Mule-sized aerodyne cargo carrier (and variants)

[idea weenie]

Was reading the good story What Could Go Wrong, and saw that there was a desire for a Leopard CV.  I personally prefer to have larger Dropships for Docking Hardpoints on KF vessels, and searching through Sarna for a 3041-era Aerodyne Dropship did not reveal a large enough fighter carrier aerodyne for my preferences.

Thanks to MML, I went ahead and made one.  It carries the same weaponry as a Leopard-CV, more armor, more fuel points, more Structural Integrity, more ASF, and more cargo.  It also costs ~302 million vs the Leopard-CV's ~169 million, while only getting ~15% more BV.  On the bright side, even if it fires every weapon on board, the Heat Sinks are never stressed more than 66% of their capacity.

Code: [Select]

Aerodyne Cargo Dropship
Type: Military Aerodyne
Mass: 11,200 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 2985
Mass: 11,200
Battle Value: 3,205
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-X-D
Cost: 301,874,400 C-bills

Fuel: 600 tons (18,000)
Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Heat Sinks: 150
Structural Integrity: 10

Armor
    Nose: 172
    Sides: 145/145
    Aft: 118

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Cargo (4000.0 tons)     3 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Fighter (12)            4 Doors   
    Bay 2a:  Cargo (900 tons)

Ammunition:
    36 rounds of LRM 20 ammunition (6 tons)

Escape Pods: 6
Life Boats: 6
Crew:  3 officers, 4 enlisted/non-rated, 3 gunners, 24 bay personnel

Notes: Mounts 45 tons of standard aerospace armor.

Weapons:                    Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)              Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV     ERV   Class       
Nose (35 Heat)
2 PPC                   20   2(20)   2(20)    0(0)    0(0)  PPC         
1 LRM 20                 6   1(12)   1(12)   1(12)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 20 Ammo (12 shots)
3 Medium Laser           9   2(15)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
RW/LW (25 Heat)
1 LRM 20                 6   1(12)   1(12)   1(12)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 20 Ammo (12 shots)
1 Medium Laser          19   2(21)   2(16)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
    2 Large Laser
Aft (14 Heat)
2 Medium Laser          14   2(18)    1(8)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
    1 Large Laser

Bay 1 with 4000 tons capacity is on the bottom deck of this craft, the Bay 2 ASF are on the dorsal section, and Bay 2a extra 900 tons is adjacent to the ASF bay to allow for on-site storage of fuel bladders, maintenance equipment, and spare parts.  The Bay2a is effectively an extension of the Bay 2 ASF section, and can only have its cargo transferred to the ASF Bay.  The aSF Bay can transfer its cargo to the Main bay, or to the rest of the ship.  The Main Bay can have its cargo transfer to the rest of the ship.

There is also a civilian cargo carrier version.  This removes all 12 of the ASF Bays to free up 1800 tons, and removes the 4th engine to reduce it to 3/5 Thrust.  The removed ASF bays are combined with Bay2a to become a cargo bay with a capacity of 2700 tons, and the removed engine becomes a third cargo bay with a capacity of 692 tons.  However, the sealed connections and the proximity to the other engines mean that only cargo that can handle 80+ dB environment for multiple weeks can be stored here.  Even more fun is that the external cargo door for this bay exits several meters above ground, instead of at a convenient location liek the three doors for the main cargo bay.  Even more fun is that this third cargo bay only opens to the 2700-ton ex-ASF bay, instead of to the 4900-ton main cargo bay.  The 170-ton capacity cargo lift moving material from the ASF bay to the main bay is the only way to move cargo between the two bays.  The armor is left in place as the 45 tons is a minor concern compared to an 11,200 ton platform.

Comments about how the company included a manual to retrofit this cargo aerodyne back to a 'combat' aerodyne are merely dismissed as 'part of the customer experience'.  The fact that part of this refit requires lifting and extending a platform holding an engine massing almost 700 tons into a location and needing almost millimeter-scale precision does limit the number of retrofits.

The three most expensive parts of this craft are:
- Engine: ~2.9 million
- Weapons/Eqpt: ~1.9 million
- Structural Integrity: 1 million
(The x36 Aerodyne multiplier causes these to contribute 208.8 million towards the final cost of the Dropship.)


If anyone is interested, I can make a similar 35,000 ton aerodyne cargo carrier.

[Dragon Cat]

Interesting design like the Aurora with configurable bays

The engine removal is perhaps too far unless it's a factory variant then that's fine

[CVB]

I would imagine this rather as a common basic design, where along the construction line either a cargo or an engine module gets installed, and that config would probably remain for the rest of the vessel's life.

