The G2S Recon Shuttle Copyright (c) 1996 by David Pidcock The G2S is designed to allow commuting between the Drifter and a planets surface. In the event that the planet has significantly greater than 1G, the G2S will be unable to return to orbit, as it doesn't have a great endurance (only 135 min - it takes 87 min to reach orbit from a 1G planets surface) It does, however have a great deal of range even considering this low endurance, due to its top speed in excess of 2400 mph (about Mach 3). Furthermore, the choice of water as the reaction mass means that the tanks can be re-filled on most terrestrial planets - unlike HP fusion rockets which use mercury as the reaction mass. This greatly increases the usefulness of the G2S. With the 're-usability' of the fighter in mind, the primary weapons are energy weapons. The craft is not going to be able to get more ammo very often... This means that the missile payload is to be used only as a last resort. Structure: TL9 9000 cf MD body (advanced materials, HT 4500). Maximum Load 360,000 lbs. Sealed Body, Combat Stressed Foldaway Wings, Vertol systems, Excellent Streamlining, 1 popup mini-turret in bottom (for weapons and sensors)= 25cf, 3 non-powered retractable wheels as landing gear, Fusion Rockets. Propulsion: 2 TL9 Fusion Rockets with Vertol Lift option providing 324000 lb thrust each. Water Tank (self-sealing) containing 2.25 hours worth of reaction mass. Power: The rockets provide excess power of 6480 KW, plus 28,800 KWh of rechargeable Power Cells, and a Nuclear Power Unit (from Robots) providing 2880 KW of power (for emergencies) Accomodations: 10 Roomy seats, 2 of which are Womb Seats (for pilot and co-pilot) Accessories: 1 standard Airlock, Limited Life-support (5 person-days), Dual Controls, Compact Fire-Extinguisher, Instant Chameleon surface. Basic IR Cloaking, IR Missile Jammer (in pop-up turret), Heavy Radar Jammer, Radiation Sheilding, Radical Stealth, Laser Sensors, 2 Multiscanners (fore and aft), 3 MR-Ladars (fore, aft and in turret), Virtual Panorama (for pilots), 2 ALLTV (fore and aft), 3 Vehicular Cameras (fore, aft and in turret), Secure Tactical Radio (+ backup), Secure LR-Radio (+ backup), Blue-Green Laser Communicator (+ backup), GPS, INS, Autopilot. Optical Microframe Computer (plus another identical secondary computer), Dedicated Genius Targeting Computer controlling pop-up turret weapons, 4 Flare Dischargers (rear top, rear bottom, rear left and rear right), Headlights Weaponry: 3 Medium Gatling Lasers (2 fixed in nose, 1 in pop-up turret), 2 Md Missile Launchers (Payload of 10 SRGM + 10 HVGM) (fixed in wings), 1 Lt Missile Launcher (Payload of 5 SRGM + 5 HVGM) (in pop-up turret) Cargo: 908 cf, 1898 lbs capacity. Armor: PD 6, DR 100 on all locations. Statistics: Design Mass 358,102lbs, Cost : $203,567,710, Size: +6, Radar -3, IR: +10, Acoustic: +7, Ground, Water, Performance: None Air Performance : Top Speed 1850 mph, Air Speed factor : 152mph, Accel : 24 mph, Decel : 10mph, MR:12.25, SR 7: Ceiling : unlimited. Endurance : 2.25 hours. Space Performance : Fusion Rockets put out 1.22 G.