Winnower-class Freighter

The Winnower-class transport is an icon of halfling ingenuity and adaptability. Its modular design is both the reason it has become so easy for any agricultural community to construct one without oversight from accredited shipwrights, but also its greatest advantage in serving its purpose as a transport and utility vessel.

This freighter consists of a forward section made vertical pilons and crew accommodations. The aft section contains its engines and maintenance, and connecting the two sections are a series of telescoping racks. This midsection allows for cargo containers to be mounted or dismounted, and for the length of the craft to change depending on its haul. Most people find the sight of a Winnower without cargo to be a humorous shape. However, freight pilots find the craft very appealing, since its mass is mostly dependent on its cargo, it makes for fast trips on minimal cargo.

This modularity serves more than just making it an excellent freight vessel, though. It also allows for the craft to be customized for a variety of functions. Containers may be fitted with extra weaponry, utility hardpoints, hoglium propulsion for low-altitude hovering, living sections, or any other interior space. This has resulted in Winnowers being used as everything from flying crop-harvesters to heavy gunships to nomadic communities.

The Winnower's adaptability comes with a few significant flaws. The first is that since it was designed to oversee farming industry, its dorsal and ventral bridge stations are very exposed, and as a result easy to identify and target, or simply fall prey to other hazards. The second is that with the intentional modularity, most individual components have a tendency of losing connection to the power grid or otherwise suffer from malfunctions that prevent reliable communication of goods or crew through sections. Similarly, because of the elasticity of the craft, any significant damage may the cause components to separate from the ship, and this includes the engines or forward sections. Fortunately, salvaging and restoration of Winnowers is both easy and inexpensive, leading to crews keeping a running tally of how many "bum snooks" their ship has survived.