Design a purpose-built plane for the Kerbal Air Force

[HyperDraco]

The Kerbal Air Force Rearmament Challenge
CHALLENGE SUSPENDED

 

The Kerbal Airforce is in dire straits (not the band, although they are amazing). A recent strategic attack on their hangars and airfields has wiped out all of their combat-related assets, and we need YOU to design an aircraft (anything that flies, anything.) as a measure that will give us the material advantage in future combat situations.

This challenge allows mods, they are so far limited to: Airplane Plus, BDArmory, North Kerbin Dynamics, Ground Effect,  all the NFT mods, Restock-like visual mods, Aviators's Arsenal,  KerbalField, KJR, Simple Repaint, SXT, Working Under Lite, NAS, SXT,  KTech,  OPT, NMB, Interstellar Fuel Switch, Cold War Aerospace, Procedural Wings and Tweakscale (Others could be considered as well).

• DLCs are now allowed, the craft must be made in 1.11.X or later.

You may build an aircraft for any of these classes, or, a multirole aircraft that conforms to multiple:

Air Superiority Fighter: Relatively fast, more maneuverable than average, Sufficiently capable of taking down other aircraft by any means necessary. Must be equipped with a radar for air-to-air radar locking, 2 x .50 cal MG's minimum.

Interceptor: High speed, high climb rate with decent maneuverability, must be able to quickly scramble and climb to altitude to engage multiple of singular hostile targets. Must be armed with at least 4 x Air-to-Air missiles.

Naval Fighter: Same rules as an Air Superiority fighter, but must be carrier-operable and with a low stall speed.

Ground Attack Fighter: High Survivability with decent speed, must be armed with at least 4 x .50 cal MGs or two 20mms or a single 30mm, must be able to deliver targeted strikes and secondarily assist in controling the airspace. Preferably equipped with both an Air to Air and an Air to Ground radar system set. Must carry at least 2 ton of ordinances.

 

Bomber has multiple subclasses:

Heavy: Must be suited to high (4km+) altitude, carry at least 25 Tons of ordinances, minimum cruising speed of 100 m/s. Minimum range of at least 7,000km.

Medium: Must be suited to high altitudes, carry at least 15 Tons of ordinances, minimum cruising speed of 120 m/s. Minimum range must be at least 5,000km.

Supersonic: Must fly above 3km, at least reach Mach 1 in a straight line, at least 10 tons of ordinances. Minimum range of at least 3,000km

Light: No minimum altitude restrictions, at least 5 ton of ordinances, no more than 2 propulsion systems. Minimum range must be at least 3,000km

Naval: Must be fully carrier-based, have a low stall speed and should be able to stow away it's wings for a reduced deck footprint, at least 7 Tons of ordinances (can be Mines, Depth charges, Bombs or Torpedoes). Minimum range must be 2,000km.

Stealth: Must be stealthy and have a notable reduction in detection range, time and probability as compared to it's contemporary counterparts. Must be able to deliver at least 5 tons of ordinances. Minimum range must be 2,000km.

 

Reconnaissance: Must be a high altitude, kerballed or unkerballed aircraft that should be equipped with an Air-to-Ground Radar and/or a camera pod(s). Range must be at least 2,500km.

Airborne Warning System: A plane equipped with an omnidirectional Air-to-Air Radar system that is not designed for active combat, but rather for surveying remote airspace. Range must be at least 3,000km.

Naval Airborne Warning System: A naval variant of the AWS, must be carrier based and have a low stall speed (<70m/s). Range must be at least 3,000km.

Unkerballed Reconnaissance: Must be unkerballed, minimum speed must be above 60m/s, must be equipped with a targeting pod and at least 2 Air-to-ground missiles or bombs.

 

Military Transport Aircraft: Moderately-high survivability, must not be reliant on paved landing strips, Should be able to take off with at least 35 Tons of Cargo. Range must be at least 5,000km.

OPTIONAL: Should be able to airdrop cargo if required.

