Jebediah and the Death Plane: The story of a test flight gone wrong.

[superecnate]

Jebediah and the Death Plane:

A story of a test flight gone wrong.

Jeb was walking through a hallway. On the sides, he saw the emblem for section 21. His new job was to test new ‘First Generation’ aircraft. KSP needed a lot of new aircraft, and section 21 had to provide. He walked through the door into the prep room; Doolittle Kerman was waiting for him. “Hello Jeb, look like you’re going to pilot the new Avian IC today. Well, you’re in for the hardest test of your life. The robo-geeks could barely control her when her wheels touched the ground.â€Â

Jeb crossed his arms. “I’m not gonna spend much time touching the ground now, am I?†he said.

“Don’t get cocky, Jeb. You know those few seconds during takeoff and landing are among the most crucial, I taught you that myself.†Said Doolittle. “Now, the aircraft’s actually quite nice in the air. It’s much more maneuverable than the IA, although the IB is still the best. Unlike the IA or the IB, though, is that it’s designed to be much more versatile. The problem is that the aircraft really starts shaking and tilting during takeoff: the unmanned prototype was a few centimeters from breaking its wing off. The engineers think that it’s been fixed, but the higher-ups are rushing it. The most important thing for you to know, however, is that that shakiness also applies to landing. It’s fine at low speeds, but if you don’t want to crash and burn, you gotta hit the deck slow and brake Hard.â€Â

“Gotcha chiefâ€Â. Jeb looked nonchalant, but Doolittle taught Jeb for a long time, and he knew Jeb paid attention to every word.

“Good luck, pilot!†Doolittle said, with a respectful nod, and left the room. A short half-hour later and Jeb sat in the aircraft, at the end of the runway.

“Jeb, you’re cleared for takeoff. Good luck.â€Â

Jeb took a deep breath, put on his shades, activated the engines, and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Yee Haw!†and gunned the throttle. The two jet engines quickly accelerated his aircraft, and the turbojet soon began as well. Not two seconds later, the aircraft started to rapidly lose control, and tilt to the left and the right. Right when Jeb put his hand over the open hatch button to jump out of the aircraft, it rose into the air. Jeb breathed a sigh of relief, and settled back into his seat. As he tested the aircraft’s maneuverability, he began to regain confidence in the aircraft, it was very maneuverable. He flew over the hanger, shouting “Woo, Hoo!†and “Aww, yeah!â€Â

A few minutes of testing later, and the flight controller said over the radio, “That’s about enough testing for today, Jeb. Come back home. The cafeteria is serving some nice Karibu for lunch!â€Â

“All right!†said Jeb. The runway was already lined up. I’ve gotta land as slowly as I can. I’ve flown this too well to die now! Jeb turned the engine to low throttle, and descended to the runway. He lowered his landing gear, turned on his brakes to their hardest setting, braced for rapid deceleration, and his wheels touched the runway at 80 m/s. If he had gone any slower, the wings might not have enough lift to keep the nose up. A fraction of a second later his forward wheel hit the runway. The aircraft began to rapidly decelerate. Jeb’s head hit the front of his cockpit because of the rapid deceleration, giving him a nasty headache. The screech of the tires drowned out everything else. He looked up, and saw the world was tilted to the left.

Oh no. was all he could think of before his left wing smacked into the runway at 60 m/s, and snapped off the aircraft. Jeb was thrown against the right side of the cockpit as the unbalanced force turned the aircraft into a sharp left turn. The turn was far too sharp for the wheels, which skid to the side, tearing all of the rubber off, and pulverizing the metal beneath. The plane rapidly started to tilt to right, and Jeb lunged for the escape hatch. He could only see the sky and a ton of debris from the violently disintegrated left wing through the window. He slammed the open hatch button so hard that it bruised his skin. The glass viewport of the cockpit burst open, and the stress of the high-speed crash ripped it off, and it flew over Jeb, crashing into the runway in front of the plane. Jeb climbed onto the handholds on the left side of the plane, now 45 degrees tilted to the right, and saw the chaos around him. A flaming section of the left wing flew over him at high speed. He took a deep breath, and jumped off of the runway, away from the plane. He vowed to haunt the spacesuit engineers if their suit failed to protect him. He felt a piece of metal cut his arm, and saw the former aircraft disintegrating on the runway. He saw the fuel tank break off and flip over the cockpit, and fall back down ahead of it. He put his hand in front of his face, as the friction from the runway melted the bottom of the fuel tank, and ignited the fuel. Jeb felt the massive heat, since he was still only a few meters away from the blast, although luckily shielded by a section of right wing. His back hit the ground and he began to skid. At this point he was a few meters to the left, and in front of the aircraft, and now he began to slow down. At first he didn’t even know he was skidding, but a second later, he began to feel the burn. Even with the growing pain on his back, he began to laugh like a madman. He was far enough away from the aircraft to be safe. He survived!

He skid for almost a quarter of a kilometer, and not a single piece of the aircraft remained intact. The KSC gave him a pass for free lunch for life, and they vowed to never make him fly that plane again. Jeb got a new spacesuit, and walked into the prep room. Doolittle was already there. Jeb said “What’s next, Doc?†Doolittle smiled.