Cobra Mk.3 (Oolite)

Cobra Mk.III
Size (W×H×L)	130m×30m×65m
Cargo capacity	20 TC
Cargo bay extension	15 TC
Maximum speed	0.35 LM
Manoeuvrability	Roll: 2.0 Pitch: 1.0
Energy banks	4
Energy recharge rate	Good (4.0)
Gun mounts	Fore, Aft Port, Starboard
Missile slots	4
Shield boosters available	Yes
Military shields available	Yes
Hyperspace capable	Yes
OXP or standard	Standard
Available to player	Yes
Base price	150,000₢

Overview

The Cobra Mk.III first rolled off the production line at Cowell & MgRath's vast factory shipyard in Lave in 3100. The successor to the already successful Cobra Mk.I, it went on to be the mainstay of small trading operations. Priced competitively, the Cobra Mk.III continues the success of the Cobra series of ships. Cowell & MgRath later capitalised on the popularity of this ship by releasing a more expensive sister model Cobra Courier for their more demanding customers. Even later, they produced a very high-tech model, the SuperCobra, allowing Mk.III owners a familiar upgrade path, but also causing some worried talk at the GalCop headquarters...

Notable features

The Cobra Mk.III is one of those multi-role ships you see everywhere. There isn't a space station where you can't find half a dozen Cobras parked. It is a ship that is 'good enough' in every aspect - not universe shattering, merely good enough. This has made the ship poke into virtually every market segment apart from midget fighters and trading behemoths. Every class of spaceborne being has some Cobra Mk.IIIs in its number from pirates to traders to government officials.

Controversy

Paynou, Prossett and Salem, the original designers of the Cobra Mk.I, filed for bankruptcy following bad publicity after the failure of successive Cobra Mk.II prototypes. They were bought out by Cowell & MgRath, who redesigned the structural and internal layout from the ground up whilst retaining much of the external design features. The Cobra Mk.III is substantially a Mk.II hull with the internal structural engineering and design flaws corrected. When this became public knowledge, Cowell & Mgrath were accused of covering up the fact that the Mk.III was really just the Mk.II in all but name, and the Lave authorities investigated the company, threatening to revoke its ship manufacturing license. The investigators discovered no foul play and, more importantly, no evidence of any design issues with the new ship, and the company recovered from the bad publicity magnificently (as shown by the popularity of the Cobra Mk.III).

Pimp my Cobra

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the release of the Cobra Mark III, Cowell MgRath in concert with What Spaceship? magazine engineered a competition. The competitors were given a standard Cobra Mark III and were allowed to freely modify its engines, interior space and design, exterior design and equipment. The response was so great and the standard of entries so high, that Cowell MgRath sold manufacturing rights of these 'pimped Cobras' to their modders to allow them to continue making their ships. This had a two-fold benefit for the financially-sparse company, first it increased the popularity of the Cobra Mk. III and second, the modders paid a fee to Cowell MgRath for each modified Cobra they sold.

A number of these Cobra variants are:

• The 'Chopped Cobra' by Aegidian Industries
• The Cobra III NjX by Seldar Shipyards
• The Teretrurus MK.I Purple Haze/Shieldtail by O.C.C. (Orzaedve Cobra Choppers)
• The 'Dark Wheel' Cobra Mk. III by Ramon Security Ltd.
• The Cobra AC (another Dark Wheel Cobra) by Dertien - part of his Noshader Z GrOovy extra ships package
• The Cobra Clipper SAR by Murgh Shipyards
• The Cobra Commodore by Far Arm Shipyards
• The Cobra Rapier by Wolfwood Interstellar Technologies

Custom paintjobs

• 

  Griff's Cobra Mk3

• 

  Normal, Specular & Gloss mapped (for Oolite v1.88 +)

• 

  Classic Cobra Mk3

• 

  Classic Cobra Mk3 (Alternate)

• 

  Classic Cobra Mk3 Pirate

• 

  ADCK's Solid Gold Cobra Mk3

• 

  Deepspace Cobra Mk3

• 

  Neolite Cobra Mk3

• 

  Sung's Cobra Mk III

• 

  And now for something different: RXSoftware's Cobra

• 

  Iron Ass Cobra Mk.III

• 

  Griff's SpecGloss Cobra Mk3

Note that there are more:

• Dertien's BBS Shippack
• Gsagostinho's Texture Pack: Cobra Mk III has 27 Cobra Mk.3's
• Z-GrOovY Variety Pack 2.0 has 23 Cobra Mk.3's

More than just a paintjob

• Beatnik's Cobra with unique Coluber HUD
• Z GrOovy HPC pack with retractable landing gear, laser bay doors, etc. (by Dertien, 2014)

• 

  Beatnik's Cobra

• 

  Dertien's retractables

Jannah Berihn's Cobra blueprints

Jannah Berihn (rabidvixen on our wiki) produced these back before 2007. Given the date and their placement on an Elite/Frontier website, one presumes that the dimensions are those of the Cobra Mk.3 found in Classic Elite/Jane's Galactic Shipset.oxp (ie 130x20x65 measurements in feet, not in metres).

