(Reboot again) Quest for Hypersonic challenge

[Kerminator K-100]

This is a reboot of the original challenge made by @Jeb-head-mug kerman

This challenge has changed many times in the 3 (now 4) reboots that it has had. I'm going to add a bit of my own flavor to it. The general rules will stay the same though.

The Goal:

The goal is simple. Build a plane that will go hypersonic. What is hypersonic? Well here is what the last thread said:

Quote

So first, a bit of background on hypersonic travel. The term 'hypersonic' means anything traveling faster than Mach 5, or 5 times the speed of sound. Note: The speed of an aircraft is only counted as hypersonic if it is in the atmosphere and under 90 km. The first hypersonic aircraft was built by  the US and was a two-stage completaly kerbal rocket that reached the speed of mach 6.7. Nothing but ash and dust remained of the rocket when it 'landed'. The first human to exceed the hypersonic barrier was Yuri Gagarin, (I am looking at you, Jebediah), and after that came Alan Shepard from the US. After that a series of developments led to the X-15 aircraft, which, to date is the fastest manned airplane capable of flight. 

So pretty much the goal is to get over 3000 m/s. In atmosphere and under 50 km.

Some basic rules:

• No mods

Spoiler

(no mods that affect airplane performance: FAR, NF Aeronautics, MKIV planes, OTP or part mods. No autopilots either. KER is fine and other mods like it (information only). Graphical mods are also ok)

• No cheats
• DLCs are ok
• No editing .cfg files
• All records must be while the craft  is under 50 km. The apoapsis does not need to be sub 50 km.
• Switch your Navball to surface velocity, not orbital. (Not a disqualifying rule, just quality of life for me)
• Reentry heating must be at 100%. You can go above that but any less is not allowed.

Leaderboard:

Highest speed - Manned:

1. @ColdJ 4043 m/s
2. @Philae_Rosetta2021 3861 m/s
3. @visor2580 3301.8 m/s
4.  @percyPrune 3228.1 m/s (Landed afterwards)
5.  

 

Highest speed - Unmanned:

1. @camacju 25606.46 m/s
2. @Kerminator K-100 6252 m/s
3. @ColdJ 4334 m/s
4.  @chadgaskerman 3067.27 m/s  (Water landing afterwards)
5.  

Waverider leaderboard:

1. @camacju 25606.46 m/s
2.  
3.  
4.  
5.  

Hermes leaderboard:

1. @ColdJ 4043 m/s
2. @Philae_Rosetta2021 3861 m/s
3. @visor2580 3301.8 m/s
4.  @percyPrune 3228.1 m/s (Landed afterwards)
5.  

Glider leaderboard:

1.  @chadgaskerman 3067.27 m/s (Water landing afterwards)
2.  
3.  
4.  
5.  

Ballistic leaderboard:

1. @Kerminator K-100 6252 m/s
2.  @ColdJ 4334 m/s
3.  
4.  
5.  

You can complete the challenge in multiple classes, detailed below:

Waverider:

Spoiler

Based off Boeing's waverider class hypersonic plane, the basic rules for this one are:

• The record breaker must be launched from a mother ship
• The mothership:
  • Must be single stage
  • Must use jet engines
• The waverider
  • Must be under 15 tons
  • Launched from under 20 km

Some helpful links:

Boeing's waverider

Hermes:

Spoiler

Named after the Greek messenger god, this is a simpler class. All you need is a conventional plane that can go really fast.

Rules

• No kraken drives
• No Motherships
• Has to be able to launch itself and land under its own power. (you don't have to actually land it, just make sure that there are control surfaces and wheels, and that they don't explode)
• No decouplers or docking ports

Glider:

Spoiler

Considerably more complex, this class is based off the Boost-Glide type of Hypersonic vehicle. (Note: I have not tested this and do not yet know if it will work in KSP) Thank you to @chadgaskermanwho proved that this class does work!

Some help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boost-glide

• Must be launched from a rocket
• The rocket must decouple the glider out of the atmosphere
• Glider must not have engines (RCS is ok)
• Glider should be able to land (you don't have to actually land it, just make sure that there are control surfaces and wheels, and that they don't explode)

Ballistic:

Spoiler

This class is based off the Lockheed X-17

The rules are as follows

• Must be unmanned
• Must be launched on a rocket
• Must be decoupled outside of the atmosphere
• The probe core must be recovered at the end of the flight
• Also the results screen doesn't show you a correct top speed. You need to quicksave before hitting the atmo in order to wipe the current top speed and get an accurate result

Some help:

Badges:

Yes the part you've all been waiting for, the badges! They have been updated from the original and there are more now.

Completing the challenge:

3500 m/s:

4000 m/s:

5000 + m/s:

How to submit:

Plenty of pictures or a video.

