Safari Class

[sojourner]

OK, another design I am playing with. One day I'll actually finish one.

This is what I am calling the Safari Class. This ship is designed for small science teams sent to do research on remote un-inhabited planets. The ship is small enough to land and act as a base for the scientists to work out of. As such, it is too small to carry shuttles, though it does have a small vehicle bay containing "air cars" for remote work. I figure the ship holds at most 30-40 people with only about 15 of them proper crew and the rest part of the scientific team. Service period would have been soon after Excelsior Class ships became wide spread leading up to early TNG period for some. The ship would have been considered too minor for anything but the most cosmetic of updates, being cheaper to just build newer units.

As far as the design, the layout is how I want it. The shape of the primary hull is final, if not detailed. The nacelles as well. The additional superstructure is still in flux. I know I want that platform on the back with the vehicle bay on top. The two fins need something and may change shape.

Any input is welcome!

Edit: oops, original images were too big. Lets try again.

 

[Patrickivan]

I like the overall concept & simplicity. I'd like to see something to give an indication of its size though.
I'm not too keen on the "fins"- though you said you'd probably change them. I can see their use if they're holding some kind of sensor pods...

I'm curious if you're content with where the nacelles are contected support pylons? They seem a little off to me.

Otherwise, I like it- and that you're designing a ship for an era that is typically forgotten.

 

[Albertese]

There is a guy in each image. I can only imagine he's there for scale purposes.

--Alex

 

[StarCruiser]

I rather like it.

Clean and simple, and very appropriate for the task. Appears to be barely 3-4 decks thick.

It's so rare to see anyone try to design anything other than the latest 'über-schiffe'...

 

[judge alba]

nice I look forwards to seeing more.
I know what you mean about finishing it, I have several designs I've gotten halfway to then forgot as I move onto another idea.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I'm curious if you're content with where the nacelles are contected support pylons? They seem a little off to me.

I like it pretty much the way it is, and can't wait to see some detail. BUT - if you do decide to play around with the nacelle struts, I might suggest that since you said this craft will be doing planetary landings in an atmosphere that you could change them up to add some features for that: make them horizontal with a "longer" top than bottom for a little lift, add ailerons and maybe even flaps. Might be worth adding a slight curve to the top of the nacelles, as well. It looks like the saucer already has a longer top than bottom.

I'm not suggesting these features would be the basis of flight - that would probably be antigrav - but they might make the ship a little more manueverable in atmo.

 

[Kaiser]

Looks cool to me so far

 

[sojourner]

I have been having some issues trying to get the substructure to look "right". Nothing seemed to gel for me. So, I changed the ships mission a little. Now, instead of staying with the science teams, it drops off a temporary science station for the team to use. So now the ship can widen it's scope to support several science teams by making periodic supply and personnel runs for all the teams in a given sector (subsector? how big is a sector?), when not delivering new temp science stations.

This gave me the jumping off point for the forms of the aft of the ship. Now, this is still very rough, especially that whole impulse deck and how to melds to the rest of the ship, but I thought I would throw some images up. Cause yeah, I like posting images.

This last image obviously shows how unfinished the ship is, but I thought it would be cool to get a view giving some idea what the ship looks like without a pod in place.

Ship scale hasn't changed, it's only about 5 decks while the pods are only about 4 with lots of non habitat space for stores.

As Vance can probably tell, I always thought the multiple cargo pod uses were cool.

 

[Patrickivan]

I like where you're taking this.

I know you are set on these nacelles, but they are so stubby that they reminded me of something and I couldn't quite place it until now. I really think that the Oberth type nacelles would look better here.

No one uses them on any of their ships- so I'm going to now ...

Seriously, I'm not ragging on your design here. It was just my thought when I saw these nacelles.

 

[Wingsley]

My way of thinking on warptugs: the nacelles should be the same basic style for that era, but much longer. My suggestion: elongate them so they go back at least 1.5 cargo pods. This is a neat ship, and perfect as a TMP/TNG-era warptug. Clever design!

 

[AnyStar]

I like this one, its reminiscent of Luke's landspeeder!

 

[aloha62]

While i like the ships design it doesn't look especially landable.

does it just sit on the bottom of the nacelles?

 

[sojourner]

Yep, just like thousands of other small ships we have seen on the show. I'll probably add some skid pads to them as added detail.

Oh, thinking about using the name "U.S.S. Quartermain", in reference to the Allan Quartermain books. Keeping to the Safari motif.

 

[sojourner]

Small update. The cargo train now has a caboose section! lol, this section will house running lights, thrusters, and part of the system used to hold the pods in place. Basically I envision ribbons/cables that run through the dark bands on the pods and use tension to add rigidity to the structure. As seen in the second image, when not in use the caboose will attach to the aft of the ship.

OK, I am guessing how this will turn out, but which one do people prefer - the longer, beefer nacelles, or the originals?

 

[jaspertjie]

Nah, I don't like the design too much. I don't like stretched saucers too much.

 

[The Axeman]

I'm fine with the design, it's quite cute and a little different. I wouldn't even call that a saucer, it's just the body of the ship and it's just dandy. What I'm not fine with is the whole wagon train idea. It looks unweildy and clunky, I've yet to see anyone make something based on this idea that ever looked practical. I loved the first idea, a planetary exploration and science ship that could act as a base in space or on the ground. That gave great scope for some interesting design ideas and fabulous pictures, not just another ship with a starry background.

 

[jaspertjie]

Maybe it's better if you used one long pilon and the cargounits attached to it like this:

 

[Kaiser]

I like either one really

the original ones look like as if Starfleet choped a Excelsior class Nacelle in 1/2 and just stacked the back halfs Warp coils on top of the front half's warp coils this way you get the same speed with just less space

as for the longer ones same thing i suppose they do seem to give the ship a more balanced design

 

[Finn]

Maybe it's better if you used one long pilon and the cargounits attached to it like this:

I think that would make it seem antiquated for the late 23rd to early 24th Centuries

 

[jaspertjie]

Maybe it's better if you used one long pilon and the cargounits attached to it like this:

I think that would make it seem antiquated for the late 23rd to early 24th Centuries

Hmmm... but the further you go in time the rounder edges become so I think If you make the edges rounder with some nice tweeks and textures, It could just make sense.