The Endeavor is both one of the largest and oldest examples of the Short Hop Shuttlecraft, cargo or personnel carrying spacecraft equipped for short duration flights. These craft are primarily distinguished by their design and structural similarity to aerofighters, albiet generally slow, sluggish ones. This is to be expected, as modern aerofighters got their start as armed short hop craft in the final decades of the Terran Alliance.
When it was first introduced in 2250, the Endeavor stood out among its counterparts for its transatmospheric capability (though the handling of the earliest models in an atmosphere was sluggish at best). This capability combined with a cargo capacity of seventy tons made it highly prized among both military and civilian customers. Even as comperable shuttles became more and more common, the Endeavor has remained in high demand, keeping it in continuous production (with regular updates as technology advanced) for the next nine hundred years.
The Endeavor has received dozens of updates over the centuries, however the two most extensive were in 2470, which saw the craft upgraded to more modern construction techniques, and in 2750, which was intended to further refine the craft for more modern sensibilities. Pilots and owners are said to have been divided over whether or not the 2750 update was worth it ever since. While it did increase the Endeavor's transportation capacity, the 2750 update did so at the expense of both acceleration and fuel. The loss of acceleration is arguably a minor concern, but the loss of fuel could frequently cause problems for pilots operating on more spread out routes, such as among the Jovian moons of the Sol system. It was thus a common occurrence for pilots and owners to modify their Endeavors to their own tastes and needs.
The Endeavor is just one of hundreds of similar craft developed over the centuries, ranging from the tiny five ton Cloudhopper (more of a pleasure craft than a working vessel) to craft just as large as the Endeavor. Before the 24th century, the majority of these craft were either incapable of atmospheric operations or extremly poorly suited to atmospheric flight, which tended to limit their operations to orbital and deep space stations. They were (and continue to be) especially popular among Sol's belter community and other spaceborn populations such as those at gulf breeze. Once transatmospheric capability became the standard rather than the exception, use of short hop shuttles became much more widespread. By the height of the Star League era, craft such as the Endeavor were the backbone of planetary transport networks on afluent worlds, at times even completely replacing more humble airbreathing craft. The long fall of the Succession Wars largely ended this practice, as the technology and infrastructure to maintain large fleets of craft like these was lost, destroyed, or re-purposed for military use. Even today, despite decades of recovery, the Short Hop Shuttle tends to be a rarity outside of a few entirely spaceborn communities like the Terran Belt.
Variants:
Though the Endeavor was not built as a combat craft, more than a few have been used as such over the centuries. As far back as the craft's introduction, pirates were known to outfit their Endeavors (and other ships) with stolen, surplused, or home-built weapons. The most well known of these mounted six medium autocannons, enough ammunition to be a credible threat, and as much extra armor as could fit. The result was fairly threatening in space (easily comperable or superior to the purpose built space fighters of the late 23rd and early 24th century), but the extra armor, often added with only a nodding appreciation of aerodynamics, tended to cripple the transatmospheric capabilities of the craft. As technology advanced, the sophistication of these mods advanced with it. The Terran Belters are known to field a particularly fearsome example among their defense forces which saw action both during the Amaris Coup and again three hundred years later during the Jihad. The notoriously insular Belters have kept the details to themselves, though observers claim their Endeavor gunship is equipped with energy weapons, and its armor and firepower compare favorably with a small dropship.
Endeavor class Short Hop Shuttle (2250)
IS advanced
100 tons
BV: 375
Cost: 2,779,500 C-bills
Movement: 3/5
Engine: 120
Heat Sinks: 10
Cockpit: Primitive Cockpit
Structural Integrity: 10
Armor: 117 (Primitive)
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 34
Left Wing 31
Right Wing 31
Aft 21
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Fuel (10 tons)
Endeavor class Short Hop Shuttle (2470)
IS TW non-box set
100 tons
BV: 384
Cost: 3,609,500 C-bills
Movement: 4/6
Engine: 200
Heat Sinks: 10
Structural Integrity: 10
Armor: 120
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 34
Left Wing 32
Right Wing 32
Aft 22
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Communications Equipment (1 ton) NOS
Fuel (10 tons)
Endeavor class Short Hop Shuttle (2750)
IS TW non-box set
100 tons
BV: 456
Cost: 2,630,500 C-bills
Movement: 3/5
Engine: 100
Heat Sinks: 10
Structural Integrity: 10
Armor: 144
Armor
-----------------------------
Nose 41
Left Wing 36
Right Wing 36
Aft 31
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Cargo (10 tons) NOS
Fuel (5 tons)
