KSC Return Shuttle

[LittleItaly]

I've been considering taking up a challenge where I cannot consider a mission "finished" until either A: The Kerbals die or B: They are returned to KSC (preferably B ) anyways, this raises the challenge of creating a plane that can go pick up Kerbals that land far away from KSC. Are there any good designs or tips for building such a vehicle?

[astropapi1]

Why did you mark it as anwered?

[annallia]

I don't do so well with planes but all that I know is you will want the gear to keep the plane fairly high off the ground, one of my first successful planes landed on the terrain, only to blow up trying to take back off because part of the plane caught a bump in the terrain.

Other than that you will need to either have a hitchhiker can or an empty capsule of some sort for your wayward kerbals. You could always throw in a lander can + probe core to do this as it would save on weight.

[SkyHook]

Keep the plane high, and the wingspan fairly long. You want there to be as low of a stall speed as possible. Your entire design philosophy will depend on whether or not you use mods though..so tell us, which ones do you use?

[quadro7f]

Basically, i think you need a helicopter, something like that:

But much bigger in size, with lots of fuel, so you would be able to reach far continents.

Or if you gonna use only stock parts, then its better to make VTOL Plane, with additional hover engines which can be switched on/off by action groups, and some big gears (for amortization). So you could land it anywhere.

Fuel management and center of mass are critical, during all flight ^^

[Cby]

Good lord, that is a relic!

If you want to use a helicopter, you can use the fire spitter mod:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/firespitter-propeller-plane-parts/