Zelda Tears of the Kingdom player creates VTOL aircraft with retractable landing gear

Since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, Legend of Zelda fans have spent an incredible amount of energy exploring the picturesque plains of Hyrule and enjoying what they have to offer.

Some players have dedicated their time developing mods that can give Link some weapons from his previous adventures or the chance to send Ganondorf a rude message. That said, many have been drawn in by the allure of building interesting contraptions using an array of fusible objects.

So far, the cool creations of these Hylian engineers have done everything from driving across the ceilings of caverns to emitting beautiful symphonies. The latest interesting build to be produced by one of these technically-skilled tinkerers is an aircraft that’s capable of landing without scattering any Koroks.

Have you been managing to safely land your airborne Zelda Tears of the Kingdom builds?

The flying machine in question is the work of Reddit user ManufacturerOk8154, who has shared a couple of clips of it in action to r/HyruleEngineering. As these videos demonstrate, the feature that makes this craft stand out from the crowd is its experimental landing gear, which allows it to take off and land vertically.

“I wanted to create working landing gear that goes up and down without ‘switching’ the vehicle,” the engineer explained in their first post, adding that they’d had to keep the build lean to ensure it would descend gradually enough to land safely.

In a subsequent post, ManufacturerOk8154 shared an update on their progress in developing the prototype, showing that it can now land without the use of any extra supports to take pressure off of the landing gear.

“[The] next thing up my list is actual forward movement,” they said, adding: “I already have a working prototype, but item use was maxed out so I had to remove the wooden beams. I need those for it to work properly, so if anybody has tips on how to optimise the number of used items and devices, please share!”

Naturally, their fellow tinkerers have provided a few ideas, with user Jogswyer1, who’s recently been trying to build their own VTOL-capable vehicles in the game suggesting solutions like using railings to save weight.

Currently, it looks like ManufacturerOk8154 is planning on trying out a version of the craft made of metal and with its engines mounted further forwards, in the hopes this can make it more sturdy without sacrificing its delicate weight balance.

Regardless of what you’re getting up to in Tears of the Kingdom while you wait for its eventual DLC to arrive, make sure to follow us for a bunch of helpful guides that can aid your adventures in Hyrule by showing you how to find the secret Gerudo shop, grab a Hylian Shield or unlock Skyview Towers.