Lower deck plan with living quarters, upper deck plan with bridge, section.

• Jannah Berihn's diagrams of the Cobra (link)

Other blueprints

User:Selezen also produced a set of blueprints (now lost amongst the dust of the aeons), as did George Hooper (see link): George Hooper's diagram of the Cobra

Fiction

I remember this one time back when I was still a Jameson and a pretty foolish one at that. I was on a milk run in a some corporate state system in an effort to drum up some cash for my new Cobbie fresh from the shipyards. We made quite the pair my Cobbie and me. I had just graduated from the Academy wetter behind the ears than a salmon going up a waterfall and my own ship was nary without an upgrade being the basic consumer model and all.

So there I was with a cargo hold full of food and a peashooter to keep away any enterprising pirates when suddenly three contacts enter my scanner range. Now, being an idiot and all, I get to thinking that maybe these three were traders too on their way to the station. After all, I was in cop territory. Pirates? In the lane? Ridiculous! So I thought to myself. Well sir, no sooner had I even got the thought in my head when the closest one started firing! I must've froze there for a like fool while the laser fire ate away my forward shields. It wasn't until I heard the shots strike the hull that I realized I had to hightail it out of there. I turned my Cobbie around and pushed those engines for all they were worth. All three of them were in range and firing now. A Python and two Sidewinders. All the while I was jinking and twisting and rolling, trying to make every second count.

All those years in the Academy came rushing back to me. The lectures, the simulators; things I wished I paid more attention to back when I had the chance. One little tidbit of information came back to me clear as a bell like I heard it yesterday. My old flight instructor, a tight-assed old veteran so straight you'd think he had a yardstick jammed up his backside, once mentioned that the old Cobbie was fast for her size. There were few ships that could beat her speed when it came right down to it. Unfortunately, Sidewinders were one of the few that did outclass her in this regard. Still, as I watched the Python slowly fall behind, I thought that two against one were better odds at least.

My rear shields were completely gone now and their shots were directly hitting my aft hull plating and oh Lord! The noise was just scary! The last thing you want to hear in space is groaning metal that's about to give in under the strain. Some of their shots had actually fried a few of the TCs of food I kept in the cargo bay. They were mostly potatoes. I thought to myself that it wasn't so bad. Maybe I can charge extra for french fries. I guess I was getting a bit hysterical at that point. I noticed my front shields were back up so I decided I might as well go down fighting.

I turned her nose around and targeted one of the damn Sidewinders. It broke off when it realized my old girl still had plenty of fight left in her and tried to lose me. Well, me and my Cobbie weren't having any of that! I kept her pointed straight and true and surprise, surprise! That puny little ship blew up after a few shots from my peashooter! Unlike my girl here, they could dish it out but couldn't take it. Still left one of them bastards though and boy was pissed off that I just killed his buddy! He was taking potshots at me the whole time I was tailing and gunning his partner and had me down to my last energy bank. I thought that was the end of me for sure when who should come screaming out of the void than no less than four Vipers! I guess some trader had seen me in trouble and sent a distress call to the station. Took them long enough to scramble and get their asses here! Heh, you should have seen that last Sidewinder skedaddle out of there like a bat out of hell when the odds weren't with him anymore.

Anyway, those Vipers escorted me all the way back to the station and I was able to coax her into limping inside. In the hangar, I tried to count how many holes there were in the hull. I had to stop at around six hundred when I lost count. Didn't even have to walk around the ship. These Cobbies, they take a whole lot of killing. -Michael Gray, Freelance Trader and Courier

Tweaks

• To make the exhaust "fumes" less obtrusive (Redspear, 2017)

You might wish to back up your Vanilla game code shipdata.plist before tweaking it!

See also

• Cobra Mark III (Rough Guide)
• Top FlightGear Magazine Review (Spooky, 2006)
• Mark III Cobbie Appreciation Thread! (2012)

• Cobra disambiguation page for all Cobras in all versions of Elite
• SuperCobra the original 2006 übership

• Has anyone noticed how outsized the Cobra Mk3 is? (2008)

• Decal - how to change the decals on your ship.