Thank you! I was considering having Hikaru write the foreward, although I'd have to invent a good reason to have him have written it, since he's passed away a while before the history section has been written. Maybe it could be a speech or something. The Exeter thing is from a bit back - supposedly there was a dropped line from Wrath of Khan, maybe from the novelization, that said that was what he was previously doing. If I can't find the reference, I'll drop it and keep it vague.
Hum, I didn't find anything in Memory Beta, which is usually pretty good at keeping track of such minutiae. I'd like to see a source on it if you ever find it, though. Sulu's my favorite asian Starfleet captain. And if Sulu had presumably passed away, I guess it could be a preceding interview. Perhaps something he said or wrote as he took command of her, or finally moved on. Or one of his presidential memoirs. Or heck, Demora could write it; she's a second-generation Excelsior-class CO, depending on who you believe in. Mark
I hope I can find where I read that... it's starting to bug me. Sulu's been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. He's such an interesting guy. One advantage to having him write the introduction is that I think I'd find it easier to write in his voice than in Demora's since he's a bit more well defined. I had thought of fleshing out the speech Demora gives at the end of the history (spoiler alert) when the Excelsior gets committed to the fleet museum, but wanting to do her justice has dissuaded me from trying it thus far. Maybe that speech should be the introduction. Also, if anyone has any opinions on the sizing of Excelsior, please check out my latest post in the other thread. I could really use your opinions on which size I should consider accurate.
I don't recall Sulu ever being involved with any iteration of the USS Exeter. USS Excelsior, though...
Yeah, I can't find where I found that, so I'm going to avoid mentioning it. Meanwhile, I went back and took a first pass at a forward by Capt. Sulu. It probably needs fleshing out. Let me know what you think.
Think he'd go for it if I told him about the Star Trek: Excelsior fanfics I wrote as a kid? I must confess to being proud with that little passage. I can read it with George's voice in my head. I envision it being in the chapter where he talks about all the stuff going on in the movies, and the author of the TM just sniped it for use as a foreward. I started trying to write Demora's speech, but she's tough to write for.
I don't see why you couldn't at least pitch it to him. He seems to be quite good natured about such things.
Sorry to necro-post Praetor, but I recently found your technical manual for the Excelsior whilst researching my latest project and wanted to let you know how good I thought it was! I would have liked to have seen more in fact. Anyways, I've recently completed my model of one of the Excelsior Study Models and I have used the registry you have designated on this thread, of SV-20-A. I hope you don't mind?
I would think the transwarp project would identify the warp power curves that would later become the new TNG warp scale, but not impliment them as a new scale at first. Possibly by the time she enters service, if TUC/Flashback vessels used the new scale (which isn't clear to me). This would require a fleet wide adjustment and possibly retraining, though that might not take that long. A video on warp dynamics and you followed by a test of how the new scale effects your career, and you pass. However, depending on how the scale from TNG is setup, the USS Excelsior, to beat the USS Enterprise's speed record, would need to get past the old warp factor 14.1. On the published new scale that is about warp 9.9 (Warp factor 14.1 being around 2,800 times the speed of light). This would not be cruising speed. If the Galaxy-class is suppose to have a maximum cruising speed of warp 9.6 for 12 hours and 9.2 sustained, than Excelsior cruising at warp 8 or 9 is likely acceptible in the new scale. Both of those being over the old scale's warp factor 10. Though this is below the refit Enterprise's theoretical warp factor 12 for four days sustained speed from Earth to Vulcan, which would be around the new scale's warp 9.4. Assuming any of the warp charts have any chance of being close to accurate in terms of speed in multiples of light years.
I've just completed my model of the SV-20-A concept if anyone's interested: http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=255706 I'd love to see more on this project Praetor, if you're still out there?
Just read through the entire history portion of the Excelsior Technical Thread. Praetor, you made one very entertaining read! Though according to the Ingram Technical Manual, she was originally equipped with Transwarp Drive, so maybe she was intended to be a more compact experimental testbed, while the Excelsior was kept alive by being retrofitted with more proven technology. When it was proven that the Ingram just wasn't gonna cut it with Transwarp, due to technical and architectural limitations deemed at the time, probably due to nearly being destroyed by another out-of-control Transwarp Core, Starfleet finally decided to equip her with a standard Warp Drive too. That is not to say that Starfleet R&D didn't continue to experiment with Transwarp probes and in simulations, but after they were unable to deliver a working prototype for the Galaxy Project either, the Federation Council finally cut off all funding, relegating the project to nothing more than idle speculations.
