Dragon-class Heavy cruiser 2170

[Masao]

Here's a ship I'm working on for my Starfleet Museum website.

This is a heavy cruiser introduced in the late 2170s. After the successful conclusion of the Earth-Romulan war, the newly formed Starfleet had few large cruisers, being mostly an exploratory force of long-range, lightly armed ships (like Daedalus). Ex-United Earth Stellar Navy admirals thought that Starfleet needed a large, fast, heavily armed heavy cruiser to defend against a possibly resurgent Romulan Empire, deter other potential rivals, and show the flag in a muscular way. They pushed for the development of the Dragon class, which turned out to be a technically overambitious white elephant. It was fast and well armed, but was something of a hanger queen because of all the extremely advanced (for the time) technologies that didn't quite work together well. Dragon's overreliance on weaponry also meant that it didn't have much to do when another war with the Romulans failed to break out.

(Note: As with all histories for my website, I'm ignoring the existence of a series called Enterprise.)

 

[largo]

i've been a huge fan of your designs, and this one continues that long tradition. outstanding!

 

[Santaman]

Nice one, I like it.

 

[baxart]

Very Nice!

 

[ancient]

I like it, and I like the designs over at the SF Museum. I agree that the early Federation probably produced a few monster ships, mainly because they weren't sure about defending several dozen planets at once.

 

[tyr_13]

She looks nice, but what is the black nose for?

 

[Soar_Dude]

So is it and out growth of the Moskva class. It shares alot design cues with the Moskva.
Yes I love you site too I go at least once or twice a month looking for updates. Your evolution of warp driven starships makes more sence then others I have seen.

Soar Dude

 

[Sean_McCormick]

Impressive design. Will make a great addition to your museum.

 

[Kaiser]

As like everyone else i like your Designs and timeline

and this is another fine addition to your site

 

[Praetor]

Awesome design! Even though you're ignoring 'Enterprise', I can almost feel a subtle design nod going on with the multi-section secondary hull, and your idea for this ship is very similar to one I'd had for the Icarus Class, which would have explained why we didn't see saucers for a while... I digress. Anyway, I love your work and this is no exception!

 

[Masao]

She looks nice, but what is the black nose for?

I think a dedicated weapons targeting sensor is under there. I think.

 

[tyr_13]

It just kinda reminded me of the front of the space shuttle. Of course those are heat tiles for re-entry, which I assumed wasn't the case here.

 

[Unicron]

Interesting. Keep up the good work.

 

[Rattrap]

Masao said:
I think a dedicated weapons targeting sensor is under there. I think.

tyr_13 said:
It just kinda reminded me of the front of the space shuttle. Of course those are heat tiles for re-entry, which I assumed wasn't the case here.

Early radar-equipped aircraft had plain-black plastic radomes, because they didn't want paint or anything else interfering with the signal. Maybe this is a new type of sensor, and again, they want to minimize any interference. Just a thought...

And of course, it also fits in really well with Masao's paint schemes, which often echo early sixties patterns on large aircraft.

 

[Wingsley]

So the Dragon has a primary hull and a secondary hull... but what about the little aft one? Is that a tertiary hull?

 

[Masao]

So the Dragon has a primary hull and a secondary hull... but what about the little aft one? Is that a tertiary hull?

That's where the reactor is. Detaching the entire "tertiary hull" is easier than ejecting the reactor alone.

 

[JSleeper]

It looks more like a Wasp than the Wasp-class. Very insectile. With that extra set of strut, I imagine that the back parts of the warp nacelles also separate. And there's a fusion engine large enough to power shortened nacelles for low warp?

I prefer your history to the one in Enterprise, in any case.

 

[judge alba]

i like the design. I was courious but what is the link for your site? i kinda would like to see more

 

[Rattrap]

You can reach it by clicking on his user name, but here it is: The Starfleet Museum.

Lots and lots of neat stuff.

 

[judge alba]

You can reach it by clicking on his user name, but here it is: The Starfleet Museum.

Lots and lots of neat stuff.

ok cool i'll go take a beak at it