Ksp passenger jet escape system

[Maxisdumb]

After the Boeing 737-800 crash in china,I will challenge you to create a passenger jet escape system. It must be able to:

.land on any terrain,water safely

.carry at least 30 passengers

.fly up to island airfield and back

no mods except graphic mods,DLC allowed

 

[Gargamel]

23 minutes ago, Maxisdumb said:

 

After the Boeing 737-800 crash in china

 

Is that really a good reason for a challenge? 

[swjr-swis]

1 hour ago, Gargamel said:

Is that really a good reason for a challenge?

While I think I understand your thinking in asking this, and with all due respect:

Adding safety measures to avoid horrible needless death AFTER examples of said horrible needless death seems to be the modus operandi of our species. So, I'm inclined to answer yes, absolutely... a recent deadly incident is a very good reason to challenge our collective minds into engineering a viable last-resort mass escape system from critically damaged passenger airliners.

Swarming the aerospace industry with a generation of KSP players that have grown up unafraid of just such engineering challenges, sounds to me like a practical investment into some innovative near-future solutions to the problem.

 

That said: welcome to the forum, @Maxisdumb!

Can you clarify one of the requirements a bit more:

2 hours ago, Maxisdumb said:

fly up to island airfield and back

Do you mean the intact airliner should be capable of flying to the Island airfield and back (sounds like a very reasonable test of flight capability and range), or just the ejected escape system by itself (yikes!)?

 

[Gargamel]

7 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

While I think I understand your thinking in asking this, and with all due respect:

You are absolutely correct.  I had completely missed (twice!) the OP mentioning an escape system, and had thought this was build an airplane that recently crashed.    The post had also caught me in a foul mood at the time.   So my apologies to the OP @Maxisdumb, carry on!

[darthgently]

One could put drogue and regular chutes on all crewed parts that are enough to safely land that part.  That way if there is a RUD, as long as the part itself didn't explode, will generally proved a safe return.  Unless the part is a command module with pilot or has a probe core and has an antenna and such I could see issues deploying chutes, but I typically rely on Stage Recovery mod when using this approach.  For the challenge one would either need a probe core, power, antenna, and good signal on every crewed part if not a command module with a pilot.  I suppose a part with a hatch and a crewmember that can EVA and manually arm the chutes could be done but that seems a stretch.  This is truly a challenge if no mod or DLC is allowed.  Deploying or even arming the chutes becomes a problem as one doesn't necessarily want them armed by default for an aircraft

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

My Poseidon Mk. IV won't qualify since it falls below the minimum passenger requirement, but it has a cabin ejection system in case a safe landing (hopefully on Kerbin) is not possible. Below is a picture of a test run of the Poseidon's cabin ejection system.

 

• The Poseidon had a nose job done (as it got a more heat-resistant nose cone) after this picture was taken, but the ejection system still works

 

Is this the kind of "passenger jet escape system" that you're talking about for the challenge? If so, then it shouldn't be too hard to construct an aircraft that can eject the crewed module and land safely. The Poseidon was designed specifically to be a self-mining SSTO to Laythe, so how hard can it be to slap a larger passenger module on an aircraft that doesn't have so many moving parts?

 

Also, I have a couple of questions regarding the challenge rules:

On 3/29/2022 at 8:25 PM, Maxisdumb said:

land on any terrain,water safely

• Does this mean I have to land the aircraft on water in one piece - or be able to take off from it again?
  • If so, then I'm basically screwed.
  • If you only need the passenger module to be intact, I guess I'm fine.
• I'm pretty sure I've mastered landing on any terrain. After all, I've landed on the surface of Laythe countless times.

 

On 3/29/2022 at 8:25 PM, Maxisdumb said:

.fly up to island airfield and back

• So, does that mean I have to:
  • Take off from KSC
  • Land at the island airfield
  • Take off from the island airfield
  • Land at the KSC