Itty Bitty Aeroplanes!

[sal_vager]

Nice probe markothefan1, thanks for taking part

[Death Engineering]

Felt a little cheaty with this plane as I was completing the third circumnavigation. Unfortunately, KSP crashed as I was coming in for a landing. May try it again.. but was in the air for a long time!

[Tank2333]

Starhawk, suspicion removed!

Bluejayek, yeah I thought the most a player could reach with a small plane was a lot less than this, next time I'll change things a bit to keep distances within sane levels as I believe retroactive rules changes are a bad thing, actually too many rules is a bad thing which is why I tried doing it as negative points rather than rigid rules.

i think im trying out a new design more in the spirit of this contest

and i think that for the next contest maybe the score system should multiply with some variables instead of plain addition

but im not so good at math but i try to write something down that would add greater the higher/heavier/bigger your plane is

[sal_vager]

Multiplication is a good idea Tank, and I thought that if cheating were discovered, the score would be divided by a large number

Mark, you can edit your signature in your Settings screen

[The Bard]

My entry (and first go at any challenge ever), the Starling:

I forgot how to pull the flight data screen up, so I measured distance flown from the debris marker that marked the red launch thing, which would give 1.2km.

So... 100pts for entry + 1pt for a km flown +1pt for 1 kerbal - 23pts for weight - 13pts for height, 51 for width and 33 for length - 7 points for part count gives me, I think, the grand total of -25 points!

Yes, it was my first challenge, and yes, that's quite a low score, and yes, I am terrible at KSP, but in the KSP spirit I'm just happy it didn't explode.

((Side note: Does the weight include fuel? I used the ring-shaped tank, if it doesn't and recalculation is needed.))

Edited February 15, 2015 by The Bard

[sal_vager]

Weight includes fuel The Bard, and thanks for taking part, negative scores are fine

[RAINCRAFTER]

Will you judge my score?

[sal_vager]

Yep, doing it now

Edit:

Done, you forgot 1 extra point for having a Kerbal!

Edited February 15, 2015 by sal_vager

[RAINCRAFTER]

Thanks, I'm also wondering if my badge is going to become the official challenge badge.

EDIT: Actually, someone other than me is wearing one of the badges.

Just Saying. Oh, and I changed 5 to 6.

[sal_vager]

Hehe, It can be, this challenge is just for some fun rather than anything official with any sort of prize, It'd be a boring place for moderators if we had to stay aloof and couldn't contribute in some way

Your signature image is linked in the opening post.

[RAINCRAFTER]

Thanks!

[Lhathron the Elf]

Well, I was just hanging out with my little bitty plane I made... When I realized, "Dudvan, we could enter that one challenge!" So, here's my entry with "Honeybee."

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My score: 100 + 1 + 155 - 35 - 30 - 48 - 57 - 18 = 68 Points

EDIT: Going to enter a new craft soon. I have an idea for something real small... ԅ༼ ◆ڡ ◆༽ง

Edited February 16, 2015 by Lhathron the Elf

[Jakalth]

Well, not even sure if this craft can be used for this challenge. It is small enough, but it is also amphibious and I have not flown it very long yet... get too bored trying to keep it in level flight at 8000m. It flies pretty well once you jettison the rolling gear. And here is where the "if" comes in... Is it allowable to have rolling gear for the plane if it is only used to get the craft off the ground and then jettisoned? What about a jettisoned command pod, so I can board a kerbal onto the jet? Do these count against part count? Anyways, I call it the Aqua Gnat. I should also say it's completely stock, for that's how I roll.

Part count: 16(counting the radial decouplers used to jettison the rolling gear) (-16)

Weight: 2.4 tons(with 150 units of fuel) (-24)

height: 2.2m (-22)

width: 8.7m (-87)

length 5.4m (-54)

passengers: 1 Kerbal (+1)

can land on water: yes

can take off from water: yes

can land on land: ???

control surfaces: 0(sas control only so no infiniglide here)

(-102 points so far)

With rolling gear....

Part count: 30 (-30)

Weight: 4.1 tons (-41)

height: 2.5m (-25)

width: 8.7m (-87)

length 5.6m (-56)

passengers: 1 Kerbal (+1)

can land on water: yes

can take off from water: ???

can land on land: yes

can take off from land: barely...

control surfaces: 0

(-138 points so far)

calculated distance, had 136 units of fuel left, was at 7800m, was traveling at 158.5 m/s, engine fuel flow was 0.00112U of fuel

so (136 / 0.0112) * 158.5 gives an estimated 1,924,642.857m calculated distance, or about 1,924.6km if all measurements stay the same. The craft can glide well when empty, so I'd say at least another 7,000m glide distance giving...

calculated distance flown: 1,931.6km

calculated points: 1,829 just the plane, 1,793 with rolling gear and command pod.

and that is after doing some water taxiing and taking off from the water, and climbing up to altitude(all not counted).

