Star Trek TOS Ship Speeds

[Timo]

...by all rights newer ships ought to be more obviously faster (not just a decimal point faster)...

But is this true? I can think of two arguments to the contrary.

One, warships in the real world haven't gotten any faster after WWII. The technology was not perfected back then, by any means, but modern ships with better engines are not faster. They are merely more fuel-economic, have greater reliability, better acceleration, greater range. There is no good use for speed past 30 knots in modern naval warfare, because a ship can't outrun her main opponents (aircraft, missiles and spysats) anyway, and there are many drawbacks to abandoning the classic boat hullform which limits speeds to 30 knots.

Two, there is no need to assume that technology has developed in leaps and bounds across the Trek eras. Many of the starfaring species that formed the Federation after ENT had already been starfaring for centuries. They had already maxed out on their tech; if it were possible for them to build faster ships, they already would have. It may well be impossible to improve significantly on TOS or even ENT warp propulsion. One may have to invent something else, something falling under the general description of "transwarp".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mytran]

Improvements have been made, in any case. If something the huge size and mass of the Enterprise-D can match and even slightly exceed the speed and economy of the smaller constitution class vessels, I'd call that a definite advancement. Larger does not typically equal faster, after all.

 

[Timo]

It does tend to do just that in certain connections - sailing ships, for example, and those are a major inspiration for our favorite space opera.

Perhaps the advanced races tend to build giant ships because those are easier to make go fast?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ronald Held]

Yes, i must agree.
Although it is involve 40+ years of Trek tarvel example(and misexamples?)

 

[Mytran]

You've got me there. I think I was definitely in a ground-based vehicle state of mind when I wrote that. Of course, large space ships in themselves are a technical advancement, in all sorts of ways.