Voyagers Aeroshuttle

[PhoenixIreland]

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Aeroshuttle

Would this not have served the purpose of the delta flyer better? or would it have robbed Paris of his retro controls?

 

[exodus]

Honestly, besides the Defiant I've never liked Starfleets design for ships. The Necelles are too exposed. If I were a villian, they be the first things I'd go for.

The Delta Flyer makes sense because the Necelles are close to the body/main hull of the ship. They're not as exposed and harder to hit if fired upon.

 

[Mrs Paris]

It would have been realy cool to see the aeroshuttle. But it's likely that since Voyager was on it's maiden voyage and it was only going on a two week mission, that it wasn't installed and what was on the bottom of the saucer was only a cover. Or it's also possible that it was there and canibalized for parts

 

[Stag]

I heard it was going to be installed next Tuesday.

Yeah, in my own personal VOY canon, the aeroshuttle was never installed, what is there is simply a placeholder/plug.

 

[JNG]

Honestly, besides the Defiant I've never liked Starfleets design for ships. The Necelles are too exposed. If I were a villian, they be the first things I'd go for.

The Delta Flyer makes sense because the Necelles are close to the body/main hull of the ship. They're not as exposed and harder to hit if fired upon.

The ship isn't primarily built for combat, so that would not have been worth the reduced warp efficiency that results from pulling in the nacelles close to the main body of the craft; shuttles have such a limited warp capacity that it must be very important to avoid tradeoffs in this area. This is not to mention that Roddenberry argued that all parts of the ship were equally well protected, the deflector shields being the chief arbiter there. According the Sternbach's article on Aeroshuttle, its shielding is quite robust for what it is.

 

[exodus]

The ship isn't primarily built for combat,

That was another flaw in it's design.

Voyager is built for combat as was the Delta Flyer. It was shortsighted for Starfleet to not make shuttles combat capable for a main ship that was designed for it.

 

[CorporalClegg]

^
Err. Voyager is a scout, not a cruiser.

Combat was a secondary function.

 

[exodus]

^
Err. Voyager is a scout, not a cruiser.

Combat was a secondary function.

Does it really matter?

 

[CorporalClegg]

Well, a scout is designed to be quick and maneuverable. If they have to sacrifice combat capabilities in order to make it so, then yes.

 

[Timo]

To be sure, none of the USN combat-capable vessels today sport combat-capable boats; such auxiliary craft are only found aboard the combat-incapable vessels such as amphibious assault ships, to complement their capabilities. There isn't a known mode of naval fighting today where an armed boat would be of help for an armed ship or vice versa.

Also, exposed nacelles have never been shown to be a combat liability in Trek; only failure to protect them with shields has. And exposed nacelles may well be a combat forte, as the one thing where the Defiant was quite inferior to generic Starfleet ships was speed. With better, exposed engines, she might have outrun pursuit in key episodes such as "Way of the Warrior", or gained on adversaries or reached battlefields faster in others such as "For the Uniform" or "The Die is Cast".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CorporalClegg]

^
But they do have aircraft which could be considered the same concept.

 

[exodus]

Well, a scout is designed to be quick and maneuverable. If they have to sacrifice combat capabilities in order to make it so, then yes.

So how does that translate into making the shuttles more combat ready?

 

[CorporalClegg]

Well, I just don't see why anything called a "shuttle" needs to combat ready.

 

[exodus]

Well, I just don't see why anything called a "shuttle" needs to combat ready.

I thought that was covered when they built the Delta Flyer?

If Voyager was going to be in situtaions with little or no support, even in the Alpha Q.. Wouldn't they need shuttles to handle those same situations inorder to aquire supplies or if they came in contact with a hostle species while on a jaunt. A shuttle in that situation would need to handle itself because there was no gaurentee of back up arriving.

They gave DS9 Runabouts because they foresaw that from DS9 anywhere would be a longer trip. So Runabouts a aquipped accordingly.

 

[CorporalClegg]

^
It was the whole reason they built the Flyer: it was a short range support craft.

A shuttle is just a shuttle. No different than the "shuttle" you take to the airport.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

I get the "in universe" explanation that the aeroshuttle was not installed at Utopia Planitia because they were not finished working out design flaws in it yet.
I still think it would have been a good runabout style alternative, far tougher than the shuttles that they seemed to loose every 5 minutes.

 

[Mrs Paris]

I get the "in universe" explanation that the aeroshuttle was not installed at Utopia Planitia because they were not finished working out design flaws in it yet.
I still think it would have been a good runabout style alternative, far tougher than the shuttles that they seemed to loose every 5 minutes.

yeah, that's what I think too

 

[nx1701g]

^
Err. Voyager is a scout, not a cruiser.

Combat was a secondary function.

Actually in an episode of the series it is mentioned that Voyager was designed specifically for Combat Performance.

I thought that Rick Sternbach said in the last discussion on this topic that the reason IC that the Aeroshuttle wasn't used was because it had been scavenged for parts by the Voyager crew during their trip home.

 

[Mrs Paris]

^
Err. Voyager is a scout, not a cruiser.

Combat was a secondary function.

Actually in an episode of the series it is mentioned that Voyager was designed specifically for Combat Performance.

I thought that Rick Sternbach said in the last discussion on this topic that the reason IC that the Aeroshuttle wasn't used was because it had been scavenged for parts by the Voyager crew during their trip home.

that is certainly a desen explanation, but it also could be likely that it was just never installed in the first place

 

[exodus]

^
Err. Voyager is a scout, not a cruiser.

Combat was a secondary function.

Actually in an episode of the series it is mentioned that Voyager was designed specifically for Combat Performance.

I thought that Rick Sternbach said in the last discussion on this topic that the reason IC that the Aeroshuttle wasn't used was because it had been scavenged for parts by the Voyager crew during their trip home.

Makes sence, they could replicate parts but not warp cores.