balls did you even get off the ground in that thing?

Also, can you give me the name of your plane? I need it for the leaderboard.

Mechjeb is nice. I can post the craft file if you'd like. I can fly it without mechjeb (as pictured it is without mechjeb as it is a vanilla craft). It's known as the Magellan III since it took me 3 different designs to finally make it around kerbin.

[halocon720]

Mechjeb is nice. I can post the craft file if you'd like. I can fly it without mechjeb (as pictured it is without mechjeb as it is a vanilla craft). It's known as the Magellan III since it took me 3 different designs to finally make it around kerbin.

Thanks brah. Have a good flight in whatever monster you come up with next.

[Mindofscience3]

Thanks brah. Have a good flight in whatever monster you come up with next.

[ATTACH]32999[/ATTACH]

Add mechjeb if you want to fly it with mechjeb since this is vanilla.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Mindofscience3

[halocon720]

Thanks for the .craft file Mindofscience! As a side note, you spelled Magellan wrong.

[Mindofscience3]

Thanks for the .craft file Mindofscience! As a side note, you spelled Magellan wrong.

Named with the best of intentions, hit the wrong vowel .

[Tommygun]

Wow I didn't think it was possible to do it in one plane without refueling.

I was thinking of a challenge where you pre-airdropped fuel tanks along the flightpath.

Then having that fuel transfer device on the plane and refuel as you flew over the tanks.