Adjustable landing gear.

[Arugela]

My biggest problem with my current and long standing project(1000t cargo ssto.) is the landing gear positions. This is something that in real life would be trivial. You design the plane. Then you design landing gear to fit.

So, what about giving the current LY series landing gear the ability to move up and down to give it some real world abilities. Then you can have optimal landing and other gear positions for cargo and variable takeoff and landing positions without the need to add more parts. And in particular it would need the ability to change the gear positions in flight. Just like with the telescopic hydraulic cylinders.

With this addition I could easily set my landing gear to super stable runway positions and both upward and downward facing positions for getting cargo out the front and back while also providing the option of upward and downward facing landings/takeoffs. It would allow for optimal performance at the push of a button. Especially for large craft like this where it is impossible to get both with just normal landing gear positions. The versatility is needed after a certain size or complexity is reached for ssto planes.

The physical distance could fit the actual hydraulics realistically. And both straight up and down hydraulics could exist and the part that adjust to go into the wheel base. This could also be adjustable, but at a cost to strength of the part under weight.

From a game balance standpoint the adjustments could be an upgrade. Maybe it can be turned off or changes like visuals for fuel tanks.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Arugela

[EveMaster]

You're right, adjustable landing gear would be a great thing. You could try to build them with robotic parts, with hydraulic pistons or with z-shaped hinges. If you try this you should disable wheel autostrut, because autostrut and robotic parts don't go well together.

Alternatively I suggest to go with multiple sets of landing gear. For a 1kiloton plane you need a smaller front landing gear setup for maneuverability at low speed and a larger one for takeoff and landing.

For docking you can make small adjustment in height by tuning the spring settings in game. I managed to dock this heavy craft on Minmus:

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/ghD20fN

This 400 ton craft of me can dock on Eve using a second set of landing gear:

https://kerbalx.com/EveMaster/Eve-Infinity