Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
SPECIAL FEATURES
DESCRIPTION
While Lucerne Labs has experimented greatly with sublight engine technology in a variety of forms such as the Nimble-5 or Lucerne Helical Engine, most of its R&D efforts in propulsion were geared towards capital ships. With the realization that increasingly competitive starfighters were coming onto the market, Lucerne Labs eagerly sought to harness their existing research and convert it into starfighter technology. In this, they were largely unsuccessful from a technical standpoint because of the need to miniaturize complex components made such technical conversions prohibitively costly. From a base tactical standpoint though, many of the concepts and performance benchmarks found in these engines were duplicated in the Nimble-7 thanks to refinements and integration of existing starfighter engine technology. Ion stream deflector technology commonly found in TIE-inspired designs along with fuel-injector technology found in racing starships was able to provide the wanted increases in maneuverability and speed respectively.
This flexibility afforded by these components is probably the Nimble-7’s greatest asset. With the flick of a few switches, a Nimble-7 equipped ship can become noticeably faster (especially useful in pursuit or retreat situations) or conversely, become somewhat slower but with heightened agility (useful in evading attacks in crowded battlefields or weaving in and through asteroid fields). The lightly-built nature of the design makes this exceptionally useful in high performance craft like interceptors or racing starships, but its backward compatible hardware makes it a reasonable choice for retrofitting older tramp freighters and other vessels with sentimental value, even if they’re not explicitly designed as high performance craft.
Lucerne Labs expects to transition to using these engines for most of its newer smaller craft, from its lightest interceptors and racers to its heaviest gunships and freighters, as such standardization allows the engines to built en mass which in turn lowers production costs. This allows the savings to be passed onto the buyer, which not only makes their craft more attractive to potential buyers, but also means that there are plenty of spare engine parts to keep engine operating costs down. Lucerne Labs hopes that this will initiate a positive feedback loop which continues to make both their engines and smaller starships more attractive to buyers with their pocketbooks in mind. Yet so far, the engine has been so new that most of its attraction has been to flight performance-oriented buyers, such as independent ship operators and military groups, which have received the Nimble-7 with modest warmth. Novice smugglers and small ship enthusiasts in particular seem to have a particular attraction to the Nimble-7 as it not only enhances stock ship performance, but it is also fairly easy to install. It seems likely that the Nimble-7 Ion Propulsion System will remain in production for some time to come.
- Intent: To provide a version of the company’s Nimble-5 Ion Engines and Gulfstream maneuvering system into a smaller package for starfighter & small craft use
- Image Source: N/A
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Silver Jedi Concord, Directorate, Closed-Market
- Model: Nimble-7 Ion Propulsion System
- Modularity: No
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: agrinium casing with condensed-matter composite framework, ardanium II coating, ion stream deflectors, typical ion engine components.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Ion Stream Technology: Nimble-7 is perhaps best thought as a development of the Twin Ion Engine technology made famous by Seinar Fleet Systems. Each engine nozzle is ringed with an octet of ion stream deflectors, which are used to direct the thrust in almost any direction. Unlike SFS’s engines, however, Nimble-7 uses oversized ion stream deflectors, which allows power to be diverted from the fusial thrust ion engines and diverted to increasingly powerful ion stream deflectors to obtain more vigorous and fine control of this thrust. For practical purposes, this allows the ship using Nimble-7 to trade speed for maneuverability (+1 maneuverability rating, -1 speed) if power is thus diverted.
- Boost Fuel-injectors: Nimble-7 also includes an adaptable direct fuel injector designed to allow the precise introduction of coaxium and/or other accelerants into the combustion chamber of the ion drives. This provides significant bursts of thrust as long as the Nimble-7 has proper fuel and accelerants. In order to help cope with controlling this increase in output, the ion stream deflectors automatically lock into place –decreasing power from their adjustment settings and diverting it to maintaining their current position. This effectively decreases the ship’s maneuverability but increases its speed (+1 speed rating, -1 maneuverability rating).
