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Spacedock yeah, I can actually see another reason why the U-Wing could be considered better from a tactical standpoint (I am mainly pointing this little extra bit because you seem to enjoy taking tactical value into account when talking about scifi ships and such). The U-Wing has a much smaller side profile compared to the LAAT Repulbluc Gunship as that thing looks kinda like a box with wings and is a fairly large and relatively easier target in terms of gunships of that size. The U-Wing's more streamlined? Sleeker? profile makes it a trickier target when trying to hit it from the side, front or back rather than from above and below, kinda like a paper airplane or stealth plane which would, in terms of its shape/profile/silhouette. Love the list and wish you the best of luck on future projects as well as the hope you have an awesome day.
If I recall correctly, the Rebels were depicted in numerous Legends-based fan projects as having old decommissioned LAAT/i gunships, which isn't _too_ big of a stretch. Can't think of any actual Legends projects where that's a thing, though.
A couple decades ago, I ran an online text adventure game with a sort of gothic sci-fi setting. I had coded a simple space combat system, and one of the players asked me to create a dropship for this space-marinish religious order called the Brother Battle. In the email he sent me, he said the vehicle would be called the "Shriek." So that was the name I gave the ship when I coded it. He really loved the final result, and flew it around in-game for almost a year before he sheepishly admitted that he was dyslexic and had actually wanted the dropship called "Shrike." I went ahead and fixed the name, but added a snippet to the description that the Shrike's flight crews affectionately referred to it as "the Shriek" owing to the high-pitched sound the engines made when she was diving toward the surface to make a drop in a hot LZ.
@@jokurandomi93 Yup, the LAAT was a heavy armed troop transport that could also carry small vehicles (AT-RT and speeder bikes) and supplies. And with its weapons it could destroy almost any target in the battlefield
@@alejandroelluxray5298 Yeah but having a pelican is better, its more versatile and so makes logistics easier, if you need to transport vehicles, no need to worry about which kind of pelican you have (unlike the LAAT which has the C and I variants), the Pelican can carry and deploy tanks or any vehicle, while the LAAT needs a specific version to facilitate heavy units like the AT-TE. I am sure you can imagine the cases that the pelican can be used more easily, I love the LAAT as much as the next person but the Pelican is the better dropship between the 2.
The LAAT is my favourite because it looks cool, has lots of firepower, it's a great transport, and above everything else, the sounds are incredibly cool
That reminds me of something I thought of the other day: LAAT vs Hind, who would win in a one-on-one fight? This will be the greatest matchup in history. Mayweather vs MacGregor, eat your heart out.
I feel that whoever designed it was a 2000AD fan and got the basic idea from the hoppers seen in Rogue Trooper. These had the same combination of a Huey passenger compartment with side doors and gunners, a gunship front end, and rocket-laden wings plus anti-grav in place of rotors. However, the Rogue Trooper ones were relatively small and had a cockpit based on the Hueycobra. The Star Wars one scaled the concept up and, in a stroke of genius, traded the Hueycobra cockpit for a Hind one.
I for one really like the UD-4L from Aliens, most of my love for it does come from the USCMC Technical Manual (which is a really interesting read if you’re into a more realistic-ish approach to gun-ho space marines.). The UD-4L does handle like a cow but it comes packed with a bunch of ECM systems and packs immense firepower for support. I think its nice to see a Dropship which isn’t as quick and sleek as other more favoured dropships and instead have it depend on huge engine power.
Space: Above and Beyond. A great show that is nearly forgotten. And before anyone bring up problems with the series, ALL sci-fi series have their own problems.
I think that Thunderhawk should be somewhere on this list. And yes - I know it is classified as a Gunship, but it's primary role is deploying Space Marines on the battlefield, so it technically is a dropship.
+ since he included the SW's gunship... eddit: i mean he specifically chose the gunship variant instead of the actual dropship²² to put at rank2 .. so... ²²you know, the one that bring AT-TE on the battlefield
While cool, thunderhawks have some significant design flaws, such as the fact that if you actually strapped engines to a giant brick, you'd barely be less aerodynamic. They fit the theme of the imperium, but i think the valkyrie deserved the more prominent featuring because it, like most guard vehicles, seems to have been designed by a sane centuries old half-cyborg feeding random binary inputs into a computer system they do not understand or possess a UI for.
So happy to see the U-Wing up there. It's one of the coolest, most aesthetically accurate ship's we've gotten from Disney - well, the best, really - and I'm delighted to see it get some love. All your videos are fantastic, and thanks to you I've now seen the excellent The Expanse. Maybe my favourite channel on UA-cam- keep it up!
I love the dropship from Aliens! But... I do have to admit the Pelican is better. And the way the missile pods come out is lame! It always made no sense to me (I think it was something do do with the effects team. Glad it got a mention though!)
Personally, I love the UD-4L Cheyenne from Aliens. The wing missle pod deployment bugs me too, but I think it's a great dropship. It's a beast when it comes to prividing close ground support and one of the few dropships that can clear its own landing spot. But to each their own. I'm surprised the Condor didn't make the list though
Here's my one issue with the LAAT, and it has more to do with storytelling than design: Anakin: "Shoot him down!" Clone Pilot: "We're out of rockets, Sir!" Me: Then why don't you use your freaKIN LASER CANNONS?!
I really don't quite like that scene -they have 4 ball cannons -2 lasers in the front -and during the part where Dooku had his 2 escort geonosian fighters flank the LAAT gunship they had a tail gun but didn't use it
@Maurits Donga since most of its weapons are energy weapons they don't need ammo, if they had some contrivium generator they could fire indefinitely. Now, logic, star wars certainly lacks it
@@lionguardant5468 ey, first gen clone troopers were the best, the following batches did see a decay in quality of training, because of the loss of Jango Fett, besides, they arent Stormtroopers, no one is that of a bad shot as them.
@@251spartan i'm not disputing that they're good marksmen and excellent soldiers, but you'd need to be force sensitive to be able to hit that speeder with as clumsy and slow a weapon as the bubble lasers
I love how the very first line in this top five video is straight up "Okay so first up is..." No unnecessary intro lengthening or whatever. First word spoken is the first bit of actual content
My personal favorite dropship is the Overlord from Battletech. 130 meters tall, covered in weapon blisters, and capable of deploying a full reinforced company worth of armored vehicles and Battlemechs. It's one of the most intimidating things imaginable.
