In August of 2784 a call was made for a pair of aerodyne dropships designs was made.
The request required the designs meet the following conditions.
Design Pony must be a reliable, affordable, adaptable, and rugged civilian cargo hauler. Something a small but successful shipping group might see as a first new purchase. Something that required no special licensing or permits (beyond what a small cargo hauler group would have) to use/own.
Design Warhorse needs to be identical in tonnage and silhouette to Pony, but able to reliably deliver or extract an air lance (the classic 4 battlemechs and 2 asf) of any tonnage to or from a situation. The ability to quickly deploy the two asf without exposing the crew or ground units to vacuum is a plus.
The two designs needed to share as much emission generating equipment as possible. While the request didn't outright request it, the undertones of the request hinted at the need for the warhorse to include equipment that improves its ability to disguise itself as a Pony if a situation calls for it.
The winning design pair would be rewarded with a contract to build for of each for the original request, and be encouraged to sell as many of design B as possible to other customers.
Ready? Go!
