The FS-17A is one of the oldest fighter designs in the American Space Force's arsenal. Having entered service in 2260, the craft's 40 year old design has managed to become one of the most recognized symbols of solid small craft design. The 'A' model is the current version of the FS-17 and is presently in service with America and Australia, with a small number sold to Joi in 2290, just months prior to the Second Battle of Joi.
The FS-17A is a fully streamlined craft possessing a heavily armored arrow-like fuselage design. While the craft is not thruster equipped, it can easily be fitted with a pair of boosters allowing it to launch from a planetary surface. Before its 12-hour operating duration is exceeded, it can return to the planet's surface using deadfall glider re-entry.
The craft is normally operated by a crew of two with one serving as pilot and the other as weapons officer. However, with its single high output EA-1000 laser turret locked into a direct forward firing position, the pilot can aim the unit by steering the craft and can fire the laser using auxilliary controls located in his cockpit.
Heavily armored by any standards, the FS-17A's 150 ton advanced synthetic fuselage can take more punishment than just about any other human built fighter; in some cases by more than a factor of 10. This has served the fighter well, especially during the Kafer War where it must often fight toe-to-toe with heavily armored alien war craft.
Unfortunately, the craft's weight makes it a very sluggish performer in atmospheric flight. Together with the fact that the craft must land un-powered, the FS-17A pilot must be extremely cautious when operating in the vicinity of hostile aircraft. The fighter's one saving grace here is that it can safely descend through atmosphere at an extremely high rate, keeping its vulnerability window relatively small.
The FS-17A seats two in individual compartments situated in tandem at the front of the craft. Both cockpits contain full flight controls while the aft cockpit contains a complete array of sensor and fire control displays. The pilot's cockpit can tap into the same information on a set of smaller comuter displays on his left. These can provide the same control as the weapons officer's cockpit, but are somewhat more difficult to read and equally difficult to operate.
Each cockpit maintains an independent air and emergency power supply designed for up to 12 hours of use with a 2 hour emergency reserve. The is in additions to any life support provided by the occupant's space suit. An air recycling system will provide breathable air untiil the craft's emergency power system fails -- 30 hours after main power plant shutdown.
It is possible to link the two cockpits' life support systems together to provide a single crew member with extended operating capability. This is normally a routine pre-flight operation that takes about one hour for an engineer to perform. Making this link once in space is a difficult task requiring about one hour of EVA.
For storage purposes each cockpit has roughly two cubic meters of space for the occupant, with a small space of about 100mm by 400mm on the left side of the seat. This compartment has a door which can lock down, forming an air-tight seal, even if the cockpit is depressurized.
The cockpits themselves are each a small self contained module that can be ejected from the fighter in an emergency. Each module is equipped with a parachute for use in an atmosphere and a set of braking thrusters for use on airless worlds. The parachute will operate safely on worlds of up to 1.4Gs while the braking thrusters will operate safely on worlds of up to 0.4Gs.
There is a small variety of booster types available for the FS-17A. Each has a different thrust and re-usability characteristics. These fall into two categories, the solid fuel/disposable and the liquid fuel/restartables. The solid fuel boosters are reliable, relatively inexpensive, and have a high thrust to mass ratio. These are the most common type of boosters used with planet based FS-17As such as those operated by the Joi Defense Force. These boosters provide adequate thrust to lift a fully loaded craft into orbit from the surface of a planet with a gravity of up to 2Gs.
Liquid fuel ( hydrogen/oxygen) models are more expensive, but they are more controllable and more flexible and they are reusable. The thrusters on these boosters may be shut down and restarted at any time, unlike the solid boosters available for the fighter craft. Providing less thrust than the solid fuel models, these boosters can lift the FS-17A from the surface of a planet with a gravity of up to 1.5Gs.
The FS-17A is equipped with a reinforced tricycle landing gear which enables it to take-off and land at makeshift runways. Because the craft is not VTOL equipped, and booster packs do not provide this capability, the FS-17A can not land on airless worlds. While it is technically possible to ditch the craft on such planets, it is a formidable and hazardous task. If it becomes necessary to crash land on an airless planet, standard procedure is for the crew to eject and land in their cockpit/escape capsules which ARE equipped with proper retro thrusters. For handling shorter runways, the FS-17 is equipped with a pilot-deployable drogue shoot. On worlds with standard or dense atmospheres, this reduces the craft's runway length requiements. On worlds, with thin atmospheres, this allows the craft to land at normal length runways ( though landing strips on such worlds tend to have a greater length to make up for higher horizontal landing speeds). This can be combined with the craft's standard set of reaction control thrusters, giving added braking power when needed.
External Stores
While the FS-17A is designed for space combat, a booster equipped craft can perform limited planetary support missions.Each FS-17 is constructed with two underwing hardpoints for just such a reason. Each hardpoint can be equipped with a pylon carrying up to 200 kgs of ordnance. These are seldom used by the ASF in standard practice. In those occasional situations, they generally carry laser- designated bombs for use in conjunction with designator equipped ground troops. These bombs are identical to standard WASP and HE aircraft-guided bombs except that the gunner performing target lock-on is on the ground. In any case because of the craft's inherent lack of maneuvering power in atmosphere, there ground support missions are considered extremely hazardous, even under conditions of friendly air superiority.
The basic data for the FS-17A was derived from the ship status sheet and information listings in GDW's Star Cruiser game. One drawing done by Tom Peters appears on page 61 of the 2300 AD Adventurer's Guide. We are terming the craft depicted in this drawing the FS-17, a lightly armored single place version of the modern two-seat FS-17A. This drawing and the silhouette of the FS-17A found in the Star Cruiser game served as the basis for the technical illustration found on this page.
Fighter | Cost ( MLv) | Primary Nation ( s) |
---|---|---|
FS-17A | 23.744 | America, Joi, Australia |
Wellington | 19.756 | Britain |
Bonapart | 2.,597 | France |
Bufer | 22.565 | France |
Donovan | 26.328 | Britain |
Martel | 31.8 | France |
Mistral | 17.352 | France |
Riche | 10.831 | France, UAR, Ukraine |
Udet | 21.34 | Germany |
Wespe | 35.724 | Germany |
Punyuang | 11.787 | Manchuria, Canton |
X-2296 | 7.71 | Trilon, Texas, Tanstaafl |
Streamlining: As Shuttle.
Sensor Packages: Navigational Radar, active and passive military sensors.
Cockpit: 1 pilot, 1 weapons officer.
Additional Crew Recommendations: Impossible.
Warp Efficiency: 3.32; Power Plant: 5 MW MHD; Fuel: 36 Tons; Range: 7.7; Mass: 338 Tons; Cargo Capacity: None; Comfort: 0; Emergency Power: Battery, 20 Hours; Total Life Support: 2; Price: Lv 23,744,000
Movement: 7 Screens: None; Passive Signature: 1 ( 4); Radial Reflected Signature: 3; Lateral Reflected Signature: 5; Active Sensors: 5; Passive Sensors: 5; Screens: none; Armor: 8; Hull Hit Capacity: 32/16/8; Power Plant Hit Capacity: 14/3; Radial Target Profile: -2; Lateral Target Profile: -1; Crew Complement: 2 ( 1 pilot, 1 gunner); Weapons: 1 Hyde Dynamics EA-1000 Laser ( x2 +1) mounted singly in jack turret; Targetting Computer: None.