Fastest aircraft challenge

[Jeb x Valentina]

There is one thing kerbals love to do: Getting as fast as possible and experiencing high gee forces. So the engineers at the SPH began a contest, to see who can build the fastest aircraft. But jeb died many times in the attempts so they decided to do it unmanned.
Your mission: build an unmanned plane that can go faster than the speed of sound (343 m/s), the fastest one wins!
 

Challenge modes:

1. Normal mode: Build an aircraft and launch it from the runaway, it must get faster than 343 m/s, it must go at that speed for at least 5 minutes; it can be unmanned but it needs to land, or crash all of its command modules intact; If it explodes, you lost.
2. Hard mode:  Build an aircraft and launch it from the runaway, it must get faster than 597 m/s, (speed of concorde) it must go at that speed for at least 8 minutes; it can be unmanned but it needs to land. If any important part (wings, fuel tanks, engines or command pods) explode, you get downgraded to normal mode.
3. Impossible mode: Build an aircraft and launch it from the runaway, it must get faster than 983 m/s, (speed of blackbird military jet) it must go at that speed for at least 10 minutes; it can be unmanned but it needs to land. If any important part (wings, fuel tanks, engines or command pods) explode, you get downgraded to hard mode.

Bonuses:

1. Make the aircraft manned, all kerbals must survive (+5 pts.)
2. Add tourists to it (create them using Alt+F12 to avoid spending funds or if you are on sandbox or science mode), all tourists must survive (+10 pts.)
3. The aircraft must land intact, except for landing wheels, batteries, decouplers, air brakes and science parts, which can be destroyed (+15 pts.)
4. Fly the aircraft on Eve, reaching at least the speed designed on your chosen mode (+20 pts.)
5. Make the aircraft VTOL capable and launch it from the launchpad (+30 pts.)
6. You earn 1 point for every extra minute you keep at a speed faster than the one designed on you mode

Rules:

1. No cheat menu, except for creating the tourists in 2nd bonus
2. No mods, kraken drives or exploits
3. Keep part clipping as minimum as possible
4. No editing your submissions in any way (i.e photoshop)

Required submissions:

1. A comment on this post, telling which mode you did
2. A video of the whole mission, with the speed indicator always visible

Scoring system:

1. The speed you got at, divided by 100 (i.e. if you got 343 m/s, you're going to get 3,43 points)
2. Your points after the first checkpoint, multiplied by the mode (i.e if you got 3,43 points, you did normal mode (mode 1) 3,43*1=3,43)
3. Your points after the second checkpoint plus your bonus points (i.e. if you got 3,43 in checkpoint 2 and you did 1st bonus (+5 pts.) 3,43+5= 8,43 pts. in total)
4. The one with the most points after checkpoint 3 wins

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Jeb x Valentina
added time and time bonuses

[linuxgurugamer]

Other than speed, does duration count?  

What about circumnavigation of the planet?

[Jeb x Valentina]

33 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Other than speed, does duration count?  

What about circumnavigation of the planet?

No, only speed counts, and planet circumnavigation either, I said,  FASTEST you can do it long or circumnavigate if u want but it won't get u any extra points

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, Jeb x Valentina said:

No, only speed counts, and planet circumnavigation either, I said,  FASTEST you can do it long or circumnavigate if u want but it won't get u any extra points

Ok, just so you know, it's not too difficult to make a plane that can fly over 1300 m/sec for long periods of time.  I've done it with a plane that can go around the world and land (safely) back at the KSP, it has a max speed of about 1350 m/s due to overheating

Getting to a high speed isn't difficult, staying at that speed is.

