HSTW Drone Race -- closed.

[Tosh]

Since the release of The Drone v2.6 launching that bird no longer makes a challenge; so I\'m closing the topic. I\'m pretty much satisfied by the results we\'ve got here.

Thanks to everyone who took part!

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H&S Tinkering Workshop is looking for a skilled test pilot.

O.K. guys, here\'s the problem. Our technicians have just tinkered a new unmanned airplane, \'the Drone\', -- and she just fails to fly straight. We need someone to tech \'er to fly.

Your mission as a test pilot is to determine optimal launching conditions to acquire the longest traveling distance. You\'ll need to

• [li]Download

HSTW Drone pack. You may either build a carrier of any parts at your discretion or use a supplied .craft file (required parts: C7, stock, HSTW Drone). In the former case you must upload your .carft file along with a list of parts used.[/li]
[li]Takeoff and set the course, stabilize flight parameters (no controls should be touched at this moment!) then launch the Drone and take a screenshot immediately. Launch conditions (altitude, carrier speed and pitch angle) must be clearly visible in the screenshot as well as mission timer readings. Buildings of KSC must also be visible in the screenshot. See example in the post below.[/li]
[li]Chase the Drone as long as you can. Take a screenshot just before losing the Drone (yes, that implies taking the screenshots constantly during the flight!), then open \'End Mission\' window and take another one with Ground Distance Covered value clearly visible. Mission timer must also be shown in both pictures.[/li]
[li]Note that topicstarter may ask you to repeat your record flight.[/li]
[li]Your results will be published along with your craft\'s name and launch conditions from the first screenshot.[/li]

Airplane tuning engineer contest has been won by Iskierka. Iskierka will receive the main prize: any single KSP part modelled and textured at his discretion. In addition he will be listed as the co-author of next release of HSTW Drone pack.

No future .CFG-edits will be accepted.

---

Leaderboard:

[table][tr][td] Username[/td][td] Conditions[/td][td] Distance[/td][td] Time[/td][td] Vehicle[/td][td] Config[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Iskierka[/td][td]464m 33m/s 25°[/td][td] 511 363 m[/td][td] ~50:00[/td][td] MA-03E[/td][td] Iskierka[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]pandoras kitten[/td][td] 360m 81m/s 40°[/td][td] 47 997 m[/td][td] 3:59[/td][td] BSAR Mirage IV-R3[/td][td] (unreliable)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td] Tosh[/td][td] 398m 88m/s 31°[/td][td] 26 960 m[/td][td] 2:33[/td][td] standard[/td][td] standard[/td][/tr][/table]

[Tosh]

No config changes.

[Goddess Bhavani]

This drone makes a perfect force multiplier for my EB-116 'Megafortress' type bomber.

Imagine lasing targets with the drone then railgunning them from standoff range. Terrorists won\'t know what hit them!

Challenge accepted :3

[Goddess Bhavani]

Test report 1:

Firstly, I re-done the lift and drag values as suggested for the \'engineering\' part of the challenge.

Instead of the drone being a ballistic missile I want it to fly straight and level at subsonic speed like an actual drone. A ballistic 'missile' flight path is not very usefull for loitering to monitor an area (and unrealistic for this drone design), it must hold a straight and level attitude automatically at a very low speed just like the real life one.

Second, the solid fuel rocket is way too powerful. With the right airfoil settings for \'straight and level\' I could reach orbit.

So now as I am unable to edit the rocket thrust and fuel use, I am re-doing the drag factor of the drone to create a more realistic \'boost up and glide level\' flight plan.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Update - I\'m up to 40km range. Drone does not exceed low altitude flight.

I set the trim on the drone\'s airfoils for it to act as a cruise missile, so all you have to do is launch it straight and level and the aerodynamics does the rest.

Unlike other games I can\'t McGyver up a \'natural autopilot\' for a self correcting , self-levelling unguided vehicle because KSP\'s current flight model does not take into consideration speed vs lift, ground effects, etc.

