Type A Free Trader - Scout Varient

[Mithras]

I'm always interested in varients, since I like to see ships more like aircraft. And I note how airforces the world over take civillian designs like the 737, 707, 747, Comet and HS125 and turn them into 'military varients'.

I need a longer range scout vessel for courier duties to fringe clusters in MTU (the Sol region, lots of jump 3 links there). Rather than the scouts pay out for a new design, I had them upgrade a number of Type A's to do the job.

The type A is a 3 deck design. The top passenger deck is converted to fuel tankage. The mid deck with crew accomodation and cargo sacrifices that cargo area for additional fuel tankage and installed jump -3 drives along with a level 3 powerplant and 2G maneouvre drive at the rear. The cargo lift is scrapped.

The lowest deck retains full cargo handling features and is generally unmodified.

Type SA Long Range Mail Courier
200 ton

Jump Drive C (jump-3)
Powerplant C (3)
Maneouvre Drive B (2G)
Jump Fuel 60 tons
Powerplant Fuel 12 tons / 4 weeks

Model/3 computer
Basic Military Sensor Upgrade
Crew 3 + 1 passenger stateroom
10 lowberths, not 20
Retains its two turrets, and is armed.
33 ton cargo space for mail runs and VIP (very important packages)

Not got a price on that at the moment ....

 

[Mithras]

I can see older versions turning back up onto the civillian market and being purchased by spacelines for high value cargo transfers, or for use as a long range cargo ship for 'non-profit' organizations like mercenary companies or research groups (where every cargo drop doesn't have to pay its way ...).