Who else has tried flying to the edge of space?

[CheckGear]

Some of you may know about an adventure travel company called Incredible Adventures that offers, among other things, a chance to fly a MiG-29 to the "edge of space," or, as they consider it, 70,000 feet. I've always wanted to do this, but these programs are way outside my price range.

 

 

Then, yesterday, I realized, "Hey! I have DCS: World! And it's got the MiG-29? I can fly to the edge of space and back from the comfort of my own home with only what I've paid thus far for this simulation!

 

 

So I tried. I attempted to do as the Incredible Adventures website says they do - build up some speed and attempt a vertical climb for the heavens. The Fulcrum definitely has incredible climbing capability, but I lost a lot of airspeed. After reaching 30,000 feet, I maintained a steady climb to 40,000, but struggled in doing so, due to the lack of airspeed. I thought being at higher altitudes allowed for faster flight, but apparently, this isn't the case. Acceleration was very slow and I could never build up enough speed to make another mad dash upwards.

 

 

Finally, I made it to 50,000 but, again, struggled to stay there. After flying for a while, I realized I probably wasn't going to hit 70,000. It was disappointing, but the view from 50,000 was breathtaking. Darkness above, blue below, with telltale signs of Earth's curvature visible.

 

 

Anyone else attempt this? What's the highest altitude you've been able to achieve in any aircraft in DCS, MiG-29 or otherwise?

[Magic Zach]

If you go high enough, the night sky will surround every side of you, and the map will become more and more white until it's just a white plane expanding everywhere out below you. Keep going, and the night sky will start to shrink the edges of this plane/map into a circle, getting smaller, until the circle vanishes, and you're entirely surrounded by night sky. Or space, depending how you look at it.

 

I'm not even joking, this is what happens when you go high and keep climbing. At least in DCS 1

5

[HiJack]

Yes, I ejected at 70k feet.:lol:

You need to empty out the MiG of weapons including gun and countermeasures to get over 50k feet. Also use horizontal flight to build speed. I believe the original flight profile is online somewhere.

[CheckGear]

If you go high enough, the night sky will surround every side of you, and the map will become more and more white until it's just a white plane expanding everywhere out below you. Keep going, and the night sky will start to shrink the edges of this plane/map into a circle, getting smaller, until the circle vanishes, and you're entirely surrounded by night sky. Or space, depending how you look at it.

 

I'm not even joking, this is what happens when you go high and keep climbing. At least in DCS 1

5

 

 

With what aircraft did you do this?

 

 

Yes, I ejected at 70k feet.:lol:

You need to empty out the MiG of weapons including gun and countermeasures to get over 50k feet. Also use horizontal flight to build speed. I believe the original flight profile is online somewhere.

 

 

Is it possible to get over 50,000 feet with external fuel tanks? Or do those have to be left off as well?

 

Also, at what speed (Imperial and metric) am I flying in excess of Mach 1?

[Magic Zach]

With what aircraft did you do this?

 

 

 

 

 

Is it possible to get over 50,000 feet with external fuel tanks? Or do those have to be left off as well?

 

Also, at what speed (Imperial and metric) am I flying in excess of Mach 1?

It wasn't any aircraft, at least not conventionally. I was spectating an Mi-8 on multiplayer. He was warping REALLY HARD, and up was one of the directions he went.

[Lace]

I've managed over FL600 in both the Mirage and Viper. Start with a clean aircraft and as little fuel as you can get away with (the reheat will get through it quickly though). Zoom climb to around FL300, then build speed up again as long as you have fuel. The trick now is to pull up smoothly to maintain as much of that hard-earned speed as possible (no high-G pulls!). You essentially need to establish a ballistic trajectory of about 30-40deg pitch. Speed will decay but as the air thins (reduced drag) out you will continue upwards. If you get it all right you will lose control authority since the air density is so low, and the engine will probably flame out (make sure you know how to air-start!). At that point let the nose fall through the horizon and recover.

[QuiGon]

Haven't tried it personally, but according to the following thread you can get upt to an altitude of 20 - 30km in the MiG-21: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=256639

 

The thread also contains an excerpt from a real life manual with instructions how to perform a zoom climb in the MiG-21:

 

[Jonne]

With the method of the MiG-21 manual you can get to FL600 and higher rather easy.

[Mr_sukebe]

Of course you could just cheat, and start your aircraft at height using the mission editor.

 

I just had a quick scan. The F15 can start at 65,000 and the Viggen at 68,000. The Mig29 is at just under 60k.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Mr_sukebe

[SWE-Timberwolf]

Some of you may know about an adventure travel company called Incredible Adventures that offers, among other things, a chance to fly a MiG-29 to the "edge of space," or, as they consider it, 70,000 feet. I've always wanted to do this, but these programs are way outside my price range.

 

 

Then, yesterday, I realized, "Hey! I have DCS: World! And it's got the MiG-29? I can fly to the edge of space and back from the comfort of my own home with only what I've paid thus far for this simulation!