 

Helicopter has multiple subclasses:

Attack: Must be armed for Air-to-air and Air-to-Ground engagements with a variable ordinance layout. Must have a main gun as standard. Range must be at least 150km

Transport: Must be able to lift at least 10 Tons of cargo externally or internally. Must be able to carry armed Kerbals and deploy them under enemy fire in hostile territories. Minimum range must be 300km.

Maritime: Must be able to operate from a carrier, can be either in a Transport, Surveillance or Attack role. Minimum range must be 200km

Surveillance: Must be light, quick, and equipped with a targeting pod. Minimum range must be 250km.

 

-BONUS-

Flying Gunship: Must be armed with at least 2 Howitzers, conforms to a Ground Attack fighter role with appropriate concessions for speed, size and armaments.

Seaplane-Fighter: Must be able to directly take off and land on water, must conform to rules for an Air Superiority fighter with concessions for armament.

Rocket-powered Interceptor: Must be powered by a rocket motor, Minimum straight-line speed of above 300m/s. Must be armed with at least 2 x .50 Cal MGs.

Ekranoplan: A Ground Effect vehicle that flies over the surface, must be armed with either Air-to-Air or Surface-to-Air Missiles or carry at least 5 Tonnes of cargo with a range of 4,000 Kilometers.

More TBA.

 

Award:

Those whose aircraft have been selected shall get to wear this badge I whipped up in all of 2 minutes, I'll beautify and make it a proper badge later, sorry.

Enjoy, and I'll be waiting to see what this community can whip up!

Edited December 16, 2021 by HyperDraco
More mods

[Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute]

Ok, just give me a couple of days to get organized to start making it; Also to watch my computer die. (my potato computer takes ages to boot KSP, so it could take a while.)

[HyperDraco]

3 hours ago, Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute said:

Ok, just give me a couple of days to get organized to start making it; Also to watch my computer die. (my potato computer takes ages to boot KSP, so it could take a while.)

Alright

 

[Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute]

@HyperDraco,  got two planes for you and some more coming.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10a2AwFq1TzeRijkiVRd5n9Ve90xRhg97?usp=sharing is the link to the folder where they live

Should contain a Ground attack fighter, and a Interceptor/Air Superiority Fighter

Pictures / Video coming Soon

Edited August 17, 2021 by Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute

[HyperDraco]

9 hours ago, Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute said:

@HyperDraco,  got two planes for you and some more coming.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10a2AwFq1TzeRijkiVRd5n9Ve90xRhg97?usp=sharing is the link to the folder where they live

Should contain a Ground attack fighter, and a Interceptor/Air Superiority Fighter

Pictures / Video coming Soon

Thanks for the submission, let me check them out

[HyperDraco]

On 8/18/2021 at 1:10 AM, Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute said:

@HyperDraco,  got two planes for you and some more coming.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10a2AwFq1TzeRijkiVRd5n9Ve90xRhg97?usp=sharing is the link to the folder where they live

Should contain a Ground attack fighter, and a Interceptor/Air Superiority Fighter

Pictures / Video coming Soon

So I have a few questions, which mod is the Self sealing tank from, and which version of KSP did you assemble these in?

Because the one I'm using seems to find these incompatible.

[Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute]

Huh. Shouldn't have any. I used 1.12.2 to design, although that was a re-design from 1.10.1 work.

[HyperDraco]

I'll try again with a clean install and see.

[Samwise Potato]

Well, we gave it a month to see if you'd still have a country and be able to pay us promptly and in full for any planes we sent you, so here's a multi-role bird to get some basic mission capability for your forces.

https://kerbalx.com/SamwisePotato/SA-Bakhtak

Now you might be thinking "Gee that looks like a really boring plane" and you'd be right, it does look like a boring plane. Boring wings, boring engines, boring wheels... but what it can do is anything but boring! Thanks to its incredibly modular design, one aircraft can complete an entire spectrum of mission types.

Light Bombing? It does that.

Spoiler

Five tons of explosive ordinance and a single center-line drop tank for extra range. Five thousand kilometres guaranteed while supercruising efficiently at eight thousand metres.

