Name: Legacy
Ident: KN047_57 Knorr Class Freighter
Design Information:
Some nine years before the Unification war, ship designer Contessa Herkeimer set about designing the light cargo transport to supply the needs of border and rim world freight shippers. The result was the 'Knorr'. Her design was fairly radical for the time, and seems to create polarized opinions. People either love the vessel, or hate it. There aren't many sitting on the fence.
Herkeimer's first design decision was to make a fixed engine craft, to decrease complexity. Second was to make her a vertical lander, for the same reason. The Knorr's deck planes match the acceleration planes, making less strain on (and need for) artificial gravity aboard. Because of the slight tonnage of the vessel, there are no secondary craft aboard, a design decision considered suicidal by some, although small two-man escape pods offset this to a degree. The cockpit is positioned directly above the main airlock, relative to a planetary landing, which allows a greater degree of control when docking. The pulse drive was positioned forward of the thrusters, another innovation which has raised a few eyebrows.
All of the design considerations have reduced her crew requirement down to pilot copilot, and engineer. Anyone with even basic technical skill can usually keep her limping along to a service location. Regardless, many bottom-of-the-barrel mechanics eek out a position aboard a Knorr as the ship's engineer, kept aboard just in case.
The Herkeimer Knorr has become a familiar sight in the light transport lanes away from the core. The vessel is not terribly competitive against larger bulk transports that ply the trades lanes of the core, and is therefore a less frequent sight there.
The Knorr design is a fixed engine vtol (verticle take off and landing) design with the 2 decks running horizontally to the direction of acceleration on take off this reduces the strain on the gravity subsystems during take off but can cause slight nausea to some passangers as well as an incredible strain on the gravity systems during complicated atmospheric manouvers.
Background:
KN047_57, is difficult to pin down via the cortex. One of the first 100 ships manufactured she has an intermittent service history spanning more than twenty years. Its life during the Unification War is littered with retrofits, re-assignments and conflict. The Browncoats used the ship as both a blockade runner for weapons and supplies and a low tonnage hauler. Dents, scars and scuffs mark the hull. The Knorr has been through alot but true to the classes reputation endured it all. Beyond the significant outer hull damage the ship is running as well as all ships of the class, solidly and without much hassle. Her history beyond the war is chequered being used as light transport and salvage vessel for a few years here and there by various captains. All usage was legitimate and above board as far as you can tell from cortex records.
The ship currently has the standard crew, passanger and cargo layout. With Deck 1 holding four spacious double rooms and four single rooms as well as access to a small atmospheric shuttle, rare for this class, and the exterior hull. As well as a common area towards the middle of the deck with access up to the two tier cockpit and down to the cargo deck and engineering.
General Notes: The ships service history, and intermitant years of registry maybe a snagging point for the Alliance. A minor slap on the wrist or a major concern depending on the commander.
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Originally Posted by Seraphim