 

 

So I tried. I attempted to do as the Incredible Adventures website says they do - build up some speed and attempt a vertical climb for the heavens. The Fulcrum definitely has incredible climbing capability, but I lost a lot of airspeed. After reaching 30,000 feet, I maintained a steady climb to 40,000, but struggled in doing so, due to the lack of airspeed. I thought being at higher altitudes allowed for faster flight, but apparently, this isn't the case. Acceleration was very slow and I could never build up enough speed to make another mad dash upwards.

 

 

Finally, I made it to 50,000 but, again, struggled to stay there. After flying for a while, I realized I probably wasn't going to hit 70,000. It was disappointing, but the view from 50,000 was breathtaking. Darkness above, blue below, with telltale signs of Earth's curvature visible.

 

 

Anyone else attempt this? What's the highest altitude you've been able to achieve in any aircraft in DCS, MiG-29 or otherwise?

 

 

I have done this in the Su-33. Set your fuel to 50% in the mission editor. Takeoff and reach 10.000 meters (32k ft). Then go to max throttle (afterburner) and increase altitude slowly to around 11.000 - 12.000 meters (39K ft). Stay level and accelerate as much as you can before you get a bingo fuel warning, then go to a steep climb and you should get to around 80.000ft or higher. Here is a link to a video, so you can see how to do it. In this one I reached an altitude of 91.867ft, or 28001m.

[Banzaiib]

you could shoot a phoenix straight up, or even an ER from 40k ft... then hit F6... you'll get out of the atmosphere, until it de-renders. :)

[QuiGon]

you could shoot a phoenix straight up, or even an ER from 40k ft... then hit F6... you'll get out of the atmosphere, until it de-renders. :)

You can just hit CTRL+F11 for the free spectator mode and just fly as high as you want as a spectator...

[Knock-Knock]

We can always zoom out there without any concern for flame outs and safety, then a lot is possible. But I think they are a little more cautious than that :)

This is just a nothing special accelerate to 2.cant even remember but as much as possible Mach at 40K feet, and then a 4G pull to a 60 degree noseup I think I had, when fuel was fairly low, and then just hold on.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Knock-Knock

[CheckGear]

We can always zoom out there without any concern for flame outs and safety, then a lot is possible. But I think they are a little more cautious than that :)

This is just a nothing special accelerate to 2.cant even remember but as much as possible Mach at 40K feet, and then a 4G pull to a 60 degree noseup I think I had, when fuel was fairly low, and then just hold on.

 

 

F-15S Space Eagle??? :lol:

[Worrazen]

That manual excerpt says in the end "Distance to the airfield 120 km/h" ... per hour? That's not right is it.

[Jonne]

That manual excerpt says in the end "Distance to the airfield 120 km/h" ... per hour? That's not right is it.

 

No, thats a type. Should be 120km.

[Eldur]

You can just hit CTRL+F11 for the free spectator mode and just fly as high as you want as a spectator...

 

Boooring!

 

I remember doing such flights in the MiG-29 regularly... just add the CLT, go up to 11200m (approximately tropopause) without AB, then kick it in, drop tank as soon as it's empty and pull on up at M1.8 and keep that speed steady by constantly adjusting pitch. Upon reaching 18200m (roughly 60kft), fuel is down to 800ish kg, but it's possible to fly with full AB for at least 20 more minutes and still have quite a good amount of gas left for landing if you know what you're doing. Chop your AB at 200kg the latest (300kg if you wanna be safe), drop to idle when passing 11200m, this in total gets you a range of over 200km from the point you shut off the lights. For a space flight, just climb and do the ballistic flight somewhere in between while you still run on AB. Just as a side note, this all was when the MiG didn't have a flight model yet (I don't count SFM). But IIRC I tried to to this when it's FM arrived and it still worked.

[Cgjunk2]

The Mig-21 is great fun to fly to high altitudes. But those flights are pretty procedure driven in order to be successful, as mentioned in a previous post. The only problem with doing joy rides like this in a real life plane, is that the pressurization system of the airplane wouldn't be able to keep up, and you’ld need a spacesuit.

 

I would imagine the company with Mig 29s have a pretty specific flight profile as well to get as high as they do.

[Mars Exulte]

You can reach 80 to 90k feet easily. Load up drop tanks no weapons. Burners on full to 40k feet or so, level off and begin building speed until you reach max rated speed (Mach 2.4 or so w F-15 and Su-27). This will take a while and you'll probably drain the drop tanks doing so, if not you should drop them now. If you thought ahead, you didn't take a full internal load of fuel so you'll be maximum speed and minimum weight. Pull smoothly until vertical and climb under full burner until stalling out. Best done at morning or evening, not noon, so you'll see the stars.

[CheckGear]

Lots of set-up involved. Going to try to see if I can make it happen this weekend. It'll save me the trouble of paying over $3,000 for a trip to Russia and a 40-minute flight on an actual MiG-29!