Rocket-power VTOL
The Rocket-powered VTOL is essentially a suborbital rocket. It does not look like a rocket, and is not an aircraft although it is built in the SPH. It most likely shares the same purpose as the real-life Lunar Landing Research Vehicle used in training US astronauts in the Apollo Program for moon landings, although they do not look similar.
Craft Description
| “ | This craft is an experimental test platform for rocket-powered flight. Used primarily in training pilots to land on places where parachute descents aren't an option, it's also found a use in telling the ace pilots apart from the 'ok' ones, by the simple expedient of putting them in one of these, and calling "Ace" any that make it out afterwards. — Squad |
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Design
It uses an Mk1 Inline Cockpit as the command module, and uses radially-mounted Rockomax 24-77s for propulsion. It has 4 jettisonable FL-T400 Fuel Tanks, in which 2 of them are mounted radially using TT-38K Radial Decouplers and has Mk2-R Radial-Mount Parachutes. This means that the craft can either land using the rockets or by parachutes. Unlike most other stock craft, the abort action group is utilized, rather than forcing the player to frantically stage the rocket to activate the parachutes. The abort group is set up to jettison the inline fuel tanks (with their rocket motors) and deploy the parachutes, though it could be improved by making it shut down the engines, to eliminate the risk posed by rocket-powered unguided debris.
Capability
The Rocket-power VTOL has 3.4 km/s of delta-V, which is enough to reach orbit from any solid body in the solar system except for Eve and Kerbin, or in fact land and return to orbit from any of those bodies besides Tylo (provided it uses its parachutes only to land on Laythe), though it may be necessary to remove one of the Aerodynamic Nose Cones (to expose an attachment node) to stack it on a rocket and send it anywhere.
Usage
Between the pre-made emergency abort sequence, the pair of reaction wheels, and sturdy landing gear, the Rocket-power VTOL is an agile, responsive, and relatively forgiving vessel. Players may find it useful to practice for landing a spacecraft in a celestial body with no atmosphere (such as the Mun), like the real-life LLRV, or as practice for taking off and landing winged VTOLs.
Gallery
Rocket-power VTOL landed on helipad of VAB.