That's a bold claim stating that its the drop ship that made it possible for all other drop ships. I mean is it really, or is it the first to make it on the big movie screen? Sci-fi comics and anime were around for quite a while before 1986. Also even if it was the first that doesn't mean we have to like the design.
All good choices, Nicholas and Ranek, but what about the Leopard? Sure, it's almost more "Heavy Fighter" than Drop Ship, but it is (IMO) something player character teams are much more likely to be working off of.
Overlord? Pfft. Vanir, mate. Land your battalion and then have a massive area denial platform. Still I'd rather see the Union or the Overlord over the pelican or the LAAT.
Everyone fawning over these dropships, but what about the top 5 dropped ships? Like the Executor, Ravager, or Invisible Hand, they're way more impressive than some tiny Laat.
Spacedock or Eckhart will get around to it I'm sure, just bring it up every now and then. I bet there's at least a few crashes I never heard of, plus most of them have pretty cool backstories. Except Luke's crash on Dagobah, that one is kinda bogus. Get it? BOGus haaa utiniiii! Seriously though, there's also ship-ship collisions, boarding actions, and not just in star wars, all cool stories.
My fave dropship is the UNSC Pelican. It's just the most human looking dropship I've seen. Also there's literally no reason we couldn't build it today. Close second is the LAAT.
I really love the LAAT, mostly because in the Republic Commando books they describe the sound it makes as sounding safe, since they would usually hear it at the end of an engagement.
A video about DropShips...not one Battletech DropShip on the list. A franchise where a small dropship can land 4 battlemechs and a large dropship can land entire battalions and then act as mobile headquarters for the command staff.
@@thesovietwarbear4551 the A-10 warthog is the ugliest plane ever to fly, but it does it's job with beauty and grace. one of my favorite aircraft because BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTT! just sayin beauty is secondary to function. BattleTech dropships do exactly what they are designed to do, and they do it WELL (I've been playing since mid 80's)
@@TheStraycat74 Well the difference is the A-10 is real. Where physical laws, the earth's environment, money, and our current technology factors into the military equipment that we create. In a sci-fi world, that doesn't apply, or at least not to the same degree as in real life. Now if a sci-fi vehicle does its job, that's great. If a sci-fi vehicle does its job and looks good doing it, that's awesome. One of my favorite dropships is the Halo Pelican because it has the ability to drop infantry and supporting vehicles, and can equip rocket pods and machine guns to support those troops before and after they hit the ground. And there is the Gunship variant that we see in Halo wars 2 which is just a Pelican AC-130 with rocket pods, a 75mm automatic chain gun, and 4 50cal rotary-barreled guns to provide close air support to soldiers on the ground. The Pelican gets shit done and looks good doing it. I can only speak for myself but the Battletech dropships look like big eggs with guns... This got way longer than I thought when I started writing it... well anyway.
What about the Spheroid DropShips from Battletech? It's a uniquely practical design, and its typical cargo is more badass by several orders of magnitude.
What strikes me about these 'drop ships' is that they're all more concerned with recreating the vibe of Vietnam helicopter ops than they are with the business of actually getting down to a planetary surface from orbit. This entails atmospheric reentry, which is a non-trival technical challenge that dominates the design of real reentry vehicles. I'd like to see a drop ship with a flat, unbroken, heat-shielded underside like a Space Shuttle (although not necessarily the same planform) and then some innovative design to achieve a vertical landing (assuming they don't have anti-grav) and then unload troops and vehicles from the _topside_ once landed.
Damn dude, I've been watching a bunch of these SpaceDock top 5 videos and am amazed by the range of obscure ships from all forms of media you choose. I thought I spent too much time in nerdfull persuits. I take my hat off to you sir.
best dropship in all of Sci-fi is the Overlord from BattleTech. Hey, there was no rule saying it had to be a small dropship. Who doesn't like a giant egg the size of a skyscraper that can delivers not just a single giant robot to combat, but in this case an entire battalion of them (36 in total, and 6 aerospace fighters too).
Ok you changed my mind about the U-Wing (I was never a fan), and I sort of agree about the Cheyenne, but the Pelican would be at the top of the list for me 😀
I was surprised not to see BSGs Raptor or 40Ks Thunderhawk, but this list is a very utilitarian, down to earth, this man's army type, which I enjoyed immensely. Keep up the good work guys, love the channel!
I like the DR-4 Viking from Starship Troopers. How the troop compartment looks like a removable shipping container just seems to fit the world and look pretty cool at the same time.
I definitely have a very visceral nostalgia for the Republic Gunship. I was always enamoured with its look, the powerful beam cannons and the very deep engine noise. Flying on in the old Battlefront games felt like manning some futuristic attack helicopter. The U-Wing is awesome too. I love how Star Wars dropships really thematically fit their factions as well. The U-Wing has this nice mix of feeling well designed but well worn, and it feels a little improvisational, like a lot of Rebels ships do (it feels like it sits between the high quality of something like an X-Wing and the 'just about holding together' look of the Y-Wing). The Republic Gunship is this big audacious beast that can carry anything from a platoon of clones to a mini AT-AT walker (yes, I know they are actually AT-TEs) Something Star Wars has consistently nailed is that feeling of 'dropship action'. The opening moments of The Force Awakens really have clout because we see how deadly the Stormtroopers are as a landing force. It's almost like a reverse Saving Private Ryan.
A really vague one but one of my favourite is the Dropship from Roughneck Starship Trooper Chronicles. Really lacking in guns but it really got the pilot episode in swing, with the whole angled launch-tube followed by the dropping of MI in capsules, it’s nice to see an individual MI unit deploy from one of these and the Fleet just swarm them above an objective
One point I want to add about the LAAT gunship is the sound design. Star Wars has some great minds working on the sounds in the movies and LAAT really stood out to me. Going back and watching the arrival of the clone army on Geonosis in the arena and the subsequent battle thereafter, I'm reminded of not only how impressive they look, but how they sound. It's a hybrid of rustic, beefy engine cycling noise (especially when they dash past the camera) and the more synthetic humming as each ship maneuvers. The twin lasers sound similar to the ones on Jango Fette's Slave I. The beam cannons are wonderfully distinct and unique from what I can tell. Finally the missiles borrow from the forward laser cannons on the N1 Starfighters in Phantom menace. To me it's a perfect example of how to add a ship to an existing IP while having it both be distinct enough to be memorable, yet still familiar enough to keep the immersion.
