Uss achilles from Voyager Fleet??

[Christopher]

But they would need something a lot more aerodynamic than a big box to fly in a slipstream tunnel!

No, they wouldn't. You're completely misunderstanding the principle, perhaps because you're taking the name "slipstream" too literally. Quantum slipstream ships need to be relatively narrow, but beyond that, the specifics of shape are irrelevant. Something shaped like a log would work just as well as something shaped like a dart, as long as they were both narrow enough to fit in the conduit.

Not even the Sovereign-class ships, even with their oblong saucers and sleek engineering sections, have slip-stream capabilities.

That's not about "aerodynamics," it's simply about how wide the ship is. A wider ship would need a wider slipstream conduit to get through, and the wider the conduit, the more power it takes and the harder it is to stabilize. You were on the right track when you talked in terms of going through a tunnel. It's purely a matter of clearance.

More importantly, it's about the novel editors not wanting the E-E to be slipstream-equipped at this point. The rest is just a handwave to justify that decision.

 

[Clawhammer]

I discussed this with Kirsten a bit, the ship had to be long to house everything, but not too wide to make Slipstream impossible. The Mulciber class has rather classic "cargo freighter" layout. Probably Achilles is the only 1 of it's class that has been retrofitted with QSD systems and oversized nacelles.

What I wrote to Kirsten in 2010:
Achilles:
I'm excited about the Achilles having a "carrier" role also. I guess the shape of the Achilles would be more boxy with a lot of bay doors on both sides. Maybe something along the lines of the Karemman freighter from an episode of DS9: practical while still having some kind of "slipstream narrow" appearance. I'm pretty sure that the current canon ships do not meet up to the required specs and internal volume. So this probably would become a new design. In size I'm thinking about 800 to 1000 meters.
I agree that the Achilles was already in service before project Full Circle. It seems impossible to plan, construct and test such a large & critical ship in such a short period of time. I changed the registry number into NCC-77024 to reflect this.

For me the order of construction/design is now:
Demeter
Voyager
Achilles
Galen

Final goal is to have a poster (a massive poster) with the entire fleet on it.

Getting Vesta class in Star Trek Online took a lot of energy and I'm currently working on a non Trek ship, but will return to Demeter asap.

 

[Fer]

Final goal is to have a poster (a massive poster) with the entire fleet on it.

I eagerly await it with baited breath. Thanks for all your work!

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Funny how some people have pictured the Achilles based upon STO designs. I've pictured it as looking like the STO Jupiter class (which I think looks like a trigger fish) but not so big.
http://www.stowiki.org/Federation_Dreadnought

 

[Markonian]

I find the Jupiter-class dreadnought... not aesthetically pleasing. Also, it clashes with the novel description, which says: elongated, triangular saucer and two upswept nacelles.

Even in-game, the Jupiter-class dreadnoughts has been replaced by Galaxy-X-class dreadnoughts, mostly, e.g. USS Victory.