- Composite Construction: Nimble-7 is fairly lightly built for its size out of nonferromagnetic agrinium-desh alloys, allowing it to be easily incorporated in many existing starship designs where space may be at a premium. An extensive lattice-like frame of condensed-matter composite runs both inside and outside of the engine casing in order to help dampen engine vibrations and provide a smooth ride. Lastly, the use of ardanium II coating applied on the exterior of the engine casing provides a barrier against any radiation from the engines that might adversely affect organics or sensitive electronics.
- Backwards Compatible: Nimble-7 is designed to be easily installed in many existing designs. Part of this is in its use of a compact and lightly-built design that lends itself into easily being put into older engine casings and nozzles, whether it’s the X-wing’s engine nacelles or a CEC tramp freighter engine block. The other part is by using common, existing mounting hardware and ports along with the easy inclusion of different adaptors. This allows the same set of engines to be transplanted from ship to ship with only minor changes that a minimally skilled mechanic or knowledgeable lay person can easily perform with a little work.
- Adaptable: Nimble-7 is a fairly adaptable engine from a tactical standpoint, being capable of increasing a small ship’s speed or maneuverability as the situation requires or pilot desires.
- Backwards Compatible: Nimble-7 can be easily retrofitted into existing ships, making it an ideal upgrade to keep older ships current and competitive with newer peers.
- Fragile:.Nimble-7’s light construction allows it to be easily incorporated in any number of designs, but it’s light casing also makes more susceptible to damage from weapons fire or physical impacts.
- Small Craft Only: Nimble-7 is only suitable for use in small starships and vehicles (length of 50 meters or less), with scaling upwards being primarily limited by Lucerne Lab’s existing ion stream deflector technology.
DESCRIPTION
While Lucerne Labs has experimented greatly with sublight engine technology in a variety of forms such as the Nimble-5 or Lucerne Helical Engine, most of its R&D efforts in propulsion were geared towards capital ships. With the realization that increasingly competitive starfighters were coming onto the market, Lucerne Labs eagerly sought to harness their existing research and convert it into starfighter technology. In this, they were largely unsuccessful from a technical standpoint because of the need to miniaturize complex components made such technical conversions prohibitively costly. From a base tactical standpoint though, many of the concepts and performance benchmarks found in these engines were duplicated in the Nimble-7 thanks to refinements and integration of existing starfighter engine technology. Ion stream deflector technology commonly found in TIE-inspired designs along with fuel-injector technology found in racing starships was able to provide the wanted increases in maneuverability and speed respectively.
This flexibility afforded by these components is probably the Nimble-7’s greatest asset. With the flick of a few switches, a Nimble-7 equipped ship can become noticeably faster (especially useful in pursuit or retreat situations) or conversely, become somewhat slower but with heightened agility (useful in evading attacks in crowded battlefields or weaving in and through asteroid fields). The lightly-built nature of the design makes this exceptionally useful in high performance craft like interceptors or racing starships, but its backward compatible hardware makes it a reasonable choice for retrofitting older tramp freighters and other vessels with sentimental value, even if they’re not explicitly designed as high performance craft.
Lucerne Labs expects to transition to using these engines for most of its newer smaller craft, from its lightest interceptors and racers to its heaviest gunships and freighters, as such standardization allows the engines to built en mass which in turn lowers production costs. This allows the savings to be passed onto the buyer, which not only makes their craft more attractive to potential buyers, but also means that there are plenty of spare engine parts to keep engine operating costs down. Lucerne Labs hopes that this will initiate a positive feedback loop which continues to make both their engines and smaller starships more attractive to buyers with their pocketbooks in mind. Yet so far, the engine has been so new that most of its attraction has been to flight performance-oriented buyers, such as independent ship operators and military groups, which have received the Nimble-7 with modest warmth. Novice smugglers and small ship enthusiasts in particular seem to have a particular attraction to the Nimble-7 as it not only enhances stock ship performance, but it is also fairly easy to install. It seems likely that the Nimble-7 Ion Propulsion System will remain in production for some time to come.