One of my favourite dropships is the Orca Dropship from Command & Conquer. It's such a spectacle of a beast when it drops down to unload tanks and mechs.
Oh, the carryalls! The jet plane noses with nothing but scaffolding and huge engines mounted to them. Always taking away your battered vehicles when you don't want them to. Not yet, they can still fight, dammit!
Exactly. Or they drop them off in the middle of your base where there is 1x1 square of unoccupied space surrounded by buildings, so the unit cannot move. And then you have to damage it again and have it carried off, or to make your peace with them effectively turning into a sort of unplanned monument to wartime horrors.
Lol it never even occurred to me to shoot my own units so they'd get picked up again for more repairs. I just let them sit there in my base shooting at my buildings when enemies got near haha. Good times.
UD-4L did have an issue with becoming unbalanced during missile pod deployment. That was fixed with the UD-4LA, which had simultaneous deployment of all missile pods. The UD-4LB also had extra streamlined fairing, which in addition to providing better aerodynamics, prevented large Xenomorphs from clinging to the exterior. And a monitor in the cockpit displaying interior camera footage and a motion tracker, for when the ship is grounded with the belly open.
I like starship troopers (the book) run and gun tactics. They dropped mobile infantry in there armor cocooned by some insulating materials and maybe some decoy flayer launchers. The cruiser does orbital loop then drops a beacon that starts to sing to let the infantry no retrieval is coming and a drop ship chases it down picks up the infantry then chases the cruiser to catch up as it's leaving orbit.
My personal favourite would have to be the HMP Droid Gunship, I love how it can just swoop in and drop a whole bunch of B2's, not only that but it's also armed with a lot of weapons, has shielding and commando droids can actually surf ontop of them.
Thanks you never let me down. I sometimes develop a sudden obsession with some specific or specific types of starships and then research the law of it. Well this time i wanted to know which is the best dropship in Sci-fi i know and guess who came up with it and made a top five list two years ago ^^ exactly you! There are reasons i like your channel :D
I really like the drop ship in Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles. They can drop troops, perform emergency evacs, provide support fire, do bombing runs, and even rescue lost troopers in space.
I'm personally a huge fan of the Leopard dropship from Battletech. I know, I know, mechs, but there's something about that simple design that I just love.
I have said this before on other vids, but I would really really love to see your take on the Dropzone Commander, Dropfleet Commander Universe. It only exists now as a couple of table top games, but I really think you would like it, the UCM stuff particularly. I think you would also like a whole sci fi table top game built around moving your troops around with drop ships.
When I heard dropship, I thought back to Battletech from FASA. Considerably bigger, though they were primarily for transporting Mechs. If your looking for ideas, Battletech has a lot to explore; ships, vehicles, Mechs. Still have some of the tech manuals, the designs still hold up.
If i recall correctly the Rebel Alliance used the Katarn-class boarding craft, BR-23 courier, Kleeque-class transport, and the Multi-Altitude Assault Transport before the introduction of the U-Wing into Star Wars. Good vid Spacedock. Have to agree about that Shayen dropship from Aliens.
I'm just thinking how fitting it is, that the UNSC named their dropship "Pelican", think about it for a second, think dropship, then think about what a pelican (bird) does, it makes total sense!
Imagine being stuck in those ball turrets for an entire mission, you literally can't move anywhere else unless they land. Kind of an oversight in my opinion.
I absolutely love the Militia Crow and, to a lesser extent, IMC Goblin designs from the Titanfall franchise. Both are really practically-oriented while maintaining some neat flare in their design. Room for a dozen in the troop bay, short range FTL; what more could you want of a ship for combat insertions? Not really a dropship since it's only meant to for in-atmo flight, but the UD-12 Shepherd from Battlefield 2142 was also a really good design.
For anyone looking for any other cool dropships to compliment those listed here, there's also the dropships from Starship Troopers: The Roughneck Chronicles, which really deserve some love. The Roughneck Chronicles in general features a lot of really cool military tech.
You missed a big one: The dropship from Starship Troopers. Dropped pods that could contain literally anything that would fit inside, including troops, had plenty of weapons itself, etc. Great ship.
Forgot a few. The drop ship from space above and beyond, jumpship from exo squad was cool. And the starship troopers drop ship. Drop ship from b5 or even the breaching pod.
Not gonna lie, kind of disappointed to see to LAAT shown up on this list. Sure it looks cool, but it is so much over kill. It's about the size of an X wing with 10 times the armament and troop capacity. I just have to question the validity of putting that much hardware on a troop transport. WH40K isnt exactly known for its creative restraint when it comes to weapons, and you can still see the trade offs that the valkyrie makes to be a troop transport.
The difference is that it *isn't* a troop transport, it's a gunship. LAATs aren't just landing shuttles, they're also intended as a level of air support. The compromises on LAATs are the lack of shields, which admittedly ends up being a surprisingly minor issue, but the ship very much earns it's success in the lore. It's also worth noting that the Valkyrie is designed for a very different kind of army, with the Imperial Guard using mass-attack strategies on a scale far larger then the GAR could ever maintain. As such, Valkyries, as a hyper-mass-produced troop transport, needs to be specialized into that role and cannot afford to stray as far out of it (without dedicated variants or load-outs, of course), whereas the LAAT was created as a cutting-edge machine for a much smaller, (ironically) less expendable army. That, plus taking into account how the Adeptus Mechanicus operates with concern to vehicle design when compared to Rothana Heavy Engineering and the Kaminoans, means that the Valkyrie is likely intentionally weak in armament, at least relative to the LAAT, because of design philosophy.
