Landing Gear for Spacecraft

[xenologer]

My first poll here. Hopefully It's an appropriate one and not spammy.

My most recent MOC has been driving me crazy.

I'm stuck on what to do about landing gear and how to make them fit well on such a small ship.

But maybe I'm pushing myself too hard.

So I'm taking this poll to get an idea of the status quo, perhaps I'm beating myself up over nothing.

So the question is, what sort of landing gear (if any) do you most often build in your spaceship MOCs? This pertains to small swooshable spacecraft; not SHIPs which are a different matter.

Thanks for the inputs.

P.S.

Here's a teaser of the spacecraft thats been driving me crazy.

As you can see, its small, with a very narrow body that makes hiding landing gear inside near impossible. And it has large flat wing surfaces that just don't want to be interrupted with bulky attachments...

Edited April 17, 2009 by xenologer

[Siegfried]

Fixed Gear... but it does intend on the intended usage of the craft. Most of the ships I have made are designed as 95% space, and thus I see the complication of a landing gear detrimental to the primary purpose. I have heard it argued that fixed gear is a weakness as it's easy to be damaged in battle, but I think reality shows the opposite. Planes like the A-10 are designed to have semi-retractable gear so if it's damaged it'll still be better than a belly landing. Landing gears have always been problematic and easy to damage, so I see no reason for a ship designed for space to have them. Providing the skids are solid and are thus coolable in re-entry I think they make more sense.

On the other hand there are a few issues that complicate this; VTOL capabilities and rough surface landings. In short, if you don't believe in anti-grav tech (like me) you'll need to provide a way for your ship to slow down and land vertically... or give it wheels. (Taking off is less of a problem as you can just use a catapult.) Also, if your ship is designed to land anywhere as opposed to being just deployable from prepared bases, landing gear will be needed to compensate for un-even ground.

On a personal note, my Impartial was designed for 95% space but be capable of base landings, so it has simple solid skids.

However, my (unfinished) Judicial will need something more complicated. It's intended as a frontier patrol ship so it'll need to be able to land anywhere. Thus at the least the gear will need to be adjustable. Currently it still has just skids.

Balrog doesn't count as it needs a retractable front so it doesn't fall over.

However, I don't make small swooshable ships so maybe I'm the wrong guy to give an opinion. The closest I've ever made is Rotta fighter. Why? I don't believe they are realistic... To me, anything smaller than Impartial would be very short ranged and limited to space.