Thanks for the compliments everyone... I haven't resumed working on this... I should probably scan some of my pencil scans to show you more of where I'm coming from on all this... in the meantime, here's the rest of my writeup on the Constitution class, it's still very up-in-the-air: Constitution The Constitution represented a sweeping change in Star Fleet design and fleet management policy that would ultimately set the trend of modern Federation starship design for the next 150 years. The early twenty-third century was marked by an unforeseen level of prosperity and optimism. The fleets of the various Federation member worlds were slowly being unified under the Star Fleet banner. By 2230, a growing group within Star Fleet was calling for a mass standardization of the fleet. Star Fleet ships of that era were vastly varied. There were literally hundreds of different ships classes in service of varying age and size, many of them operated by UESPA, each producing as few as a dozen ships each, many designed for the same purpose, or, overlapping in mission profiles. Proponents of the so-called ‘Class One Program’ argued that making hull and engine components standardized throughout the fleet would be more economically feasible, both in construction of new ships and in the repairs of existing ones. Thus was born the Constitution class. The Constitution was derived from various existing ship designs as a standard to which all existing spaceworthy cruisers could be upgraded, with many design features derived from the groundbreaking Baton Rouge class. The Baton Rouge class, the most advanced ship in the fleet, was then undergoing a substantial upgrade program. At the time, the Constitution design was referred to simply as Starship Class One (with many of the ships’ dedication plaques even referring to them as ‘Starship Class’), but modern Star Fleet parlance insists the class now be referred to by the name of the first ship of the design launched. The elegance of the design lay in its unprecedented simplicity. The basic design called for a cylindrical secondary hull mounted to a streamlined saucer-shaped primary hull via a narrow interconnecting dorsal. Two warp nacelles were to be mounted to the secondary hull at a near 45 degree angle. Numerous other starship designs were derived from the basic components developed for the Constitution class, including frigates, scouts, and the highly controversial dreadnought program of the late 2250s. Constitution class vessels as originally launched were 289 meters long, meters abeam, and meters tall. They were originally designed to carry a crew of approximately 200, but later developments in food synthesizer technology by 2260 allowed ships to be refit to carry crews of up to 450. The ships’ warp drives were incredibly advanced, relying on a three-reactor intermix system that was for years the most advanced in the quadrant. They were rated as Warp Nine engines, but on several occasions demonstrated the ability to achieve speeds in excess of warp factor ten. Most of the Block One Constituiion class ships commissioned were new builds. The first were U.S.S. Constitution, NCC-1700, and U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701, both launched in 2245. Following their launch, other ships were scheduled for upgrades to coincide with their scheduled maintenance cycles. Among the first ships to be upgraded were the U.S.S. Constellation, NCC-1017, formerly a Horizon-class cruiser originally launched in 2200 that had been purposed for warp field dynamics testing during research for the Constitution class, and U.S.S. Republic, NCC-1371, formerly a Baton Rouge class cruiser. As an historic oddity, several ships originally scheduled to be built as other classes, including the U.S.S. Endeavour NCC-1695, were actually upgraded to Constitution specs during their construction and launched before the completion of the prototype herself. The increased displacement of the ‘new’ ships mandated they no longer be referred to simply as cruisers, but rather heavy cruisers, and thus the Star Fleet heavy cruiser was officially born. The Constitution class effectively became the face of the Federation throughout the latter part of the twenty-third century. The U.S.S. Enterprise would go on to become the most distinguished member of her class, and her exploits under command of her third captain, James T. Kirk, are now legendary. However, nearly all of the ships built or refit to Constitution specs went on to distinguish themselves in the annals of history in their own way. Constitution class ships increased the area of known space by hundreds of parsecs. However, the road they paved was not a smooth one. Like the Daedalus class before them, high success was met with high loss. Nearly thirty percent of the Constitution class ships were lost in the line of duty, but few of these losses could be attributed to actual shortfalls in the proven design. It was only the same era of change that led to their creation that would lead to their downfall. By 2270, officials in Starfleet Command (note the change in nomenclature) were calling for the creation of a true supership to combat the increasing threats of the Federation’s neighbors, culminating in the creation of the Excelsior class. The Constitution class itself underwent one massive final refit to specifications pioneered by the redesign of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the 2270s, but by this time many ships in the class were nearly thirty years old or older. The Excelsior class became the new cornerstone of Star Fleet in by the 2290s. A pathfinder Constitution class ship was constructed from existing hull components and new-build engine parts to test the compatibility of the revolutionary advances of the Excelsior development program to the Constitution design. (This ship would later be commissioned for active duty as the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-A.) However, the technology proved difficult to graft onto the aging Constitution class, and so their fate was sealed. By 2330, there was only one Constitution class ship left in active service: the U.S.S. Republic, which is currently the oldest commissioned ship in the fleet, a training cruiser attached to Star Fleet Academy. She retains her configuration as launched in 2249 after her refit to Class One specs, with only minor upgrades in safety systems. The rest of the Constitutions were either scrapped or retired to secured Federation surplus depots in the event they were needed in the future. Such a need arose in 2369, when the U.S.S. Oriskany, NCC-1790, was rushed back into service to meet the Borg invasion at Wolf 359 and was ultimately lost in the line of duty. Several other moth-balled Constitutions were re-activated during the Dominion War for service within the Federation border, mostly seeing only light combat and serving support roles. All of these ships were retired again almost immediately after the cessation of hostilities, most of them scheduled to finally be scrapped, though two are being considered for restoration and addition to the Star Fleet Museum collection, representing the 2255-2269 era and the 2295-2330 eras respectively. More soon!
And yet, there wasn't more. I can't believe I actually found this misplaced thread. Perhaps this thread would be better suited in Trek Tech. Would a mod mind moving it there for me? Since I found it, I want to work on it again while I have the time (read: unemployed), if that's okay. Riiiiise from the dead, thread, riiiiiise!
Indeed. That was part of the problem. I didn't have time. Now I do, and I have some digging, scanning and redrawing to do. In the meantime, here's this warfleet chart again: And the post-war Icarus: