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"Echo Mk. III" Hybrid Light Fighter

Even newer and even more improved! I found a few problems with the Mk. II version after some more survival testing, so I've created the Echo Mk. III to fix them.

The biggest improvement is the addition of two large downward-facing ion thrusters (replacing the small ones that were facing downward before) and a few more ion and atmospheric thrusters overall. These are placed toward the rear left and right edges of the wings, making the wings a few meters wider in the process. But the new downward-facing thrusters are enough to make getting from surface to orbit even easier. Almost incredibly easy, in fact; there's no longer any need for fancy takeoff maneuvers like the last two versions. Reaching space still follows the same process of staying level, launching upwards until you feel like you're slowing down too much, then pitching upward 90 degrees and using the ion thrusters to do the rest. The difference is that you now have a lot of leeway in when you decide to pitch up, and you no longer have to rely on maintaining maximum velocity for as long as possible. You can even hover at the Echo Mk. III's maximum altitude, which I found to be between 5,600 and 5,800 meters, and then just point upwards and go, and reach space with minimal trouble.

The improved downward thrust also fixes something vital that I somehow forgot to test: the Echo Mk. III can fly perfectly well in lunar gravity as well, as long as you don't roll too far to either side or point straight down. With no modifications necessary, you can take this ship from Earth to the Moon and back and even get in a few fights along the way. You have plenty of room for fuel and ammo, too; I tested the Echo Mk. III at masses up to 66,000 kg in Earth-like, lunar, and space environments, and I expect it can probably handle even more.

Speaking of getting into fights, I added a bit of length to the tail to move the decoys away from all the important parts of the ship. I found it worked well to counter the Mk. III's somewhat wider profile. I've also moved the landing gears and underside connector down one meter each, to make landing and docking easier. (That has nothing to do with getting into fights, though.)
While this ship is pretty decent in combat against stationary targets and other small ships, I would not recommend taking it into battle against large, heavily armed ships. All Echo models are armored mostly with light armor, and large turrets will shred right through it. I chose to use light armor because I found heavy armor added too much mass and took away too much maneuverability. Of course, if you know what you're doing and are much better at combat than I am (which is not a high bar), then feel free to ignore this and go nuts.

One minor note: If you have all of the thrusters (both atmosphere and ion) turned on all at once while at low altitude, it's very easy to max out the power output if you accelerate in too many directions at once. I recommend switching the ion thrusters off when engaging in combat at low altitude; they are weakened in atmosphere anyway, so you shouldn't notice much of a difference.

Lastly, if you look under the one heavy armor block just behind the cockpit on the top of the ship, you'll find a projector that should be useful for repairs.

And that should be everything important that's changed. I can't think of anything else that's really necessary to add, so I expect the Mk. III will be the last one. There's always a chance it won't be, though, especially if anyone else tries it out and has any suggestions for improvements. If you do have suggestions, leave a comment below; I'd be glad to hear them.


Detailed specs:

• mass: 60,793 kg empty
  
• length: 10.5 meters
  
• width: 9 meters
  
• total 730 blocks, 4,285 PCU
  
• ion thrusters: 5 large (2 bottom, 3 rear), 26 small (6 top, 4 left, 4 right, 8 front, 4 rear)
  
• atmospheric thrusters: 2 large (bottom), 20 small (3 left, 3 right, 4 front, 4 rear, 6 bottom)
  
• 1 O2/H2 generator
  
• 2 small reactors, 3 batteries
  
• 2 Gatling guns (fixed)
  
• 4 rocket launchers (fixed, manual reload)
  
• 2 gyroscopes
  
• 2 decoys
  
• 1 projector

As I believe I've said before, while this isn't amazing, it seems to work well enough. Probably not as good as some of the other fighter designs out there, but I happen to think it's pretty nice overall.