Personally, I think the D77-TC Pelican should be #1. It has troop space for up to a platoon of Marines, can resupply troops on the ground, and is capable of heavy lift up to a Scorpion tank. On top of this, it has integrated ANVIL-II missile pods and a 70mm articulated chaingun for close air support. Not even the venerable LAAT/I can do all that at once; there's a reason the LAAT/C had to exist.
what about the Battletech dropships, there are dozens of designs but the most common were the Lepoard at 1,900 tons a winged ship with a mostly rectangular body able to drop 4 Mechs to a planet, the 3,600 ton Union, a ball shaped dropship able to drop 12 Mechs, and the overloard able to carry 36 operational Mechs weighing 9,700 tons, all also have living space for their crew, storage space for spare parts and salvage as well as repair facilities for their Mechs. Dropships can also carry fighters and are armed to the teath, think a combination of battleship, mobile fortification and transport craft in Battletech a dropship carried stuff from a jumpship which can jump from 1 star to another within 30 light years, then it takes about a week for the drive to recharge (using a huge fold up solar pannel) then dropships have to travel from directly above or below the star at 1-2 g of acceleration to a planet, accelerating half the way then decelerating the other half, jumpships can carry several dropships depending on model.
Seriously, no Avatar? The Valkyrie alone deserved first place, the realistic and aestheticly pleasing designs in that move and even the bases and mother ship in general have been inspirational, and I guess it's more of A heavy shuttle that A drop pod, but it looks really nice and huge, menacing with that angular nose that looks to just guzzle in air.
I wish Battletech would get more attention on this channel. BT/MW dropships are so wonderfully simple and utilitarian, and probably how real dropships would function, even if the mechs themselves are very soft-scifi
One relatively unknown dropship that is badass IMO is the ISA Dropship from Killzone SF. It has a turret like an attack helicopter and is just such a cool looking thing.
Rebels also showed us our first U-Wing variant: a two-engine, short-winged version. It really shows that the design is extremely versitile if they can lose two if it's engines and still have a workable ship with hyperdrive!
fun fact, the U wing is modeled slightly after an old republic Starfighter design. the old republic Novadive Starfighter , adapted into the bomber we see in rogue one, similarities aside I love the U wing personally
These aren't in order because I can't choose but my top 5 are: - Advent Dropship (XCOM 2) - Cylon Heavy Raider (Battlestar Galactica) - Tau Orca Dropship (Warhammer 40k) - UT-47 Kodiak (Mass Effect 2) - HMP Droid Gunship (Star Wars)
In the Expanded Universe the Alliance used old LAAT or MAAT gunships as dropships when required, something that makes sense considering their limited resources
With the U-Wing it might be nice to see a variant the eschews the troop compartment in favor of a bag lock system to drop speeders or small walkers or hover tanks. Maybe a late rebellion/early new republic variant.
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Nice Video. Hey Spacedock, could you a video on some Imperial Navy Vessels or Alliance Vessels from Mass Effect?
Spacedock yeah, I can actually see another reason why the U-Wing could be considered better from a tactical standpoint (I am mainly pointing this little extra bit because you seem to enjoy taking tactical value into account when talking about scifi ships and such). The U-Wing has a much smaller side profile compared to the LAAT Repulbluc Gunship as that thing looks kinda like a box with wings and is a fairly large and relatively easier target in terms of gunships of that size. The U-Wing's more streamlined? Sleeker? profile makes it a trickier target when trying to hit it from the side, front or back rather than from above and below, kinda like a paper airplane or stealth plane which would, in terms of its shape/profile/silhouette. Love the list and wish you the best of luck on future projects as well as the hope you have an awesome day.
Because of this type of ship's beuty on screen and utility i honestly thought on going into the air force to just to fly this type of plane
If I recall correctly, the Rebels were depicted in numerous Legends-based fan projects as having old decommissioned LAAT/i gunships, which isn't _too_ big of a stretch. Can't think of any actual Legends projects where that's a thing, though.
Also the LAAT has one of the best engin noises ever
A couple decades ago, I ran an online text adventure game with a sort of gothic sci-fi setting. I had coded a simple space combat system, and one of the players asked me to create a dropship for this space-marinish religious order called the Brother Battle. In the email he sent me, he said the vehicle would be called the "Shriek." So that was the name I gave the ship when I coded it. He really loved the final result, and flew it around in-game for almost a year before he sheepishly admitted that he was dyslexic and had actually wanted the dropship called "Shrike." I went ahead and fixed the name, but added a snippet to the description that the Shrike's flight crews affectionately referred to it as "the Shriek" owing to the high-pitched sound the engines made when she was diving toward the surface to make a drop in a hot LZ.
Martian Dawn Xenonauts?
Beat
You sir, are an awesome dev.
Stay away from publishers.
That's just really wholesome
Awesome
Pelican: Solid, simple, reliable.
Three things that a dropship needs, and the Pelican does it damn well.
LAAT: Hello partner (basically those 3 things but with more guns)
@@alejandroelluxray5298 Dunno about Halo lore, but IIRC LAAT is supposed to be both transport and fire support vehicle.
@@jokurandomi93 Yup, the LAAT was a heavy armed troop transport that could also carry small vehicles (AT-RT and speeder bikes) and supplies. And with its weapons it could destroy almost any target in the battlefield
@@alejandroelluxray5298 Yeah but having a pelican is better, its more versatile and so makes logistics easier, if you need to transport vehicles, no need to worry about which kind of pelican you have (unlike the LAAT which has the C and I variants), the Pelican can carry and deploy tanks or any vehicle, while the LAAT needs a specific version to facilitate heavy units like the AT-TE. I am sure you can imagine the cases that the pelican can be used more easily, I love the LAAT as much as the next person but the Pelican is the better dropship between the 2.
I prefer the cylon dropship from battlestar
The LAAT is my favourite because it looks cool, has lots of firepower, it's a great transport, and above everything else, the sounds are incredibly cool
That shot of the U Wing flying down with Blue Squadron during The Battle of Skarif is just amazing in how natural this 'new ship' looks. Amazing job.
The LAAT was so clearly a space MI24 Hind helicopter....
Both are terrifying gunships entremely suited for their (similar) tasks, and i love them
The LAAT was indeed inspired by the Hind.
With a bit of the living ship Nell from Battle beyond the Stars.
