For many aspiring aerospace pilots, the Hornet is the first bird (and more often than they'd like to admit, only) they take to the skies in. The origins and development of the Hornet is a classic case of scope creep and mismanagement; the Terran Hegemony attempted to strip down and convert hundreds of obsolete Star Daggers into trainers for flight academies, with secondary combat capabilities. What greatly complicated matters was trying update the airframe with modern equipment and avionics at the same time, with the final design using so little of the original frame and components it was for all intents and purposes a new design.
By the 2500s, the blueprints and rights to the design, registered as the HRN-1Z Hornet, ended up being bought and sold around dozens of small local aerospace companies across the Inner Sphere. There were never a shortage of customers amongst border worlds, but profit margins always ended up inexplicably slim to none, with no manufacturer willingly holding onto the design for more than a couple decades at a time. At present the biggest culprit against profitability is the sheer number of producers, each with their own supply chains and resulting modifications to adapt to the variety of components. Hornet maintenance is and continues to be a nightmare outside of each individual Hornet's production region.
In the trainer role, the Hornet was a ubiquitous sight at backwater flight schools all around the Periphery and Periphery-ward worlds in the Great Houses. Between the relatively high airframe protection and robust life support systems, the mortality rate of students and instructors are nonexistant compared to other trainer craft in its weight class. It was less successful as stopgap aerospace fighter capability. Slower than nearly all of its front-line contemporaries and significantly less-armed, Hornets were mostly used for in-system patrols with standing orders to report in and disengage from any contacts. The Hornet's combat record when used otherwise shows up often in case studies for operations officers on asset mismanagement.
(In a dark twist on the last statement, pirates became a common user of the Hornet, where the rare victories for Hornets almost exclusively came at Hornet vs Hornet duels between pirates and militia.)
Hornet HRN-1Z
IS TW non-box set
20 tons
BV: 409
Cost: 1,180,153 C-bills
Movement: 9/14
Engine: 140
Heat Sinks: 10
Fuel: 400
Structural Integrity: 9
Armor: 96
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 27
Left Wing 24
Right Wing 24
Aft 21
Weapon Loc Heat
----------------------------------------
Medium Laser NOS 3
Design Quirks:
Rumble Seat
Improved Life Support
Difficult To Maintain
