M-15 Sub-orbital High Altitude Rocket Plane

[VincentMcConnell]

Behold, the new M-15 (Prototype) high altitude rocket plane. Designed to make quick and efficient ballistic flight to other continents with only one rocket engine. Landing gear has not yet been put on (I have no clue how people land planes... The wheels break off when I do it.) so the occupants must drop to Kerbin in a capsule like a rocket.

More and more will be put into this, but so far, flight is really straight forward.

[Nooblet68]

That\'s very basic.

[Millst0ne MK II]

Nothing wrong with it tho, I like it. Most RL aircraft are 'basic' as you say...

[VincentMcConnell]

That\'s very basic.

I know. But it gets the job done... 100 KM apogee results in about 50% around the world space travel in less than 33 minutes.

[technoguy33]

Seems expensive for just three kerbals.

[RedDwarfIV]

Seems expensive for just three kerbals.

You do realise what forum you said that on?

People will build the most expensive things that get no further than two hundred metres before exploding. THAT is expensive, especially considering the cost of life involved.

And if you\'re able to get this down to ground level, I\'ll be pleasently surprised. With landing gear, what you do is not level it out, but try and get your descent speed as slow as possible. Even if your forward speed is something whacked out, if your landing gear is stable and your down speed is low, you shouldn\'t have a problem landing.

I just drew this for you on Paint.NET.

The \'Gentle Leveling\' is where your rear gear has touched down, but because the aircraft is angled up, the front gear wants to slam down. On a heavy craft, this can be disastrous. Make sure the gear goes down slowly. Same principle as landing as a whole.

Of course, there are craft like my VA Crescent, which will pull wheelies for ages, and take off if you leave SAS off even after landing, because their front ends generate so much lift.

[Volt]

Problem is, the incomplete stalling model at the moment makes it very difficult to get anything but a diving (dangerous) type descent because once you\'ve burned off some fuel, most aircraft become almost lighter than air. I can only land one of my aircraft without diving until a second before landing then cutting the throttle. If I flare during the landing, I just go up again, even at the lowest feasible velocity of the craft...