That reminds me of something I thought of the other day: LAAT vs Hind, who would win in a one-on-one fight? This will be the greatest matchup in history. Mayweather vs MacGregor, eat your heart out.
I feel that whoever designed it was a 2000AD fan and got the basic idea from the hoppers seen in Rogue Trooper. These had the same combination of a Huey passenger compartment with side doors and gunners, a gunship front end, and rocket-laden wings plus anti-grav in place of rotors. However, the Rogue Trooper ones were relatively small and had a cockpit based on the Hueycobra. The Star Wars one scaled the concept up and, in a stroke of genius, traded the Hueycobra cockpit for a Hind one.
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I for one really like the UD-4L from Aliens, most of my love for it does come from the USCMC Technical Manual (which is a really interesting read if you’re into a more realistic-ish approach to gun-ho space marines.). The UD-4L does handle like a cow but it comes packed with a bunch of ECM systems and packs immense firepower for support. I think its nice to see a Dropship which isn’t as quick and sleek as other more favoured dropships and instead have it depend on huge engine power.
I love pelican because it can not only drop troops, but everything from mongooses, warthog, Scorpion and wolverines
Space: Above and Beyond's dropship "ISSCV Dropship" was pretty cool too.
It really should have been on the list. Dirty Chigs probably blocked it.
Space: Above and Beyond. A great show that is nearly forgotten.
And before anyone bring up problems with the series, ALL sci-fi series have their own problems.
*high five* It's rare to find people who know that series. I remember I used to love that series as a child.
A containerised insertion vessel did seem a remarkably practical solution.
She star trek runabout had the same function, but we never saw it on screen.
I think that Thunderhawk should be somewhere on this list.
And yes - I know it is classified as a Gunship, but it's primary role is deploying Space Marines on the battlefield, so it technically is a dropship.
Boris Radulovic There is a vehicle carrying variant as well for dropping Land Raiders which looks a bit odd
+ since he included the SW's gunship...
eddit: i mean he specifically chose the gunship variant instead of the actual dropship²² to put at rank2 .. so...
²²you know, the one that bring AT-TE on the battlefield
While cool, thunderhawks have some significant design flaws, such as the fact that if you actually strapped engines to a giant brick, you'd barely be less aerodynamic. They fit the theme of the imperium, but i think the valkyrie deserved the more prominent featuring because it, like most guard vehicles, seems to have been designed by a sane centuries old half-cyborg feeding random binary inputs into a computer system they do not understand or possess a UI for.
The Kodiac design really shines when you add a 400kg Krogan falling on it. I loved that scene
Or a 400kg Krogan doing a falling elbow drop ONTO a Kodiac
So happy to see the U-Wing up there. It's one of the coolest, most aesthetically accurate ship's we've gotten from Disney - well, the best, really - and I'm delighted to see it get some love. All your videos are fantastic, and thanks to you I've now seen the excellent The Expanse. Maybe my favourite channel on UA-cam- keep it up!
I love the dropship from Aliens! But... I do have to admit the Pelican is better. And the way the missile pods come out is lame! It always made no sense to me (I think it was something do do with the effects team. Glad it got a mention though!)
LAATi is and will always be number 1. The best.
Haven't watched yet.
Well u wrong boi
Sedat Karayazili I'm never wrong. 2 is the new 1.
If LAAT is number 2 then number 2 is the best.
pelican dropship (gunship version)
U WING ? U WING? U PUT THAT STUPID LOOKING USELESS U WING AS FIRST???????????????? THE LAAT i IS 100000 TIMES BETTER THAN THAT STUPID LOOKING U WING
Personally, I love the UD-4L Cheyenne from Aliens. The wing missle pod deployment bugs me too, but I think it's a great dropship. It's a beast when it comes to prividing close ground support and one of the few dropships that can clear its own landing spot. But to each their own. I'm surprised the Condor didn't make the list though
Here's my one issue with the LAAT, and it has more to do with storytelling than design:
Anakin: "Shoot him down!"
Clone Pilot: "We're out of rockets, Sir!"
Me: Then why don't you use your freaKIN LASER CANNONS?!
I really don't quite like that scene
-they have 4 ball cannons
-2 lasers in the front
-and during the part where Dooku had his 2 escort geonosian fighters flank the LAAT gunship they had a tail gun but didn't use it
@Maurits Donga since most of its weapons are energy weapons they don't need ammo, if they had some contrivium generator they could fire indefinitely. Now, logic, star wars certainly lacks it
because Dooku was on an extremely fast and agile speeder, and the lasers are manned by clones who probably can't hit it!
@@lionguardant5468 ey, first gen clone troopers were the best, the following batches did see a decay in quality of training, because of the loss of Jango Fett, besides, they arent Stormtroopers, no one is that of a bad shot as them.
@@251spartan i'm not disputing that they're good marksmen and excellent soldiers, but you'd need to be force sensitive to be able to hit that speeder with as clumsy and slow a weapon as the bubble lasers
I love how the very first line in this top five video is straight up "Okay so first up is..."
No unnecessary intro lengthening or whatever. First word spoken is the first bit of actual content
Agreed, and no long spiel after the main content about patreon updates, future plans and other incessant trivia 😌
My personal favorite dropship is the Overlord from Battletech. 130 meters tall, covered in weapon blisters, and capable of deploying a full reinforced company worth of armored vehicles and Battlemechs. It's one of the most intimidating things
imaginable.
Battletech dropships are iconic. A considerable oversight.
I have to agree, I hate the design of the Cheyenne. The fold out missile rack ruins it for me. The Pelican is far better designed and aerodynamic
Yeah if the Cheyenne didn't have those missile racks fold out the way they do it would get more love.
You guys must be 90s babies and don’t realize. That dropship made it possible for all other dropships
maybe so, but that doesn't make it the best. consider how a mk1 tank from ww1 would compare to a modern tank. same concept.
That's a bold claim stating that its the drop ship that made it possible for all other drop ships. I mean is it really, or is it the first to make it on the big movie screen? Sci-fi comics and anime were around for quite a while before 1986. Also even if it was the first that doesn't mean we have to like the design.
John Krause what were the artists thinking
No spaces war is complete without a kind of dropship
The LAATi is my favorite dropship. It’s just so damn cool
This list is pretty close to what I would choose... Which obviously makes it objectively great!
