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HePlar and wilderness landing

Zparkz

SOC-12
As a gearheadonist I try to make my designs believable as possible.

One thing I find strange is the lack of thrust agencies for space and starships that allow wilderness landing. Most ships we have seen in TNE is unsuitable for wilderness as their only drive is a HePlar. Even a 200ton merchant can mass more than 1000 metric tons. Even with the CG unit active, 1% of the pull from the planet is still present and acts on the craft. Depending on local gravity a thrust of 10 tons or more is needed to lift from the ground.
In space-/starports this may not be a problem as they have prepared ground. But what about the wilderness?

There is several reasons for not torching your surroundings during landing and take-off.

IMTU ships in the multi-kiloton class never touches ground due to the massive space they require. Shuttles do the most of the transportation to and from the planet. Another solution is using beanstalks.

I propose that crafts that expect wilderness landings are equiped with secondary thrusters. From what I can see in FF&S1 ducted fans seems to fit the bill.

Ducted fans will also be nice for grav-vehicles. I would not like to have my garage burned down each time I start my vehicle.

Any thoughts?

I'll try to post some designs over the weekend with ducted fans.
 
What about tapping the thrust from the main engines and redirecting it through a piping system to cool it off a bit and act like the thrust system from the harrier jet?

Does gravitics in TNE allow you to neutralize the weight of the ship somewhat? If it does then could you use navigation thrusters to give you a gentle push up?
 
I was thinking of a "smart" engine that can vary its configuration.

Something similar to the AZHRAE engine detailed in FF&S, but without the hydrocarbon fuel requirements.

It needs a fan to pull in air at first, the air is heated by the ship's reactor somehow to provide thrust.

At higher speeds the engine intake configures itself to become a scramjet, no need for the fan, the power plant continues to heat the air.

Once out of the atmosphere the heplar kicks in.
 
Originally posted by Kurega Gikur:

Does gravitics in TNE allow you to neutralize the weight of the ship somewhat? If it does then could you use navigation thrusters to give you a gentle push up?
CG or Contra-Grav as it is called in TNE cancels out 99% of the vector imposed by the planet. We can assume that there is some kind of vector thrusters placed at different locations around the hull, how else would a ship be able to change its facing?

However I do not think that these thrusters will be able to lift a craft.
 
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