Just remember that you'll lose some stuff when switching to the Viper, and you'll only recover some of them in the Vulture:
- The Viper is faster but it has less maneuverability. That means it runs faster in a straight line and boosts faster, but it's not as good in tight turns (gets out-turned by the Eagle, Sidewinder, Adder and Vulture, but other than that, it can outmaneuver anything else. Plus, NPCs aren't good at using the maneuvering sweet spots, so you can even tackle Eagles without much trouble, specially with gimbaled guns). If you progress to the Vulture later, you'll notice that it performs quite similar to the Eagle in the maneuverability, specially in pitch/roll.
- The canopy is MUCH smaller and restricts your vertical view. Plus, a canopy breach will shatter most of your visible AR-HUD (which is projected on the glass), so you'll have to navigate by instruments until you repair the glass. Also, it's incredibly prone to breaching, despite being tighter than the Eagle and Vulture's canopies. The Vulture corrects most of these issues with reinforcement beams that contain the breach to a much smaller area, plus the canopy has a huge vertical visibility.
- If you like "looks", you'll be disappointed with the Viper's interior. The Eagle has that "sports car" feel, but the Viper is as spartan as it can be. Lots of bare metal, most of it scratched due to prolonged use. The internal lights are simple and nothing is specially pretty. It's simply functional. Again, Vulture reverts this (mainly because it's made by Core Dynamics, same manufacturer of the Eagle), with one of the sportiest interiors of all ships.
Except of course, the horrible Vulture.
