Blackbird Challenge

[HueHue]

Today, gentlemen, I come before you with grave news indeed. The Kermunist spies infiltrating our space program, fluoridating our water supply and our children's toothpaste, wreaking havoc, have succeeded in stealing the plans for our NERVA engine. I come before you, the best and brightest engineers of the Kerbal Space Program, to ask for a spy plane of our own. This vehicle must be capable of extreme speed at extreme altitudes to evade Kermunist interception. However, it must not be powered by rocket engines as they are too visible, and it must not be suborbital due to high-altitude Kermunist radar. All entries must be capable of 2000m/s at 25,000m altitude and capable of flying due east over both the nearest continent in that direction and the one following.

The following mods are allowed:

- RLA Stockalike

- Autopilot mods / Information-only mods

- FAR (separate category)

Entries for the program will be judged as follows:

- 50pt baseline specifications met

- Return to sender, drop a NERVA on one of the continents - 50pts per NERVA

- Sanic speed - 10pts for every 100m/s over 2000m/s

- Gotta go far, circumnavigate Kerbin and land at KSC - 100pts

My Canadian Electric Fishbed barely meets the requirements, but meet them it does. So it would score a baseline of 50pts.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Blackbirds

- allmhuran, 2100m/s, ??,000m, (6(!) NERVAs) [460pts]

- British Rover, 2110m/s, 30,000m, (1 NERVAs) [210pts]

- Hejnfelt, 2400m/s, 26,000m, [90pts]

- MarkoeZ, 2030m/s, 27,000m (0 NERVAs) [50pts]

-

-

FAR Flyers

-

-

-

-

-

Edited September 16, 2013 by HueHue

[British_Rover]

My submission.

Just the base 50 pts currently. I took one of my old SSTOs from a couple of game versions ago and stripped the rockets and RCS from it. I still left some of the rocket fuel but it will break 2,000 m/s at under 25,000 meters of atmo.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Hejnfelt]

60pts +2100 m/s.

Also I'm pretty sure those Kermunists won't notice the giant fireball in the sky

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Hejnfelt]

Updated entry with the MiniBlack, 70pts? Or is the altitude too high?

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[HueHue]

Entries added

[Tarmenius]

Well, this was a fun design challenge. My entry is capable of delivering one NERVA from an operational ceiling of 41km at a speed of 2350 m/s. If my math is right, that's 130 pts. And no re-entry effects to give away the craft's position, either. I call it the HAS Bomber (High Altitude/Speed).

Of course, this put me within range of their orbital defenses... apparently.

[MarkoeZ]

Well i finally got one, managed up to 2045m/s but best screenshot is at 2037.

And a question, how do you guys get so much intakeair with so little (visible) intakes?

[Epthelyn]

And a question, how do you guys get so much intakeair with so little (visible) intakes?

You flamed out at 27km, whereas the challenge is no more than 25km

Look at Hjenfelt's entry; the intakeAir is at 0.12, barely above the lower limit before the engines stop working, at 24km.

[MarkoeZ]

Oh ok, np. I saw other entries above 25km, so thought it was ok.

But got one of those too from the first testdesign, only slightly slower

[HueHue]

No no, it's fine to go slightly over 25,000m; the altitude is a minimum. The only rule on height was not going sub-orbital. By suborbital, I mean you're still flying upwards on a ballistic trajectory long after flame-out.

[Hejnfelt]

Ok, I actually read it as a guideline maximum because the higher you go the easier it gets. Also if you get too high, the speed converts to orbital speed which is automatically a few hundred m/s faster than surface speed.

[British_Rover]

Hmh I read it that way too I was trying to drop a Nerva last night set up the same way that theA-5 Vigilante was supposed to deliver nuclear bombs but I couldn't get to 2,000 m/s below 25,000 feet with the extra weight and drag. Now I will have to try it again at just a little above that height as I am sure it will work out this time.

[Tarmenius]

And a question, how do you guys get so much intakeair with so little (visible) intakes?