But at least my test pilot was shaving fun. Silly Kerbal Hobbits... His name is Bilbo Kerman.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Jakalth

[Tank2333]

The Badge, now with 100% more tiny enough to fit in a sig!

http://i.imgur.com/4bKXJDS.png

EDIT: I'm okay with sal making this the official challenge badge. In fact, I want that to happen.

Just Saying.

Hi raincrafter

i took your image and made modified a bit to make it ia bit more readable and bit smoother i hope you dont mind

here is the sig

could take little bit more work though

and im not sure if ther eis a max size for signature pics but this is 200x150

EDIT: i just saw that it doesnt quite fit onto the signature... well i edit it tomorow ^^

Edited February 17, 2015 by Tank2333

[Lhathron the Elf]

His name is Bilbo Kerman.

I recently got a scientist named Frodo Kerman! I was so happy.

[Red Iron Crown]

Another entry, MicroX-Wing. Not sure if this is cheaterpants or not, it infiniglides a bit even though I disabled all axes on the lifting devices.

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+100 points for participation

+495 points for distance covered

+1 point for carrying a kerbal

-6 for mass

-17 for width

-11 for height

-15 for length

-12 for parts

535 points total.

Not really a contender for a high score, but I had a lot of fun making this tiny thing fly.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Red Iron Crown

[sal_vager]

Nice planes Lhathron the Elf and Red Iron Crown, thanks for taking part

Seaplanes are cool Jakalth, and it's fine to jettison parts at launch, your airborne stats (with full fuel load) are what's needed for the entry, oh and calculated distance isn't real distance

[Pds314]

I see a potential problem, namely, that anyone who puts their plane in orbit can go an infinite distance, and overwhelm the scale. Even "By any means necessary" can be overwhelmed in under 2.5 orbits, and it could weigh as much as you want. I could even up and submit my 3000-tonne HPD-boosted SABRE-powered supermassive SSTO I once made in B9, and 11 orbits later, I'd balance out it's mass, it's dimensions, and the fact that orbit probably shouldn't count as "airborne." At 100000 times timewarp, that would take about 3 milliseconds after reaching orbit to accomplish. Point is, you need something more stringent to enforce tinyness.

[sal_vager]

Yes players can do that Pds314, and then they'd be competing on the third scoreboard, this isn't a challenge for efficiency and most points, it's an excuse for a bit of fun and trying new designs

[tetryds]

Here is my entry, a tinny FAR jet, the Dartinny:

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cf4d17s28fco9ja/Dartinny.craft?dl=0

I have no idea how far it can get, last time I got it 124km away from the KSC, but I wasn't really trying, will update this post after I get some data.

It's hellafast though, can break sound barrier on a dive at around 7km altitude.

[cantab]

The scoring is indeed a bit out of whack. Size matters little if I just make a plane that flies far, and a solar powered aircraft can fly as far as I want albeit with possible overnight landings.

But maybe I'll come up with something interesting anyway.

[sal_vager]

When I redo this (later, far too soon currently) I'll think of better scoring, but there's nothing stopping participants from seeing what they can do without resorting to jet engines and high altitudes

It's not about points or "winning", it's about having some fun

[Jakalth]

I'll eventually have to take the time to see how far it will REALLY fly, maybe later this week if time allows. Hopefully. For now, I agree, the "distance" calculated doesn't really count. Just a thought experiment in trying to guess distance from the given figures.

Oh, since it does jettison the rolling gear, does the distance it covers on said gear count, or should I calculate that part out of its total distance by measuring how far it travels before liftoff? Or should I be more interesting and make its rolling gear powered and take off from the water with a full tank, removing the distance covered before the water from its total distance? opinions?

One more thing. Can I get extra giggles points from it being amphibious?(giggles points do not count towards total points, but are just too be silly)

[tetryds]

What about having the new rules counting for the distance and the volume of the plane?

So you would have something like:

Points= Distance / (Height * Width * Lenght)

This way you make it so that if you make a big plane has to travel a much bigger distance to get the same ammount of points.

Another overcomplicated math you could do would be:

Points= (Multiplier * Distance) / [(Height * Width * Lenght * (MaxAltitude + BalanceValue)]

Then you make it so people will avoid going higher at the risk of losing points.

The altitude part could be anything depending on how much you want to enforce a lower altitude, as you wish.

You can still give or take more points as you wish, for sure.

If this challenge was mine, I would probably set it to something like:

Points= [sqrt(NumberOfKerbals) * Multiplier * Distance] / [(Height * Width * Lenght * (MaxAltitude + BalanceValue) * sqrt(NumberOfParts)]

But that is a bit too much for your purpose, as I see you want to keep things simple

Non-jet stock planes can go quite far because infiglide on that scale is big even if you don't even use the control surfaces to control anything.

I don't think many people apply with FAR crafts, as it's very hard to make them, but if they do that would be worth a dedicated scoreboard.

[cantab]

As I see it, the spirit of the challenge is to make a small aircraft. I wouldn't score for distance at all. Or if I did, it would just be a pass/fail kind of thing - x bonus points for reaching some milestone distance but no score for going stupidly far.