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Officially categorized as the 'Quest Corporation 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 onefive billionhundred million dollars per craft, the ''Gridrunner'' can carry (in its original configuration) 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 $300two hundred 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantium Adamantium] (among other things), The U. S. Government received eleven of the aircraft free of charge; four of those aircraft have been turned over to [[DELPHI]] for the organization's needs.
There are six variants of the ''Gridrunner'' in existence:
*Mark V - elite personal transport. This craft is one-half the size of the earlier models, and can carry up to twenty-five persons in comfort. It is otherwise identical to the other models, but can travel at Mach Five speeds (maximum; cruising speeds of Mach 3.5).
In addition, the ''Gridrunner'' tasked for Legion use is an advanced version of the Mark V. Reverse-engineered and upgraded by USAES engineering and aviation cadets in cooperation with Quest Corporation technical staff, the ' ''Gridrunner-A'' ' is the most advanced version of the craft to date, with a significantly-reduced price-tag even with her radically-advanced features). At an estimated cost of just under one-quarter billionhundred fifty million dollars, she is faster (cruising speed of Mach 8), has a more advanced onboard A.I., sensory/communications-electrical countermeasures and electrical warfare package, and comes with the capability to operate outside the Earth's atmosphere. Among the enhanced capabilities of the ''Gridrunner-A'':
*Ease of operation: any pilot with experience in flying military craft can easily learn to handle the aircraft.
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