UV-34 Rook

"You know, I've actually flown the Rook in enemy airspace, so I think I can add a pilot's perspective to the debate. As a transport, the Rook is great. It's fast, it's nimble, it's armed to the teeth. I haven't seen many of them shot down, not like how we seem to lose a Pelican every week. But as a dropship, it's a cut-down piece of shit that can only make it to orbit >once.<"

- Comment by the user AngelDustOff on the unofficial MarineNet Message Board.

The UV-34 Rook is a VTOL tactical troop transport in use by the UNSC and several planetary governments. Adopted in the 2510s, the Rook occupies a niche between the UH-144 Falcon and the DTC-77 Pelican, blurring the line between troop transport and dropship. While capable of carrying greater quantities of troops and cargo than the Falcon, the Rook cannot carry externally slung vehicles, and has a severely constrained ability to reach orbit. The latter two limitations hindered its adoption by the Marine Corps. The Rook was mostly used by the UNSC Army and several colonial defense forces.

History
Entering into the 2490s, Manitoba Aerodyne had a successful line of 'VIP-TOLs'. These are vertical take-off and landing airframes marketed towards the business class. A VIP-TOL can fly passengers across a continent and land on a skyscraper's helipad, thereby saving hours of time mucking about in ground traffic. Despite the name, only a handful of Manitoba Aerodyne's designs were aimed at C-suite executives, all manufactured under the Accent line. Most were workhorses for mid-level employees, and Manitoba Aerodyne had a steady business selling comfort-free airframes for use as independent air taxis and rescue birds.

In 2492, the engineering team was tasked with designing a new bird, capable of carrying twelve to twenty four passengers, with one unusual feature: The new aircraft had to be capable of making suborbital flights.

Suborbital hops would greatly increase the range and shorten the travel time of the VTOL. They would also increase the flexibility of the aircraft, by allowing it to meet up and transfer passengers with much larger spaceships. Over the past two centuries, dropships had gotten smaller and more capable with each generation. Manitoba Aerodyne sought to continue that trend by building a not-quite-a-dropship.

Powerplant
Conveniently, Solar Dynamics had already started work on the fusion reactor that would eventually power the Rook. Recent breakthroughs in reactor design seemed to pave the way toward the 'Holy Grail of fusion technology', a fusion reactor that was light and economical for air travel. Previous designs had been too heavy for all but the largest of cargo planes, or they cost far more than convention engines and fuel. The existing compact fusion reactors were used in niche airplane applications, or they powered surface-to-orbit craft, and were rarely installed in an airframe shorter than fifty meters in length.

The X630 reactor made its debut at the 2488 Deimos Cup, in the Solar Dynamics-sponsored skiff Lady Liberty. The Lady was just over half a ton lighter than the competition, but even with a lighter reactor, it was able to meet or exceed the thrust of its competitors. The pilot, Sylvia Phantom, was instructed to redline the reactor as often as she thought necessary. This would have degraded most fusion reactors to the point of failure, and indeed, the X630 did suffer a partial breach on the last lap of the first set. During the mid-race pit stop, while the Lady Liberty was being refueled, SD technicians replaced her burned-out reactor with a new unit. The fact that the racing team had a spare reactor on standby was a tremendous demonstration of the reactor's affordability, and the fresh legs allowed the Lady Liberty to easily win the race. Far closer was the shouting behind the scenes, where the Solar Dynamics team had to defend the legality of the reactor swap. The race officials eventually sided with the team on an ambiguous reading of the rules. The next year, the engine swap was expressly prohibited.

The buzz generated in the industry was unprecedented. Solar Dynamics received inquiries from aerospace corporations, shipyards, even an automobile manufacturer. Ultimately, the engineers at Solar Dynamics fell short of their goals. When the AP630's teething problems were worked out, it was still far from competitive with conventional jet engines.