Recon? It does that.

Spoiler

Targeting pod and a pair of wing-mounted drop tanks for extreme range. Supercruise to an excellent sixty-five hundred kilometre range.

Gunship? It does that.

Spoiler

105mm howitzers in a pair of wing-mounted gunpods with 20mm Vulcan gunpods for backup. These huge guns have quite a kick, but the recoil is easy to compensate for with an airframe this stable.

Ground Attack? Oh boy does it ever do that.

Spoiler

Anti-personnel and static emplacement loadout. Mounts 8 .50 cal MGs in a pair of gunpods with additional light rockets for infantry targets, and an extensive bomb load for buildings, bridges, railways, etc.

Anti-vehicle loadout. Note 2 20mm Vulcan gunpods and medium rockets for soft vehicles, with light guided missiles and guided bombs for light armored vehicles and pillboxes, bunkers, etc.

Anti-armor loadout. Dorsal-mounted 30mm minigun and extensive guided missile options for heavy armor elimination, with anti-radiation missiles for destroying supporting AA vehicles.

So how many can we put you down for? 100? 200?

Edited October 28, 2021 by Samwise Potato

[obnox twin]

Is this is still on going because I am going to build a craft or grab one that I have already built and can I use Aircraft Carrier Accessories for the Naval category?

Edited September 22, 2021 by obnox twin

[Bej Kerman]

On 8/16/2021 at 7:18 PM, HyperDraco said:

10,000km

Surely you don't mean meters...

[obnox twin]

So how can I measure my crafts range?

[Samwise Potato]

For this challenge (and assuming you're using default settings and measurements);

Take liquid fuel capacity (LF), divide by fuel drained per second (LF/s), multiply by velocity (m/s), then divide by 1000 to convert range to kilometres.

 

To use the plane I posted above as an example, I would take off and immediately fly up to cruising altitude and speed. Once there, I'd use the resources pop-out to check my current fuel and fuel drain rate. If I recall correctly my plane would have something like 1900 units of liquid fuel left after reaching the altitude and speed I wanted, and would be draining something like 0.21 units per second in level flight. The first part of my math would then be:

1900 LF ÷ 0.21 LF/s = ~9047 s

So now that I know I have approximately 9047 seconds of flight time left at this rate of fuel drain, I can multiply by my current velocity on the navball, IIRC 600 metres per second:

~9047 s × 600 m/s = ~5428571 m

Which turns flight time into maximum distance flown during that time. I then divide total range in metres by 1000 to convert to kilometres:

~5428571 m ÷ 1000 m/km = ~5428 km

So then that plane has a maximum flight range of at least 5428 kilometres.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Samwise Potato

[obnox twin]

Thanks

[Nantares]

On 8/17/2021 at 1:18 AM, HyperDraco said:

Others could be considered as well

how about near future tech and KSPIE parts pack ?

[HyperDraco]

On 9/18/2021 at 11:36 AM, Samwise Potato said:

Well, we gave it a month to see if you'd still have a country and be able to pay us promptly and in full for any planes we sent you, so here's a multi-role bird to get some basic mission capability for your forces.

https://kerbalx.com/SamwisePotato/SA-Bakhtak

Now you might be thinking "Gee that looks like a really boring plane" and you'd be right, it does look like a boring plane. Boring wings, boring engines, boring wheels... but what it can do is anything but boring! Thanks to its incredibly modular design, one aircraft can complete an entire spectrum of mission types.

Light Bombing? It does that.

  Hide contents

Five tons of explosive ordinance and a single center-line drop tank for extra range. Five thousand kilometres guaranteed while supercruising efficiently at eight thousand metres.

Recon? It does that.

  Hide contents

Targeting pod and a pair of wing-mounted drop tanks for extreme range. Supercruise to an excellent sixty-five thousand kilometre range.

Gunship? It does that.

  Hide contents

105mm howitzers in a pair of wing-mounted gunpods with 20mm Vulcan gunpods for backup. These huge guns have quite a kick, but the recoil is easy to compensate for with an airframe this stable.

