Eagle is rated by many as a good maneuverable craft. It can be fitted out with more than 2 cargo I think! However, it does depend what class of equipment you put in each slot. There are a few options you can try, all with varying levels of risk!
1. Trading - refit to carry more cargo but that reduces other equipment you fit it out with. Make money by looking for a HIGH SUPPLY commodity and taking it to a place where it is in HIGH DEMAND. If you can find a route where there is a different commodity to trade the other way for similar gains, all the better!
2. Missions - take some of the delivery and/or fetch missions which should give you higher profits than basic trading. Again, you may need to refit to take a little more cargo! Some missions are for killing pirates, best not take the BIG ones (about 140k credits!) as these are usually for killing some pirate or other in an Anaconda - this is for a BIG ship with BIG GUNS on it! You WILL die! .... well until you get yourself a well tooled up Viper at least, and know what you are doing!
3. Bounty Hunting - this is where (for some!) the real fun and excitement starts! Outfit your Eagle as a killing machine and go to any Nav Beacon or Extraction site and drop out of Super-Cruise (SC). You should soon find a few WANTED pirates who appear around these. Nav Beacons are near the sun. Scan them to see if they are WANTED. If you outfit with a K-Warrant scanner as well, it will tell you (contacts on left hand screen), where they are wanted and who by! It might save you shooting someone who shows up as WANTED but is basically 'friendly' to the current system faction! Otherwise local security might suddenly become interested in you!
4. Out and out piracy! - you need an Interdictor module for this! Grab people out of Super-Cruise and hope they drop some cargo before they run! You need a cargo scoop for this. The down side here is they may start shooting YOU!! If you blow someone up everything is vapourised. Note that any cargo picked up like this will be classed as STOLEN and thus you will have to avoid being scanned on entry to a space station or be fined.
5. USS hunting - if you find a USS (Unidentified Signal Source) you could try dropping out of SC and see what's there. It could be many things, some have found a Funeral procession, a wedding party, the occasional pirate ship (possible bounty opportunity?), and just canisters of cargo floating about as a navigation hazard! If you have a cargo scoop you can collect them for free - HOWEVER as all cargo is 'tracked', the Authorities still treat this as STOLEN so a fine will be handed out if you are caught with them. Best sneak into a space station and try the Black Market! (see contacts on main Starport Services screen)
6. Discovery - a slightly different tactic, but does bring in the credits. Use the basic discovery scanner to blow the 'STAR TRUMPET' at every system you jump through. In some of them you will find it has 'Discovered xx new objects'. This information can be sold to the Galactic Cartographers once you have traveled more than 20 light years from where you collected it. In the early days I found I was regularly collecting 1000 credits here, 1200cr there, without really doing anything, other than going about my business!
NOTE: Sneaking into a space station without being scanned involves either flying in REALLY QUICKLY before they can scan you - and risk ending up as a smear on the front end of a T9 trying to exit at the same time! - or going for SILENT RUNNING (right hand screen) and possibly risk overheating!!
There's some ideas, I'm sure others will fill in with any gaps I've left!
