Island VTOL Race

[Scarecrow88]

I have seen a few challenges involving flying to the island and back, but I don't recall seeing this one.

The challenge is to design and build a craft capable of Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL). Once you have your craft, you must then fly it to the island, and land on the roof of one of the hangars. Having done so, you are then required to return to KSC and land on the helipad on the roof of the VAB.

Rules :

Stock only for the craft and flying. This means no special parts available only in mods and all flying must be done manually i.e. no Mechjeb.

There will be two leader boards; one for the souposphere of the stock game, and one for those who prefer the atmospherics of NEAR/FAR. Please declare which of these your entry uses.

You may use rockets or jet engines as you see fit.

You may not use parachutes.

Screenshots are required of your craft on the runway at KSC, on the hanger roof at the island showing zero speed, and one on the helipad of the VAB, again showing zero speed.

I look forward to seeing your designs.

LEADERBOARDS

Stock

1. Aphobius 2:37

2. Batz_10K 7:54

3. Scarecrow88 8:03

4. Torquimedes 19:18

5.

NEAR/FAR

1. WhiteKnuckle 5:20

2. percyPrune 6:19

3.

4.

5.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Scarecrow88

[jman508]

ill be going for stock aerodynamics

this post is reserving for later entry.

[Right]

Parachute permitted?

[Scarecrow88]

Parachutes not permitted. I'd like to allow them for slowing down but there is now way to check that they weren't also used for landing, so I will have to disallow them completely. As with most challenges of this nature, trust plays a large part that submitted entries have abided by the rules, as the challenge is only there to provide some fun and entertainment.

Have added it to rules in OP for clarification.

[jman508]

ok noted my current favorite ssto has en emergency parachute incase of rapid unplanned disassembly.

i think i might be able to modify my current design add a few (as in 2 more) more engines a improved vtol engine and i might be able to top off around 6-7 minutes.

i think the largest time consuming thing is the vtol landing part.

findding a fast way to zip to and fro from the island would be easier to fix.

is there an engine cap on this challenge? (like only 4 or so engines?

Edited January 21, 2015 by jman508
DARN YOU AUTOCORRECT

[Scarecrow88]

I'd like to see designs that are fast in horizontal flight, but have the ability to land and take off under engine power, hence the no parachutes but there's no cap on number of engines. As you can see from my proof of concept images, I went for the small and light option, but that's not to suggest that that is the best way to go. And indeed, the greatest time consumer for me was the landings.

[Right]

Can we use mechjeb/Engineer for in flight info? Impact time, verticle/horizontal velocity, and TWRs are helpful for me during VTOL flight

[Scarecrow88]

Sorry, no Mechjeb.

[percyPrune]

I prefer small & nimble to heavy & fast! Put me down for 6min 19secs in FAR please:

http://imgur.com/a/glz1v#0

Edited January 22, 2015 by percyPrune
mucked up link to album!

[Batz_10K]

What a difficult challenge. I think this is harder than Jool-5 ...

7 mins 54 sec. (with a nasty loss of control on the way back from the island and the lander fell onto the stairwell and I had to get it out on the VAB landing...)

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Aerodynamics: Stock

Edited January 22, 2015 by Batz_10K
Aerodyamics model

[Foxster]

I think my rocket skycrane might manage that.

Now where did I put it...

[WhiteKnuckle]

Made a racer version of my standard multi-use VTOL and got a 4:59 (but I had somehow switched the display to Orbit mode, so unfortunately my official entry is 5:12)

EDIT: TIME NOT VALID. See post #14

Using FAR. Has emergency chutes but it should be clear to see they were not used at all. If needed I will re-submit without them (I think I can shave an easy 45 seconds off with better piloting anyways )

Edited January 23, 2015 by WhiteKnuckle

[zekes]

Oh boy, I tried this once with my WAL - forward speed was 25 at best, got bored after 10 minutes. I could probably do it in under an hour, and it does carry three orange tanks as cargo.

[WhiteKnuckle]

Ugh. I'd like to remove my previous entry. I decided to take the chutes off and give it another go, and suddenly my top speed dropped by over 100m/s... to where it should have been if there wasn't something buggy with my game. So with better piloting (well my landings were better, taking off from the island hanger was some of the ugliest flying I've ever done) my time dropped... er... rose to 5:20

Oh and then I forgot to save my ship, so I'm gonna give it a rest until someone breaks my record.

[Scarecrow88]

Oh boy, I tried this once with my WAL - forward speed was 25 at best, got bored after 10 minutes. I could probably do it in under an hour, and it does carry three orange tanks as cargo.

http://i.imgur.com/M1Akp6e.jpg

I was going to include a hard mode that required landing on the control tower roof on the island, but I have a sneaky feeling that there isn't enough room for that behemoth on there.

[Torquimedes]

I'd like to submit the lowest speed with the highest payload ratio. (I know that last bit doesn't count.) This was more of a relay than a race. I used this challenge to test my hybrid skycranes, so I flew the course twice. It's a fair test of VTOL operations over a moderate distance. That hangar roof is trickier than it looks with a bulky payload on a variable slope.

The 12 ton Gosling delivered an 18 ton payload from the runway to the island hangar, undocked and returned to the VAB. (Time: 25:21)

I'm certain I could shave at least 5 minutes off that, considering the Gull's time is under 20 minutes, and the Gosling's hinge joint allows more pitch range for lateral speed.

The 11 ton Gull flew from the runway to the island hangar, then picked up the 18 ton payload and brought it back to the VAB. Time: 19:18

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited March 2, 2015 by Torquimedes

[Tarantulae]

Here is my entry, let me know if you want me to refly it. I fell off the helipad just a little but stayed on the roof... however it broke one of my wings. Rushing for best stock time.

[Aphobius]

3:41

The landings were a little messy, but I wanted to leave place for competition.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, it's stock. And sorry for the song.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Aphobius

[Scarecrow88]

Sorry for the delay in updating the scoreboard, but I've been away for a couple of weeks, and I thought from the slow uptake that people weren't actually interested in this challenge.

Sorry Tarantulae but the rules do state the return trip must land on the helipad, and to be fair to everyone else who have done that, I am going to have to insist that this particular condition is met.

And congrats to Aphobius, our new leader on the stock leaderboard - interesting design.

[Aphobius]

2:37

I was going to wait for more people to try it, but I guess no one else would have tried it anymore, so I've improved the design a little and flew it a little better this time.

The second landing was a little messy again and everything can be improved overall, so there is still place for competition.

[Sillychris]

Here's my entry (Advanced Harrier V2): 7:22

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I had originally designed my VTOL entry as a bomber, so here's a bombing run on the island complete with landing on the control tower, just for fun.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

This plane can land pretty much anywhere and has significant payload capacity. It's fairly easy to fly with a little bit of practice. I'd be happy to share the craft file with anyone who's interested.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Sillychris

[Scarecrow88]

Do you use stock aerodynamics or do you have FAR/NEAR installed? I only ask so that I can put your entry on the correct scoreboard.

[Sillychris]

Ah, sorry. I was all stock.

[wossname]

Does there have to be a Kerbal on board?

[Aphobius]

There is no rule requiring to have a Kerbal on board and my entry didn't had Kerbal.