In general the Faulcon DeLacy is for me the best manufacturer, for performance and design. But there is Farragut-Class and the Corvette from Core Dynamics that I consider the best good looking ships in the game but I don't like very much some other ships from them.

I really like the Sidewinder the most. It is the best ship, and the only one with an Ionic Spin Drive. Besides the ViperMKIII, the Sidewinder is what I have killed the most Thargoids with. I like the small ships because it's good to give any opponent the chance to win a fight. People never want to keep fighting after they lost a few times... imagine how boring this war would have been if the Thargoids lost a couple ships and just moved on to scavenging one of their other multitudes of resource Galaxies. The Thargoid Princesses are very, very board of scavenging.

Fleet ship: Bitch-Pea here always looks a little worse-for-the-wear, but despite being the smallest ship in the fleet, she can go toe-to-toe with most Thargoid craft, even under a full heat-targeted-lightning attack.

Why nobody voted for Lakon spaceways?

They could remove the other builders, and the T-9 will keep working as trader, T-10 as slow miner and Combat, DBX/AspX as explorers, Type-8 for medium cargo-passengers-mining, and the Alliance line as combat and AX ships. Except for explorers and trade, none of this ships become the current meta (poor AX Chieftain), but Lakon have the greatest 2nd place in lot of jobs.

Remember, when Jupiter Rochester fleed because his participation in the failed Magnicide of Federal Presidency, and the attemp to buy Lakon Spaceways, the whole galaxy united against him. Fed supporter for his crimes, Imp supporters for putting Zachary 8 10 years in the presidency, and Alliance/Lakon supporters for trying to take control of Official alliance shipbuilder. Lost the CG 5:1, with the other CG with the bad side lossing 5:1 was Tetha-7 battle, the guy that bombed 9 stations in the Powerplay HQ, included above Earth. Defending Lakon and justice was as important for the community as the life of the most popular stations.

Lakon, cause i'm into trading and exploration, and Lakon has the best ships for this: AspX and the almighty Type-9.

To pick just one, as an explorer, definitely Lakon Spaceways. The Diamondback Explorer is my workhorse for exploring deep space, can't complain about anything in this ship. I had also a good time with Type 6, 7 and 9 transporters, good choices for transport missions and mining.

Design-wise? Zorgon Peterson with that mid-century feel. Versatility in options? Lakon.

my dbx charged on a jet cone @298ly jump

Lakon got the views. Never gonna stop hackin the Diamondback Explorer

Falcon DeLacy, for sure! I don't think they're the prettiest ships, but they're definitely the best for all kinds of professions!