Boxer AP30

During the early days of the colonisation efforts on Hibernia, it became apparent that the drones used to colonise previous planets were too fragile to survive the ferocious Hibernian blizzards, and their mass-produced AI were unable to keep up with the constant readjustments and cross-calculations required to traverse the ever-changing landscape.

 

And thus, there was a need for both pilots of prodigious skill, and for long-range, heavy duty aircraft for them to fly.

 

Existing planes were too unwieldy to do the job, and the exposed rotors on helicopters were too easily damaged by the sheer quantity of solid ice moving around in the ice storms that ravaged the skies of the exoplanet, rendering them completely useless.

 

Again, the procurement crew had to turn to ex-military aircraft. The heavy duty, Rolls Royce shielded-intake drives of the Boxer AP30 were perfectly suited to survive the harsh weather and powerful enough to be able to lug cargo the long distances required. The forward engines were designed for vertical take-off and landing, negating the need for expensive and time-consuming runways.

 

The cargo gantry allowed for multiple containers to be loaded and unloaded easily by a small team on the ground, once again minimising the cost and increasing the efficiency of the whole process. A smaller hold located next to the crew habitat inside the fuselage could be packed with more sensitive supplies like rations and expensive technology.

 

What’s more, the cargo gantry could be refitted in minutes to carry smaller mining vehicles, and the heavy drives and pressurised hull allow it to undertake shortrange suborbital travel, allowing the Boxer to also undertake transport duties from the huge orbital colonisation ships to the exo planet’s surface.

 

As for crew, a pilot, copilot and navigator were all that was needed to operate the AP30. Volunteer crew, some military or colonial veterans, and others fresh-faced recruits from colonial worlds, formed the backbone of the colonial air service, and only the best and most reliable were handpicked to handle these beasts of burden.

 

 

On Hibernia, practicality is everything. The wide range of uses offered by this sturdy platform make it an indispensable cog in the colonial machine.

 

 

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Built for the Hibernia world-building collaboration.

 

 

There’s a long story behind this build. The cockpit has been built for years now and it’s just sat on my desk, with different engine concepts coming and going but nothing ever sticking. When I joined the Hibernia group I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to finish this while I was feeling inspired.

 

I had a massive amount of fun making this boxy, ugly old dog of an aircraft. It took a while to get the whole thing to be stable but it’s now perfectly swooshable! It’s heavily inspired by some of the epic stuff that Andreas, Nick and Tayasuune made back in the old days.

 

I liked the idea of it being part spaceship part aircraft which was why I mixed the front VTOL engines with the more X-Wing style engines at the tail, and I like how it looks with that combination.

 

The whole thing is chunky and ugly but I made the gantry a little skinny so that it has a slightly agile look to it. The midsection behind the cockpit has loads of room and I could easily have added an interior, but I decided to pack it out with technic bricks to give the whole thing a bit more structural stability.

 

Huge thanks again to Toby for his help getting this bad boy to look right.

 

I threw in the Sprinter truck because why not, it looks sick!

Done