How can I slow a spaceplane for landing?

[jebster]

I've got my spaceplane approaching Duna for landing. I quicksaved upon getting near the atmosphere, picked a flat spot to land, and then tried to land it. Problem is, I was going at over 400 m/s. How can I slow this down to a good landing speed of around 80-160 m/s?

[Dispatcher]

Try aerobraking. The design of your spaceplane (lift, control surfaces, etc.) and how it works with vectoring engines, for example, will influence your results. The atmosphere is thin, but not as thin as Mars'; Duna's is about 20% the air density as Kerbin's. Your angle of attack will need to be somewhere between "skipping like a rock off a pond back into space" and "plunging right at the heart of the planet, ready to make the largest crater ever".

Good luck!

[AncientAstronaut]

Pitching down will cause you to pick up vertical speed. If your craft is designed well enough, you can actually gain altitude moving quickly in the lower atmosphere, so you should pitch up to slow your vertical speed to either 0 or above one, and just keep flying straight until the atmosphere naturally slows your air speed.

As long as you've got enough lift, you should be able to get the velocity right down where you want it, if only a little further downrange than you originally intended.

[Scorpi15]

You could try adding parachutes to your spaceplane. They'll slow you right down, but if you want to land like a plane, and not like a parachuting rocket, you could always set an action group to cut the parachute.

[glacierre]

As long as you've got enough lift, you should be able to get the velocity right down where you want it

This.

Add more lift, so you can still glide at lower speeds.

If the problem is the slowdown taking too long, you can use ram intakes (activate them just for the drag) or drogue chutes.

[Dr. Death]

An easy fix would be to get a mod that adds airbrakes (Firespitter, B9) and use them. They are actually REALLY effective

[LABHOUSE]

Put a drouge chute at the back (the 25 one that is red)

[Wanderfound]

See the spaceplane landing guide in the second post of the Kerbodyne thread linked below. S-turns, loops, climb/dive cycles, airbrakes, etc.

Be aware that the thin atmosphere of Duna is going to make slowing and landing much more difficult. Most folks landing on Duna will do it via parachute (and lots of 'em, due to the aforementioned thin atmosphere).

[DeMatt]

(posts an answer in Aug 2013)

(posts an answer in Nov 2014)

(posts an answer in Nov 2014)

(posts an answer in Nov 2014)

Holy necroposts, Batman!

[Wanderfound]

Holy necroposts, Batman!

Whoops, chain reaction. Didn't look at the dates far enough upthread to spot it.

[goldenpsp]

Once again Dematt is there to save us from the Necro threads. thank god for you.

[Vanamonde]

As this thread is more than a year old, OP will have moved past this problem by now, and any advice in the thread is likely to be rendered obsolete by the new aircraft parts, thread closed.