[idea weenie]

Interesting design like the Aurora with configurable bays

The engine removal is perhaps too far unless it's a factory variant then that's fine

Adding or removing the 4th engine is pretty much a factory refit, you are having to put a ~600 ton engine into or remove it from the Dropship.  This is the sort of change that would only be done in zero-G, or with a specialized piece of equipment.  (You are not just lifting up the engine, you are having to hold it at the end of an arm since the armored skin of the Dropship is above the engine location.)

The bays are not that configurable.  The top bays (from stern to nose) are pretty much:
- engine or noise-tolerating cargo
- ASF or cargo
- cargo

The ventral bay is 4,000 tons, and the only practical location to put Mechs.  Vehs and infantry can be put into cargo by installing the correct bays, but those changes are already covered by existing Dropship modification rules.

  I would imagine this rather as a common basic design, where along the construction line either a cargo or an engine module gets installed, and that config would probably remain for the rest of the vessel's life. 

This makes plenty of sense.  Smart buyers would plan for it ahead of time, though I also added fluff to explain problems with making the change in the field.


Time for the 35 kton version.

Little more than a tripling of the Mule-sized Aerodyne cargo carrier, the XL Aerodyne cargo vessel is capable of storing the parts for multiple smaller Dropships in its main cargo hold.  It is also just under 3* the price, meaning that cargo carried on this craft can get a cheaper shipping charge, let alone that it still only uses only one Docking Collar.

It can carry 3* the number of ASF, has a main cargo bay triple the size of the 'smaller' version, and carries a pair of Small Craft to aid in sensitive ship maneuvers.

Bay designations and purposes
1) The ASF bay is on the dorsal location, again located forward of the top #4 engine.  The key problem is that only sixteen of the ASF bays are facing the exit doors, while the remaining twenty have to be swapped out with one of the sixteen or moved through an empty ASF bay to be launched (up to 2 ASF per Bay door, 4 Bays doors mean up to 8 per turn.  Each door will launch two of the ones assigned to it, and while the other two are launching the inner ASF are being maneuvered into position for launch.  A proper design would allow for selecting any of the onboard ASF to be launched each turn, but this is a civilian design.)
2) Ventral Primary cargo bay.  Tall enough to store a Mech standing up, the few refits to this design will put Mech Nays here.  It only has one door aft and two doors opening forward, one port and one starboard.  The aft door is primarily used to load and offload 10+ meter long standard shipping containers as their length lets them get removed easily, while the forward doors are used to maneuver the shorter standard shipping containers (i.e. the 6-meter SSC, similar to a 20th century TEU).  This requires careful coordination to know where to split the cargo bay between the two types of shipping containers, since putting one of the two types of containers too far aft means that the ship will run out of room for the longer SSC, while there are not enough 6-meter cargo containers to fill up the front part.  Often the Loadmaster will err on the side of going forwards, and after the front of the bay is filled up will shove the remaining 6-meter TEUs into the aft entrance.
3) Dorsal ASF-adjunct cargo bay.  The larger bay here is used to support any onboard ASF, and has a pair of 200-ton cargo elevators to move material between it and the Ventral main cargo bay
4) The Small Craft bay is mounted forward of the Ventral primary cargo bay, and its craft exit forward.  The primary problem it has had is when needing to transfer material from the ASF bays to the Small Craft bays, and as a result the standard policy is to keep the Ventral primary cargo bay loaded with 10 tons of Small Craft supplies for the SC technicians to make use of.
5) Spare parts bay.  This small bay reflects the various small lockers used to store gear wherever is needed to accomplish jobs (and to keep the larger bays as nice round numbers)

The #4 engine bay is still an option, but this refit can only be selected when constructed, or performed back at a factory.  This process involves removing the 2275 ton 4th engine and turning it into a cargo bay. The cargo in it has to be able to tolerate high-decibel environments, and cargo within it can only be moved forward to the ASF bay or down via a 50-ton elevator to the main engineering section, and from there to the second floor of the Primary Cargo bay.  After that a second 50-ton cargo elevator is used to lower the material to the floor of the Primary Cargo bay.