Spacedock where is the Battletech love? The poor Union class...
My thoughts exactly - although I had been thinking more of Fortress or Overlord classes.
All good choices, Nicholas and Ranek, but what about the Leopard? Sure, it's almost more "Heavy Fighter" than Drop Ship, but it is (IMO) something player character teams are much more likely to be working off of.
The opening of mech commander where the union class dropships burn into the atmosphere. Still one of my favourite scenes from BT.
Overlord? Pfft. Vanir, mate. Land your battalion and then have a massive area denial platform. Still I'd rather see the Union or the Overlord over the pelican or the LAAT.
OOo you have a point... And the new MWO art for it makes the Leopard a beauty...
LAAT is my favorite.
Though, the U-Wing is a close second
Everyone fawning over these dropships, but what about the top 5 dropped ships? Like the Executor, Ravager, or Invisible Hand, they're way more impressive than some tiny Laat.
Arashmickey I know that this comment is a joke, but I actually want to see this idea be made into a video. 10 top ships that crashed. Make it happen.
Spacedock or Eckhart will get around to it I'm sure, just bring it up every now and then. I bet there's at least a few crashes I never heard of, plus most of them have pretty cool backstories. Except Luke's crash on Dagobah, that one is kinda bogus. Get it? BOGus haaa utiniiii! Seriously though, there's also ship-ship collisions, boarding actions, and not just in star wars, all cool stories.
Don’t forget the Blackstone Fortress over Cadia.
Darn, I was hoping the "landing ship" from Starship Troopers: Invasion and ST: Traitor of Mars were on this list.
would you like to know more?
Same here, I absolutely *adore* that dropship, myself! I just wish there were more images and models of it!
My fave dropship is the UNSC Pelican. It's just the most human looking dropship I've seen. Also there's literally no reason we couldn't build it today. Close second is the LAAT.
I really love the LAAT, mostly because in the Republic Commando books they describe the sound it makes as sounding safe, since they would usually hear it at the end of an engagement.
A video about DropShips...not one Battletech DropShip on the list. A franchise where a small dropship can land 4 battlemechs and a large dropship can land entire battalions and then act as mobile headquarters for the command staff.
thats really more of an assault ship or mobile base though
But the Battletech dropships are so... ugly
Beauty is for courtship and philosophy, but has little strategic advantage in planetary assaults.
@@thesovietwarbear4551 the A-10 warthog is the ugliest plane ever to fly, but it does it's job with beauty and grace. one of my favorite aircraft because BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTT!
just sayin beauty is secondary to function. BattleTech dropships do exactly what they are designed to do, and they do it WELL (I've been playing since mid 80's)
@@TheStraycat74 Well the difference is the A-10 is real. Where physical laws, the earth's environment, money, and our current technology factors into the military equipment that we create. In a sci-fi world, that doesn't apply, or at least not to the same degree as in real life. Now if a sci-fi vehicle does its job, that's great. If a sci-fi vehicle does its job and looks good doing it, that's awesome. One of my favorite dropships is the Halo Pelican because it has the ability to drop infantry and supporting vehicles, and can equip rocket pods and machine guns to support those troops before and after they hit the ground. And there is the Gunship variant that we see in Halo wars 2 which is just a Pelican AC-130 with rocket pods, a 75mm automatic chain gun, and 4 50cal rotary-barreled guns to provide close air support to soldiers on the ground. The Pelican gets shit done and looks good doing it. I can only speak for myself but the Battletech dropships look like big eggs with guns... This got way longer than I thought when I started writing it... well anyway.
i love the egg- shaped drop ships of the battletech universe the most realistic in my opinion the most realistic in form n function
What about the Spheroid DropShips from Battletech? It's a uniquely practical design, and its typical cargo is more badass by several orders of magnitude.
What strikes me about these 'drop ships' is that they're all more concerned with recreating the vibe of Vietnam helicopter ops than they are with the business of actually getting down to a planetary surface from orbit. This entails atmospheric reentry, which is a non-trival technical challenge that dominates the design of real reentry vehicles. I'd like to see a drop ship with a flat, unbroken, heat-shielded underside like a Space Shuttle (although not necessarily the same planform) and then some innovative design to achieve a vertical landing (assuming they don't have anti-grav) and then unload troops and vehicles from the _topside_ once landed.
You should check out the dropships from Battletech. They meet the criteria you mentioned and then some
Damn dude, I've been watching a bunch of these SpaceDock top 5 videos and am amazed by the range of obscure ships from all forms of media you choose. I thought I spent too much time in nerdfull persuits. I take my hat off to you sir.
SD: "I hate the aliens dropship"
Me: "Pull back and nuke the channel from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Droozone commander lifthawks. Especially the reconfigured barrel bomber is what makes my day.
best dropship in all of Sci-fi is the Overlord from BattleTech. Hey, there was no rule saying it had to be a small dropship. Who doesn't like a giant egg the size of a skyscraper that can delivers not just a single giant robot to combat, but in this case an entire battalion of them (36 in total, and 6 aerospace fighters too).
Or the clan version that carries 45 mechs
Ok you changed my mind about the U-Wing (I was never a fan), and I sort of agree about the Cheyenne, but the Pelican would be at the top of the list for me 😀
What about Continental from Supreme Commander? That is just amazing dropship.
I was surprised not to see BSGs Raptor or 40Ks Thunderhawk, but this list is a very utilitarian, down to earth, this man's army type, which I enjoyed immensely. Keep up the good work guys, love the channel!
I like the DR-4 Viking from Starship Troopers. How the troop compartment looks like a removable shipping container just seems to fit the world and look pretty cool at the same time.
I definitely have a very visceral nostalgia for the Republic Gunship. I was always enamoured with its look, the powerful beam cannons and the very deep engine noise. Flying on in the old Battlefront games felt like manning some futuristic attack helicopter.