I enabled part clipping. With it, my craft has an initial 4:1 intake to engine ratio. Not terribly overdone as far as part-clipped airhogging goes, though I used Action Groups to deactivate two of the engines when the atmosphere became too thin to run all four. That left me with an 8:1 ratio, which is what really allowed me to achieve the 41km altitude.

[Hejnfelt]

90pts proved, potential for circumnavigation

With the clarified minimum altitude of 25000 meters I built a high altitude spy plane with no part clipping.

She cruises at almost exactly 2400 m/s between 32000 and 40000 meters.

She eventually flamed out at 56000 meters as the engines didn't produce enough electricity to keep the cockpit running. If I had turned off the engines early and just cruised without SAS, I would have circumnavigated Kerbin and landed at the KSC as I was already in an elliptical orbit with periapsis >30000 meters.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[pat8996]

sorry guys but if your talking about the SR-71 Black Bird then your planes are years off

[stu6000]

Will give it a go!

[HueHue]

Updated the scores. It's rather hard to define the edge between "really high-flying spy plane" and "suborbital spy plane", but Hejnfelt has provided me inspiration on that. If your Ap goes above 60km, OR you have a Pe above 25km, we'll call it suborbital. I'll let Hejnfelt's update slip by though, since the rule is new.

[British_Rover]

Here you go Top speed 2,162 or so. I screwed up and didn't get an end mission report.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Plus one NERVA dropped and circumnavigation.

So 50 plus 50 plus 10 plus 100.

210 points.

[Justy]

Way to go, HueHue. I was playing with the shortwave tonight, and I got the Voice Of Kerplodistan from the United Kermunist Kerbal Republics. Turns out they took your challenge as a threat and decided they had no choice but to produce an equivalent system in response! I'm a bit rusty with the language, but I think they're calling it the "Nukabombik Transportsionnaya Sistema 2U." They've already conducted a partially successful test flight, including dropping a bomb in a remote part of one of the UKKR's vassal states, Kaboomistan.

The Antiquing Week & Space Technology website has the latest leaked specs: 2060 m/s at 31,000 meters, one nuclear weapon, and while it has some control problems with regards to landing, they expect to prove circumnavigation and landing within days proven circumnavigation ability.

There was also some bluster about how UKKR airspace is defended by atomic-powered radar satellites that can detect aircraft all the way down to the surface, and the same high altitude interceptors that shot down Tarmenius' plane on Thursday... though my copy of Jeb's Fighting Aircraft doesn't show anything like that. You know, I think they might be trying to take credit for shooting down a plane that actually broke up by ACCIDENT!

+50 pts for speed & altitude requirement

+50 pts for one NTR-bomb

+100 for circumnavigation & landing

=200 pts total

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited September 16, 2013 by Justy

[allmhuran]

If your Ap goes above 60km, OR you have a Pe above 25km, we'll call it suborbital

But if your challenge requires that the plane be able to fly at 25000m, then surely all of them have a periapsis of at least 25000m?

Or are you now setting a ceiling altitude of 25000m along with a minimum speed of 2000m/s?

Hej's 2400m/s is orbital velocity, not surface velocity. Perhaps that's a way to differentiate?

[British_Rover]

Really there should be a screenshot of the EOM report so you can get maximum velocity over the surface and not orbital velocity by mistake.

[allmhuran]

Well in any case, here's my entry.

Base requirements - 50

6 Nervas dropped - +300

Circumnavigation - +100

Maximum velocity - 2100 m/s with payload, 2200 m/s without payload. Not sure if that's +10 or +20?

So either 460 or 470.

Brief video of payload release and then landing at KSC.

http://youtu.be/4PiDeeI2DuY

Photographic documentation:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[HueHue]

Jesus Christ man. What altitude did you achieve your top speed under power at?

[allmhuran]

I think it was 2210 at 33000m without payload, or 2105 at 27000m with payload.

[Tidus Klein]

Here is my entry

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Base. +50

6 nervas+300

( It can circumnavigate but I broke off a wing on nerva drop so +0 maybe 50 ) never mind +100 (last few pics are of a second go around)

2100 m/s so +10

thats 460!

(Eat your heart out allmhuran)

Edited September 28, 2013 by Tidus Klein