Early Tech Tree planes and rovers

[Seeker89]

I'm trying to make a few planes in the early stages of the tech tree, but most of the pictures shown on the forum are either sandbox or late in the game.

Does anyone have any hints and tips on this?

As far as rovers I was trying to make a kethene mining rover, to save bill, but the moment it hit a bump it would fall apart. It was early for in the tech tree for this too.

does anyone have any tip of this as well?

Thanks

Seeker

[Sirrobert]

Start with rockets. Planes and Rovers are way more complex, and thus come later

[nhnifong]

It's pretty difficult to make a plane without the landing gear part.

This was the first plane I made in career mode, right after getting the landing gear part.

[phuzz]

I managed to make a plane which used winglets as skids, instead of wheels. It used a decoupler on the cockpit and parachutes to 'land', and I used it to go investigate the mountain biome just near KSC.

Then once I'd got the larger radial decouplers I added some rockets so I could go check out biomes on the other side of Kerbin without having to fly for ages.

I'll try and post a picture/craft file when I get home.

[el_coyoto]

Start with rockets. Planes and Rovers are way more complex, and thus come later

It's pretty difficult to make a plane without the landing gear part.

This was the first plane I made in career mode, right after getting the landing gear part.

Same here, I usually stick to rockets with a kind of early space program (more or less the "firsts" of the Space Race) until I unlock the landing gear and enough science instruments.

Then I build research airplanes that I send all over Kerbin to gather science and do some sight seeing... (sorry for the examples planes using mods, I, hum, might be getting increasingly hooked to B9)

At first, I was surprised to see the poor landing gear buried so deep in the tech tree, but it didn't really bother me as I am usually more interested in what lies outside Kerbin atmosphere.

And strangely, the science cost of the landing gear pushed me to amortize it by building planes for !science!. And for fun to my surprise : I discovered how beautiful Kerbin is from the ground (or too close to it according to my usual standards lol).

I guess the Kerbals have difficulties to grasp the concept of flying (and surviving it!) by relying on something else then pure thrust or parachutes, perhaps due to the apparent lack of birds on Kerbin and thus the impossibilty to do !science! on them and study how they do...

Ah well, what else could we expect from a species that builds space centers before cities and discovered rocket engines before (rover) wheels...

[phuzz]

May I present the "Look Ma! No Wheels!",

and the "Look Ma! No Wheels! 2 (with added science!)"

Amazingly both of these fly quite well. The second one has a materials bay, and two goo canisters (for balance), and an aerial. Both have tiny solid boosters to get them moving, probably not necessary, but more boosters is better right?

You can down load them here and here.

[Jafiki91]

In terms of early tech tree rovers, this was my solution. I called it the Tortuga program and it had several variations. It has onboard: Thermometer, 2x Goo canisters, and a Sci Jr. I used MechJeb to lock the thrust to 3% or less due to high speeds making it bounce and explode. Its not incredibly efficient, but a larger variation got me (almost) to the mountains. Now that I have jet engines, I plan on making a more efficient design.

I don't know much about the kethane mod, but im sure it could be implemented with this somehow.