So my drone can actually fly pretty much forever in theory.

Problem is the rocket on the drone has way too much thrust and so it can fly to orbit by itself! Not good. Limited fuel would definitely be required.

I\'m not posting any pictures/video yet because I\'m aiming for 100km. Now the airfoil settings are so accurate I am dealing with 4 decimal places and soon to be more.

[Tosh]

Update - I\'m up to 40km range. Drone does not exceed low altitude flight.

-snip-

Problem is the rocket on the drone has way too much thrust and so it can fly to orbit by itself! Not good. Limited fuel would definitely be required.

I\'m not posting any pictures/video yet because I\'m aiming for 100km. Now the airfoil settings are so accurate I am dealing with 4 decimal places and soon to be more.

You\'re aimin\' for what? Woooooah ???

I didn\'t suppose engine thrust affects aerodynamics so much. I allow changing this parameter. OP updated.

Waitin\' for your results

[Goddess Bhavani]

Thanks for your reply Tosh,

I was using your engine parameter all day and I figured out if you wanted me to use a rocket motor, I decided high altitude aero-ballistic trajectory like some early Russian antiship missiles was the way to go.

I managed to get reliable hits to 40-50km, 30km is easy (just aim using the angle) and 100km with the rocket is totally impossible because you and the drone will be literally, in hot pursuit at the edge of space!

I managed to get 70km twice after lofting to an altitude of over 13km, achieved 116km ONCE but the drone was too fast and the chase jet could not handle the thin air, and condluded super high altitude drone airfoil configs are very unreliable. Sometimes the drone will make a 90 degree turn as it breaks Mach 1, other times despite accurately specifying launch speed and angle, the drone just refuses to adopt the stratospheric climb profile. That 116km was possibly a fluke, I may have hit the drone momentarily with my jet wash during launch.

I was happy with 40km because it was repeatable and the trajectory is just awesome. Uploading a video now which should be up in an hour!

I will also post my high altitude research craft (Dassault Mirage IV replica) and all my configurations for the recon drone, labelled by range, launch angle and reliability.

With your blessing I will now create a low altitude drone but be warned, I will probably make the low and slow drone to have limited fuel. Constant thrust actually allows my low altitude configuration to eventually reach orbit on its very own! Whereas limited fuel will allow me to get future drone operators to select the desired atltitude and the drone simply adopts whatever height the launch aircraft was at and what angle was it flying. Limited fuel is pretty much compulsory for this second application otherwise my airfoils are so stable, it will not ever crash

P.s. - also realised on the drone hardpoint - ejector force needs to be higher. Otherwise drone may be hard to separate from mothership. Quite interesting when shit happens and you get a midair collision lol.

[Tosh]

P.s. - also realised on the drone hardpoint - ejector force needs to be higher. Otherwise drone may be hard to separate from mothership. Quite interesting when shit happens and you get a midair collision lol.

Well... change everything)))) Let\'s see what\'s gonna come out of this))

[Goddess Bhavani]

LOL everything? okay you said it lol. Gonna take my time tho - I want to release quality tested product, not duct-taped mission plan.

For record keeping purposes - I do play fair with the competition statistics for today\'s flights. Repeated my earlier 40+ km launch to prove it was repeatable, this time almost hitting 48km. Was a smooth flight.

This flight used your engine parameters, but I changed all airfoil drag and lift values as directed in original post earlier today. No other modification.

Pictures below:

[Tosh]

This flight used your engine parameters, but I changed all airfoil drag and lift values as directed in original post earlier today. No other modification.

I\'d like to see these values and to try them myself (I promise neither to compete in the challenge nor to release that config without your permission). Please either publish them or PM \'em to me .

[Goddess Bhavani]

I will PM you shortly a link to the high-altitude configuration. Feel free to test it out. Just be warned with this \'competition\' airfoil setting the only safe time to launch the drone is when pitching down right after takeoff.

