Itty Bitty Aeroplanes!

[sal_vager]

I doubt I'd use distance at all next time, maybe have a route to fly, and a ring to fly through, that'd help keep submission size low

Jakalth, if you want to show your take off from the sea that's okay, but the rules do say not to travel by means other than airborne

[tetryds]

What about landing on the island?

It's not too close, nor too far, and not straight ahead.

The distance is still only one factor on the equation, inverse of the volume seems like a good measurement to me.

Edit: thinking better maybe landing is not a good idea, flying by should be enough.

Edited February 16, 2015 by tetryds

[Captain Vlad]

I'd suggest an altitude ceiling, though that might not be as effective as I'm thinking as you can still go a rather amazing distance one one fuselage segment worth of jet fuel if your plane is small enough. One thing though is 'small' is a word open to interpretation. The plane I used feels like a giant compared to some of the others, but it's small to me because I tend to go for twin engines and enormous wings. I'm pretty sure even an ion glider I built a while back would end up in negative points starting out due to the width of it's wings, despite it weighing less than a ton without the pilot...is mass or overall size more important for being 'small'?

[sal_vager]

It's "small compared to what you usually make", like you say you make plans with twin engines and enormous wings, but this was a way to have people think about making smaller craft that still fly, even if not very far or round Kerbin twice.

I had thought about just asking people to make the smallest craft they could but it'd quickly turn into one-upmanship over who can part-clip the most.

Having some utility at least meant people made craft that were flyable, and we saw a wide variety of craft, so in that sense the challenge was successful, and while distance covered is the metric on the scoreboards the real way to "win" here is to try something new you wouldn't have otherwise

[Captain Vlad]

Having some utility at least meant people made craft that were flyable, and we saw a wide variety of craft, so in that sense the challenge was successful, and while distance covered is the metric on the scoreboards the real way to "win" here is to try something new you wouldn't have otherwise

In my case, 'winning' means having an excuse to fly that particular jet again. I actually don't like making a new craft for every challenge and will usually pull something out of my toolbox because I really like taking favored designs and trying to wring every last bit of whatever out of them, just to have a better picture of what they can do. Going around the globe in this challenge actually surprised me...I had an inkling it could do it after I tested it in comparison to one I made for the Machingbird thing (which I need to get around and post...) and I did a similar 'just how fast can I make this plane' go test after my actual entry.

I'm fond of the one I used also because I made a similar, but smaller jet that ended up being very popular with a friend's daughter, but she thought it was a little twitchy. I fixed it, but then set about making her a better plane and ended up with the Super Sparrow and it's many variants.

I'm sentimental, what can I say?

[Jakalth]

If it's about flying, I'd say go with an altitude cap. Some people are better at high altitude stunts then other, which gives them an edge if distance tests due to low drag and high speeds using little thrust. Those like me, tend to keep their aircraft lower to maintain our sanity. heh

Flying through a ring... Ooo, that could get hairy. but would make for some fun outtakes for those that actually have recording software. Sadly, I do not.

[Guest]

Chek out Fraps its free.

Ill post something tomorrow i like small planes

[Jakalth]

ok, final totals for aqua Gnat.

Flight distance: 564 km(dismal low)

fuel remaining: 105 out of 150

Reason for landing: crashed due to loss of pitch control.(the design has severe pitch issues that I missed during design and testing, I'll have to remake it)

total score: (564 - 102) 462 points.

Not happy with this result, going to fix the problems and try again with "Aqua Gnat 2, the search for more gnattitude." yeah, bad pun.

[Wanderfound]

"Smallest plane that can do a touch & go on the island runway and then land at KSC" sounds like it'd work well to me. It's about teenyness rather than range or speed, but it'd still need to be a real functioning aircraft. And it's only a few minutes per attempt, which is always a plus.

Maybe do size by mass or part count to negate the advantage of part clipping?

[sal_vager]

Good idea Wanderfound, and a nice one to present to players as it does not require any prefabbed scenario files or addon terrain.

Part clipping does not worry me too much, it lets people be inventive

[Jakalth]

Aqua Gnat 2, now with 63% more Gnattitude and 300% more fliable. Download:

Shown during take off, still on it's rolling gear, and in flight over the ocean past the KSC, after dropping it's gear.

This little guy is still amphibious, but now it is a lot easier to control in the air and is less likely to roll over on the water.

A few things have been changed in this new design, added 1 more reaction wheel and some more wings as well as better adjusted the center of lift for where the weight is centered.

For the actual challenge, the Aqua Gnat 2 did not touch the water once. Take off was achieved as soon as enough lift was attained, on the runway, and the rolling gear was immediately jettisoned at liftoff. from this point on it was just a conservative climb too about 9200m where it remained until it ran out of fuel. land was going to be smooth, but during the glide, it also ran out of battery power, hence loosing reaction wheel control. The Aqua Gnat has NO control surfaces, so no infiniglide, and no control at all if the battery cuts out. This resulted in a less then preferred landing... But a landing you can walk away from, just means your stuck there....

results of flight:

Stats are as follows...

part count: 19

mass: 2.5t

height: 2.4m

length: 5.6m

width: 4.7m

passangers: 1 Kerbal

distance: 1,445 Km

flight time: 3 hours

score = 1,375

Edited February 18, 2015 by Jakalth

[Columbia]

Sorry if I'm necro-ing this thread, but is this still active? I've already made a plane for a challenge and would like to see if I still could still submit an entry.

Thanks in advance!

