The Leopard is a very common military aerodyne dropship in use with every Great House, minor nation, and many corporations and mercenary companies. As dropships go it’s small, capable of carrying only a single lance (4) of mechs and a flight (2) of aerospace fighters. It’s 66 meters long, 51.6 meters wide, and 22.4 meters tall.

GM notes: a modern 747 is about 70 meters long, with a 60-meter wingspan, and a tail height of 20 meters. But the fuselage is only a slender metal cigar. If you imagine the Leopard as a massive flying brick taking up that entire space, from nose to tail, wingtip to wingtip, you’re not too far off. Basically it’s small, but HUGE.

The Leopard weighs 1900 tons empty, with a standard fuel load of 600 tons, with max takeoff weight in the 3200-ton range (depending on gravity, atmospheric density, and other factors). It can carry up to 4x100-ton mech, 2x100-ton aerospace fighters, and about 100 tons of cargo and consumables. The majority of the hull is taken up by the 4 mech and 2 aerospace bays, drive systems, and fuel tanks.
The mech/ASF bays are rigged to safely hold one mech/ASF of any class. It’s possible to stick more than one vehicle into a single bay, as long as they remain below 100 tons total. This isn’t recommended, however, as there is only one drop harness in each bay. Additional vehicles must be strapped in using chains and cargo straps, which isn’t ideal. The bays also become very cramped, making maintenance work nearly impossible. Exit/entry becomes time-consuming and a little difficult, so combat drops from overstacked bays is definitely not recommended.

Crew accommodations are located in the forward part of the ship, with the command deck situated front and topside. Additional crew areas are situated on the upper deck, behind the mechbay mezzanine. Accommodations are sparse since Leopards are designed for short operations and combat drops. Nevertheless, even “short” operations can involve weeks of travel in either direction, so the Leopard isn’t entirely without crew comforts. There is a mess hall, a small gym, a health station, and a longue.

The 9-man crew have their own quarters near the command deck, with the captain enjoying a private stateroom. The other 8 crew are housed in fairly spacious 2-man cabins. They also have their own mess and recreation area, away from the passenger compartments.

Leopards are designed to carry the personnel needed to keep a lance/flight operating in the field for a period of time. As such there are accommodations for double crews (8 mechwarriors + 4 ASF jocks) in 2-bed cabins. There is room for 24 techs in six 4-bed cabins. Most Leopards also feature an additional stateroom for important passengers, and 2-4 additional 2 or 4 bed cabins, but details vary from ship to ship.

Leopards typically carry sufficient supplies for about a month of operation. Anything beyond this eats from cargo tonnage. Leopards have VTOL capability, but prefer to land on hard-surface runways. They carry sufficient fuel to lift off and land (or vice versa) on a terrestrial world using VTOL, without refueling. It carries 74.5 1G burn/days of reaction mass, sufficient for a round trip to even the most hard-to-reach planet.