Just as a matter of point, I have Mr Scott's guide to the Enterprise as a PDF. I was thinking of perhaps adapting some of the screen displays by replacing the Connie with the Excelsior just to add a bit of 'illustration' to this? If anyone has any suggestions of illustrations that they would like to go along with this guide, I'd be happy to create them. Some suggestions please?
The transwarp project, from the various sources, seems to be limited to Excelsior, Ingram, and Ti-Ho (Enterprise-A). All with different warp nacelles styles. You have Excelsior with her large nacelles, Ingram with her long but thinner nacelles, and then you have Ti-Ho's cruiser sized engines. Excelsior's seemed to not work as planned. Ingram's likely didn't work as planned, and Ti-Ho/Enterprise has computer issues followed by a mission to Nimbus III (Scotty says it has fine engines) Perhaps they took out the tranwarp drive on Enterprise, but didn't rework the computers. Then again, it did make a run for the center of the galaxy. Though it couldn't have been all that much faster than standard since the Bird of Prey was able to follow it. Either transwarp just did not work, did not work as intended, or simply redefined how warp worked, but didn't make ships have a faster top speed...just a higher cruising speed. The old Warp Factor 14.1 was still pretty fast by TNG chart standards. If USS Voyager could have sustained the old USS Enterprise's speed record, she would be able to get back to Earth in something like 26 years. Voyager is suppose to be faster than that, but can't seem to maintian warp 9.975 (Warp factor 14.1 is around warp 9.9). Excelsior may or may not be able to handle that, though the old DC comics had Excelsior manage I think up to Warp Factor 20 while under the temporary command of Admiral Kirk. If USS Voyager could do that full time, they'd be home within 10 years.
Well, there are a number of things to consider that could've impaired the Voyager from cruising as such a speed: Fuel consumption and the need to find places to refuel Maintenance and propulsion downtime Damage sustained from the Caretaker's Array I think that energy was a constant shadow over their heads, because they rationed out the use of the Replicators and Holodeck use. Even then, the Voyager still managed to make it home in 23 years in the alternate (or original) Endgame timeline, even without using a Transwarp Conduit.
A few thoughts; please pardon if they've already been covered extensively in the massive amount of preceeding posts ... First, IIRC from the TrekPedia, the "new and improved" warp scale as used in TNG came out around 2314-ish. This suggests to me that though transwarp turned out to be unable to function how Starfleet wanted it to work and was quietly shelved in the late 2280s in favor of conventional warp drive, improvements in tech and starship design led to much faster warp speeds in the 2310s and warp tech pretty much plateau'd out from 2310-2380ish, when slipstream drive began to be used in limited numbers (see the Novelverse for this tech). Succeeding generations of starships from the 2310s began to be able to go faster and faster both in terms of sustainable warp cruising speed and maximum dash speeds, and these abilities came from the Transwarp project research. And IIRC the TOS warp scale was in multiples of 2 (i.e. Warp 2 was 4x light speed, Warp 3 was 9x, Warp 4 was 16x, etc) but the TNG warp scale was in multiples of 3 (i.e. Warp 2 was 8x light speed, Warp 3 was 27x, Warp 4 was 64x, etc), so by that reckoning the Transwarp project research still bore considerable fruit. Secondly, I am thinking that vast improvements in replicator technology and resource allocation were the driving forces behind the greater numbers of Excelsior-class ships we've seen in Trek. I've seen numbers between 200-700 ships of this class being tossed about, but even on the low side, this class exists in significantly greater numbers than is believed that Con-refits and Mirandas were built. Excelsior was a significant leap, yes, but there has to be additional reasons that she was built in greater numbers than earlier designs. It wasn't just that she was significantly faster than Con-refits and Mirandas, for those designs continued in service throughout time and up to at least the Dominion War in the 2370s, and we've seen nothing to suggest that Mirandas couldn't keep up with Excelsiors. The Klingon Empire became much less of a threat after "The Undiscovered Country", the Romulans were fairly quiet between TOS and TNG, and the Cardassians didn't become a factor until the 2350s or so, so there was no driving threat to justify mass-producing Excelsiors. So why were so many built? Finally, has it been determined whether a 467m or 511-ish meter length best fits the ship? I remember reading about window counts and deck heights, but not what the final conclusion was.
Oh, and do we know if Praetor ever finished the Excelsior TM? If I recall, there was a post on page 21 in which the first four chapters had been rewritten and posted, but I never did see a link to the completed 10 chapters or the revised tech information. I remember reading it a few years back and being very impressed, so I am hoping there's a revised link somewhere.