FEN UH-204 'Cloud Rider' News Helicopter +++

As a result of SLA's strict restrictions on flight capable vehicles on Mort virtually no other sub company, but the massive FEN, can manage to make money out of building commercial aircraft and even they only do so in limited numbers. An off shoot of their military aircraft division, FEN CA (FEN Commercial Aircraft) builds light helicopters almost exclusively for Third Eye News and the other Media Companies. These being the only groups who are allowed to operate aircraft legally over the city and the cannibal sectors, thanks to a special exemption by SLA. Largest, and most popular of these craft is the UH-204 'Cloud Rider'. An old design based on a, now obsolete, military model it offers news teams a good combination of speed, protection and cargo capacity and allows a full news crew to be carried in addition to a pilot and co-pilot. Powered by a single turboshaft engine, the Cloud rider comes with a lightweight ceramic and carbon fiber fuselage fitted with two large sliding cargo doors one either side of the passenger compartment, in addition to two smaller forward hatches for the crew. News teams will generally fly with these main cargo doors open to allow cameramen to operate with an unrestricted view, despite the fact this can often be extremely hazardous due to the threat of snipers. The single large passenger bay can be configured in a variety of ways thanks to special mounting points in the aircraft's floor and can either have a maximum of six seats, although four is more usual, or a combination of seats and cargo space. In line with their role as news helicopters FEN CA outfit the Cloud Riders with several special features including exterior mounting points for remote cameras, a comprehensive communication suite to allow live broadcasts and full IR/UV vision systems for night flying. In addition to these the craft also come with three trainable high powered spotlights, two of these are mounted on the cargo doors while the third is fitted in a small powered turret beneath the aircraft's nose. This is slaved to the pilot or co-pilots helmets via a HUD system and can be targeted and used to track a target in the same way as a weapons system would be. The helicopters onboard reactor has a user life of 30,000 hours before it needs recharging and comes fitted with several additional power sockets allowing the crew to run equipment such as cameras and lights directly from it when needed. Thanks to its military origins, and the retention of its lightweight ceramic armour, the Cloud Rider is both robust and hard wearing, although it needs to be operating in the skies over Mort where poor weather, constant rain and the threat of attack are ever present. Due to the high purchase cost of these aircraft many of Third Eyes News's UH-204s have been operating for countless years without replacement and despite numerous bullet hits from snipers, crash damage and poor maintenance they still soldier on proof of FEN CA's outstanding design and build quality.