Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
The Jump drive doesn't care what's within it's sphere, just the mass. There are two precedents it's possible, grappled craft and drop tanks. Welding is quite possible, and would follow a modular concept.
The tricky part is the wiring, and if you kept fuel in the secondary hulls. For ease of control, the primary hull could hold the bridge, the engines and the fuel.
I'm surprised no one else didn't come up with a similar scheme. You could set up a short haul passenger/courier company, which we could call RyanSpace.
RyanSpace leases/buys new hundred ton hulls. Because the order size would be large, further discounts are involved. The company either skims gas giants itself or obtains long term fuel contracts at favourable prices.
The drives would be standard Bs, spare parts available at most starports, and so easy to maintain that a monkey with wrench could do it.
A single pilot cross trained as an engineer could handle the freight runs. A designated flight engineer and a medic would be required for passenger runs.
You configure Jump 2 express runs with a single secondary hull. The normal configuration would be three secondary hulls on Jump 1 routes.
RyanSpace would prefer it's passengers all choose Economy class, 189 low passage seating in one hull. They'll reintroduce no frills Business Class, forty passengers per secondary hull with two stewards.
Freight would be carried in the standard hundred ton container.
At the end of the lease or manufacturer's warranty, the hulls are replaced, since it's cheaper to get new ones (due to safety and maintenance concerns) than refurbish old ones.
The tricky part is the wiring, and if you kept fuel in the secondary hulls. For ease of control, the primary hull could hold the bridge, the engines and the fuel.
I'm surprised no one else didn't come up with a similar scheme. You could set up a short haul passenger/courier company, which we could call RyanSpace.
RyanSpace leases/buys new hundred ton hulls. Because the order size would be large, further discounts are involved. The company either skims gas giants itself or obtains long term fuel contracts at favourable prices.
The drives would be standard Bs, spare parts available at most starports, and so easy to maintain that a monkey with wrench could do it.
A single pilot cross trained as an engineer could handle the freight runs. A designated flight engineer and a medic would be required for passenger runs.
You configure Jump 2 express runs with a single secondary hull. The normal configuration would be three secondary hulls on Jump 1 routes.
RyanSpace would prefer it's passengers all choose Economy class, 189 low passage seating in one hull. They'll reintroduce no frills Business Class, forty passengers per secondary hull with two stewards.
Freight would be carried in the standard hundred ton container.
At the end of the lease or manufacturer's warranty, the hulls are replaced, since it's cheaper to get new ones (due to safety and maintenance concerns) than refurbish old ones.