CRA, I've been doing some sketches based on your "Akiraprise/Abramsprise" concept, wondered if you'd mind if I posted it?
You know, not bad at all. My one thought is that the nacelle strut above and below the catamaran don't quite seem to line up properly. What about deleting the NX strut above and replacing it with a chunk from the Abramsprise? I also think an upper view would help. I had been thinking of a similar ship that was post-Daedalus (called, amazingly enough, Icarus) that was a testbed for the first warp seven engine that they were talking about in 'TATV' that I'd imagined as a total failure with only like three built that was quite similar in concept to your reimagined Daedalus, except it had no neck but instead had paired struts going between the secondary hull and engines. I might post a quick sketch if I can find my drawings and scan em in and if it's ok with you.
My approach.. IF this were something I were doing (and since it's not, obviously you can just ignore me if you wish! ) would be to shorten the secondary hull somewhat, keep the "NX" pylon as-shown (at least in side view) but continue it downwards to the (now slightly shorter) secondary hull. I'd lose the "Abrams" pylons completely.
Kinda forgotten about this... well, here goes... http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg178/judexavier/Re-Daedelus01-1.jpg Kitbash of all sorts of things...notably the Kelvin-ish saucer, adapted STXI lines, etc. As much as this effort falls short, I still think your concept is intriguing, and hope to see more posted images.
Looks good judexavier, though the neck area looks a little funky with it coming out to meet the outside of the catamaran thingies.
Thanks. Yeah, LOL...oops. That is one area where the 3D modellers have an immediate advantage. It's easy (for me anyway) to sketch up something, and completely miss that it wouldn't work as drawn. (without other views to verify). I suppose there could be some panel lines that would indicate those parts curving out and actually fitting together. I think I had the inner pylons a much narrower V-angle than normal, so that there wouldn't be such a stretch to where the catamaran hulls intersect the joint. Hell I don't know , at this point it was a quick sketch.
That is nice, judexavier, neck notwithstanding! BTW, I've been wondering, what software do you use? Crap, I'd forgotten to post my take on this. *runs away - to return when you least expect it!* Ok, I'm back. Here's my take on the Icarus, NX-400, a quick sketch in Illustrator. As I mentioned upthread, this would be the successor to the NX class, circa 2170, the testbed for a hybrid warp seven engine based on both the NX and Daedalus engine setups that began at the time of the Federation founding, and was to be the more prestigious sister to the Daedalus. Ultimately Icarus would be a failure and six or less would have been built. In my thinking, warp seven would only be acheived with NX-1100, circa 2205. More on that later. I'm torn as to whether the ship would have a vertical launch bay in the saucer- I'm thinking no right now. There would probably be a hybrid vertical/partial horizontal launch bay in the rear of the secondary hull, which would only additionally house the warp reactor and systems - everything else would be in the saucer. The 'platform' on which NX01's bridge sits would also be rounded and of a reduced profile, and I'm actually now thinking the catamarans would start just past the mid-slope of the upper saucer, instead of what I have shown here. I'll probably refine this, maybe finish it, but that's for another thread, I don't want to derail CRA too much.
I like that. Work in a few more TOS touches (since I'm more concerned with bridging only to that point; the rest of the series can take care of themselves) and that'd do it.
I have a question: In this Akiraprise-meets-Abramsprise concept, what purpose does the "interconnecting dorsal" neck serve? It seems like wasted resources, since the nacelles and secondary hull are already connected to the saucer through the catamaran. I think Praetor is onto something there; maybe the neck evolved from the catamaran. (BTW: I miss Subcommander Tal) The only place I would differ with Praetor's concept image is the use of two pairs of nacelle pylons; I would use one. I might also suggest making the secondary hull smaller, although I do like the idea of the dish moving to there. The only other question remaining would be whether the flight deck would evolve so quickly after the NX-class, or would it remain in the saucer... I have mixed feelings about that.
I can't speak for CRA but I know I've been toying with whether or not to put a neck on mine and frankly I'm leaning towards not for the reasons you've suggested Wingsley - it seems more likely that the neck would evolve from, in a roundabout way, to the catamarans. It's my thought that this design would have engineering facilities and deflector facilities only relocated to the secondary hull niblet (with another deflector still in the front notch of the sacuer) and that there would be a plasma accelerator system similar to that found on the NX setup from secondary hull to catamaran to nacelles. I'm also thinking of moving the secondary back/shrinking it a bit to retain the drop bay in the saucer. Apologies to CRA for hijacking again, I'll start up a new/seperate thread for this project shortly, I hate to steal his thunder.. P.S. - Don't worry, Tal's coming back. I want to make him an animated GIF before I bring him back, and I just needed a little change.
Seems like it would be a hassle to get to the secondary hull through the catamarans and struts Praetor. A short neck with a few stairs would probably not go amis.
I tend to think quite differently... this isn't some living thing, after all, and it's not one ship being refit, repeatedly, until it's much different. It's far more likely, IMHO, that they'd just dump the catamaran concept completely at some point, not "evolve" from one to the other. For that matter, you wouldn't be "dumping" it permanently, or on every ship... and as far as we know, there were other ships at the time of the NX-01 that had a saucer and a secondary hull. Every ship will be designed by people with personal tastes, as well as personal styles, after all. And, ignoring those for a moment... the catamaran is either required by the design requirements or it's not. If it's not, it wouldn't be kept "just for evolutionary style's sake," would it?
Well, I'm thinking that ships with the catamaran have the 'supercharger' style warp setup that the NX and presumably others had, whereas ships with necks wouldn't. The 'supercharger' setup would be dropped when it would be discovered that an improved reactor sans 'supercharger' could be built.
My thinking is that they'd start off with the NX design and not really alter a lot of it, primarily because, with the impending Romulan War, they need ships and they need 'em fast, so not a lot of time for redevelopment. The bulk of the new design would be in moving Main Engineering down to the new secondary hull, freeing up space in the saucer for other purposes, and the new warp engines. An added bonus is moving that deflector to the front of the secondary hull (or keeping the original dish in the original location and adding a second dish to the lower hull). As for the neck, that essentially covers up the old shuttle bays and is nothing more than access to the secondary hull. When I get around to front, top, and bottom views, you'll see just how wide that sucker is. As for the shuttle bay, that gets moved to the traditional place at the rear of the secondary hull after it's decided that the flight deck model works better than the drop bay.
To tie in with the other thread, I think this design would be the last hurrah for the escape pod concept for a while, at least until the Ambassador class (I don't recall the Excelsior class having any outwardly evident escape pods).