Landing Gear

Release Video

Landing Gear
Category:	Functional Block
Status:	Functional
Function:
Landing gears allow a ship to magnetically connect to the surface below.
Fits small ship
Mass:	77 kg
Fits large ship and station
Mass:	3,324 kg
Data Controls:	[edit] [purge] (?)

Function

Template:Ci allows a ship to dock to another ship. When you press 'P' (default keybinding), the landing gear of your ship will attempt to magnetically latch to the surface below them. Once latched, your ship will move with the connected ship under acceleration.

This allows for several new features:

• Large ships can have functional hangar bays for small ships.
• Small ships can dock to the hulls of large ships.
• Ships can "grab" other ships, like a grapple.
• 'Tugs' can be made which can haul ship modules such as cargo containers or thrusters for storage or salvaging.

Physics

When magnetic locks are disengaged, both ships retain their inertia. It is important to keep this in mind when disconnecting from a ship in motion. For example: when undocking a small ship from a moving carrier, it is generally a good idea to turn off inertial dampers before unlocking the landing gear.

It is also important to note that ships connected via landing gear have separate inertial states. If one of them accelerates too quickly, the inertia of the second craft can apply enough force to destroy the landing gear. For this reason, carriers and other large ships must make sure the docked ships have enough locks engaged to support their mass under acceleration. If not, the carrier must avoid rapidly changing directions. A small ship torn loose in a hangar bay can cause a very large amount of damage.

One option is to use large ship landing gear as a landing pad for smaller ships, and double-lock them (both large ship and small ship engage their landing gear). This has the advantage that large ship landing gear have a longer locking range than small ship landing gear do. If the small ship's landing gear are flush or nearly so, this can result in the large ship gear also grappling the small ship's hull, for added strength.

Design

The landing gear attaches to whatever is directly beneath the pads and is unaffected by objects next to them. This allows landing gear to be recessed into the hull for a more streamlined appearance.

The "foot" of the landing gear has a colored ring around it.  When this ring is yellow, the landing gear is not engaged, but is within range of a suitable surface to attach itself to.  When it is green, the gear is connected to a surface and secured.  While the pilot of a ship may be able to see the color of the gear foot while in external view, there is currently no indicators in the cockpit or HUD that informs the pilot of when he/she is within range of a surface to land on it.

It can be effective to build an armor skid plate around landing gear as armor blocks are more resilient to impacts. This can allow a small ship to perform a "combat landing" with reduced risk to the landing gear. So long as the landing gear itself is not damaged, the ship will still be able to engage magnetic locks. The damaged armor segments can be repaired later.

When constructing ships designed to be transported by larger ships, keep in mind that the landing gear can be damaged if enough force is applied. Make sure you have enough landing gear installed to handle the mass of your ship if the carrier changes directions rapidly.

Strength

( Needs Testing ) Tests need to be performed in order to determine the maximum tolerence of landing gear for a given mass and acceleration. Smaller landing gear can handle individual parts such as thrusters and storage containers, but any aggresive movements will cause the landing gear to break which can also cause the structural integrity of the ship to weaken, particulaly where the landing gear was attached. Landing gear do seem to be more tolerant to minor bumps than armor blocks, though (both light and heavy). They will often sustain no damage from minor contact that will dent and damage armor.