Fastest Plane under 1.000m. [WE HAVE REACHED MACH 5!, Tidus Klein at 1,714 m/s]

[palker]

Did you try Kerbal joint reinforcement? it might help you with spontaneous disassembly.

[Sevant]

1,402 m/s - MACH 4.134 - B9 and Procedural fairings with FAR

Congrats!! Thanks for all the hints too. When I said that I thought I knew what your next entry would look like, that was it (with shorter fairings in my head). I even built that plane, but I kept maxing out at 12,010 m/s because I kept using the other engines.

With your tips, it's back to the drawing board

[Hejnfelt]

Congrats!! Thanks for all the hints too. When I said that I thought I knew what your next entry would look like, that was it (with shorter fairings in my head). I even built that plane, but I kept maxing out at 12,010 m/s because I kept using the other engines.

With your tips, it's back to the drawing board

Haha yeah I figured. Also I've tried maybe 5 other designs and 10 iterations of each that simply just don't cut it the way this design does.

[tavert]

If you wanna go fast you must use the stock TurboJet. Anyone who wants to know more should check out the followign imgur album by user Tarvert.

http://imgur.com/a/hyuPE#0

Tarvert is a source of amazing information and if you like looking at graphs like the one for the atmospheric engines, you will enjoy some of his other work submitted to Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/search?q=tavert&restrict_sr=on

Glad you appreciate my math! I should note that FAR changes some of these jet thrust curves around a bit. If I had FAR installed I could go dig through the part.cfg's and see how different they really are.

[fluffysnowcap]

Hejnfelt you are a epic builder Mach 4 is insane now the next question is who will get to mach 5 first

[SSSPutnik]

Question, what are the fairings covering? Is there some bug where you can reduce drag by covering an intake with a fairing?

[Sevant]

Question, what are the fairings covering? Is there some bug where you can reduce drag by covering an intake with a fairing?

The fairings in my planes don't cover anything (with the exception of the center fairing occasionally covering a small probe core). I use them because they are more aerodynamic than any of the nosecones that I know of.

As to covering air intakes, I don't know. There is some speculation about that on the forum, but I've never tried it myself, and it is (I think) against rules (and the laws of physics) to use it for an entry to this challenge.

[Hejnfelt]

Glad you appreciate my math! I should note that FAR changes some of these jet thrust curves around a bit. If I had FAR installed I could go dig through the part.cfg's and see how different they really are.

Tavert! I do appreciate it. I even tried tipping you money (dogecoins) on Reddit for this, but you never accepted, so the transaction failed

Hejnfelt you are a epic builder Mach 4 is insane now the next question is who will get to mach 5 first

I'm glad you appreciate it. I think Mach 5 may be possible but I have not come across a design that can achieve it. Yet...

Question, what are the fairings covering? Is there some bug where you can reduce drag by covering an intake with a fairing?

As seen in my video, they don't really cover anything. The weird part you can see when I ditch the fairings is just the fairing adapter. The fairings reduce drag quite tremendously and with FAR, nosecones actually benefit you and thus with fairings you can build very specific nosecones as seen in my latest video. Whether the conic fairings are better than the eggshaped fairings is still up for debate.

[Visari]

I want scramjets too so we can shoot for mach 24

...of course that would mean leaving orbit in a matter of seconds once you got up to speed--or rather before you got up to speed.

not if we used real solar system

stronger joints may be necessary.

I suggest kerbal joint reinforcement by ferram4.

While I have been actively monitoring drag on all of my parts, I have made an observation that while the intakes have remarkable drag--so far as FAR goes--having them covered has made no noticable impact on my speed. I'm still trying to determine the appropriate craft shape that can net me Mach 2, while still looking like a reasonable plane. Eventually, I'll try to run the numbers on thrust efficiency at these altitudes, because the given engines seem to make a remarkable difference in performance (so far the F119s seem to be the best).

Intakes produce 2 kinds of drag, part drag and intake drag. Part drag could be negated by putting it behind fairings, while intake drag will always be there and this is the main limit to your speed.

Also, the F119 dies out at pretty low speeds, I think.

I've never used Taverios, so I'm not familiar with what it does to the physics.

If it fixes that bug, will it cause planes to go slower?, or it's all about higher mach speeds in upper atmosphere

Like FAR, it alters the atmospheric power curve for jet engines, I think.

[TheHengeProphet]

Intakes produce 2 kinds of drag, part drag and intake drag. Part drag could be negated by putting it behind fairings, while intake drag will always be there and this is the main limit to your speed.

This is true, but I'm not sure how the intake drag really factors in with FAR operating. I'll have to do some tests...

Also, the F119 dies out at pretty low speeds, I think.

Like FAR, it alters the atmospheric power curve for jet engines, I think.