Try an angle of 20 degrees first, then 30, and lastly 40 degrees. Anything above does not work as drone currently has unlimited fuel and will go straight to orbit.

Notice how I balance the fin lift, wing lift, and manually offset the thrust vector of the engine to give something like a \'self compensating\' flight model that automatically climbs, levels, then dives into the ground just for this competition.

If you can adopt anything from the competition settings I\'m sending, feel free to include them in your next update. Same goes for the upcoming low altitude flight profile - I\'m more or less making them to make your drone somewhat realistically functional You did the hard work modelling and texturing the Predator drone after all

[JellyCubes]

Is editing the .craft file so the wings have a positive angle of incidence considered cheating?

[Goddess Bhavani]

Jelly - nope, you are allowed to use your own craft I think.

New wing angle technically, does make a new aircraft

p.s. Video of my 41km aeroballistic profile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hek09pRCwY4

Video of 48km one coming up in half an hour.

[Tosh]

If you can adopt anything from the competition settings I\'m sending, feel free to include them in your next update. Same goes for the upcoming low altitude flight profile - I\'m more or less making them to make your drone somewhat realistically functional You did the hard work modelling and texturing the Predator drone after all

Yes, that\'s exactly what I meant when starting this challenge. As I appeared to be not very good in fine-tuning this drone I definitely need a co-author

Is editing the .craft file so the wings have a positive angle of incidence considered cheating?

Nothing considered \'cheating\'. I want this drone to fly as far as it can... and to release a stably flying add-on as a result.

Though as I\'ve mentioned in the OP it\'s up to me to determine who\'s the author of \'the best config\'... and who\'s getting the prize Extreme values in part.cfg or .craft file editing lower your chances.

[Goddess Bhavani]

OK new ejector rack working splendidly, no fear of drone flying up into plane now.

Also made a duplicate set of drone parts for low altitude version. I actually had a 40km range < 1500m setting earlier but did not save a copy of it. Time to reverse engineer.

As for editing craft file ... lol, I realised single engine plane could not chase the drone, once I tweaked airfoil values for more efficient flight. I allowed myself to think not drone but cruise missile afterwards LOL

[Tosh]

OK new ejector rack working splendidly, no fear of drone flying up into plane now.

Sorry, I cannot confirm your results. The drone \'flies into the plane\' because its fins are touching plane\'s side nacelles (see screenshot). To be honest I could not even separate the drone from your carrier plane .

And when I used the plane from the opening post -- the drone rushed straight to the stratosphere, no matter the pitch angle

Consider using some other carrier plane design, or edit rack\'s or fuselage\'s part.cfg and increase node_attach offset. I can make a rack bigger in a latter case.

[Goddess Bhavani]

If you take a look at my youtube video, notice I deploy the drone while the plane is pitching down after vertical takeoff. I throttle back for a moment while pitching down to let the drone fly.

The fins touching the nacelles have no bearing on the performance really. Plane just exists to launch drone and follow it.

Second youtube video is up!

This one is the 48km flight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hek09pRCwY4&feature=youtu.be

It does go into the stratosphere by itself and comes back down... eventually, 40km away Ballistic missile! Need fast plane to follow it all the way up. If you want slow drone - I\'m working on the thing right now. Not easy to re-balance thrust/lift/drag against gravity all over again.

On other carrier planes the separation is now no problem because I set the ejector value to 3x than your original. Stress free deployments now.

[Redneck]

Heya Carmen glad to see ya back! Miss the old orbiter multiplayer days. Great vids

[Tosh]

If you take a look at my youtube video, notice I deploy the drone while the plane is pitching down after vertical takeoff. I throttle back for a moment while pitching down to let the drone fly.

The fins touching the nacelles have no bearing on the performance really. Plane just exists to launch drone and follow it.