Common pure-cargo refits are to remove all of the ASF and Small Craft, remove the 4th engine, and get the onboard fuel down to 150 tons (enough for 2 months of 1-G burn-days).  This frees up an additional 8,000 tons of cargo, or almost a 55% increase in capacity.  The 90 tons used for armor, 315 tons for armor (and 8.5 tons for Nose arc Fire Control) represent just over 1% of the Dropship's mass, and were left in place.  The other detail is that removing all those weapons would only create small smuggler-type compartments that could be used for contraband, and the ship buyers figured that having the weapons and armor to protect vs raiders was more important than dealing with extra work in Customs inspections.

The low amount of heat (less than 300 pts) vs the 460 Heat Sinks means that the ship remains cool, and that there is no need for an upgrade to its Heat Sinks.

Code: [Select]

Aerodyne Cargo (Lg) Dropship
Type: Military Aerodyne
Mass: 35,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 2887
Mass: 35,000
Battle Value: 6,795
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-X-D
Cost: 810,597,600 C-bills

Fuel: 900 tons (18,000)
Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Heat Sinks: 460
Structural Integrity: 20

Armor
    Nose: 182
    Sides: 155/155
    Aft: 128

Cargo
    Bay 1:  Fighter (36)            4 Doors   
    Bay 2:  Cargo (12,000.0 tons)   3 Doors   
    Bay 3:  Cargo (2,600.0 tons)    0 Doors   
    Bay 4:  Small Craft (2)         1 Door   
    Bay 5:  Cargo (35.0 tons)       0 Doors   

Ammunition:
    108 rounds of LRM 20 ammunition (18 tons)

Escape Pods: 20
Life Boats: 20
Crew:  4 officers, 7 enlisted/non-rated, 9 gunners, 82 bay personnel

Notes: Mounts 90 tons of standard aerospace armor.

Weapons:                    Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat)              Heat  SRV     MRV     LRV     ERV   Class       
Nose (105 Heat)
6 PPC                   60   6(60)   6(60)    0(0)    0(0)  PPC         
3 LRM 20                18   4(36)   4(36)   4(36)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 20 Ammo (36 shots)
9 Medium Laser          27   5(45)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
RW/LW (75 Heat)
3 LRM 20                18   4(36)   4(36)   4(36)    0(0)  LRM         
    LRM 20 Ammo (36 shots)
3 Medium Laser          57   6(63)   5(48)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
    6 Large Laser
Aft (42 Heat)
6 Medium Laser          42   5(54)   2(24)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser       
    3 Large Laser


[Dragon Cat]

I like the limiting of what a Cargo bay can carry based on the architecture of the ship makes a lot of sense

[idea weenie]

I like the limiting of what a Cargo bay can carry based on the architecture of the ship makes a lot of sense

It seemed like a good idea at the time, reflecting that it was a civilian design optimized for cost rather than a military design optimized for function.  Further ideas might be where based on the size of the ship, no more than a single item of X mass can be carried (i.e. a 2.5 MTon Compact Core cargo ship with 1 MTon of cargo cannot carry a single 1 MTon item, but it can carry a lot of smaller items)

It also lets the GM set up a situation similar to Firefly's 'Heart of Gold', where the pilot and engineer manage to get into the cockpit and engine (on opposite ends of the ship), and lock out the intruders from getting into those two rooms.  Unfortunately the pilot was in the engine room and the engineer in the cockpit, meaning that the ship was stuck.


Now I wonder if the craft is long enough to allow for 'surge parties', where all off-duty personnel run towards one end of the ship, affecting the ship's center of mass.  The pilot will notice the ship is drifting slightly off-course and activate one of the smaller transit thrusters or shift some of the onboard fuel to compensate for the off-center mass.  When the crew hear that smaller thruster starting up or the fuel being transferred they all run to the other end of the ship, exacerbating the off-center mass and thrust.  If the group continues to do this the ship makes a slight S-shape when transiting to or from a planet.  Pilots will often have to set to custom controls on the main transit drive and gently feather the engine to keep on course.  The other option is to request that lengthwise doors are sealed for a vacuum drill, so that each person going forward to aft (or vice versa) has to call the bridge for permission to open and go through the door, giving the bridge an official reason they need to transit.  Whenever a surge party is done, it is considered polite for the surge party to buy the pilot's drinks the next time they are in port.

[Daryk]

I prefer to think 31st century auto-pilots compensate for shifting center of mass on the fly... 

[Dragon Cat]

It also lets the GM set up a situation similar to Firefly's 'Heart of Gold', where the pilot and engineer manage to get into the cockpit and engine (on opposite ends of the ship), and lock out the intruders from getting into those two rooms.  Unfortunately the pilot was in the engine room and the engineer in the cockpit, meaning that the ship was stuck.

Oh you're taking me back