Drop-Off Plane Challenge

[BagelRabbit]

Please read all rules before posting!

In this challenge, your goal is to create a plane that can drop off as many Kerbals as possible without landing, and then fly the plane back for a safe, controlled landing on the runway.

No altitude limit; distance is determined by the F3 flight log the moment the capsule is dropped.

Caveats:

The craft must separate into two or more distinct pieces.

Only jet engines allowed. No rocket power.

No using External Command Seats.

No Kerbals may die during the flight.

No mods.

Both the plane and the Kerbal-carrying bit must survive the flight intact.

If either part of the craft disappears on account of being too far away, the flight is unsuccessful. (In other words, drop the Kerbals off at a low altitude and a slow speed.)

Pictures/video or it didn't happen!

Points:

500 points for a completed mission.

5 points for each Kerbal landed, multiplied by distance in kilometers.

500 bonus points if you do it in Career mode.

An example: I flew a plane with eight Kerbals to the island runway, which is 32.7 km away from where I started. I dropped off the Kerbal capsule and returned safely to the runway.

My score would be 500+5(8)x(32.7)=1808 points.

Here is an example of a plane that can safely drop eight Kerbals (note that this would not be a qualified flight, because of the plane getting too far away from the Kerbal bit). I've succeeded at completing the challenge with this plane, now I just have to do it on camera.

http://youtu.be/vldPAxdPdBw

Good luck!

Leaderboard:

1st place- Mr. Speed- 79,563 points

2nd place- Lions- 3,441 points

3rd place- Me- 1,808 points

4th place - -

5th place - -

Edited December 5, 2013 by UpsilonAerospace
Clarification.

[Ojimak]

Is there a flight altitude limit (Are suborbital hops allowed)?

Also, should the scoring be resolved to something with multipliers, so the total score is something like 50*(number of kerbals)*10*(distance dropped)? In long distance flights, it's much easier to carry 1 fewer Kerbal 5 km farther than it is to carry 1 more Kerbal 5 km shorter, but the current scoring system would score them the same.

Also, how do you want us to tell the distance traveled? If you get that from the F3 log, it'll tell you total distance, so if someone circumnavigated and landed by the runway, their F3 distance would be enormous, but their physical distance would be small.

-Ojimak

sounds like a fun challenge, I might enter with one of my VTOLs

[BagelRabbit]

Thanks for the pointers... I'm editing the scoring and the requirements.

[Kasuha]

There is no difference between finished Career game and a Sandbox game, so why are there bonus points for it?

Not that I complain, I have one finished Career campaign saved so if I decide to participate I have no problems using it. It just feels kinda pointless.

[BagelRabbit]

There is no difference between finished Career game and a Sandbox game, so why are there bonus points for it?

To provide those patient [read: more patient than me] souls who have completed Career mode with a little bonus.

And to encourage those who are not yet done with Career mode to try to be innovative with what they have.

[Lions]

Not sure if i did this correctly, but i tried . Got 16 Kerbals dropped off safely on the Island, i did not travel that far because it takes for ever!

My pictures below

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[BagelRabbit]

Not sure if i did this correctly, but i tried

Brilliant! That's the spirit!

The only thing that was a little off was the fact that you used the F3 key at the end of the flight, as opposed to right after you dropped the Kerbals off. However, I'd just take the total distance covered and divide it by two.

That would yield a score of 500+(16x5)(~73.530/2)=3,441.2 points, unless you achieved this in Career mode, whereupon the score would be increased to 3,941.2. This score is more than I'll probably ever get.

Time to make a leaderboard!

[Mr. Speed]

I made a long range dropper a few days ago and forgot about it (because of its ugliness) until I saw this challenge. I hadn't tested it's range so I thought this was a good opportunity to give it a try.

After I had seen the UFO easter egg in a video I had a lot of interested kerbal scientists who wanted to see the extrakerrestrial wreck up close.

Mission: bring Kerbins top scientists to the crashed UFO near the north pole!!!

After a test flight by the Cargo Cruiser Carl I replaced two of it's four jet engines with turbojet engines, to give it some more power at high altitude( at the cost of some efficiency).

Here are the pics!

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[Lions]

Brilliant! That's the spirit!

The only thing that was a little off was the fact that you used the F3 key at the end of the flight, as opposed to right after you dropped the Kerbals off. However, I'd just take the total distance covered and divide it by two.

That would yield a score of 500+(16x5)(~73.530/2)=3,441.2 points, unless you achieved this in Career mode, whereupon the score would be increased to 3,941.2. This score is more than I'll probably ever get.

Time to make a leaderboard!

No i did not use my Career mode account, there are some mods installed and it is making KSP slow. Sorry for the wrong F3 screen shot, i will do it again and do better

PS. RIP Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious), sad news, the movies will never be the same again :'(

[koshelenkovv]

I tried to drop 13 kerbals but rolled too much and they all were dumped out of the carrier

[Deathsoul097]

I need to pay more attention to the fine print...

Edited December 1, 2013 by Deathsoul097

[Fengist]

(WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS COPIUS AMOUNTS OF SARCASM)

You do know that external seats exist, right?

To quote the rules, ummm you know they exist right?

Caveats:

The craft must separate into two or more distinct pieces.

Only jet engines allowed. No rocket power.

No using External Command Seats.

[leafty]

Fans of Starcraft, here comes the Kerbivac! If you're lucky you can get 4 or 5 Kerb Marines at a reasonable distance to your target location.

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I don't know if this still qualifies as it has no detachable part and there was one casualty (it's really hard to drop them intact).

[GraviTykillz]

i had some thing along these lines

but there was a small disaster, well 42 kerbals meet their untimely death.

Havent had the will to try again:(

[BagelRabbit]

So, I've created a plane that drops off thirteen Kerbals, almost 300 km from the airstrip. The plane is a modified version of the one I used before, only with double the fuel, almost double the Kerbal load, and slightly more structural reinforcement.

The video is sped up 2x, so the plane really wasn't going all that fast.

This would yield 500+(13x5)(286.243)=19,106 points.

Oh, a reminder: Please read all of the rules (including the caveats) prior to posting!

Thank you.

Edited December 3, 2013 by UpsilonAerospace

[GraviTykillz]

Looks alot like what i just tried.

But they disapeared before i could land.

Guess i dropped them from to high?

[GraviTykillz]

Done with 5 Kerbals Dropped off at island

Landing

Kerbals at Island

All in all I really liked this challenge!!!11!

It made me come up with a new design, and with that im sure i can turn this plane in to one that can deliver satellites to orbit:cool:

[zorque]

My entry is an attempt to make a plane that can drop Kerbals off anywhere in the world, so I targeted the exact opposite side of the planet. I went a hair further to land them in daylight on land instead of in the water at night, so the drop point was at 2,105,860 M distance over land. I could have cheated and circumnavigated, then dropped them off just west of the mountains, but that seems like loopholing to me. Completely stock, heavy as heck on take-off, and way too unstable at high speeds / altitude for sub-orbital hops... But it got the job done. (Note the pods have generators, batteries, and coms for actual scientificky stuffs).

500 + 20 Kerbals * 5 points * 2,105.86 KM = 211,086 points.

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Edited December 5, 2013 by zorque
bad maths