1 hour ago, Jeb x Valentina said:

• Your points after the first checkpoint, multiplied by the mode (i.e if you got 3,43 points, you did normal mode (mode 1) 3,43*1=3,43)
• Your points after the second checkpoint plus your bonus points (i.e. if you got 3,43 in checkpoint 2 and you did 1st bonus (+5 pts.) 3,43+5= 8,43 pts. in total)
• The one with the most points after checkpoint 3 wins

Ummm, what are the checkpoints, this is the only mention of them

[Jeb x Valentina]

11 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Ok, just so you know, it's not too difficult to make a plane that can fly over 1300 m/sec for long periods of time.  I've done it with a plane that can go around the world and land (safely) back at the KSP, it has a max speed of about 1350 m/s due to overheating

Getting to a high speed isn't difficult, staying at that speed is.

Ummm, what are the checkpoints, this is the only mention of them

They are the scoring system, each checkpoint gives you a score, based on the criteria, after you've got to checkpoint 3, that's your final points, the one with the most, wins the challenge!

13 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Other than speed, does duration count?  

What about circumnavigation of the planet?

11 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Ok, just so you know, it's not too difficult to make a plane that can fly over 1300 m/sec for long periods of time.  I've done it with a plane that can go around the world and land (safely) back at the KSP, it has a max speed of about 1350 m/s due to overheating

Getting to a high speed isn't difficult, staying at that speed is.

Ummm, what are the checkpoints, this is the only mention of them

 

EDIT: I added a timing system

 

 

[QF9E]

I don't really have the patience to fly for 10+ minutes in a straight line, but this craft can easily complete the challenge on Impossible mode:

 

[Jeb x Valentina]

1 hour ago, QF9E said:

I don't really have the patience to fly for 10+ minutes in a straight line, but this craft can easily complete the challenge on Impossible mode:

 

Yes, nice argument, one small issue: I'm inside your walls I said no mods, and you have  a ton of them so no

[camacju]

I'm sorry but nobody is going to create a new completely stock install just to do this challenge, these mods don't change parts or physics at all so disallowing them is pretty unreasonable

[QF9E]

1 hour ago, Jeb x Valentina said:

Yes, nice argument, one small issue: I'm inside your walls I said no mods, and you have  a ton of them so no

As @camacju said, I'm not going to delete my mods for this challenge. It's not as if this is the Caveman challenge, where running completely stock actually matters. Besides, I only used KER, and that only to display temperatures.

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by QF9E

[Vanamonde]

Lots of players play without mods or have more than one save and keep one of them stock. It's not an unreasonable condition for a challenge, though of course folks are free not to participate if they don't want to abide by the conditions of a challenge. 

[QF9E]

2 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Lots of players play without mods or have more than one save and keep one of them stock. It's not an unreasonable condition for a challenge, though of course folks are free not to participate if they don't want to abide by the conditions of a challenge. 

I agree with the general point that "no mods" can be a reasonable condition for a challenge. At the same time, if a mod demonstrably does not have any bearing on the challenge, I believe it is unreasonable to forbid it. I also maintain that "not using a mod" is different from "not having a mod installed". If I do not use, say, Hyperedit or MechJeb even though I have it installed, it does not influence my submission for the challenge in any way.

I'm willing to work with the OP to resolve the issue. However, I am not going to uninstall my mods, nor am I willing to create an entire unmodded install just for this challenge. I'd like to ask the OP to reconsider their "no mods" rule and replace it by something like "no use of mods that enable cheating. Use of mods that only display information allowed".

 

[Jeb x Valentina]

On 6/11/2022 at 5:36 PM, QF9E said:

I agree with the general point that "no mods" can be a reasonable condition for a challenge. At the same time, if a mod demonstrably does not have any bearing on the challenge, I believe it is unreasonable to forbid it. I also maintain that "not using a mod" is different from "not having a mod installed". If I do not use, say, Hyperedit or MechJeb even though I have it installed, it does not influence my submission for the challenge in any way.

I'm willing to work with the OP to resolve the issue. However, I am not going to uninstall my mods, nor am I willing to create an entire unmodded install just for this challenge. I'd like to ask the OP to reconsider their "no mods" rule and replace it by something like "no use of mods that enable cheating. Use of mods that only display information allowed".

