Barely airworthy (Cockpit reaction wheels challenge)

[whistlehead]

The challenge

The objective is simple - build a vehicle (plane, rocket or anything else), controlled ONLY by the cockpit reaction wheels, and fly it to the island runway.

Categories & rules

Twitch: Use the plane from THIS CRAFT FILE. Don't alter it! It tends to tip over backwards when standing still, it's fine while moving. You'll soon work out why I call it Twitch!

Vanilla: Build your own vehicle.

- Control surfaces of any variety, RCS and reaction wheels are banned. (No infiniglide for YOU!)

- Engines with thrust-vectoring must have their gimbals locked.

- If the craft has more than one cockpit, only one cockpit may have its torque enabled. You may, however, choose which cockpit this is.

- The craft must be of your own design.

Mods: In addition to the rules above:

- Mods must not add any additional means of control to the craft.

- All mods used must be stated within your submission.

All: No infinite fuel, no gravity hacks!

Scoring

Primary - can be attained in all categories.

Greased lightning: For every three whole seconds under 10 minutes (600 seconds), 1 point

Bumblebee: Buzz the KSP tower, Island tower or VAB. 10 points

Busy bee: Buzz two out of the KSP tower, Island tower and VAB. 20 points

The bee's knees: Buzz the KSP tower, Island tower and VAB. 30 points

High Flyer: Hit 5000m on the way. 30 points

Seat of your pants: Leave the SAS off. 30 points

Nailed it: Land, whole, on the runway. 30 points (Clarification: you must land and stop on the runway)

Extra - If you find the main challenge a bit dull, take a shot at some of these... (These may be impossible in Twitch)

Jumbo jet: For each additional Kerbal carried, 15 points (Kerbals must actually be in the pods for this to count!)

VTOL: Take off and land vertically. 30 points

Green machine: Only use ion engines. 50 points

Was that a DeLorean? Wheels-up at 39m/s (88mph). 88 points (Will accept within 1m/s!)

Timey Wimey: Do the whole flight on 4x time acceleration. 100 points

Frankenstein: Use one (and no more than one) of every type of engine. 100 points

Heavy lifter: Bring a rover with you. You must be able to undock the rover and drive it. 200 points*

Too easy: Build, fly and land on the runway completely intact in one go. 500 points

Long way round: Circumnavigate Kerbin first! 1200 points Cut from 2000 because of possible score unbalancing

Not again: Circumnavigate Kerbin again! 200 points (Not a typing error. No points for doing it a third time...)

Oops - If it goes wrong...

Snail's pace: For every four whole seconds over 10 minutes, -1 point (Capped at -1200)

What was that noise? For each component lost, -5 points

Noooo! For each Kerbal lost, -20 points

Well, it's something... - Consolation points

So close! Land on the island, but not at the runway. 5 points

Barely made it: Destroy everything but the pod(s). 5 points

What happened to the brakes? Touchdown on the runway, but run off it before stopping. 10 points (Craft must be wholly intact)

He's coming this way! Touchdown on the runway, but crash into the control tower. 15 points

Target destroyed: Crash the craft completely inside one of the island hangars. 20 points

Entries

You must post:

Any mods used (mods category only)

The following pictures:

- At least one picture showing that gimbals are off

- The craft sitting on the island runway

- As above, with flight log open

Pictures showing other achievements would be useful, but not necessary - I'll trust you!

The scores you have achieved

A total score

Example entry

Entry for: Twitch

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Score:

Greased lightning: 123 points

Bumblebee: 10 points

What happened to the brakes? 10 points

Total: 143 points

This is a fairly low score which I'm sure will be very quickly beaten, but it sets a benchmark! I might have another, more ambitious attempt in the future.

Leaderboard

Twitch

1: whistlehead, 143 points

Vanilla

1: Zorque, 517 points

2: Keptin, 283 points

3: Scarecrow88, 122 points

Mods

1: N/A

Special mentions

Highest: zorque, 34299m, vanilla

Fastest: zorque, 2106m/s, vanilla

Heaviest: Keptin, 21.81 tons, vanilla

Furthest: zorque, 3972228m, vanilla

Shortest time: whistlehead, 3min 51secs, twitch

Longest time: zorque, 54mins 53secs, vanilla

Best looking: Keptin, purely my opinion, vanilla

On a side note, I see that most people around here embed slideshows of images into their posts, rather than individual images. I must admit that I can't find how to do this. Any help? EDIT: Thanks, MarkoeZ

Regards and happy landings,

Chris

Edited October 16, 2013 by whistlehead
Album

[MarkoeZ]

Nice challenge, think i have a craft for this, gonna try a bit later

And the image albums: Register on imgur(free) and link to your album there like this: [im gur]CODEONLY[/im gur] (without the spaces). Only use the code for the album, not the whole web address.

[zorque]

OK, here goes. I went for a super simple design.

