Mallard
The Mallard is a heavy cargo seaplane. The airframe bears a close resemblance to the Antonov An-225 Mriya but the engines are mounted on the rear of the fuselage in a similar way to the Beriev Be-200. It is the second-largest stock cargo aircraft in the game, the Stearwing A300 having a substantially larger wingspan.
Craft Description
| “ | The Mallard is a large seaplane with twin high-efficiency turbofans mounted high on the fuselage to clear the spray. It is somewhat slow but very steady in flight. A full suite of flaps on the trailing edges of the main wings give it exceptional low-speed lift, and small hydroplane steps mounted on each side of the fuselage bottom help lift it out of the water (lowering water drag) during takeoff runs. Its entire fuselage, absent the cockpit forward, is one long cargobay, with a ramp at the tail end. This allows rovers (and boats) to come aboard or leave while the Mallard is landed. It's a bit low on fuel, so you might consider adding some to the cargo bay for long flights, or make them at high altitude. — Squad |
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High altitude certainly helps. With no cargo, if you set the throttle to maximum and let it find its natural altitude, it appears to have almost enough fuel to circumnavigate Kerbin. (Testing this would take about 4 hours.)
Action Groups
3: Toggle ladders
4: Toggle cargo bay doors
5: Toggle cargo bay rear ramp
6: Toggle jet engine reverse thrust
9: Extend flaps
0: Retract flaps
Possible Improvements
The stock Mallard is mostly stable and easy to fly, but it may perhaps be improved a little further.
- Change fuel flow priority to use fuel from the wings first. This is because the weight of the fuel in the (rear-mounted) engine nacelles balances the weight of the cockpit. As fuel drains from the nacelles, the center of gravity moves forward. This makes it a little harder to splash down without breaking the fragile nose cone. Experienced pilots may not need to do this.