 

 

On 6/10/2022 at 3:09 PM, QF9E said:

As @camacju said, I'm not going to delete my mods for this challenge. It's not as if this is the Caveman challenge, where running completely stock actually matters. Besides, I only used KER, and that only to display temperatures.

 

 

On 6/10/2022 at 2:39 PM, camacju said:

I'm sorry but nobody is going to create a new completely stock install just to do this challenge, these mods don't change parts or physics at all so disallowing them is pretty unreasonable

I didn't say that you had to delete mods, just don't use their functionallities

[QF9E]

8 hours ago, Jeb x Valentina said:

I didn't say that you had to delete mods, just don't use their functionallities

That's fair. Thanks for the clarification. Not using any mods or AeroGUI (which can be found under the Alt-F12 menu) does not impact the performance of my craft:

And a suggestion: you could add another mode to your list of modes, by referring to the X-15. Its top speed was about 2000 m/s. That might be a better fit for Impossible mode.

Edited June 13, 2022 by QF9E

[Jeb x Valentina]

5 hours ago, QF9E said:

That's fair. Thanks for the clarification. Not using any mods or AeroGUI (which can be found under the Alt-F12 menu) does not impact the performance of my craft:

And a suggestion: you could add another mode to your list of modes, by referring to the X-15. Its top speed was about 2000 m/s. That might be a better fit for Impossible mode.

seems fine, but I need a video of the mission, not a sreenshot. About the X-15, It seems cool, and I will consider adding that speed!

[QF9E]

My submission:

It's a variant of the craft from my screenshot. I launched my craft vertically from the launchpad and took Valentina and two tourists on a flight with a speed of about 1500 m/s. Halfway through the flight I turned around and flew back to the KSC where I landed vertically on the runway.

This is an Impossible mode submission; from 01:31 to 14:40 my craft was faster than an SR-71.

Points:

• Kerballed (+5)
• Tourists (+10)
• Landed intact (+15)
• VTOL craft (+30)
• 3 minutes extra fast flight (+3)

Total: 63 points.

Edited June 13, 2022 by QF9E

[Jeb x Valentina]

3 hours ago, QF9E said:

My submission:

It's a variant of the craft from my screenshot. I launched my craft vertically from the launchpad and took Valentina and two tourists on a flight with a speed of about 1500 m/s. Halfway through the flight I turned around and flew back to the KSC where I landed vertically on the runway.

This is an Impossible mode submission; from 01:31 to 14:40 my craft was faster than an SR-71.

Points:

• Kerballed (+5)
• Tourists (+10)
• Landed intact (+15)
• VTOL craft (+30)
• 3 minutes extra fast flight (+3)

Total: 63 points.

Alr, but before you sing victory... lemme check if u added the points correctly...

You flew for 3:57 minutes (or atleast that's the lenght of the video) but you still reached impossible mode speed so... uhhh...  

Guess I'll give you 3pts for the flight time, multiplied by 3 (9) then, for the bonuses you got 69 points (you got more points than you were originally thinking of)

And, so far, I guess you won, until someone gets more points than you. 

gonna submit new challenge now

 

[Jeb x Valentina]

 

[QF9E]

8 hours ago, Jeb x Valentina said:

You flew for 3:57 minutes (or atleast that's the lenght of the video) but you still reached impossible mode speed so... uhhh...

So, you didn't even bother watching a 4 minute long video? If you're not interested in the results, why post these challenges at all?

I might have been using physical time warp. I might have sped up the footage to spare my viewers 20 minutes of me flying in straight lines. You don't know because you did not watch it. Next time, before you start throwing stones, make sure you are actually correct, will you?

Quote

I'll give you 3pts for the flight time, multiplied by 3 (9) then

Please point me to the passage in your original post with the rule that you get your flight time multiplied by 3. I based my score on the following rule, from your own OP:

Quote

Bonuses:

6. You earn 1 point for every extra minute you keep at a speed faster than the one designed on you mode

No mention of any points multiplier there. If this is not what you meant, please update your top post.

