The Prydwen

The Prydwen is a modified and armored Brotherhood of Steel airship that flies throughout the skies of the Commonwealth. The vessel serves multiple roles for the Brotherhood, including those of aircraft carrier, command center, clinic, personnel quarters, equipment maintenance bay and research facility. It is, for all intents and purposes, an airborne military base. It will be moored to the air traffic control tower at Boston Airport shortly after leaving Fort Hagen during Reunions.

Background
The Prydwen was constructed at Adams Air Force Base over a period of six years. It took an initial two years to collect the materials necessary and another four to actually construct the airship, and by 2287 had been in service for five years. It weighs forty thousand tons, as noted by Lancer Captain Kells and Elder Maxson. The nuclear core was taken from an old aircraft carrier as the previous one was not sufficient to efficiently power all the systems.

The airship is filled with hydrogen, as stated during the quest Airship Down. Four pylons attached to the ship's flight deck carry a single jet engine each, being responsible for controlling the Prydwen's altitude and help to keep the ship aloft. There are four docking hooks for Brotherhood modified VB-02 Vertibird gunships attached to the airship's hull. Vertibirds are accessible via the flight deck. Due to the combustible nature of hydrogen, the ship itself is not capable of combat, and this is stated by the crew.

Layout
The Prydwen is divided into two exterior areas and two indoor areas: the flight deck, the command deck, the main deck, and the forecastle.

On the main deck is a medical bay, mess hall, power armor station, crafting equipment and a shop (at the end of the corridor). There are also stairs that lead either up to the living quarters or down to a storage area. Around the perimeter and along the top are patrolled catwalks. The main deck is contained within the airbag, as the hydrogen is inside several canisters positioned around the outer hull.

The flight deck is located along the midsection of the gondola. There is a control room/storage area overlooking the deck, accessible at the back of the flight deck.

The command deck has three levels. The top level has Maxson's observation deck. The next one down is a storage area, with access to the forecastle. Finally, the bridge is at the bottom, where Lancer-Captain Kells can be found.

The forecastle is a small balcony which is accessible from the top the command deck.

Inhabitants
The Prydwen's crew includes:
 * Elder Maxson
 * Lancer-Captain Kells
 * Paladin Brandis, if convinced to rejoin the Brotherhood
 * Proctor Ingram
 * Proctor Teagan
 * Proctor Quinlan
 * Madison Li, if convinced to join during From Within
 * Professor Scara, if convinced to join during Liberty Reprimed
 * Senior Scribe Neriah
 * Knight-Captain Cade
 * Predictive Analytic Machine (if reprogrammed in the mission Tactical Thinking)

Notable loot

 * BoS II T-60b power armor - Shadow of Steel quest reward.
 * Long range laser rifle found on the Prydwen Forecastle in a crate called sharpshooter stowage. The Forecastle entrance is located through the Main Deck's southern top floor.
 * Three mini nukes can be found on the lower catwalk of the main deck, next to the mini nuke crates that are recovered from the Fort Strong armory during the quest Show No Mercy. Two are on top of the crates and the third is on the floor next to the north western crate.
 * X-01 power armor MK1 helmet, Gauss rifle, Fat Man with 2 mini nukes, a fusion core and a bunch of ammo in Proctor Teagan's cage behind a Master lock (considered stealing).
 * Knight-Captain Cade's report holotape
 * C.I.T. recon report holotape
 * Personal log - 142 holotape
 * Quinlan to be deleted holotape
 * Maxson was right holotape.
 * Your new assignment holotape, on top of a barrel next to a bed, above the entrance to the main deck.
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum, Prydwen main deck, lower catwalk.
 * Lucia's personal key - on Lucia, and in Clarke's footlocker.
 * From Lucia in Clarke's footlocker near his bed.
 * Knight Lucia's log - in Lucia's personal footlocker.

Pickpocket or dropped on death

 * Seven complete T-60 power armor suits can be stolen - five from the (patrolling) sentries by pickpocketing their fusion cores first, another two from the power armor bay. Doing so will garner dislikes from Danse if he is still aboard, and it is difficult to grab some of the suits without being seen, but it is doable.
 * Airship captain's hat pickpocket from Knight-Captain Kells.
 * Bomber jacket
 * Engineer's armor
 * Final Judgment (legendary Gatling laser) carried by Elder Maxson.
 * Medical goggles
 * Quinlan's armor pickpocket from Quinlan.
 * Science scribe's armor
 * Teagan's armor pickpocket from Teagan.
 * Welding helmet

Related quests

 * Shadow of Steel - Travel with Paladin Danse to meet with Elder Maxson.
 * Airship Down - Assault the Brotherhood along with the Institute's synths.
 * Rockets' Red Glare - The Sole Survivor, Deacon and Tinker Tom lead a secret raid to destroy the Prydwen.
 * With Our Powers Combined - The Brotherhood have caused enough trouble, lead the Minutemen to destroy the Prydwen.

Behind the scenes

 * Prydwen (Middle Welsh lit. "fair-faced", "handsome") is the name of King Arthur's ship in the native Welsh literature concerning the legendary character. Arthur and his men board it to sail to the Otherworldly fortress of Annwn [pronounced; ah-noon] in the somewhat cryptic poem Preiddeu Annwfn [pronounced; Prey-they--Ann-oovn] as well as when they sail to and from Ireland in the prose text Culhwch ac Olwen in an attempt to gain a magical cauldron. It is not explicitly named in any other native Arthurian tale or poem, and in the Anglo-Norman literature that drew from it Arthur does not appear to have a comparable vessel.
 * It is pronounced by multiple characters different ways. Military Frequency AF95 broadcasts pronounce it 'preed-win' whereas Paladin Danse pronounces it 'prid-win'; the Welsh pronunciation is 'PRUHD-wehn'.

Bugs

 * Stealing from the Prydwen armory can result in all Brotherhood NPCs turning hostile against the Sole Survivor. This can happen regardless of whether the Survivor is detected or not and can happen even if a Stealth Boy is used. Solutions include picking up the desired item and moving it outside the armory before stealing it. This does not alert the Brotherhood.
 * This only happens if a very significant amount of loot is stolen.
 * In some cases after entering the Prydwen you will fall through the floor. Loading a previous save may fix this issue.
 * Killing the Brotherhood lancer-sergeant on the northern Vertibird gantry may result, after a save and reload, in an invisible corpse with an untargetable version of the NPC standing over it. The invisible corpse may be looted, and may even be moved, but will revert to its original position on reload. No known fix, but ultimately harmless. This bug has also been seen on the scribes along the flight deck.
 * Following completion of the quest Airship Down, the Prydwen will still appear as a fast travel destination in the Pip-Boy. Attempting to fast travel to the Prydwen will yield the message "Fast Travel is currently unavailable from this location" regardless of where attempted.
 * Fast traveling to the Prydwen causes automatron companions to disappear. Afterwards, all automatrons will fail to fast travel and no longer appear.
 * Stealing the patrolling sentries' power armor and storing the suits in a settlement may lead to those sentries reappearing inside their suits in that settlement later, even if the armor's ownership was transferred to the player via console commands.
 * Visiting the Institute and meeting Shawn before having been to the Prydwen with Paladin Danse will result in Paladin Danse staying at the Cambridge Police Station and no longer being availabe for dialogue. The player won't be able to enter the Prydwen. Also the missions "Cleansing the Commonwealth" and "Quartermastery" can't be completed.