Follow all rules

Picture of your record and proof that you are under 50km

Edited May 6, 2021 by Kerminator K-100
Added to leaderboard

[camacju]

https://streamable.com/trowtq

With a bit of lateral thinking, I got this nuclear powered waverider all the way up to 25780 m/s under 50 km.

https://imgur.com/a/3qiPMQ6

Here's an imgur album detailing the first part of the challenge and to prove that all the rules were met. The mothership has four rapier engines and is a single stage. At 20 km, the waverider is dropped and continues the rest of the way to orbit.

***

Some time later, the waverider arrives back at Kerbin with 21 km/s of relative velocity, at which point it expends the 4500 m/s it has remaining and speeds through the top part of the atmosphere. It doesn't spend long enough in the atmosphere for heating to have an effect.

[Kerminator K-100]

On 1/1/2021 at 2:49 PM, camacju said:

Some time later, the waverider arrives back at Kerbin with 21 km/s of relative velocity, at which point it expends the 4500 m/s it has remaining and speeds through the top part of the atmosphere. It doesn't spend long enough in the atmosphere for heating to have an effect.

I'm impressed. I may need to make a whole new badge just for your record. Only one thing, I forgot to add this but I would prefer the NavBall to be in surface mode. This won't affect you, I'll just subtract out Kerbin's orbital rotation velocity. Your record will still be ridiculously fast. 

I feel like this badge is slightly inadequate for your record but here you go. Congratulations!

EDIT: Just to clairify, you didn't use any DLCs, right?

Edited January 12, 2021 by Kerminator K-100
DLC question

[camacju]

I don't have DLC sorry

[Kerminator K-100]

Just now, camacju said:

I don't have DLC sorry

No worries, if you did have them I would just say so in your leaderboard rank.

@name - velocity- (DLC)

.vs.

@name - velocity

[percyPrune]

Hi Kerminator,

My submission, the Prune Hermaphrodite, named after the son (or daughter?) of Hermes:

A combination of Whiplash and Rapiers get it off the ground:

Steady climb to allow the thrust to build up:

Light the SRBs and the fun begins! Trying to hold the nose down until flameout:

I kept back a bit of liquid fuel and oxidiser to make a retro burn as the Ap was very high (> escape velicity on one flight!). I also added solar panels to recharge the batteries and keep the crew alive:

I was too busy aviating to screenshot the re-entry as I had to wash off a lot of speed to prevent everything overheating. However, I made it back to solid ground in one piece. The batteries went flat at around 10km and there was no more fuel so I had to make the landing "dead stick" without benefit of SAS on the first flattish land I came across:

IMHO there should be a badge for "I made it back in one piece." The re-entry was, if anything, more hairy than the level flight!

I claim 3228m/s, Hermese category, manned Thanks for a great challenge!

Edited January 7, 2021 by percyPrune
Correcting typos (again)!

[Kerminator K-100]

@percyPrune,  congratulations on a successful entry! And re-entry and landing!

Sadly there is no badge for landing but I did give you recognition on the leaderboard. Here is your badge for beating 3000 m/s:

Edited January 12, 2021 by Kerminator K-100

[percyPrune]

Thanks. it was fun :)

[chadgaskerman]

On 1/1/2021 at 7:17 PM, Kerminator K-100 said:

Glider should be able to land (you don't have to actually land it, just make sure that there are control surfaces and wheels, and that they don't explode)

Do water landings count so long as all parts of the craft are intact?

[Kerminator K-100]

3 hours ago, chadgaskerman said:

Do water landings count so long as all parts of the craft are intact?

Sure. I don't see any problems with that. 

[chadgaskerman]

Banged this out in a couple of hours, a glider capable of taking a small satellite into orbit and using a boost glide reentry profile

Craft file plus mission album: https://kerbalx.com/chadgaskerman/Avangard-SRS

[Kerminator K-100]

5 hours ago, chadgaskerman said:

Banged this out in a couple of hours, a glider capable of taking a small satellite into orbit and using a boost glide reentry profile

Very nice! Thanks for proving that the glider class really does work!

Just a side note - you didn't switch your NavBall to surface but that's just to make it easier for me to work with. I subtracted out the rotational velocity and you still have passed!

Here is your badge: 

Congratulations!

[visor2580]

Hey I've been playing KSP for quite a long time, and now for the first time I decided to do a challenge. So, meet WhiteBird:

Top recorded speed: 3301.8 m/s.

The craft is powered by two Whiplash and two Aerospike engines. After takeoff, pitch it 20 degrees and fly on Whiplashes to 20km. At that point, your speed will be around 1000m/s and whiplashes will start to choke. Turn on aerospikes and keep firing them until your apoapsis is 45km. Then shutdown the engines, point prograde to minimise drag and coast. When you are 15 seconds from apoapsis, point prograde and fire aerospikes.