For the record: I will not participate in any of your future challenges. You've made it abundantly clear that you do not appreciate my submissions.

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by QF9E

[Jeb x Valentina]

6 hours ago, QF9E said:

So, you didn't even bother watching a 4 minute long video? If you're not interested in the results, why post these challenges at all?

I might have been using physical time warp. I might have sped up the footage to spare my viewers 20 minutes of me flying in straight lines. You don't know because you did not watch it. Next time, before you start throwing stones, make sure you are actually correct, will you?

Please point me to the passage in your original post with the rule that you get your flight time multiplied by 3. I based my score on the following rule, from your own OP:

No mention of any points multiplier there. If this is not what you meant, please update your top post.

For the record: I will not participate in any of your future challenges. You've made it abundantly clear that you do not appreciate my submissions.

 

I did watch it, but I was focusing on the ship, I rewatched it, and noticed something a bit weird about the kerbals, they were moving too fast. It was probably that. 

So, lemme recalculate your points... You did got 63   I'm sorry, but I didn't pay much attention to the UI, except the speed meter

 

I hope I didn't cause any issues, sorry

[QF9E]

6 hours ago, Jeb x Valentina said:

I rewatched it, and noticed something a bit weird about the kerbals, they were moving too fast. It was probably that. 

The easiest way to find out the duration of a mission is the mission clock in the top left corner. It shows the amount of time elapsed since takeoff. At 0:20 in the video, with 1 minutes 29 on the mission clock, I crossed the 983 m/s boundary while accelerating; at 3:00 in the video, 14 minutes 46 on the mission clock I crossed the boundary while decelerating. The entire time in between, 13 minutes 17 seconds, I flew at above 983 m/s, which does fulfil the requirements for Impossible mode.

If the mission clock moves faster than 1 second per second, physical time warp has been engaged and / or the footage has been sped up. I did not use physical time warp but the video is sped up by a factor of 5. If the mission clock is yellow or red, this means that the game engine cannot keep up and mission time moves slower than real time.

If you want to be precise, you can scroll through a YT video one frame at a time: after pausing the video you can go to the next frame by pressing the "." key, Pressing the "," key moves you one frame back. I just used this method to find the exact frames where I crossed the 983 m/s boundary.

Edited June 14, 2022 by QF9E

[Jeb x Valentina]

38 minutes ago, QF9E said:

The easiest way to find out the duration of a mission is the mission clock in the top left corner. It shows the amount of time elapsed since takeoff. At 0:20 in the video, with 1 minutes 29 on the mission clock, I crossed the 983 m/s boundary while accelerating; at 3:00 in the video, 14 minutes 46 on the mission clock I crossed the boundary while decelerating. The entire time in between, 13 minutes 17 seconds, I flew at above 983 m/s, which does fulfil the requirements for Impossible mode.

If the mission clock moves faster than 1 second per second, physical time warp has been engaged and / or the footage has been sped up. I did not use physical time warp but the video is sped up by a factor of 5. If the mission clock is yellow or red, this means that the game engine cannot keep up and mission time moves slower than real time.

If you want to be precise, you can scroll through a YT video one frame at a time: after pausing the video you can go to the next frame by pressing the "." key, Pressing the "," key moves you one frame back. I just used this method to find the exact frames where I crossed the 983 m/s boundary.

ok, thx. Does this mean you will make my next challenge (timing not needed)

[Omoz_2021]

Here is my impossible mode  submission,  the UHTV-56 "SnowFall" can cruise at Mach 4.9. All mods are visual only. 

 

It maintained Mach 4.9 for 20 minutes (until the fuel runs out) and landed successfully.

-speed + 14.67 

-impossible mode X3

-check point+bonus +40.67

total : 84.68 pints