Warptugs and cargo pods

[shipfisher]

Always great to get a real world situation convincingly extrapolated into a trek tech scenario. Thanks Cary.

I'm guessing then that cargo pods would be packing something akin to that "subspace governor" the NX-01 had mounted in the centreline pod between the nacelles.

 

[Lyon_Wonder]

The 24th century Curry class, which is essentially an Excelsior-class saucer with it's own warp nacelles connected with what looks like a separate, detachable hull, looks like it can be used as a cargo tug. Though the secondary hull looked it was used as shuttle or troop transport during the dominion war, the saucer would likely also attatch to cargo hull sections, in the same way as the TOS-era Ptolemy.

 

[Timo]

Really, if one assumes the Curry secondary hull is scaled according to the nacelles rather than being a full-size Excelsior component, it

a) becomes way too small to serve as a hangar for shuttles or fighters
b) becomes ideally sized for cradling one of 'em Franz Joseph style cargo cylinders, just like the ventral grapple of FJ's Ptolemy tugs.

We could even take slight liberties with interpreting those parts of the Curry that weren't visible on screen, and curving the ventral curve a tad more, so that it would snugly match the bulging forward end of a FJ cargo container.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Harry]

Hello there!

First of all.. being referred to by last name only is a bit awkward, feel free to call me Harry . I'm just back from holidays and my first bunch of exams, but I'll see what I have lying around about these designs, since I remember coming up with about 4 variants. If I were to tackle the Imhotep again, I would probably reduce the size of the hull quite dramatically, really going for a more minimalistic automated vehicle.

I'll see if I can cook something up to show you.

 

[MyClone]

Really, if one assumes the Curry secondary hull is scaled according to the nacelles rather than being a full-size Excelsior component, it

a) becomes way too small to serve as a hangar for shuttles or fighters
b) becomes ideally sized for cradling one of 'em Franz Joseph style cargo cylinders, just like the ventral grapple of FJ's Ptolemy tugs.

We could even take slight liberties with interpreting those parts of the Curry that weren't visible on screen, and curving the ventral curve a tad more, so that it would snugly match the bulging forward end of a FJ cargo container.

I'm a big fan of "squinting" at these kitbashed designs to turn them into something more reasonable with the same general shape.

The 24th century Curry class, which is essentially an Excelsior-class saucer with it's own warp nacelles connected with what looks like a separate, detachable hull, looks like it can be used as a cargo tug. Though the secondary hull looked it was used as shuttle or troop transport during the dominion war, the saucer would likely also attatch to cargo hull sections, in the same way as the TOS-era Ptolemy.

Agreed that considering the Curry to be an upgraded Ptolemy is the most reasonable interpretation. If the Curry was a troop transport, that would surely account for its shape and size. (Assuming that the pod had its own impulse engines like the FJ passenger model, it could even be left off as a mobile staging base once a system had been occupied.) We could even surmise that its apparent age (refit-era engines) might relate to the Federation's infrequent need for troop transports in the time between TOS and TNG.

Thanks,
--MyClone

 

[Harry]

Here we go, a summary of all the somewhat presentable stuff I found regarding cargo containers.

http://fleetyard.net/temp/trek/containers-summary.png

First of, the standard container, a rather simple 200 meter long cylinder with a 20 meter radius. They are really quite remarkably huge, but I suppose you need that for interstellar transport to be meaningful. I suppose there could be shorter variants that only have the front and aft connectors, and not the full topside connector assembly.

Next, my interpretation of the Vanguard class from SFC (I can't find any pictures of the SFC drawing online, but I'm sure you're familiar with it). It's basic premise is of a War-era (fuel?) transport continuing life as a 23rd century robotug.

Below that is my Class T 'tugboat', mostly an inner system craft that can tow (unpowered) containers around. There are containers that can fly themselves around (think of FJ's starliner version), but most are 'dumb' containers.

And there we have the Imhotep as well and some variants: top to bottom, there's an dangerous goods transport, a 'tandem carrier' and a tractor beam based general tug. As I said, I'm thinking of slimming it down, and old concept of that idea is presented as well.

Another concept I had, but never worked out, is taking SFC's Watt class and turning it into a tandem container carrier. Possibly even carrying 4 containers as in Reverend's configuration.

 

[Wingsley]

^^ Interesting concepts. I'm glad I started this thread.

 

[varek]

You've put in a lot of time with these schematics, and they look great!

However, I have always had a complaint with nacelles whose exhaust-end (so to speak) is forward of the stern of that ship. I always worry that the aerodynamics--even within a warp-bubble--of such vessels would cause dangerous fields and forces behind the nacelles.

 

[Wingsley]

I would actually like to see warptug concepts that has extra-long nacelles, so long that the nacelles would actually be slightly longer than the "train".