help : Top speed for Wheel Landings / Spaceplane problems

[AddMeGamers]

hey guys

i have been messing about with a space plane and after many failed attempts at landing it a question has risen .

What is the top speed of being able to land the standard wheels , since we only have 1 type of wheel we can use to take off and land at high speeds iam not sure what speed i can land them at. Wiki says impact tolerance at 50ms

the problem is i guess my plane is heavy due to all the engines and fuel , i can get to only 160ms any lower and my nose drops and i go straight in , Probably should have put more wing surfaces . So really there is no way to land it "plane like ":S

i guess i could full throttle and point vertically up and then slowly descend like a rocket down and the flip forwards .

i dont know what else to do . any ideas are welcome .

[K^2]

Horizontal speed isn't an issue if you are landing on perfectly level surface, such as the runway. What actually kills you is the vertical and lateral speed. Vertical speed you can gauge by the instruments. For a heavy plane, you should be under 5m/s. It's a lot easier to control at slower speeds, but ultimately, just matter of piloting skill. If all else is perfect, you can land going 160m/s without crashing your plane.

Other things are rarely perfect, however. Any lateral movement can cause the wheels to snap off. This can be caused by either a slight crawl on approach or due to any flex your plane has resulting in parts becoming slightly mis-aligned. Again, at slower speeds, this isn't as big of a deal. But at 160m/s everything has to be perfect to do the landing. To improve your chances, add struts. The more rigid you can make the plane, the easier it should be. You should also add some struts to the landing gear pods themselves. See, they can also flex under a heavy plane, and then they can be slightly misaligned. At high speeds, that can cause them to snap off, and the rest is obvious.

Of course, you might also be trying to land on terrain that's less than level. Any bumps in the ground will convert your horizontal speed into vertical and lateral. That means that each terrain will have a maximum landing speed. At 160m/s you should not be landing anywhere other than landing strip at KSC or the nearby island. You might be able to do the landing on terrain surrounding KSC or the second space center. They are both rather level, but I've noticed that even these have some minor bumps, and hitting one of these at 160m/s would be catastrophic.

Finally, there are options for reducing landing speed. The reason you have high approach speed is low angle of attack requiring high speed to maintain lift. First, you can try shifting CoG or CoL to allow for better control. But that's not always possible. Failing that, consider adding lifters. Place some jets underneat the wings or body, wherever you have the room. Try to put them as low as you can without risking impact with ground. The plane should be very nearly balanced on these. A bit forward of CoG could actually help you to increase angle of attack as well. This can bring down landing speed from 160m/s to something closer to 70-80 easily, and that's way more landable.

For more tips, you can try looking at the old land speed challenge threads. Building a land speeder has many of the same prerequisits as building a plane that can land at high speeds. Good luck.

[AddMeGamers]

Horizontal speed isn't an issue if you are landing on perfectly level surface, such as the runway. What actually kills you is the vertical and lateral speed. Vertical speed you can gauge by the instruments. For a heavy plane, you should be under 5m/s. It's a lot easier to control at slower speeds, but ultimately, just matter of piloting skill. If all else is perfect, you can land going 160m/s without crashing your plane.

Other things are rarely perfect, however. Any lateral movement can cause the wheels to snap off. This can be caused by either a slight crawl on approach or due to any flex your plane has resulting in parts becoming slightly mis-aligned. Again, at slower speeds, this isn't as big of a deal. But at 160m/s everything has to be perfect to do the landing. To improve your chances, add struts. The more rigid you can make the plane, the easier it should be. You should also add some struts to the landing gear pods themselves. See, they can also flex under a heavy plane, and then they can be slightly misaligned. At high speeds, that can cause them to snap off, and the rest is obvious.

Of course, you might also be trying to land on terrain that's less than level. Any bumps in the ground will convert your horizontal speed into vertical and lateral. That means that each terrain will have a maximum landing speed. At 160m/s you should not be landing anywhere other than landing strip at KSC or the nearby island. You might be able to do the landing on terrain surrounding KSC or the second space center. They are both rather level, but I've noticed that even these have some minor bumps, and hitting one of these at 160m/s would be catastrophic.

Finally, there are options for reducing landing speed. The reason you have high approach speed is low angle of attack requiring high speed to maintain lift. First, you can try shifting CoG or CoL to allow for better control. But that's not always possible. Failing that, consider adding lifters. Place some jets underneat the wings or body, wherever you have the room. Try to put them as low as you can without risking impact with ground. The plane should be very nearly balanced on these. A bit forward of CoG could actually help you to increase angle of attack as well. This can bring down landing speed from 160m/s to something closer to 70-80 easily, and that's way more landable.

For more tips, you can try looking at the old land speed challenge threads. Building a land speeder has many of the same prerequisits as building a plane that can land at high speeds. Good luck.

thanks really well detailed

the problem is a started my laythe lets play and the problem iam having landing is , landing on laythe

so iam starting to run out of options , unfortunately not anything you mentioned i can do in my current situation , the only solution i thought of is once i hit the atmosphere to do a straight vertical angle and then lower my self down like a rocket before flipping over .

[Daze]

Try to enter the atmosphere following the prograde marker, then when you are decelerated to about 160 m/s use some Separatrons (look for C-130 assisted landing ) and you should be able to perform a secure landing

[Jason Patterson]

You definitely can land at very high speeds (500 m/s or more) if the surface is flat and you come in at a shallow angle. On Laythe that means landing on the beach, usually.