Top speed on 1% power.

[Pds314]

Mission profile:

Quite simple. Build an aircraft, groundcraft or other vehicle which can move. Set the thrust limiter and/or motor size to 1%, and go as quickly as possible relative to Kerbin's surface. See how fast you can get.

Rules:

1. No KAL abuse.

2. No perpetual motion machines.

3. No Magic Wings.

4. Node occlusion abuse is fine.

5. No cannons. Craft should be self-propelled.

6. If you use reaction wheels as a power source, set them to 1%.

Categories:

Crewed. Have a Kerbal pilotting the craft.

1st: SWJR-SWIS: 128 m/s.

Drone. Have a Probe core pilotting the craft.

Sprint: Reach the island runway crewed and come to a complete stop as fast as possible. Time instead of top speed.

1st: SWJR-SWIS: 8:21

Marathon: Reach the Desert airfield as fast as possible and come to a complete stop. Time instead of top speed.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Pds314

[camacju]

Just doing some quick calculations:

Since magic wings aren't allowed, we should expect a subsonic lift/drag ratio of 6.5 and supersonic lift/drag ratio of 4.4 (more might be possible but these numbers are fine for now)

This means we need a thrust/weight ratio of 0.154 subsonic and 0.227 supersonic in order to even maintain level flight. This translates to a full throttle TWR of 15.4 subsonic and 22.7 supersonic. I doubt you'd be able to break the sound barrier this way.

[Pds314]

3 hours ago, camacju said:

Just doing some quick calculations:

Since magic wings aren't allowed, we should expect a subsonic lift/drag ratio of 6.5 and supersonic lift/drag ratio of 4.4 (more might be possible but these numbers are fine for now)

This means we need a thrust/weight ratio of 0.154 subsonic and 0.227 supersonic in order to even maintain level flight. This translates to a full throttle TWR of 15.4 subsonic and 22.7 supersonic. I doubt you'd be able to break the sound barrier this way.

At least not in level flight. Though I didn't exactly specify it had to be level flight. Although some engines like separatron can get that high. and props at 1% are plenty useable. Also since ground craft are explicitly allowed, you can always try to go for land speed record.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Pds314

[swjr-swis]

On 4/19/2021 at 5:32 PM, camacju said:

Since magic wings aren't allowed, we should expect a subsonic lift/drag ratio of 6.5 and supersonic lift/drag ratio of 4.4 (more might be possible but these numbers are fine for now)

We can do much better than that. Subsonic L/D ratios of 12-14 are well within the realm of possibilities.

 

Entering the OPC-5 (One PerCent) for the Crewed and Sprint categories: max recorded speed of 128 m/s, time from KSC to full stop at Island Airfield 8m21s.

Spoiler

The OPC-5 details. Just under 9t launch weight.

Valentina ready to board. The gantry is required in 1.3.1 (no stock EAS-seat boarding).

On our way to the Island.

Lining up for approach.

Full stop at Island Airfield in 8m21s.

128 m/s top speed recorded. All parts and crew accounted for.

Craft file: https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/OPC-5

[Pds314]

13 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

We can do much better than that. Subsonic L/D ratios of 12-14 are well within the realm of possibilities.

 

Entering the OPC-5 (One PerCent) for the Crewed and Sprint categories: max recorded speed of 128 m/s, time from KSC to full stop at Island Airfield 8m21s.

  Hide contents

The OPC-5 details. Just under 9t launch weight.

Valentina ready to board. The gantry is required in 1.3.1 (no stock EAS-seat boarding).

On our way to the Island.

Lining up for approach.

Full stop at Island Airfield in 8m21s.

128 m/s top speed recorded. All parts and crew accounted for.

Craft file: https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/OPC-5

oh nice. I'm a bit confused at the use of KSP 1.3.1. 128 m/s is a pretty respectable top speed.

[swjr-swis]

1 minute ago, Pds314 said:

I'm a bit confused at the use of KSP 1.3.1.

It's the fastest-loading version on my disk, and still to this day the KSP version least affected by game-breaking bugs/memory leaks/crashes - the only one that is guaranteed to keep running no matter how long I have it open or how many scene changes have happened. And craft created in it are largely compatible with all later versions (*), and perform identical or better in them, so when I share the craft files pretty much everyone can use them. (*: although some caution is necessary with some of the jet engines - just switch them out in a new version, and all is well).

Personally, I'm confused people use any other version.   I can't run 1.11.2 for more than an hour or two, or a few launches and reverts, before it grinds to a halt and crashes to desktop.

[Pds314]

1 hour ago, swjr-swis said:

It's the fastest-loading version on my disk, and still to this day the KSP version least affected by game-breaking bugs/memory leaks/crashes - the only one that is guaranteed to keep running no matter how long I have it open or how many scene changes have happened. And craft created in it are largely compatible with all later versions (*), and perform identical or better in them, so when I share the craft files pretty much everyone can use them. (*: although some caution is necessary with some of the jet engines - just switch them out in a new version, and all is well).

Personally, I'm confused people use any other version.   I can't run 1.11.2 for more than an hour or two, or a few launches and reverts, before it grinds to a halt and crashes to desktop.

hmm. It doesn't do that for me. I had a funny bug the other day where the brakes locked in reload but I think that was from mods.