Ground Attack? Oh boy does it ever do that.

  Hide contents

Anti-personnel and static emplacement loadout. Mounts 8 .50 cal MGs in a pair of gunpods with additional light rockets for infantry targets, and an extensive bomb load for buildings, bridges, railways, etc.

Anti-vehicle loadout. Note 2 20mm Vulcan gunpods and medium rockets for soft vehicles, with light guided missiles and guided bombs for light armored vehicles and pillboxes, bunkers, etc.

Anti-armor loadout. Dorsal-mounted 30mm minigun and extensive guided missile options for heavy armor elimination, with anti-radiation missiles for destroying supporting AA vehicles.

So how many can we put you down for? 100? 200?

Hm yes, I will take a look at this, I have been hard at work on my own counter submissions too. And no, boring doesn't mean bad in my books.

On 9/22/2021 at 11:24 PM, Bej Kerman said:

Surely you don't mean meters...

10,000km is pretty hard, but if you build a plane for the task, it is possible. I might change it to about 7000 or 8000km as these values are based on ranges of real-life planes.

But I could make concessions if the plane itself has other uses.

On 9/25/2021 at 1:14 PM, Nantares said:

how about near future tech and KSPIE parts pack ?

Any mods from NFT sounds good, KSPIE might be a bit overkill though.

On 9/23/2021 at 11:13 PM, obnox twin said:

So how can I measure my crafts range?

I believe for the total powered time of the engine it's the maximum fuel load divided by the fuel consumption at cruising speed and altitude.

For example if a plane uses 2 units of fuel every second at it's cruising speed and altitude and carries 3000 units of LF, it has a range of 3000/2 = 1500s

Now taking that value and multiplying it by the cruising speed gives us the maximum hypothetical range.

If the speed is 250m/s then it's 1500*250 = 375,000 meters = 375 Kilometers

Edited October 1, 2021 by HyperDraco

[HyperDraco]

Good luck
 

Edited October 1, 2021 by HyperDraco

[OrdinaryKerman]

On 8/17/2021 at 2:18 AM, HyperDraco said:

Cold War Aerospace, NAS, SXT,  KTech,  OPT, NMB, Interstellar Fuel Switch, Cold War Aerospace,

You mentioned CWA twice

[Bej Kerman]

3 hours ago, HyperDraco said:

10,000km is pretty hard, but if you build a plane for the task, it is possible. I might change it to about 7000 or 8000km as these values are based on ranges of real-life planes.

Mark my words, circumnavigating Kerbin 2+ times in a plane built to bomb ain't happening here least Stratz, Brad Whistance and the other KSP stunt artists show up, lol. "based on ranges of real-life planes" explains a lot.

[HyperDraco]

47 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Mark my words, circumnavigating Kerbin 2+ times in a plane built to bomb ain't happening here least Stratz, Brad Whistance and the other KSP stunt artists show up, lol. "based on ranges of real-life planes" explains a lot.

I mean, I've built heavy bombers capable of that.

2 hours ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

You mentioned CWA twice

Ah thanks.

[HyperDraco]

On 9/18/2021 at 11:36 AM, Samwise Potato said:

Well, we gave it a month to see if you'd still have a country and be able to pay us promptly and in full for any planes we sent you, so here's a multi-role bird to get some basic mission capability for your forces.

https://kerbalx.com/SamwisePotato/SA-Bakhtak

Now you might be thinking "Gee that looks like a really boring plane" and you'd be right, it does look like a boring plane. Boring wings, boring engines, boring wheels... but what it can do is anything but boring! Thanks to its incredibly modular design, one aircraft can complete an entire spectrum of mission types.

Light Bombing? It does that.

  Reveal hidden contents

Five tons of explosive ordinance and a single center-line drop tank for extra range. Five thousand kilometres guaranteed while supercruising efficiently at eight thousand metres.

Recon? It does that.

