The Best Ship for Traveling Across the Desert World of Arakkis – We Breakdown the Ornithopter
Ornithopters were the most reliable means of traveling across the varied worlds of the Imperium, but, especially on Dune.
Of all the technological developments in the Imperium, none may be as readily useful as the humble Ornithopter. Called ‘Thopters by those in a hurry, Ornithopters were among the most common transport vessels among the Great Houses of the Imperium. Moreover, they were versatile too.
Ornithopters could be used as cargo transports or attack craft. As scouting vessels or as assault transports, capable of delivering troops. Some could even travel short distances in space. Capable of carrying a number of weapons, from Lasguns to Missiles, even Holtzman shields, Ornithopters were indispensable, whatever world of the Imperium you were on.
But where did they come from? And how did they come to be so widely used? The answer lies in the Imperium’s past. Long before the Atreides came to Arrakis.
Ornithopters – A Long History
Almost 20,000 years before the events in Dune, before the advent of the Spacing Guild, before the Butlerian Jihad which led to a war with and subsequent outlawing of thinking machines (hence the need for the human computers known as Mentats), some 17,776 years before Paul Atreides left Caladan, the first Ornithopters were invented.
A woman named Jehane Golitle, formerly a member of the Thinkers’ Rebellion, now a political prisoner of the Emperor of the age, a man known as Neweh, was given charge of a team of Imperial Scientists and other political prisoners from the Rebellion. They were charged with inventing “useful devices which would make a profit” for the empire.
Golitle had it in mind to construct a flying machine that could blend a bird’s versatility with an artificial aircraft’s size and many uses. She found her answer on a distant world, in a cretaure known as the Heart Scallop.
Heart Scallops were airborne mollusks that had a natural affinity for pumping air, which, when connected to a series of electrical leads, resulted in the first Ornithopter. Of course, in the ensuing years, the Ornithopter’s design has changed as radically as the Houses that employ them.
Every Ornithopter is unique. But there are a few common mechanisms that recur through the designs.
Ornithopter Designs and Capabilities
Ornithopters were above all else, flexible. A “typical” Ornithopter could carry six people with little trouble, or nine with excess seating removed. It would be armed with a lasgun and repeating maula pistol, and would be equipped with Holtzman shields for protection from most firepower.
With a set of anywhere from two to six wings, an Ornithopter could be surprisingly maneuverable, capable of quick vertical takeoff and landing. This made them especially suited to military operations. Variants known as Gun Thopters would often mount heavy weaponry, even manned gun turrets capable of bringing down targets much larger than you might expect.
Others were outfitted with a variety of missiles and other ordnance to bring down hardened targets.
But whatever their loadout, when the Imperium needs something accomplished, they reach for none other than the versatile Ornithopter.
