Vulture

The Vulture is a very good fighter class ship. The thin frontal profile of the ship makes it a very good fighter when facing its target, but its large wingspan makes it an easy target from above. Many variants make improvements on the ship's speed and mass, making them a very good ship to use as an interceptor to hunt down other players.

Game's Description

The Vulture is one of the most popular light fighter-interceptor class ships in use today. Relatively inexpensive and originally derived from an ancient Serco terrestrial-use design (known as the Nighthawk), it has since been copied and reinterpreted by nearly everyone. Classical design factors result in a highly maneuverable craft of light weight, with light to moderate weapons capacity and an extremely thin lateral aspect ratio, presenting a very small target during head-on encounters. These features have made the ship popular as a general purpose combat fighter with everyone from national militaries to trade escorts, pirates to bounty hunters. The Vulture is not without its weaknesses, however, also stemming from its aged terrestrial design. The inverse swept wings provide a substantial target to any attacks 'above' or 'below' the pilot, requiring certain tactical adjustments to be made to use the thinner, lateral aspect to the best advantage. Additionally, the winglet ends have proven to be weak spots in collisions, making Vulture pilots a little less cavalier about confined spaces. The most famous variants of this design are most likely the Guardian, made by the Serco military for patrol purposes, the BioCom Vulture XT from UIT space, and the rumored 'Corvus Vulturius' high speed assault interceptor.

Standard Variants

Vulture	MkI	MkII	MkIII	MkIV
Level	2/1/-/-/-	3/2/-/-/-	3/3/-/-/-	4/3/-/-/-
Armor	8300	8400	8600	8900
Cargo	2	2	2	2
Weapons	2 small ports	2 small ports	2 small ports	2 small ports
Mass	4200 kg	4200 kg	4000 kg	3900 kg
Length	12 m	12 m	12 m	12 m
Thrust	190 N	200 N	220 N	220 N
Max Speed	55 m/s	65 m/s	65 m/s	65 m/s
Spin Torque	7.0 Nm	7.0 Nm	7.0 Nm	7.0 Nm
Turbo Speed	210 m/s	210 m/s	230 m/s	240 m/s
Turbo Energy	50/s	55/s	55/s	60/s

Faction Variants

Vulture	Guardian	Vulturius	Vulture XT
Faction	Serco	Corvus	Biocom
Faction Level	~750	800	~450
Level	4/4/-/-/-	2/2/-/-/-	Unknown
Variant	Guardian	Vulturius	XT
Armor	9000	8900	8900
Cargo	2	2	2
Weapons	2 small ports	2 small ports	2 small ports
Mass	3800 kg	3800 kg	3900kg
Length	12 m	12 m	12 m
Thrust	235 N	230 N	220 N
Max Speed	65 m/s	75 m/s	65 m/s
Spin Torque	7.5 Nm	7.5 Nm	7.0 Nm
Turbo Speed	240 m/s	240 m/s	240 m/s
Turbo Energy	60/s	65/s	65/s