That contact seems to alter drone\'s pitch angle . Pitching the plane down at the moment of launch also does not make a reliable launcher. I would not rely on such a matter when releasing the final config .

UPDATE. I\'ve somehow got some results pitching down a plane from OP at the moment of launch. I accept your entry as a test pilot, but not as an engineer yet. For future attempts I prohibit touching plane controls at the moment of launch. Launch from sustained flight only.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Noted - with the ejector pylon set to 6 instead of 2 I am able to launch from sustained flight.

Previously some of the more stable lift settings for the drone were causing it to ride up into the mothership once released, thus influencing the 'negative G maneuver' to throw off the drone.

[Tosh]

Noted - with the ejector pylon set to 6 instead of 2 I am able to launch from sustained flight.

Previously some of the more stable lift settings for the drone were causing it to ride up into the mothership once released, thus influencing the 'negative G maneuver' to throw off the drone.

And I\'ve tried to shift the drone away from the mothership... and have found that it really yields nothing. The drone still likes your Mirage IV too much and just does not want to go off .

Well, O.K., ejectionForce=6.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Progress report:

1. New carrier aircraft - multi engine craft no longer required for chase, since low altitude drone variant is subsonic

2. Launch procedure fixed - Upon vertical takeoff, carrier aircraft automatically pitches down to 15 degrees, whereupon SAS locks the pitch for drone deployment. Stress free drone deployment! No longer requires WW2 torpedo bomber launching skills!

3. Improved pylon separation - prevents drone from \'riding up\' into parent aircraft

Setback:

Issues with airfoil quality caused some drone prototypes to not hold a steady course so I am re-doing the airfoils from scratch. Should not be hard, just that fine tuning takes a while.

New idea

I think I know way of stopping the thing from flying off into the stratosphere. The new submarine mod has the ability to make fuel tanks heavier as fuel is used.

That means I can definitely make the drone climb gently after dropping off from the carrier, cruise at a medium altitude, then commit suicide properly. Do not want a soft landing for these things as it\'s better the drone be crashed and destroyed, than fall into enemy hands after use.

[Tosh]

And I\'ve got it while the drone behaves differently when launched from different crafts. Specifying pitch angle means next to nothing . Heavier plane climbs slower than a light one even with the same pitch angle, so there are different forces affecting the drone. That\'s why the drone easily goes off the standard launcher while sticks firmly to your Mirage...

It seems that we\'re gotta limit the challenge to a standard launch vehicle... at least add the \'Launcher\' column to the leaderboard.

[Goddess Bhavani]

And I\'ve got it while the drone behaves differently when launched from different crafts. Specifying pitch angle means next to nothing . Heavier plane climbs slower than a light one even with the same pitch angle, so there are different forces affecting the drone. That\'s why the drone easily goes off the standard launcher while sticks firmly to your Mirage...

It seems that we\'re gotta limit the challenge to a standard launch vehicle... at least add the \'Launcher\' column to the leaderboard.

No wonder when I switched to multi-engine aircraft, all the drone behaviour is altered!

Good news though, the new flight model is universal.

We probably need to separate the low altitude drone development from the contest already. I will be happy to conduct further testing and perfection of the 2nd batch of the new airfoils. They are showing a lot of promise.

Unlike the first generation drones, the new ones are self-stabilising and are affected less by the parent ship\'s attitude.

[Tosh]

I think I know way of stopping the thing from flying off into the stratosphere. The new submarine mod has the ability to make fuel tanks heavier as fuel is used.

That means I can definitely make the drone climb gently after dropping off from the carrier, cruise at a medium altitude, then commit suicide properly. Do not want a soft landing for these things as it\'s better the drone be crashed and destroyed, than fall into enemy hands after use.

Well... try that

We probably need to separate the low altitude drone development from the contest already. I will be happy to conduct further testing and perfection of the 2nd batch of the new airfoils. They are showing a lot of promise.

I\'d stick to low-altitude only. Low-alt flight profile suits better to this kind of drone.