Time to DITCH!!!

[MaverickSawyer]

Yes, I'm sure anyone who's done any spaceplane flying has encountered a ditch scenario before. (Don't deny it, even if you just reverted the flight.) It is a major pain, especially with designs optimized for ultra-high speeds that use ALL the runway to get aloft (including that little ski-jump effect at the end ).

So, I ask you, has anyone been able to succeed in safely landing their ENTIRE spaceplane in the water, without tearing off something? I haven't been able to do that yet, even with a landing speed of 27.4m/s. (Tore of the pWings, intakes, engine, and ventral airbrakes.

Be honest about it. If you have done it, How? I really want to know how to do it right.

[Guest]

Well, I think I managed it once or twice. It just takes a very, very low speed and a very solid design. Can't remember exactly how did I do it, though, and the .craft files are long gone (it was a long time ago).

[SkyRender]

There's a way to do it that I've pulled off a few times, involving a classic lifting-body technique: you get down very low, and then you pull hard upwards at such an angle that almost all of your horizontal velocity is killed as you approach the water below you. You'll start to lift upwards if your center of lift is particularly off-balance, but most of the time it will work out in such a way that the extra height you gain is negated pretty fast.

Or, you know, you can just stick a few parachutes on and bypass the whole problem...

[qromodynmc]

Every part in ksp has own crash tolerance,Some of them 5,10,20ms etc.,So if you want to land your craft into water,you need to go slower than these speeds,The only way to do this; Parachutes. or you can put metal plates under your aircraft,but this would make your plane pretty heavier.

[rosenkranz]

VTOL is the only sure way to do this. Come to a hover over a spot you want to splash down and let yourself down at no more than 4m/s. Any faster and anything with a crash tolerance of 5 will get broken off.

[magnemoe]

Every part in ksp has own crash tolerance,Some of them 5,10,20ms etc.,So if you want to land your craft into water,you need to go slower than these speeds,The only way to do this; Parachutes. or you can put metal plates under your aircraft,but this would make your plane pretty heavier.

Yes, more fun, you can land an rocket powered in water grasshopper style but then the rocket tips over it can break stuff, same thing with planes.

[katateochi]

I've not landed a large space plane in the water, not in a way that was survivable anyway, but I have made planes that can land on water at speed (around 70m/s). The solution is basically to coat the underside in radial air intakes as they have a high crash tolerance value (of 80ms) and they float. Structural panels can work too but they are less floaty.

This is the underside of my SeaJet;

I usually try to hit the water with a very low vertical speed (less that 5ms) but moving pretty quick horizontally, 70ms is safe. I have landed faster and survived but its not a guaranteed thing.

This was a touch down at 85ms;

And this is my other (old school style) sea plane landing at just over 70ms (with more of a splash!)

The old style one is fully stock, the other's main parts are, it just has some KAS containers and B9 airbrakes.

I can land a bit harder in the old style one as its engines and wings are set high above the water. The Jet has to have a very low vertical speed otherwise it will go under and break.

Both can take off from the water so long as you leave the water before going above 80ms.

Here's both of them moored to a floating house, cos, why not.

I'm sure it will be possible to make a larger variant. I'm planning to make a laythe space 'n' sea plane but that will be about the same size as my current sea plane.

Even thou the intakes are facing the wrong way they still work, so you might be able to forget the regular intakes and just have the landing ones to both jobs.

Edited February 18, 2014 by katateochi