Squad will you Fix Landing Gear to Operate like Rover Wheels?

[Landge]

Will landing gear ever be "fixed" to operate to be as maneuverable as rover wheels?

I'm having to add additional balloon tires to a plane just to taxi around while on the ground. And it just looks out of place while flying.

[Landge]

Is this something that can be modded myself?

[Mocha2007]

If this is on a jet you can just minimal thrust to taxi about. You know, like IRL.

[Beeman]

I can imagine the plane landing gear part will get a revamp whenever they get around to updating all of the plane parts. Right now we're just using the parts from oh so long ago...but I think they've got more important changes and fixes in mind before they get around to that.

Will still be nice, though, when they finally do get around to that.

[asae]

You do realize that real plane wheels have NO motorization so this 'fix' is just a new feature that does not exist in real life.

[Beeman]

It doesn't matter if something exists in real life. What makes for a better user experience is what SQUAD tend to implement into the game. This just so happens to be one of those things.

Besides, I'm pretty sure some airplanes actually do steer with their front wheel(s) using rudder controls.

[Millst0ne MK II]

He doesn't want to have a powered front wheel necessarily. A plane wheel that was unpowered like the current one that could TURN like a rover wheel would be great too!

[datubaman]

Besides, I'm pretty sure some airplanes actually do steer with their front wheel(s) using rudder controls.

Try all aircraft that use the tricycle gear arrangement used in almost all large aircraft. However, if they have the older tail gear arrangement like the cessna, then it is the tail gear that turns. What I would really like to see is more landing gears. There would be a landing gear that can rotate, but has a lower impact tolerance, a small landing gear with a very high impact tolerance to help prevent tailstrikes and destroyed engines, and maybe some landing skids like on the original Wright Flyer. There's a lot of stuff that needs to be updated as far as aircraft parts go, probably more than they realize.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

The landing gear probably won't be motorised because that would make the wheels sort of redundant. I think they may well introduce steerable gear though.

[Yourself]

It'd definitely be nice to have steerable landing gear. Also differential braking would be pretty nice too (so you can apply the brakes on each side individually, which can aid in turning).

[Landge]

I'm not asking for powered landing gear, although that would be awesome. I just hate having to take 5 km to turn around (IDK, that's probably generous).

Motorized landing gear is real life: http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/2010/05/delos-aerospace-developing-wheel-motor.html

I'm all for having small, medium and large sizes of retractable gear too.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Landge

[eurybaric]

I think/hope they implement this along with many other "planes" related features with the upcoming aerodynamics overhaul. I know for sure that they will be focusing at some point at atmospheric flight, and with it should come overhauls for the plane parts (Mk2, Mk3 IVAs, surfaces), the whole atmospheric flight model (lift, drag, aerodynamics in general.. ).

But apparently (and I'm not sad about that!) they're gonna be focusing first on implementing the career mode.... Oh and then there's the resources... Lots of work for the devs!

Cheers!

[astropapi1]

It'd definitely be nice to have steerable landing gear. Also differential braking would be pretty nice too (so you can apply the brakes on each side individually, which can aid in turning).

You can do differential braking by using action groups.

[Frederf]

It would be interesting if braking or differential power was included in the SAS loop as a method of control.

[SpacecraftX]

The Messerschmidt ME 163 sparrow. The German WW2 rocket powered fighter. It's he sort of thing I'd imagine Kerbals building. Dem Germans were quite Kerbal.

[Dunbaratu]

The problem isn't that landing gear are unpowered. but that the third wheel in a tricycle arrangement cannot rotate and therefore you're scraping them sideways when trying to turn while taxiing on the ground.

[Tw1]

If you want, you can use the landing gear in this pack.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/modular-multiwheels-and-omniwheels-v0-6-tt-plugin-for-ksp-0-20-and-0-19/

You may need to update parts to the new format though.

[RoboRay]

Giving landing gear a "Lock/Unlock Castoring" action would help considerably... you could then unlock the nose or tail-wheel and it would pivot freely so you could more easily turn the craft.