Panther Clipper LX

The Panther LX or Panther Clipper is a "heavy cargo clipper".

In previous iterations of the design, the craft was one of the largest vessels in the spaceways in terms of trading, significantly larger than the Anaconda or any other player controlled vessel and alleged to buy entire planets out of cargo with it's 2,000T cargo capacity. In this regard it can be seen as the next step upwards for a commodity-trader from the Lakon Type-9, carrying significantly more cargo and able to mount multiple fighters in its cargo bay.

Being as it was one of the largest vessels in the space lanes and carried more cargo than any other freighter, it was also regarded as one of the slowest and most lumbering vessels yet capable of turret mounting Planetary Bombardment Class weaponry that could destroy most enemies in a single well-placed shot. Panther pilots would blatantly ignore smaller pirate vessels as their shots bounced uselessly off of the ship's mighty shields, it would be feasible that given their mass that no interdictor would be capable of pulling them out of supercruise, allowing traders a respite from the hundreds of NPC interdictions per day they now endure.

The modern inception varies drastically in concept artwork from the original, the Panther wasn't an atmospheric vehicle and thus aerodynamics was not an issue, this bulky 'flying brick' design was one of its best features and spoke more to its gargantuan size and use in non-atmospheric environments than its new implementation is rumored to be, which appears to be designed for some physics and science defying atmospheric entries. In fact, the new version also seems to be significantly smaller, and more akin to an Anaconda; it is unknown if there is a backstory justification for this drastic shift from design, or whether the developers will stay true to it's legendary history and provide the players with an authentic Panther Clipper instead.

The Panther has not been implemented to date and existing concept art dates from beta.