L.A.P.E.S - Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System

[luizopiloto]

Polar Bear was not designed to land in quick sand, and also, archeological site don't have enought space to operate a cargo plane in safe conditions.

So, we have only one solution... L.A.P.E.S

Edited March 27, 2014 by luizopiloto

[Parkaboy]

That's pretty cool. Good job!

[MonkeyFuzz]

Very nicely done.

[Capt. Hunt]

BTW, there's no q in Archeological.

Otherwise, this shows promise. You may want to consider a lower altitude deployment though. In real life, the plane would be literally just feet above the DZ when the payload is deployed. This would also ensure that the payload touches the ground before your delivery plane leaves the 2.2 km render zone and the payload despawns. As a side benefit that would allow higher speed LAPES passes.

[luizopiloto]

well... If I go too low, the payload will explode... and the trip there takes 2hrs...

Edited March 27, 2014 by luizopiloto

[Capt. Hunt]

well... If I go too low, the payload will explode... and the trip there takes 2hrs...

MOAR parachutes.

Also, wheels or landing legs might help soften the fall.

The obvious solution to the R&D is to test this closer to KSC, and then take it out to the DZ once you have a system that works properly.

I might have to investigate this myself.

[Xacktar]

Very nice design!

[BagelRabbit]

I did a challenge kind of like this once... it's been lost to history though.

If you want to upscale this design even more, here are a couple of quick tips:

Put the capsule right at the center of mass so that the drop-off won't decrease stability;

Load fuel into the drop-off capsule so that you can drop empty tanks once the plane has reached its destination;

Perhaps use a smaller plane, with a bigger capsule (works reasonably well if you follow the above two guidelines).

[here's an example of a similar plane I built...]

Very good job... I look forwards to seeing more of this.

[luizopiloto]

This plane is so big, and so well balanced, that I can put payload anywhere inside the cargo bay and it will not get unstable, just need a bit of trimming to fly level depending of the weight. Only If the payload is fuel, then I need to put it centralized inside the bay. this plane took me 3 weeks to be finished back there at version .22, from concept, to design, balance, test... The main role of this plane was transportation of equipments and suplies to and from the polar bases. With full payload it have an effective range of 750Km (1500km in total). All with stock parts...