Glider landing on atmospheric planets

[SDIR]

I was reading on the KSP wiki I noticed that although jet engines don't work on Duna, it is possible to glide down or to even fly with alternate means of propulsion. I was wondering if anybody had been able to create either glider for re-entry or a powered aircraft for exploration.

Edited July 14, 2013 by SDIR

[numerobis]

Go to Laythe. Go directly to Laythe. Do not pass Jool. Do not collect $200.

[Tiron]

I've glide-landed on Duna a couple times before. The spaceplane in question didn't have enough fuel left to fly any substantial distance in Duna's Atmosphere, so the gliding was mostly neccessity. I did find one rather substantial problem while I was doing it: You can't steer worth crap until you get slowed down in the lower atmosphere. Lift wasn't really a problem (at least not on my doubled-wing design with almost no fuel left), but I'd try to turn and just end up flying sideways. Once the speed bled off and I got low I could steer kinda okay, but still not spectacularly well. The fact I kept ending up on Plateaus that were several KM above datum didn't help.

From what I can tell it's actually one of the better ways to land on Duna at all, since Parachutes barely work and you need several metric tons worth of them (literally).

[rexrex600]

As a wise man once said, "I just use hardware assisted lithobraking!"

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

I always try to use glider descent, then followed by a detachment, big boom, parachute, then profit.

I even made a whole fleet of aircraft to deploy rovers on Eve, then return to a spacestation in orbit (that was the plan at least) until I realized that air breathing engines only worked on Kerbin and Laythe.

[Gus]

Don't forget to use drogue chutes for duna. You need a flat trajectory for them to work well.