[GoSlash27]

Sal,

What counts as "airborne"?

http://s52.photobucket.com/user/GoSlash27/slideshow/KSP/KrakBadger

haha,

-Slashy

[FlipNascar]

So I had a bash and present to you the Kerplunk (something I'd had lying around but had never really used), and my new favourite Kerbal - Orgar (RIP). He's a legend. Not even Jeb wanted to fly this thing, probably because it has no wings...

Points tally:

Entry +100

Orgar Kerman +1

Craft: (2.4t, 1.9m x 1.9m x 4.7, 12 parts) = -121

Distance: 4,392

Total: 4,372 points

However... I may have accidentally left the atmosphere. I got carried away with trying to get the thing as fast as possible and when I hit flameout and maybe it kept going to 130km+...twice... (137km the first time, 143km the second) I didn't get out and push, so technically it was airborne? It's a jet engine. I'll leave it to you to decide if I have stretched it too far and should take the -10,000 penalty, once, twice or not at all...

Pics:

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[Torquimedes]

My pure stock entry is the Kurchick, which is normally(?) hatched from an egg laid by the Kurvy Bird. Since it is also independently flyable, I launched it from the runway on an endurance flight for this challenge.

Entry +100

Distance +392

Mass -24

Size -20 -23 -31

Parts -19

TOTAL +375

KerbalX link

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited May 28, 2015 by Torquimedes

[Tritan20]

Plane Name: Flea

parts:15

mass:3.9t

height:4.2m

width:5.1m

length:5.3m

Time:2 hours, 48 min, 59 sec

highest altitude: 12,691m

ground distance:covered:998,179m

total distance covered:1,005,888m or 1005.888 Km

Points 906!

Do I Get Anything For Obeying 1.0ness? also having the best 4 hours and 30 min of my life?

might need to check my math

Edited May 10, 2015 by Tritan20

[Kagame]

I think we've hit the parts wall, folks! Check this out:

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Entry: 100 points

2 Passengers: 2

5.423 km Flight Distance: 5.423 Points

- 3.2 Mass Points

-2.5 Width Points

-4.2 Tallness Points

-2 Complexity Points

= 95.523 points. Not horrible.

Two. Parts. It's been a while since I was tasked to reduce something down to the simplest level possible. Good challenge!

[waterlubber]

Here's my entry, the Meeshtop

17 parts

621kg (.621 metric tons)

Height: 1m

Width:2.9 m

Length: 3.1m

This is sans kerbal.

In the VAB:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Start: 100

Distance: 108.845

Passengers: 1 (Val)Total Positive: 209.845

Mass: -6.21 points

Width: -29 points

Height: -10 points

Length: -31 points

Parts: -17 points

Total Negative: 93.21

Final Score: 116.635

Not bad.

[TheLongRun]

82,657,684 points rockets are fun and technically not cheating lol

[Squiggsy]

Here is my entry, the Pigmy-4! this is my "build a plane that looks like a plane" entry, I will update this post with a "WIN ALL THE POINTS" entry later on

To break down the initial scoring:

100 points to start

1 for the 1 kerbal

-18 for parts

-33 for weight

-(24+31+38) for size

that leaves me at -43 to start off with

now on to the flight results:

I traveled 296km before crashing into the sea (Rest in Peaces Ceremma)

296 - 44 = 252

Pretty happy with that considering I didn't allow myself a command seat, going to go for the command seat method next and see how things go

EDIT:

Ok so I had another shot with a different plane and got far better results

Sooo 101 to start with

-18

-27

-(23+29+33)

= -29

now for the results of the flight:

-29 + 746 (or 739 don't know which)

=717 (or 710)

This was the most fun I've had on KSP in a while, thanks for the challenge! can't wait for the updated version of it

bonus picture:

Edited May 23, 2015 by Squiggsy

[insert_name]

heres my flight/plane the gnathttp://imgur.com/gallery/wyfJa/new

100+3-11-9-17-31-19= 16, this is all stock

[sal_vager]

Thanks for entering everyone, just PM me when I forget to check here and GoSlash.... yeah, little bit out of this world with that one

[insert_name]

where does one get their challenge badge from?

[Lego8_bit]

ok heres my entry and its modded btw

i used the following mods:

Procedural Parts

Tweakscale

I only used Procedural probe and Procedural Liquid fuel tank shown in brass coating.

and i tweaked the rest of the stock parts to the dimensions i needed for the plane to work.

i call this lovely thing: "tiny Lean and mean"

Now this has been tested and it is stable as heck..... untill the fuel runs out

Has a top alt of 11,167

Has a top speed of: 125.2 m/s

and the size of the diameter is 0.375 for the main body of the plane engine and intake.

oh and the tank is 12.37 units of fuel. on average it consumes 0.0250 units of fuel until you get in the cursing alt then it consumes 0.0175 to 0.0125 units.

doing the math 100+ for entering plus 1 kerbal = 101 minus 12.37fuel-17parts-27Weight-17H-30W-27L would leave me with -29.37 points from the hangar. i will update with the FLIGHT RESULTS tommorow ...

Edited September 11, 2015 by Lego8_bit

[Lego8_bit]

ok i did my fying and we have lift off

a few minutes later out in the mountains i ran into a predicament lets just say i ran out of fuel in a constant nose diving plane -__-

Had an idea to compensate for the pitch of the plane i attempted to land on one of the steeper slopes at first it went well.

But that went out the window anyway nice knowing you jeb......

Or Not well my plan sorta worked and somehow that counted as a LANDING!? HOW!!!!

Anyway with the amount of miles i made my total Score is obviously last place but... it was fun to fly and somehow not killing off jeb

TOTAL SCORE: 4.63

my time for that craft was 00:15:23 before my plane bit the ground and reset the timer as you see when jeb survived.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Lego8_bit