Designation: C-37 Albatross Heavy Tactical Military Transport

WARNING: DRAFT Material!

I. Dimensions:

• Length: 73.4 meters
• Width: 15.2 meters
• Wingspan: 64.1 meters
• Height: 23.6 meters
• Dry Weight: 133 metric tons.

II. Type:

• Two seat high-speed tactical military transport aircraft. There are seats for 6 passengers in the cockpit area.

III. Service History:.

• Served with the Southern Cross' Transport Corps from 2024 until the Invid invasion.

IV. Propulsion:

• 3 P&W F127 main fusion engines providing 294.2 kN of thrust each.
• 2 P&W F126 secondary fusion engines providing 93.2 kN of thrust each.
• 10 Rocketdyne DRaE-4b ram/scramjet/reaction engine in underwing pods (5 per wing pod), total thrust 87 kN each for efficient high-altitude flight.
• Power-source: 4 x SCR-2P Miniaturized Protoculture-cell energizer
• Fuel Capacity:
  • 32 standard canisters of protoculture,
  • 49.6 liter D₂0 reactant for fusion engines.

V. Performance:

• Maximum speed: **** kph @ 15 km (Mach 2.6)
• Service Ceiling: 26 km
• Powercell endurance: 250 hours continuous use
• Maximum Take-off Weight: 450 metric tons

VI. Electronics:

Radar tracking:

• AlliedSignal APS-140 X-band multi-mode pulse-Doppler forward-looking weather and terrain mapping radar.
• APX-110 IFF secondary surveillance transponder

Optical tracking:

• Phillips AllView II multi-band omni-directional digital camera system, for medium range all attitude infra-red imaging, optical and ultra-violet band detection and tracking

Tactical Electronic Warfare System (TEWS):

• Elettronica Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)
• OlDelft Infra-red Warning Warning Receiver (IRWR)
• Selenia Sky Warrior active/passive sensor jammers
• Chaff dispenser
• Flares.

VII. Armament:

• None.

VIII. Armor:

The skin of the Albatross is composed of treated steel plate. The skin stops all small arms fire, provides fair protection against heavier infantry weapons, such as a 12.7mm machinegun round, and poor resistance to light mecha-mounted weaponry, such as the Zentraedi 22.3mm HE autocannon round. The Albatross provides full protection from nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards, using an overpressure cockpit environment activated by radiation and hazardous chemical sensors, or manually when biological warfare conditions are anticipated. The internal consumables supplies can provide atmosphere for two days maximum.

IX. Development:

The Albatross was designed to be able to transport entire units rapidly to far away locations. This aircraft built upon research for the aerospace plane and high speed civil transport conducted in the 1980s and 90s. The leaders of the Armies of the Southern Cross were concerned about being able to efficiently disperse their limited troops, yet be able to field sufficient firepower to put down any Zentraedi uprisings anywhere in the world. The designers decided that using protoculture cell and fusion reactor technology could drastically reduce the weight of fuel needed for a transport. This allowed for an incredible carrying capacity for this aircraft. This massive aircraft can be used for airborne insertions of an entire squadron of ground-based mecha into hostile landing zones. Due to its size and poor maneuverability, the Albatross relies on its massive engines to provide sufficient speed to escape any threat.

Due to its high speed and poor maneuverability, no tanker, gunship or electronic warfare version of this transport were ever developed. At least one Albatross was adopted by the Tactical Space Corps and had its wings reinforced and hardpoints added for use in launching booster-equipped satellites and shuttles. Another experimental idea employed by the Tactical Air Force involved loading the cargo bay full of solid-metal "bombs" and dropping them at high speed. This attack proved frighteningly effective, but left the Albatross horribly exposed to counterattack.

See additional design notes.

Return to Southern Cross auxiliary aircraft index.

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