At this point, watch your vertical speed. If left unchecked, it'll go from negative to positive values, blow up rapidly and put you on Kerbin escape. Make sure to lose altitude during the entire brun, if needed pitch slightly downward from prograde.

Once you're done firing and achieved your top speed, you need to aerobrake to capture around Kerbin. Do that by pointing radial in or radial out. You'll only be able to capture around Kerbin via aerobraking if you got your vertical speed management right.

After a few aerobraking paths, you'll deorbit. Glide towards the surface and land, either on land or water. At this point, to better control your pitch, you may want to set both of the two control surfaces to respond to pitch (originally one of them responds to roll only and another - to pitch).

The craft is uploaded here.

[Kerminator K-100]

I'm glad you decided to take up my challenge! Congratulations on your pass! Just a quick technical question (does not affect whether you pass or fail): Do the radiators actually help? 

Here is your badge:

Also welcome to the forums!

[visor2580]

Thanks for welcoming me :) as for the radiators, I believe they do help very slightly. Without them, I always blew up upon reaching >3200 m/s, but with them, I survived.

[Guest]

Omg, this challenge looks awesome!!!    

Imma do it after school.  

[JB182]

gonna do it!

[Kerminator K-100]

On 3/31/2021 at 3:21 PM, SpaceX_Boi said:

Omg, this challenge looks awesome!!!    

Imma do it after school.  

On 4/4/2021 at 11:28 PM, JB182 said:

gonna do it!

good luck!

 

[Philae_Rosetta2021]

I managed to do it, by getting the launcher almost into orbit and then blasting all the way. I managed to get to 3800m/s. Launcher used 3 rapiers and pod used vector. I don't know how to upload pictures yet, but I will try anyway.

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Philae_Rosetta2021

[Kerminator K-100]

1 hour ago, Philae_Rosetta2021 said:

I managed to do it, by getting the launcher almost into orbit and then blasting all the way. I managed to get to 3800m/s. Launcher used 3 rapiers and pod used vector. I don't know how to upload pictures yet, but I will try anyway.

 

you can upload pictures by making an imgur account (its free!) and going to images in the dropdown. Then drag in the images you want to upload and wait. When they are all done, click on the ones you want and copy the direct link in the box to the left of the image. Then paste that link in here and give it a second. Your images should upload. Just let me know if you have any problems.

[Philae_Rosetta2021]

Here it is :)

https://imgur.com/a/nl1UHFt

[Kerminator K-100]

4 hours ago, Philae_Rosetta2021 said:

Here it is

https://imgur.com/a/nl1UHFt

Nice job! There is a small problem, the picture should be below 50 km. As you are very close to 50 km, and are 800 m/s over the limit (and I didn't make it obvious that it needed to be sub-50), I'll give you a pass

Congratulations @Philae_Rosetta2021 on getting 3800 on the Hermes class! I'll add you to the leaderboard and give you your badge!

[ColdJ]

Tried to this in an aircraft that seems plausible in the real world and hopefully doesn't look like someone else's design. Best I could do was 2,415 , maybe an honoracle mention for just a pod with heatshield and air intake, that's never left atmosphere, going close to 1,400m/s if I had taken the shot faster?

Time to go more radical.

[Philae_Rosetta2021]

21 hours ago, Kerminator K-100 said:

Nice job! There is a small problem, the picture should be below 50 km. As you are very close to 50 km, and are 800 m/s over the limit (and I didn't make it obvious that it needed to be sub-50), I'll give you a pass

Congratulations @Philae_Rosetta2021 on getting 3800 on the Hermes class! I'll add you to the leaderboard and give you your badge!

Thanks very much. That small error on my part. I was just getting so hyped that I momentarily forgot. 

[Kerminator K-100]

2 hours ago, Philae_Rosetta2021 said:

Thanks very much. That small error on my part. I was just getting so hyped that I momentarily forgot. 

Its fine, you were going fast enough that 2000 meters wouldn't affect the score too much. No worries

3 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Tried to this in an aircraft that seems plausible in the real world and hopefully doesn't look like someone else's design. Best I could do was 2,415 , maybe an honorable mention for just a pod with heatshield and air intake, that's never left atmosphere, going close to 1,400m/s if I had taken the shot faster?\

You're almost there, just a few m/s faster, you could try using the Ballistic method ( I'm surprised no-one has used that, it seemed like the easiest to me)

oh yeah, editing the .cfg files to make the parts weigh less or be more heat resistant or give you an unfair advantage is against the rules. I'm not saying you did this (I know that you know how to edit cfg files and it reminded me) but it gives modders an unfair advantage

Edited May 3, 2021 by Kerminator K-100