Space Eagle

## History

The Space Eagle was designed by Lockheed Industries, a UN manufacturer, as a fighter. The designers tried to make it a hyper-advanced ship, by the use of prototype AI support in its control systems, and by attempting to use gyroscopic thrust generators instead of the standard chemical-fuel maneuvering thrusters. The Space Eagle's control system and AI support were major successes, still being somewhat competitive with ships designed a thousand years later. Its gyroscopic thrust generators were unfortunately very inefficient, giving the ship sluggish handling- when they even worked, as they had a very high rate of failure and needed to be replaced at least once a year. Even at the time of its release, the Space Eagle was noted for its poor handling, including barely average turnrates. Its hull was so fragile that it was only rated for 50 points of damage resistance, which would be gone in one hit from almost all weapons on the market even in 3050. It had a very bad braking thruster, which was chemical-fuel powered, making it take nearly as long to decelerate to a full stop as it did to get up to top impulse speed. Its armament was actually average for the time, but not remarkable. The cheap sales price of the ship was only a few hundred credits more expensive than its manufacturing cost, making almost no profits. Despite its reputation for unreliability and subpar performance in some areas, the Space Eagle was still quite popular, mainly with the Union (Asgardian Alliance and United Nations) and UEO; the Alliance of Independent Settlements also used Space Eagles extensively at the time of its founding. Despite the UN's relatively limited resources, it is estimated that between 1.5 and 2.5 million Space Eagles were produced, in many different variants. The Union Defense Forces (name for the joint navy of the Asgardian Alliance and United Nations when they were allied) purchased a total of 200,000 Space Eagles during their production. The AISN purchased a total of 50,000 Space Eagles, which were refitted and upgraded by AIS manufacturers multiple times throughout their service lives. The remaining Space Eagles were sold on the civilian market. The main reason for its popularity was its cheap price; most pilots immediately after purchasing the ship removed its gyroscopic thrusters and replaced them with standard maneuvering thrusters, which greatly increased the ship's turnrates and improved handling characteristics. These replacements also decreased its average repair costs. Most pilots who did this sold the gyroscopic thrusters, which were then used mostly in uncrewed spacecraft such as satellites and comm relays.

## Overview

The Space Eagle is a hopelessly outdated and outclassed fighter with some interesting design attempts. The first interesting thing attempted by the designers of the Space Eagle was the attempt to create a simple, engaging control system with a good AI support. In this the designers succeeded, and the AI support in the Space Eagle is practically the only thing that is almost on par with modern ships. The second major design attempt was to use gyroscopic thrust generators in place of standard maneuvering thrusters. This failed so badly that even at the time, the Space Eagle was noted for its poor handling.

### Weapons Emplacements

1 heavy MP fwd, 2 light pylons, 2 gun pylons

Stock DPS Rating: 5,300

 Afterburner 2
 Afterburner 3

Date of Release: 3050

## Equipment Defaults

ISFTL Drive

Shields

STL Drive System

Reactor 2

Base Scanner

Comm Relay

### Equipped Weapons

1x Lockheed Industries 6-barreled Gatling Heavy Pelser Cannon fwd.

2x Brock Industries Lightning missile

2x Brock Industries QF Ion Pulse Cannon fwd. (mounted on gun pylons)