The U-Wing is awesome too. I love how Star Wars dropships really thematically fit their factions as well. The U-Wing has this nice mix of feeling well designed but well worn, and it feels a little improvisational, like a lot of Rebels ships do (it feels like it sits between the high quality of something like an X-Wing and the 'just about holding together' look of the Y-Wing). The Republic Gunship is this big audacious beast that can carry anything from a platoon of clones to a mini AT-AT walker (yes, I know they are actually AT-TEs)
Something Star Wars has consistently nailed is that feeling of 'dropship action'. The opening moments of The Force Awakens really have clout because we see how deadly the Stormtroopers are as a landing force. It's almost like a reverse Saving Private Ryan.
A really vague one but one of my favourite is the Dropship from Roughneck Starship Trooper Chronicles. Really lacking in guns but it really got the pilot episode in swing, with the whole angled launch-tube followed by the dropping of MI in capsules, it’s nice to see an individual MI unit deploy from one of these and the Fleet just swarm them above an objective
One point I want to add about the LAAT gunship is the sound design. Star Wars has some great minds working on the sounds in the movies and LAAT really stood out to me. Going back and watching the arrival of the clone army on Geonosis in the arena and the subsequent battle thereafter, I'm reminded of not only how impressive they look, but how they sound. It's a hybrid of rustic, beefy engine cycling noise (especially when they dash past the camera) and the more synthetic humming as each ship maneuvers. The twin lasers sound similar to the ones on Jango Fette's Slave I. The beam cannons are wonderfully distinct and unique from what I can tell. Finally the missiles borrow from the forward laser cannons on the N1 Starfighters in Phantom menace. To me it's a perfect example of how to add a ship to an existing IP while having it both be distinct enough to be memorable, yet still familiar enough to keep the immersion.
The dropships from Starship Troopers always had a place in my heart
I think the overlord class from battelteck/mechwarrior deserve a honorable mention.
I was expecting the kodiak, the pelican and the LAAT, was not dissapointed hahaha a solid list of awesome ships
One of my favourite dropships is the Orca Dropship from Command & Conquer. It's such a spectacle of a beast when it drops down to unload tanks and mechs.
Dropships, helping me nerd out since Dune 2: the Building of a Dynasty.
Oh, the carryalls! The jet plane noses with nothing but scaffolding and huge engines mounted to them. Always taking away your battered vehicles when you don't want them to. Not yet, they can still fight, dammit!
And dropping them off again in the spot where they got hit in the first place, at which time they both get blown away. But they still blew my mind.
Exactly. Or they drop them off in the middle of your base where there is 1x1 square of unoccupied space surrounded by buildings, so the unit cannot move. And then you have to damage it again and have it carried off, or to make your peace with them effectively turning into a sort of unplanned monument to wartime horrors.
Lol it never even occurred to me to shoot my own units so they'd get picked up again for more repairs. I just let them sit there in my base shooting at my buildings when enemies got near haha. Good times.
Yup, one heck of a nostalgia.
My pet peeve with the U wing is that it doesn't feel like the changing wings have any function at all
UD-4L did have an issue with becoming unbalanced during missile pod deployment. That was fixed with the UD-4LA, which had simultaneous deployment of all missile pods.
The UD-4LB also had extra streamlined fairing, which in addition to providing better aerodynamics, prevented large Xenomorphs from clinging to the exterior. And a monitor in the cockpit displaying interior camera footage and a motion tracker, for when the ship is grounded with the belly open.
the Rebels drop ship is just a Covenant Dropship mixed with an X Wing...
Have you ever looked at the dropships in Battletech?
I like starship troopers (the book) run and gun tactics. They dropped mobile infantry in there armor cocooned by some insulating materials and maybe some decoy flayer launchers.
The cruiser does orbital loop then drops a beacon that starts to sing to let the infantry no retrieval is coming and a drop ship chases it down picks up the infantry then chases the cruiser to catch up as it's leaving orbit.
Number 5 should have been the ISDF Dropship from Battlezone: Combat Commander.
Other wise, great job as always Spacedock
I came very close to including the Condor, that thing is incredibly cool. I love the new remastered look for it.
Finally, a channel that suits my sci-fi needs
My personal favourite would have to be the HMP Droid Gunship, I love how it can just swoop in and drop a whole bunch of B2's, not only that but it's also armed with a lot of weapons, has shielding and commando droids can actually surf ontop of them.
Thanks you never let me down. I sometimes develop a sudden obsession with some specific or specific types of starships and then research the law of it. Well this time i wanted to know which is the best dropship in Sci-fi i know and guess who came up with it and made a top five list two years ago ^^ exactly you! There are reasons i like your channel :D
Yes, yes, yes on #1! I did not see that coming but am so glad it was included!
I really like the drop ship in Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles. They can drop troops, perform emergency evacs, provide support fire, do bombing runs, and even rescue lost troopers in space.
Wooooo! More 40K stuff on the channel please 😊
I'm personally a huge fan of the Leopard dropship from Battletech. I know, I know, mechs, but there's something about that simple design that I just love.
The dropships from the expanse are awesome.
I have said this before on other vids, but I would really really love to see your take on the Dropzone Commander, Dropfleet Commander Universe. It only exists now as a couple of table top games, but I really think you would like it, the UCM stuff particularly. I think you would also like a whole sci fi table top game built around moving your troops around with drop ships.
When I heard dropship, I thought back to Battletech from FASA. Considerably bigger, though they were primarily for transporting Mechs.
If your looking for ideas, Battletech has a lot to explore; ships, vehicles, Mechs.
Still have some of the tech manuals, the designs still hold up.
If i recall correctly the Rebel Alliance used the Katarn-class boarding craft, BR-23 courier, Kleeque-class transport, and the Multi-Altitude Assault Transport before the introduction of the U-Wing into Star Wars. Good vid Spacedock. Have to agree about that Shayen dropship from Aliens.
Ahh the valkyrie a beautiful vehicle for guardsmen of aerial infantry across the imperium
I love the HMP Droid Gunship personally, it has shielding, weapons and it can quickly drop off droids right into the fight.
I really like the U-Wing too. The helicopter feeling of it is just great.
"Astra Mili-what? You're in the Guard, son!" - Colonel Klint Estwod, 001M42
Shame to not see the UD-4L Cheyenne here, but to each their own
I'm just thinking how fitting it is, that the UNSC named their dropship "Pelican", think about it for a second, think dropship, then think about what a pelican (bird) does, it makes total sense!
Awesome Dropship video SpaceDock !
