Gridrunner

First seen in Legion of Lawndale Heroes 11.4, the Gridrunner is the hypersonic transport craft built by the Quest Corporation as their response to NASA’s ‘Hyper-X’ program.

Officially categorized as the 'Global Rapid Infantry Deployment Craft, Mark II', the Gridrunner is a ultratech recon/transport craft with V/STOL/trans-atmospheric capability, a top-rated speed of Mach 10 and a cruising speed of Mach 7. It is able to place or retrieve troops anywhere on the planet within ninety minutes.

With a estimated cost of one billion dollars per craft, the Gridrunner can carry (in its original configeration) one hundred troops and their equipment, or forty and a support vehicle. The Gridrunner has a special interior modular design that allows ground crews to quickly swap out interior sections according to specific mission profiles.

The specialized avionics package aboard the Gridrunner is priced at roughly $300 million dollars: this includes a liquid-based, onboard artificial intelligence hardened against outside interference and EMP’s, which can act as an autopilot and complete a flight without a pilot (but optimally requires a passenger in the pilot seat to give simple instructions). The designers were able to circumvent several major problems in the design process (such as metal fatigue and temperature variants in flight causing extreme wear on aircraft parts) by using Secondary Adamantium for the craft's outer skin, many of the aircraft parts, and as a coating for many other aircraft parts (to increase their lifespan). As part of the deal which allowed the Quest Corporation access to the creation process of Adamantium (among other things), The U. S. Government recieved eleven of the aircraft free of charge; four of those aircraft have been turned over to DELPHI for the organization's needs.

There are four variants of the Gridrunner in existance:]


 * Mark I - the prototype (three in existance)


 * Mark II - standard transport (the Gridrunner tasked to Legion duties is a Mark II)


 * Mark III - heavy transport; can carry two hundred men and two support vehicles.


 * Mark IV - multi-role assault craft; modified with a specialized weapons-bay that can be deployed at trans-sonic speeds (not above Mach 6). Can carry strategic ordinance if required.