Ship launched fighters

Another new addition to v2.2,+ is the ability to launch a small fighter ship; which can be flown by you or an NPC crew member (at the moment). To carry a fighter you must install a fighter hanger. These come in two variants; a class 5 and 6. The class six allows you to carry two fighters instead of one. In v2.2 you were able to have one active fighter, however in 2.3 and upwards you can have two active fighters (but not with two NPC's, either one NPC+human, or two human pilots). The fighter hanger module can only be installed onto the following ships;

• Anaconda,
• Beluga Liner,
• Federal Corvette,
• Federal Gunship,
• Keelback,
• Type 9,
• Imperial Cutter,

If you dont have one of the above ships, then the fighter hanger module wont be listed in the outfitting section (more ships in the future may gain the ability to launch fighters). If you do have a ship capable then you can install a hanger and fighter like so;



The next thing to do is to hire a crew member. This is because when the fighter is launched, there will be two ships being flown (the base ship and the fighter). To hire a person, head towards the crew lounge (on the station/outpost front page). There you will be given a list of possible crew members. You can hire someone with a low combat rank & level them up yourself or simply buy them at a higher rank. If you choose to buy a higher rank crew member, then they could demand a higher share of your profit. Once you have chosen a new crew member, you will also need to make them an active crew member. To do this simply select a person on the left (under in-active) and tell to be active;



So hopefully now you have a fighter in your hangar, and an active crew member; you are ready to launch your fighter. For this you will need to be in-space, away from any station/outpost. When you are, you can use menu at the bottom (3 for me), to see the following;



In this menu we can see both our base-ship (helm) and our fighter. Here we can select our fighter and choose who to fly it (ourself or the crew member). The other ship will be piloted by our crew member. Which ever ship the crew member pilots, you can give them orders such as follow, attack my target, etc.