"We're in the pipe. 5 by 5."
Imagine being stuck in those ball turrets for an entire mission, you literally can't move anywhere else unless they land. Kind of an oversight in my opinion.
I absolutely love the Militia Crow and, to a lesser extent, IMC Goblin designs from the Titanfall franchise. Both are really practically-oriented while maintaining some neat flare in their design. Room for a dozen in the troop bay, short range FTL; what more could you want of a ship for combat insertions?
Not really a dropship since it's only meant to for in-atmo flight, but the UD-12 Shepherd from Battlefield 2142 was also a really good design.
For anyone looking for any other cool dropships to compliment those listed here, there's also the dropships from Starship Troopers: The Roughneck Chronicles, which really deserve some love. The Roughneck Chronicles in general features a lot of really cool military tech.
You missed a big one: The dropship from Starship Troopers. Dropped pods that could contain literally anything that would fit inside, including troops, had plenty of weapons itself, etc. Great ship.
Forgot a few. The drop ship from space above and beyond, jumpship from exo squad was cool. And the starship troopers drop ship. Drop ship from b5 or even the breaching pod.
The Union-class dropship is iconic. Understand it's in a different size class to the ships in the vid though.
Not gonna lie, kind of disappointed to see to LAAT shown up on this list. Sure it looks cool, but it is so much over kill. It's about the size of an X wing with 10 times the armament and troop capacity. I just have to question the validity of putting that much hardware on a troop transport. WH40K isnt exactly known for its creative restraint when it comes to weapons, and you can still see the trade offs that the valkyrie makes to be a troop transport.
The flip side is it allows for troops to be landed in more dangerous zones without requiring as much fighter escort.
The difference is that it *isn't* a troop transport, it's a gunship. LAATs aren't just landing shuttles, they're also intended as a level of air support. The compromises on LAATs are the lack of shields, which admittedly ends up being a surprisingly minor issue, but the ship very much earns it's success in the lore. It's also worth noting that the Valkyrie is designed for a very different kind of army, with the Imperial Guard using mass-attack strategies on a scale far larger then the GAR could ever maintain. As such, Valkyries, as a hyper-mass-produced troop transport, needs to be specialized into that role and cannot afford to stray as far out of it (without dedicated variants or load-outs, of course), whereas the LAAT was created as a cutting-edge machine for a much smaller, (ironically) less expendable army. That, plus taking into account how the Adeptus Mechanicus operates with concern to vehicle design when compared to Rothana Heavy Engineering and the Kaminoans, means that the Valkyrie is likely intentionally weak in armament, at least relative to the LAAT, because of design philosophy.
If you like Dropships, I suggest looking into Dropzone Commander. It is a table top miniatures wargame built around dropships carrying lots of tanks.
Personally, I think the D77-TC Pelican should be #1. It has troop space for up to a platoon of Marines, can resupply troops on the ground, and is capable of heavy lift up to a Scorpion tank. On top of this, it has integrated ANVIL-II missile pods and a 70mm articulated chaingun for close air support. Not even the venerable LAAT/I can do all that at once; there's a reason the LAAT/C had to exist.
I love the LAAT's rancor nose art.
what about the Battletech dropships, there are dozens of designs but the most common were the Lepoard at 1,900 tons a winged ship with a mostly rectangular body able to drop 4 Mechs to a planet, the 3,600 ton Union, a ball shaped dropship able to drop 12 Mechs, and the overloard able to carry 36 operational Mechs weighing 9,700 tons, all also have living space for their crew, storage space for spare parts and salvage as well as repair facilities for their Mechs.
Dropships can also carry fighters and are armed to the teath, think a combination of battleship, mobile fortification and transport craft
in Battletech a dropship carried stuff from a jumpship which can jump from 1 star to another within 30 light years, then it takes about a week for the drive to recharge (using a huge fold up solar pannel) then dropships have to travel from directly above or below the star at 1-2 g of acceleration to a planet, accelerating half the way then decelerating the other half, jumpships can carry several dropships depending on model.
Seriously, no Avatar? The Valkyrie alone deserved first place, the realistic and aestheticly pleasing designs in that move and even the bases and mother ship in general have been inspirational, and I guess it's more of A heavy shuttle that A drop pod, but it looks really nice and huge, menacing with that angular nose that looks to just guzzle in air.
I wish Battletech would get more attention on this channel. BT/MW dropships are so wonderfully simple and utilitarian, and probably how real dropships would function, even if the mechs themselves are very soft-scifi
One relatively unknown dropship that is badass IMO is the ISA Dropship from Killzone SF.
It has a turret like an attack helicopter and is just such a cool looking thing.
Rebels also showed us our first U-Wing variant: a two-engine, short-winged version. It really shows that the design is extremely versitile if they can lose two if it's engines and still have a workable ship with hyperdrive!
The rear Tauros in the Valkyrie segment had multilasers. One more option, and the word gets a subset of 40k fandom all triggered up.
fun fact, the U wing is modeled slightly after an old republic Starfighter design. the old republic Novadive Starfighter , adapted into the bomber we see in rogue one, similarities aside I love the U wing personally
There's a stripped down republic gunship that carries the walkers,i loved that variant
I seriously love all those ships. Though choice between the LAATi and U-Wing, they really are both awesome looking.
These aren't in order because I can't choose but my top 5 are:
- Advent Dropship (XCOM 2)
- Cylon Heavy Raider (Battlestar Galactica)
- Tau Orca Dropship (Warhammer 40k)
- UT-47 Kodiak (Mass Effect 2)
- HMP Droid Gunship (Star Wars)
I was always partial to drop ships that drop the passenger compartment off, such as the drop ships from Space: Above and Beyond and Starship Troopers.
i was a little sad that no BattleTech dropships made the list. Still a an awesome video. Kudos!
I like the Starship Troopers drop ship better than most on this list. Just the visuals alone are pretty awesome.
In the Expanded Universe the Alliance used old LAAT or MAAT gunships as dropships when required, something that makes sense considering their limited resources
With the U-Wing it might be nice to see a variant the eschews the troop compartment in favor of a bag lock system to drop speeders or small walkers or hover tanks. Maybe a late rebellion/early new republic variant.