Parachutes for Kerbals

[The Game Colonel]

Sorry if this has already been asked but I couldn't find it during a forum search.

Are there any plans to equip Kerbals with parachutes, especially while in aircraft, to enable their survival when all goes wrong (very frequently)?

Being a pilot myself I know the value of these little bundles of life saving material.  Placing a chute on a Kerbal makes more sense than placing chutes on their aircraft as I see many do, to spare their cargo/Kerbal from a fiery end.

 

The Game Colonel

Edited May 25, 2016 by The Game Colonel

[kBob]

Good idea.  Though in my experience they usually blow up before they'd have a chance to jump out, but it might save a few.  I never played with space planes much though.

Edited May 25, 2016 by kBob

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Yeah. Also, not-wearing-of-helmets-and-space-suits when EVA on Kerbin and when in plane cockpits

[mattinoz]

5 hours ago, The Game Colonel said:

Sorry if this has already been asked but I couldn't find it during a forum search.

Are there any plans to equip Kerbals with parachutes, especially while in aircraft, to enable their survival when all goes wrong (very frequently)?

Being a pilot myself I know the value of these little bundles of life saving material.  Placing a chute on a Kerbal makes more sense than placing chutes on their aircraft as I see many do, to spare their cargo/Kerbal from a fiery end.

 

The Game Colonel

I hope you're a military pilot!

[Kerbalstar]

5 hours ago, The Game Colonel said:

Snip

I sure hope there are. But there is one mod that does this SM Chute. But you can't have FAR or Real Chute installed.

[Pthigrivi]

Definitely man. I started another topic recently on survivability management and its advantages here. 

[Adelaar]

I'd like to see this, but am a bit uncertain as how KSP should simulate this, since you always control one object at a time, so the escape procedure should either be simulated, or you'd have to manually dump them out of the craft and activatie the chutes. Any thought on this? 

[Pthigrivi]

I would think ejection seats would be tied to the abort button. It should probably only work for plane parts. With rockets players should think about using the escape tower and such to save the whole pod. 

[The Game Colonel]

51 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

I would think ejection seats would be tied to the abort button. It should probably only work for plane parts. With rockets players should think about using the escape tower and such to save the whole pod. 

Exactly or something even as simple as just exiting the aircraft as we currently do, then activating a chute.

[Nathair]

1 hour ago, Pthigrivi said:

I would think ejection seats would be tied to the abort button. It should probably only work for plane parts. With rockets players should think about using the escape tower and such to save the whole pod. 

I dunno, Gagarin bailed from Vostok-1 and 'chuted down separately. I can see why we might want to use that option.

[CodeFantastic]

Sure, but only apply it to plane cockpits.

I feel if it was applied to any cockpit, it would discourage people from using the normal (and more exciting) LES.

[Pthigrivi]

19 minutes ago, Nathair said:

I dunno, Gagarin bailed from Vostok-1 and 'chuted down separately. I can see why we might want to use that option.

Oh totally. If you can bail manually I'd still love to be able to parachute down. Ejection seats would just be a way to get them out. If you're going Mach 3 it's kind of a mute point but on runway crashes you usually have about a second to bail.