Operation "Kerbal Sport"

[Galane]

I'd like to see someone do a Kerbal version of the YMC-130H "Credible Sport". That was a C-130 with several rockets added in different locations. Some pointed aft, some down, and some were aimed forward in hinged, pop out blisters.

The goal was to have the plane able to land in and take off from the inside of a soccer stadium in Iran to rescue the hostages. All went well until the last test flight before the rescue mission. The crew accidentally fired the forward retro rockets before firing the down pointing rockets. The plane came to a near stop in mid-air and slammed to the ground, destroying it.

How it was supposed to work was the plane would drop in fast and steep, the down rockets would fire to counter the fast descent. Right after wheels down the retro rockets would fire and stop the plane. To take off, several rockets on the rear/sides and tail of the fuselage, aimed to the rear and slightly down, would fire to give extreme acceleration, along with the engines and prop pitch set for maximum thrust.

It was tested, it worked, then the goof happened. On the last test landing before the mission was to proceed, the crew lit the retro rockets before the landing rockets. The plane slowed down so much the wings lost lift and it slammed into the ground, severely damaging it including breaking the wing and catching fire.

The project was done in such a rush that either nobody thought about a sequence interlock for safety or there wasn't time to build it, the crew was just not supposed to screw up and fire the rockets in the wrong order.

The latest release of the landertrons seem like they'd be ideal for a KSP version of this. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/61294-WIP-XT-Landertron-Smart-Retrorockets-for-Landers-and-Spaceplanes-v0-06a-12-28

One thing would be figuring out how far the equivalent soccer stadium distance is on Kerbin so markers can be laid out for the landing. Same thing for setting up a barrier or two to stand in for the outer walls of the stadium. How many Kerbals to rescue and bring back to KSP? There were 52 hostages that "Credible Sport" (and the other failed operation) were intended to rescue. That number might be a bit much to handle in KSP.

I see Scott Manley has already tried RATO in May 2013.