Fastest Plane with Air Breathing Engines

[adjit]

Haven't seen any challenges for this so here is mine. Go as fast as you possibly can in some sort of airplane.

RULES :

1 - Engines must require and be using intake air at the time of top speed. (R.A.I.P.E.R engines are allowed so long as they are in air breathing mode -- There must be proof)

2 - Must be an airplane of some sort. Aka needs to have wings

3 - Horizontal Takeoff and Landing are required.

4 - All MODS are fair game -- There will be 2 leaderboards for modded and stock craft.

MODDED CRAFT Leaderboards :

1-

2-

3-

4-

5-

STOCK CRAFT Leaderboards :

1-

2-

3-

4-

5-

Here is my attempt -- Will not count as a submission because the whole thing wasn't documented. Just my inspiration for the challenge. 1381.2 m/s

You'll also notice I am using R.A.I.P.E.R engines, but as you can see I am out of Oxidizer and had been for some time. Initially attempted to get into orbit but that failed, so I tried seeing how fast I could go.

If I am missing anything or you guys have suggestions feel free to make em

Edited June 27, 2014 by adjit

[CavemanNinja]

I suggest separate leader boards for modded craft, as craft using mods such as B9 and FAR could have an advantage.

[adjit]

I suggest separate leader boards for modded craft, as craft using mods such as B9 and FAR could have an advantage.

I like it!

[ihtoit]

hm... has been done, record stands at something like Mach 7 at 1000m with an airbreather.

[Hodo]

As someone else said it has been done.

There was the Maching Bird Challenge.

And the Fastest plane under 1000m.

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This was from my attempt and fastest aircraft in FAR in the Maching Bird Challenge.

[Tsevion]

Not to derail you, but stock it's kinda boring... since the Turbojet tops out at 2400 m/s (It will literally provide 0 thrust at that point), it's just a question of who can arbitrarily come closest to that, unless you do some clever tricks, in which case you may be able to get slightly faster during a dive.

[ihtoit]

yeah I think I've hit an airwall with having KSPI and a few other physics mods installed, I can't get a stable (level) flight over 21km and 1350m/s even with an airbreathing TWR of over 12! Only way I can get faster is to go into a ballistic suborbital trajectory, then I max out just before reentry - fastest so far has been 2260m/s, that's from an 80 degree climbout and drop straight back down from ap: 284km.

(EDIT: there is a way of getting the stock jets to provide >0kN thrust at 35-80+km even with no intake air: with MechJeb set the max thrust in the Ascent Guidance to 0.01% at 28km, toggle to prevent overheats and throttle back with X, then throttle up. This will push your ap well up, is how I got to 284km - without that I'd've topped at 130! BTW, I only had THREE air intakes (one nose cone and two radial) and no supplemental air bottles!).

Edited June 28, 2014 by ihtoit

[No one]

Are we allowed to use "Canned air"?

That is, are we allowed to put a lot of radial intakes on a plane, fill them up and close them while on the runway, and then rely on them to fuel the plane rather than using open intakes?

[adjit]

Are we allowed to use "Canned air"?

Going to say no to canned air. Although, you would definitely need a lot to fuel the engines for a good amount of time.

[Claw]

Yeah, as has been stated there are two separate, long standing challenges that do just this. (And the stock Maching Bird challenge is something over 2370 m/s I believe.)

[adjit]

fastest so far has been 2260m/s, that's from an 80 degree climbout and drop straight back down from ap: 284km.

(EDIT: there is a way of getting the stock jets to provide >0kN thrust at 35-80+km even with no intake air: with MechJeb set the max thrust in the Ascent Guidance to 0.01% at 28km, toggle to prevent overheats and throttle back with X, then throttle up. This will push your ap well up, is how I got to 284km - without that I'd've topped at 130! BTW, I only had THREE air intakes (one nose cone and two radial) and no supplemental air bottles!).

That is an interesting way to go about it.

Made another craft, with stock engines and everything, just modded wings and wheels and shattered my old speed. This time I got 1615.3m/s

[Claw]

Yep, here is the Machingbird Challenge thread. Althoug it looks in need of an update.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/27296-The-MachingBird-Challenge!

Stock high speed is 2377 m/s (oh noes, I fell to fifth place!).

[No one]

Does the engine have to be switched on at the time of top speed? Like, if we get going really fast really high with air breathing engines and then go even faster during a dive after that, does that count?

[Hodo]

Yep, here is the Machingbird Challenge thread. Althoug it looks in need of an update.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/27296-The-MachingBird-Challenge!

Stock high speed is 2377 m/s (oh noes, I fell to fifth place!).

If it makes you feel any better, I am still on top of the FAR catagory.

[ihtoit]

Does the engine have to be switched on at the time of top speed? Like, if we get going really fast really high with air breathing engines and then go even faster during a dive after that, does that count?

I'd say not else I could enter my Mach 8.7 plane... it was nose-down at 43km from 500km ballistic to do that.

Oh, word of warning: if your engines do cut out because of altitude, switch them off until you get back below ~20km, cause even with MJ they'll overheat and 'splode otherwise.

