When Federated-Boeing began preparations for pre-production of the Cargomaster, they had already completed preparations to lay the keel and begin the production phase. The two DropShips were nearly identical, save that one was a military craft and the other was civilian. The Cargoking's design specifications were the same as its military cousin, with the lone exception giving the edge in fuel reserves to the Cargoking. Both shared the same armor and structural integrity designs. The engineering on the two ships was identical, including sharing the same drives-Merlin 2400 Interplanetary Drives specifically designed for the two DropShips.
       The Cargoking used the automated cargo bay system found in the military counterpart. This Standardization across the board made logistics more manageable. Since the ship was automated in the cargo bay, the rest of the ship was not far behind. The crew size was small for such a large vessel. This allowed for the crew to have far more comfortable quarters than what was normally found on a DropShip. Federated-Boeing was pulling out all the stops on this new DropShip. They were all ready to sign contracts with a few shipping conglomerates when the First Succession War broke out.
       Officially the Cargoking was produced in 2790, but in reality the first one was off the lines in 2789. The ship-FSDS Richard III-finished testing and was authorized for operations. The ship later disappeared in the Kesai IV system in 2825. One other ship was produced before the project was canceled. It was lost during testing at the Port Simon Test Facilities. In a freak accident, the ship lost control crashing into Galax's moon, Malabar, and exploding in a spectacular fireball that decimated the landing facility, killing most of the ground crew.
         Some reports suggest that this was the end of the Cargoking design and in some ways they are accurate. Like the Cargomaster, production was retooled during the Succession Wars, advanced weapons replaced with more sustainable lowtech versions. This cheaper design has been in production throughout the Succession Wars and somehow the Word assault on the Galax yards left their construction lines intact and operating. Once only used by large Federation businesses, the Cargoking is becoming a common sighting throughout the Human Sphere, sold to generate the money required to rebuild the Federated Suns from the devastation of the Jihad.