![]() ![]() Although jet engines won’t work, your wings will generate lift just fine. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use planes at all. If you fly to Duna, for example, it just won’t work. Only your home planet of Kerbin and Jool’s moon Laythe have an oxygen-rich atmosphere, which means that jet engines will only work on these two planets. While many planets and moons in the solar system have an atmosphere, not all of these atmospheres have oxygen. Maybe it’s carrying a large payload of cargo, or maybe the fuel tanks at the back are being drained faster than the tanks at the front (see Figure 4-5). Now imagine that the front of the plane is heavy. Gravity is pulling it down, and its wings are pulling it up additionally, its engines are thrusting it forward, while drag is pushing back. Imagine that a plane is flying through the air, and its attitude is completely level-it’s neither pulling upward nor diving downward. You’ll notice that your wings have a strong upward force in flight, and almost all parts are also experiencing a force that’s pushing back. You can see the internals of KSP’s simulation by pressing the F12 key while in flight: when you do this, arrows will appear on all parts that are experiencing aerodynamic forces, which indicate the direction in which each part is being pulled. These principles are used by KSP, and the forces are calculated as part of the simulation. This is why planes need a runway: until they’re traveling fast enough through the air, the wings aren’t providing enough lift to counter the force of gravity. Your goal is to touch the ground at the gentlest speed you can. Remember that your ability to change your direction of travel is linked to your speed-if you’re at low speed, you can’t change direction quickly, but if you’re at high speed, you won’t survive landing.Īs you approach the ground, reduce your engines and pull up slightly to drop your speed as much as possible. Begin to slowly lower yourself down to the ground. Line up with the runway, and reduce your thrust. When your craft pitches upward, you lose speed but gain altitude when you pitch downward, you lose altitude but gain speed. You can control your speed both by changing your thrust and by pitching up and down. The landing gear on the Aeris-3A is the LY-10 landing gear, which has a maximum impact speed of 50 m/s. To land the plane, you need to touch down on your landing gear as gently as you can. This means that if you land on those parts, you’ll be fine. The parts that have the highest speed are the landing gear parts. The theory of safely landing a plane in the game is the same as landing a rocket: parts have a maximum safe impact speed, and some parts have a higher maximum impact speed than others. It’s more of a challenge, since the surrounding area is hilly and the runway is shorter! Once you’re comfortable flying and landing at the main runway, try your hand at landing on the island. In addition to the airstrip that you took off from, there’s an abandoned airfield on an island a few kilometers southeast. There are two places to land your plane in the immediate vicinity of the Kerbal Space Center. When you’re done flying around, it’s time to land (see Figure 4-3). Reduce your thrust to keep your fuel burn manageable and your craft easier to steer. You don’t need to have your thrust at maximum to fly. While steering, don’t turn the craft too far away from your direction of travel-that is, the prograde indicator on the navball-or your plane will encounter lots of drag and spin out. Your plane has a rudder, but it’s easier to steer by using the larger, more effective wings. To turn the plane, it’s possible to steer by using A and D, but it’s easier to steer by banking a little with the Q and E keys, and then using W and S to pitch up and down. Now that you’re in the air, you can use the W, A, S, D, Q, and E keys to steer (see Figure 4-2). Once you’re off the ground, press G to retract your landing gear. When you hit about 90 m/s, pull up by holding S. Keep an eye on your surface speed indicator, which is just above the navball. ![]() You’ll start moving slowly at first but will pick up speed in no time at all.
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