Valkyrie Class Drop Shuttle
The Valkyrie Class Drop Shuttle is the primary drop shuttle of the IFC navy, providing a way to quickly deploy troops, supplies and attachés to the ground of a planet. The ship is coated with heat resistant ablative tiles which to protect the craft on re-entry and can be used multiple times before a replacement is needed. The ship is powered by two large box like dual purpose engine nacelles which can operate in both jet and rocket configurations and are also rotatable 90 degrees to allow the craft to have VTOL capabilities, hover and also operate in level flight. However the lack of any large lifting surfaces means that even in level flight the only thing keeping the craft flying are it’s engines, making failures fatal.
On the side of the craft there is a small, sealed door that can be opened in emergencies or to get onto the craft from docking tubes, though it is a rather cramped entrance and is rather hard to get open as it is flush with the hull. Most of the time the rear ramp is used which leads into the cargo bay which takes up almost all of the interior space, with the standard configuration having seating around the sides of the small bay for 12 men. The cockpit is behind an airtight door with a short set of steep stairs up to the tiny cockpit with two seats, one pilot and a co-pilot.
The Valkyrie is generally a rather reliable craft however it requires regular maintenance and maintaining it’s engine pods are known to be quite difficult. This is due to both the equipment in these nacelles being cramped and the sheer quantities of systems on the craft and in the engine nacelles.
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The Valkyrie has been given a couple of nicknames including: The Black Brick, the Hot Coffin Comet and the Flying Pig.
There are a few variants on the Valkyrie. The first variant to be created was a “sky crane” variant which removed the cargo bay and added locking hooks to allow the Valkyrie to carry and drop large containers. One variant replaces the rear door on the back and instead has the main cargo bay as a bomb bay filled with bomb and missile racks, with the 7.62 machine gun replaced with a minigun turret. Another similar variant has the same modification but makes the main bay smaller by replacing the fuel cells and batteries along with a bit of the main bay with a fusion reactor with dual 20mm railguns on the side of the ship, though this is only experimental.
Specifications
Ship Type: Drop Shuttle
Dimensions: L=22 metres, W= 16 metres, H= 5 metres
Armament: Optional hidden 7.62 machine gun turret
Sensors: SSFR-3 Short Ranged Radar, FTS-478 Thermal Sensors
Crew Complement: 1-2 Pilots and a capacity for 12 people or a small vehicle
Powerplant: A Fuel cell, High-Capacity Batteries and two alternators on the engines.
Engines: 2 HDPFE-110-B Engines.