EDIT: Purpose-built plane for .23 (not tried it on .23.5 physics yet), the KD Behemoth 52:

I will be trying it on .23.5 for the simple reason that in .23 it exceeded 1km/s at 27km *with 28t payload*, and entering it on this challenge.

EDIT: that's a no. Got to 720m/s at 27km and that's it. No higher, and no faster. Got some weird physics going on in my install...

Edited June 30, 2014 by ihtoit

[MadChris48]

going to reinstall stock and give this a go.

Edited June 30, 2014 by MadChris48

[Pds314]

Anything made using LLL radial turbojets in FAR can reach 2200+ m/s. No exceptions.

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So... anyone wanna beat 2333.7 m/s?

Also, yes, in the dark image of the massive plane, it does reach space at 580 tonnes.

[Pds314]

yeah I think I've hit an airwall with having KSPI and a few other physics mods installed, I can't get a stable (level) flight over 21km and 1350m/s even with an airbreathing TWR of over 12! Only way I can get faster is to go into a ballistic suborbital trajectory, then I max out just before reentry - fastest so far has been 2260m/s, that's from an 80 degree climbout and drop straight back down from ap: 284km.

(EDIT: there is a way of getting the stock jets to provide >0kN thrust at 35-80+km even with no intake air: with MechJeb set the max thrust in the Ascent Guidance to 0.01% at 28km, toggle to prevent overheats and throttle back with X, then throttle up. This will push your ap well up, is how I got to 284km - without that I'd've topped at 130! BTW, I only had THREE air intakes (one nose cone and two radial) and no supplemental air bottles!).

KSPI? Why not use the thermal turbojets? You can get a solid 5 km/s in RSS Earth's Atmosphere with those.

[ihtoit]

KSPI? Why not use the thermal turbojets? You can get a solid 5 km/s in RSS Earth's Atmosphere with those.

just had another thought, though it'll push the plane mass up to ridiculous: precoolers.

[Lesbiotic]

Yep, here is the Machingbird Challenge thread. Althoug it looks in need of an update.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/27296-The-MachingBird-Challenge!

Stock high speed is 2377 m/s (oh noes, I fell to fifth place!).

Considering there hasn't been an update for the Machingbird challenge thread since march and quoted from TheHengeProphet's sig; "The Machingbird Challenge!: A challenge which is now defunct, due to my own magnificent powers of neglect." It would seem we are in need of a replacement challenge thread, or someone to kick TheHengeProphet into updating it again.. This one should do nicely as long as it is maintained and scored fairly.

I won't be submitting anything since both of my Machingbird designs do not fit the rules for this new challenge, (the first for no wings, the second for closed intakes and also no wings) and I think I've held that top spot for a long enough time. Best of luck to everyone working on this challenge, I'm eager to see the designs!

[Kasuha]

Not to be mean but I think rules are not restrictive enough.

Some time ago I sent a spaceplane to Laythe, met it retrograde at over 8 km/s and by turning on the engine during the aerobrake I would meet all requirements of this challenge:

1/ Air-breathing engines on at the time of top speed - check

2/ Must be an airplane - check

3/ Horizontal takeoff/landing - check

4/ Pure stock

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Note that I did not turn engines on and I am not entering it into this challenge but maybe the requirement that the plane should not exceed certain altitude and should not use any other kinds of propulsion should probably be also part of rules.

[Bbaronx]

2453 all stock parts, and the only mod I have is Mechjeb, and its not on this plane. I didn't get pictures of the takeoff and landing, but i can get some if they are required

[goduranus]

Not to be mean but I think rules are not restrictive enough.

Some time ago I sent a spaceplane to Laythe, met it retrograde at over 8 km/s and by turning on the engine during the aerobrake I would meet all requirements of this challenge:

1/ Air-breathing engines on at the time of top speed - check

2/ Must be an airplane - check

3/ Horizontal takeoff/landing - check

4/ Pure stock

Note that I did not turn engines on and I am not entering it into this challenge but maybe the requirement that the plane should not exceed certain altitude and should not use any other kinds of propulsion should probably be also part of rules.

This is the way to go. Go into Kerbol orbit and accelerate arbitrarily fast in space, then come around again and hit Kerbin or Laythe with jet engines turned on.

Edited July 12, 2014 by goduranus

[Darren9]

This is the way to go. Go into Kerbol orbit and accelerate arbitrarily fast in space, then come around again and hit Kerbin or Laythe with jet engines turned on.

If he'd said "I sent an airplane to.......", but he didn't. It seems easy to argue a spaceplane is more than an airplane?

[Bean]

Problem here is exactly the new system, I manually managed to push a basic plane to 150km Apo, and I was lugging around fuel to circularize when I was out of the atmo, and that was just a nothing plane, 2 intakes and a ramjet. I'm sure you could push much higher and record the speed as you come down to 70km.

I didn't notice how silly spaceplanes had gotten till I decided I was at a tech level in my career save to try one, I managed to manually keep the jet running to 69000m.