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Thanks to @Hotel26and his boost glider idea, as well as @swjr-swisand his additional design ideas, I decided to create my own Science Boost Glider for use on atmospheric worlds. The savings on fuel would be great and makes sense to me. I will use a standard launch vehicle to get a return pod and a boost glider to a planet with atmosphere and collect (nearly) all science that I can in what is essentially a single mission! Using the boost glider means it can easily be the same tonnage as my usual landers however the bonus is, with its ability to 'skip-hop' across the planet, I can use the same fuel and vehicle to get science from each biome in a single shot and return in the same mission instead of sending multiple missions or large refueling facilities. My first attempt was the XP-87 Harpy (7.603 tonnes empty; 13.723 tonnes fueled) I used a MK2 service bay, crammed all the science I could in it, and tested it. It flew pretty good and needed only a very short runway to get airborne. Quick shot of the service bay. The problem was it kept hitting an altitude ceiling that was essentially too low for my purposes. Switching modes it still could not effectively leave the atmosphere and skim in with any fuel left. It also had an over heating problem in the RAPIER because of how hard I pushed it while it was still in the atmosphere. I didn't want to add radiators or precooler at this stage since it really wasn't performing as I would like. So... the design was nice, but the changes would switch COM and airlift enough to require a redesign... I just started over and used twin intake and engine from a failed (for my purposes) SSTO design (XP-62) and meshed it with the science, basic wing design from the XP-87 to create a completely new Boost Glider... XP-88 Peryton (10.840 tonnes Empty; 18.940 tonnes Fueled) It may be larger, but the result was great! Exactly what I was looking for! Of course there was some heating on reentry that could be worrisome, but this is it! It is actually more maneuverable than the Harpy due to better lift to COM placement and COM movement during fuel drain. I am now going to finish up the design, put on the lights, RCS, struts and this bad boy will be commissioned the KBG-001 PERYTON in time for Vals return from Mun. Many thanx to the guys with the good ideas (Hotel26 and swjr-swis) and to the kerbals brave enough to test these theories out!