  Reveal hidden contents

Targeting pod and a pair of wing-mounted drop tanks for extreme range. Supercruise to an excellent sixty-five thousand kilometre range.

Gunship? It does that.

  Reveal hidden contents

105mm howitzers in a pair of wing-mounted gunpods with 20mm Vulcan gunpods for backup. These huge guns have quite a kick, but the recoil is easy to compensate for with an airframe this stable.

Ground Attack? Oh boy does it ever do that.

  Reveal hidden contents

Anti-personnel and static emplacement loadout. Mounts 8 .50 cal MGs in a pair of gunpods with additional light rockets for infantry targets, and an extensive bomb load for buildings, bridges, railways, etc.

Anti-vehicle loadout. Note 2 20mm Vulcan gunpods and medium rockets for soft vehicles, with light guided missiles and guided bombs for light armored vehicles and pillboxes, bunkers, etc.

Anti-armor loadout. Dorsal-mounted 30mm minigun and extensive guided missile options for heavy armor elimination, with anti-radiation missiles for destroying supporting AA vehicles.

So how many can we put you down for? 100? 200?

Well greetings from the review board.

The KAF likes your design quite a lot in the Ground Attack and Defensive Fighter role. When matched against my submission (The Wraith II), it was noticeably much more steady and stable and had more prospective armament options.

However when matched against a missile, every plane falters.

The KAF would like you to take a look at the updated mods list and send an upgraded submission as then the match against the Wraith II would be a fair fight.

However we would be interested in your plane and will place an order for 35 SA-Bakhtaks in their current variants and more depending on the upgraded variant.

You may now wear the badge, Congratulations. 

Screenshots of the moment after destruction:

(It was a valiant fight with your submission firing 3 missiles, which missed my Wraith II)

Edited October 1, 2021 by HyperDraco

[Samwise Potato]

Eh, we knew the Bakhtak was a mediocre air-to-air combatant, that's the trade-off for having an airframe that can be recon/bomber/gunship/ground attack all in the same package. It's cheap, it's modular, and shoving more and fancier bits of technology into it is unlikely to improve its dogfighting enough to make the expense worth it. If that's enough to disqualify it as a Ground Attack Fighter, then so be it, we'll produce enough to meet your recon and light bomber needs while our design group comes up with a plane better suited for air-to-air.

Thanks for testing it though

Edit: Actually, with the new decreased range requirements, I'm fairly certain the Bakhtak would also meet the AWS and naval AWS requirements if we put an omni-directional radar on it...

Edited October 1, 2021 by Samwise Potato

[HyperDraco]

5 hours ago, Samwise Potato said:

Eh, we knew the Bakhtak was a mediocre air-to-air combatant, that's the trade-off for having an airframe that can be recon/bomber/gunship/ground attack all in the same package. It's cheap, it's modular, and shoving more and fancier bits of technology into it is unlikely to improve its dogfighting enough to make the expense worth it. If that's enough to disqualify it as a Ground Attack Fighter, then so be it, we'll produce enough to meet your recon and light bomber needs while our design group comes up with a plane better suited for air-to-air.

Thanks for testing it though

Edit: Actually, with the new decreased range requirements, I'm fairly certain the Bakhtak would also meet the AWS and naval AWS requirements if we put an omni-directional radar on it...

Hey hey hey, we still want the Bhaktak, it's an excellent ground attack fighter, just not the greatest Air-to-air combatant. If need be the KAF will upgrade it and then test it out.

Anyway, you may wear the badge, it was a very good submission and I look forward to your other ones too.

 

[Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute]

On 8/20/2021 at 6:43 PM, HyperDraco said:

I'll try again with a clean install and see.

@HyperDraco, any timeline? Otherwise I can make another plane. 

[HyperDraco]

5 minutes ago, Jeb_Needs_A_Parachute said:

@HyperDraco, any timeline? Otherwise I can make another plane. 

I tried quite a bit, and I think I found the culprit. After fiddling with the craft file it seems to work now.

I'm doing a review as this is typed out. But an new plane is always welcome.