Album shows on the runway, with gimbal locked. takeoff, getting up to speed, a few shots of around the world, buzzing the tower, and smashing into the tower / runway at the same time (not sure if that counts, so I am not taking the 'Coming This Way' OR the 'Nailed It' bonus since I did not get clear screenshots of either (and I am NOT spending another hour on this to get a better screenshot... trust em, I can land with this aircraft).

[im gur]efolj#0[/im gur]

Score: (Used Vanilla)

BumbleBee: +10 points

High Flyer:: +30 points (I'd say 34KM covers it)

Seat of Pants: +30 points (never hit T, it screws up the flight anyway)

Long Way Round: +2000 points (hope that wasn't a typo, it took me almost an hour)

Snail's Pace: -688 points

What Was That Noise: -60 points

Noooooo: -20 points

Total: 1302 points

[Captain Sierra]

OK, here goes. I went for a super simple design.

Album shows on the runway, with gimbal locked. takeoff, getting up to speed, a few shots of around the world, buzzing the tower, and smashing into the tower / runway at the same time (not sure if that counts, so I am not taking the 'Coming This Way' OR the 'Nailed It' bonus since I did not get clear screenshots of either (and I am NOT spending another hour on this to get a better screenshot... trust em, I can land with this aircraft).

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Score: (Used Vanilla)

BumbleBee: +10 points

High Flyer:: +30 points (I'd say 34KM covers it)

Seat of Pants: +30 points (never hit T, it screws up the flight anyway)

Long Way Round: +2000 points (hope that wasn't a typo, it took me almost an hour)

Snail's Pace: -688 points

What Was That Noise: -60 points

Noooooo: -20 points

Total: 1302 points

Fixed your album.

[zorque]

Huh... what'd I do wrong? Do uick posts not support imgur links?

[whistlehead]

I reckon that's the He's coming this way! bonus, so your final score is 1317 points.

It looks like circumnavigation is going to become absolutely necessary to have any chance of a leaderboard slot...

Edited October 15, 2013 by whistlehead

[skykooler]

Huh... what'd I do wrong? Do uick posts not support imgur links?

You left the spaces in the imgur tags.

[zorque]

'twas a great PITA to circumnavigate... no flight control surfaces, no SAS, just reaction wheels and riding that thin line between altitude/speed/intake air/flameout to save fuel.

[zorque]

Doh, Immanidiot.

Also, whistlehead, Captain Sierra was just nice enough to fix my broken image link. The entry should be under the name zorque (or 'hey you lazy arse' of you're asking my wife).

[SunJumper]

For a moment I thought you meant torque-powered flight (yes, literally powered)

[keptin]

Stock parts

Going for the non-existent "biggest/heaviest aircraft" category.

Reactor-III

Built using knowledge obtained from the smaller Reactor-I and Reactor-II demonstrator craft.

.craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/Reactor-III.craft

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Reactor-IVA

Several changes were made after further experimentation with the Reactor-III. The tail was removed in place of guide vanes, the wingspan was increased and the upward cranked wings were replaced with gradually swept wings, plus a tail wheel was added for easy takeoff and landing. She is now effectively a flying wing, and given her wing area, this paves the road for a very heavy cargo variant.

.craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/Reactor-IVA.craft

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Reactor-VIB

Inspired by the success of the Reactor-IVA, I introduce the Reactor-VIB, the superheavy variant. It's almost a totally new craft, but uses the same principles for control. Consists of a 3-man pod, three lander cans, and much more fuel for a total mass of 27.81 tons.

.craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66999462/Reactor-VIB.craft

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Was that a DeLorean? +88

Greased lightning +60

Seat of your pants +30

Nailed it +30

Jumbo jet +45

=253 points.

I didn't win in points, but everyone knows bigger is better

Edited October 16, 2013 by keptin

[whistlehead]

Doh, Immanidiot.

Also, whistlehead, Captain Sierra was just nice enough to fix my broken image link. The entry should be under the name zorque (or 'hey you lazy arse' of you're asking my wife).

Oops. Sorry. Fixing now.

[whistlehead]

Keptin: That's a mighty impressive craft, well worthy of a special mention, I reckon.

I'm considering nerfing the round the world flight - maybe 1000? That way it's still a bonus but not score-breaking.

EDIT: Figured I'd do it now so it won't cause even more confusion later on. Sorry Zorque! (Still top of the board)

Edited October 16, 2013 by whistlehead

[Scarecrow88]

Fun challenge. I was amazed at how controllable my craft was. Think I am going to add a couple of control surfaces and add it to my fleet.

Vanilla Craft Category

Craft name: X-Wing

Greased Lightning 2 pts

Bee's Knees 30 pts (That was the fun part - buzzing the various buildings)

High Flyer 30 pts

Seat of Your Pants 30 pts

Nailed it 30 pts

Total: 122 pts

Not a particularly high score, but at least I didn't lose any points.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Craft File for anyone who would like to try it.