Glider Landers

[satcharna]

The Unpowered Glider Lander Programme has had another breakthrough, bringing about a new and highly economic way of landing new personnel on Laythe and Eve.

After the deaths of brave Kerbonauts Jebediah, Bob and Sonlin, things seemed bleak for the Glider Programme, as it found itself facing heavy criticism from the general public, and significant cuts to its budget from the government. Nevertheless, the intrepid engineers involved were able to finish constructing and launching their very first prototype glider.

By installing two headlights, the centre of mass was moved forward far enough for the aerobraking to no longer throw the vehicle into an uncontrollable spin, and a slight adjustment in control surface trim has increased lifting power significantly. The lander is launched docked to a nuclear tug, to offer a more comfortable pod for the pilot, and the power of interplanetary propulsion. The nuclear tug brings the lander to Laythe, where it has just enough fuel left to put the vehicle in a stable orbit at roughly 60km altitude. The glider is then detached from the tug, and the pilot EVAs to push the vehicle into the atmosphere, aiming for a periapsis of about 52 kilometers. The aerobrakes are deployed, and the glider quickly descends to its service ceiling of 10km, where it can glide indefinitely at roughly 300m/s. The standard landing glideslope is long, as the wheels have a tendency to break at high velocities, limiting landings to roughly 40m/s. Aerobrakes have to be quickly deployed at this point, to prevent the glider from simply bouncing back into the air.

The vehicle is capable of unassisted take-offs in uphill slopes of less than 20 degrees, and is very manoeuvrable despite the heavy landing gear.

You can see below how happy Test Pilot Bill is to have successfully landed the glider, and he is currently resting up for the very long flight to the main Laythebase, as mission control greatly overestimated how effective the aerobrakes would be.

No worries though, honoured readers. The glider is well stocked for emergencies such as these, and Bill has been reported as enjoying the comfort of thick blankets and chocolate at the current time. He has, however, also been reported as saying that he'd much have preferred an inflatable mattress over the tripod-and-camera equipment used for these publicity photos.

[Specula]

Well done, very nice. Unassisted takeoffs sound fantastic too. Nice little story as well, keep it up!

[satcharna]

The Glider Programme has had another breakthrough. After the sudden increase of funding gained after the successful demonstration of the technologies involved in the prototype, CHI Engineers were hired to lighten the payload of the glider for use as an adequate landing platform for Duna. By removing parts of the crashcage, they were able to successfully land test pilot Bob, somehow returned from the dead, on Duna. The new lander is expected to see much use as a lightweight crew transporter on the surface of Duna, and a trial run order has been placed for three models to use to recover personnel on the surface of Kerbin. Pending successful trials, the gliders will be sent to Duna on the next TNVR-3 cargotug, in two months. Additionally, a VTOL-capable version, launched with a catapult and recaptured with a winch-equipped tower is being developed for use on the future aquatic Laythe-base.

[Sesni]

Oooh I love aquatic laythe-bases (The only one I have seen is awesome.). Also like the gliders you've got here.