Only One Nacelle

[Bry_Sinclair]

There are examples out there of ships designed with only one nacelle (Hermes/Saladin and Freedom spring immediately to mind), so we know a stable warp field is possible with a singular engine. These ships were always built with this in mind, but what about ships with two nacelles (i.e. pretty much the rest of the fleet), if they took heavy damage to the starboard nacelle would they be able to warp out on the port one alone? I can't think of any examples of this happening, but surely it must be an option--even for a short time.

 

[ALF]

Potentially.
TNG's Cause and Effect shows us even an indirect impact to one nacelle caused cataclysmic damage enough to cause a warp core breach within seconds. Not sure how the Bozeman came through without a scratch... but yeah the nacelles and the warp coils within are there to generate the warp field, the enclosure that makes it possible for the ship to move FTL.

Maybe it depends on the skill+experience of the engineering team. We saw Wesley Crusher and The Traveler mess around with the geometery of the warp field in early TNG. Something like that?

PS: Is the most recognizable, canon, one-nacelle Starfleet ship now the USS Kevlin? I think casual viewers may dismiss the upper hull as another nacelle.

 

[Ithekro]

I believe we've seen both USS Voyager and the NX-01 Enterprise operate on only one working nacelle at significantly reduced speeds.

 

[Timo]

Yup. "Year of Hell" for the former, "Twilight" for the latter. We never learned how much exactly the loss of one nacelle hurt the NCC-74656, but the NX-01 was reduced to warp 1.4 from her supposed usual warp 5 or thereabouts. In both cases, the heroes apparently merely rerouted the power a bit in order to accomodate running one nacelle down.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Yup. "Year of Hell" for the former, "Twilight" for the latter. We never learned how much exactly the loss of one nacelle hurt the NCC-74656, but the NX-01 was reduced to warp 1.4 from her supposed usual warp 5 or thereabouts. In both cases, the heroes apparently merely rerouted the power a bit in order to accomodate running one nacelle down.

Timo Saloniemi

But their maximum speed and maximum sustainable speed drops like a rock!

 

[Lakenheath 72]

The destruction of the Enterprise is not clear in Cause and Effect, as we have seen other starships lose nacelles and not be destroyed as catastrophically as the E. For example, the Reliant, which had its port nacelle blasted off. Worse, a careful examination of the explosion shows that it was the port nacelle exploding which lead to the final result. This nacelle was not touched by the Bozeman.

 

[Ithekro]

Enteprise, in "Cause and Effect" had lost power prior to the impact. Internal dampeners seemed to be offline as well if I recall correctly. The safety systems likely were unable to engage, thus the ship eventually suffers a warp core breech, resulting in its destruction. It is unclear if Bozeman was also destroyed during those loops.