The F119 has a very similar power curve to what FAR tries to modify the stock turbojet to have. There is an issue with his documentation that seems to screw things up for some people, but not others (apparently), so I just modified FAR to not modify engine power curves at all. I haven't been using the stock engines anyway...

[fluffysnowcap]

im finding it imposable to fly a craft at speeds over 1000M/s but 'Dynamic Warp' is back and alows for some piliting that is not posabal any outer way

[Sevant]

im finding it imposable to fly a craft at speeds over 1000M/s but 'Dynamic Warp' is back and alows for some piliting that is not posabal any outer way

Try making sure that your craft is completely symmetrical top to bottom (with exception of landing gear). Small drag differences on the top or bottom of the craft will make it very difficult to fly above 1000 m/s.

Also, SAS modules never hurt to keep it under control.

[ihtoit]

I can get 319m/s (non-FAR since I don't use it) with 3 F119 engines and two intakes, total fuelled weight shy of 6.5 tons. Runway TWR: 9.37. If I can hit 330 without crashing, I'll post some pics.

EDIT: Pics, due to underwhelming demand...

The Speed Demon:

I think I might have been in with a chance with this design...

...if this hadn't happened:

BTTDB...

Edited February 10, 2014 by ihtoit

[Sevant]

I can get 319m/s (non-FAR since I don't use it) with 3 F119 engines and two intakes, total fuelled weight shy of 6.5 tons. Runway TWR: 9.37.

Nice looking plane! Will it fly if you put smaller wings on it?

Edited February 10, 2014 by Sevant

[Sevant]

So I worked on a new plane today, finally got up to 1,400 m/s with a stable plane. After refining the model I hit 1,510 m/s, but I wasn't good enough to land it (theoretically possible, but not happening with me as the pilot). Thus, I spent 2 hours reworking the plane to ditch nearly all of it's dead weight after reaching speed. The result: a plane that could reach 1,495 m/s with a Kerbal at the helm and was a breeze to fly and land.

Yay! Right?

Not quite.

I finalize the plane design, I start up my screen capturing program, and I do an official run to break the record. I make 1,495 m/s no problem, slow down no problem, ditch all my extra engines without a hitch, turn around, start flying back to land, and the Blue Screen of Death pops up. My hard drive died. That's all there is to it. I have some work to do before I know for sure if I just need a new hard drive or if my laptop has other problems too. I'll try to recreate the plane on a different computer, but all my video editing software is gone (licensed for that hard drive only) so it might be a bit before I can post anything. In the meantime, best of luck everyone!

[ihtoit]

I can get 319m/s (non-FAR since I don't use it) with 3 F119 engines and two intakes, total fuelled weight shy of 6.5 tons. Runway TWR: 9.37.QUOTE]

Nice looking plane! Will it fly if you put smaller wings on it?

yeah, tried that - takeoff speed went from 230m/s(!) to 285(!!), and I couldn't throttle back even a smidge for landing... was a sod to control with the smaller wings as well. Might try static Delta wings and a pair of stock control surfaces, see if that improves things (I doubt it since they don't provide as much lift as these fellas).

EDIT: Nope. Didn't work. Back to the heavyweight winglets. They do offer a surprising amount of lift and more control than one would expect, though I do admit they look a little odd on something that *should* go hypersonic...

Idle thought: is KSP's atmospheric physics "good enough" to take advantage of ground effect lift?

I'm talking about something like this:

This is the MD-160 Lun-Class Ekranoplan (Project 903), which with its 8 engines could generate a thousand kN of thrust and zip along a couple metres above a body of water at 122m/s while carrying a thousand ton payload(!). Only one was ever built, she flew I think twice, she's now rotting on a pontoon in Kaspiysk, Dagestan, on the Western shore of the Caspian Sea.

Edited February 10, 2014 by ihtoit

[Sevant]

EDIT: Nope. Didn't work. Back to the heavyweight winglets. They do offer a surprising amount of lift and more control than one would expect, though I do admit they look a little odd on something that *should* go hypersonic...

[sNIP]

This is the MD-160 Lun-Class Ekranoplan (Project 903), which with its 8 engines could generate a thousand kN of thrust and zip along a couple metres above a body of water at 122m/s while carrying a thousand ton payload(!). Only one was ever built, she flew I think twice, she's now rotting on a pontoon in Kaspiysk, Dagestan, on the Western shore of the Caspian Sea.

I'm surprised that the takeoff speed is so high on that thing, then again, I haven't been flying planes with stock physics since I entered this challenge.

As to the MD-160, that's pretty sweet! I suspect rough seas may have been something of a limitation for it though.

[ihtoit]

I'm surprised that the takeoff speed is so high on that thing, then again, I haven't been flying planes with stock physics since I entered this challenge.

As to the MD-160, that's pretty sweet! I suspect rough seas may have been something of a limitation for it though.

not really, it was pretty successful in that it could ride over anything the Caspian could throw its way, it could probably have throttled over a storm surge quite comfortably (that and it was designed as essentially a flying boat); the killers for the project were it couldn't steer worth a damn (they had to tug it round for the return trip), it was shockingly expensive to build, and there was really no need for what was basically a manned cruise MIRV launcher that couldn't safely traverse a landmass.

As for the takeoff speed on mine, the winglets were set at zero pitch attitude to minimise drag. Unfortunately this also meant minimal lift at low speed...

[tavert]

Tavert! I do appreciate it. I even tried tipping you money (dogecoins) on Reddit for this, but you never accepted, so the transaction failed

Oh, hah! Whoops, didn't know how that worked. Was I supposed to get a message from the tip bot or something?

[m1sz]

I tryed to make an entry, didnt go over 1.200m/s!, but got a nice footage of a low flight in the runway

And i mean LOW, i guess, less than 1 meter (quick video, i crash :<)

[Hejnfelt]

Oh, hah! Whoops, didn't know how that worked. Was I supposed to get a message from the tip bot or something?

Yeah actually... Maybe the bot was busy. Heard it was having some issues.

I tryed to make an entry, didnt go over 1.200m/s!, but got a nice footage of a low flight in the runway

And i mean LOW, i guess, less than 1 meter (quick video, i crash :<)

You're having an air intake issue Put your center engine on action group 1 and switch it off for take off. At 5-600 m/s switch it on.

[Mister Fixit]

Hi guys,

Heres my first shot at this challenge , ive made this plane a long time ago and it uses a socalled glitch in the game ,because it has NO engines and flies up to 1500 m/s or more , but for this challange i had to aply a parachute so that i could land it and i couldnt reach it anymore but ive reached 875 m/s under 964 meters , ow and i do not use any mods or add-ons

Heres the plane

here me flying it at almost top speed

And here i landed ( due to the added parachute the weigth is just over the wheels)

And here the confirmation

I hope you like it , i know its not a record , but maybe it is in the catagory Unpowered

Heres some info about the plane, the plane itself is a superlight weight (strong) structure , big wings front , small in the back and ailerons front and back need for this to work, 3 wheels for take off and landing and in case the plane stops you could use the gear to give it a small nudge forward .

The plane works by first pressing the controls down , it slowly starts moving forward, once at +- 15 m/s you could lift and repeat the up and down motion pretty fast after that level it at a correct height turn 90º and pull up , maybe jigle with the (tiny) tail and it will speed up like crazy.

Slowing down and land is a real nightmare in this thing because everytime you adjust the plane it wants to speed up and also it glides like forever,therefor in this challenge i had to put a chute on the front.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Mister Fixit

[Mister Fixit]

unable to delete this

Edited February 10, 2014 by Mister Fixit

[ihtoit]

Hi guys,

Heres my first shot at this challenge , ive made this plane a long time ago and it uses a socalled glitch in the game ,because it has NO engines and flies up to 1500 m/s or more , but for this challange i had to aply a parachute so that i could land it and i couldnt reach it anymore but ive reached 875 m/s under 964 meters , ow and i do not use any mods or add-ons

Heres the plane

http://nl.tinypic.com/r/25ggodu/8

here me flying it at almost top speed

http://nl.tinypic.com/r/5krgno/8

And here i landed ( due to the added parachute the weigth is just over the wheels)

http://nl.tinypic.com/r/2dad06d/8

And here the confirmation

http://nl.tinypic.com/r/2lc4i2a/8

I hope you like it , i know its not a record , but maybe it is in the catagory Unpowered

Heres some info about the plane, the plane itself is a superlight weight (strong) structure , big wings front , small in the back and ailerons front and back need for this to work, 3 wheels for take off and landing and in case the plane stops you could use the gear to give it a small nudge forward .

The plane works by first pressing the controls down , it slowly starts moving forward, once at +- 15 m/s you could lift and repeat the up and down motion pretty fast after that level it at a correct height turn 90º and pull up , maybe jigle with the (tiny) tail and it will speed up like crazy.

Slowing down and land is a real nightmare in this thing because everytime you adjust the plane it wants to speed up and also it glides like forever,therefor in this challenge i had to put a chute on the front.

yeah I'm not the challenge judge but I think that falls squarely in the category of "Exploits a well known game physics glitch known as INFINIGLIDE which is frowned upon in most challenges". BTW, your image links all seem to be broken. Not sure what you were trying to paste from there...

[Mister Fixit]

yeah I'm not the challenge judge but I think that falls squarely in the category of "Exploits a well known game physics glitch known as INFINIGLIDE which is frowned upon in most challenges". BTW, your image links all seem to be broken. Not sure what you were trying to paste from there...

Ah ok, Ill try to make one thats powered than xD , sorry