Why is there so much fuss over the term "starship"? What's wrong with assuming that it is what it is - just like "airship" or "steamship"?
Which 12 Constitution class starships in "Tomorrow is Yesterday"?
- Thread starter Enterprise1701
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Another issue should be considered in the discussion of starship classes:
As I understand it (and maybe someone in the Navy could help out here), just because two aircraft carriers are both designated "Nimitz-class" doesn't mean everything on-board ship is identical between the two of them, or other members of that class of ship. The ship-class is a spec, not an FJ-style plan for cloning an image of one ship. There can be subtle differences between ships of the same class in a modern navy. Perhaps it is reasonable to assume the same thing is true of Federation starships in TREK.
Note that the Bridge sound effects of the U.S.S. Lexington ("The Ultimate Computer"), U.S.S. Defiant ("The Tholian Web"), and U.S.S. Exeter ("The Omega Glory") are significantly different than those of Kirk's U.S.S. Enterprise at the same time. While there could be multiple reasons for this, it does seem to strongly suggest that not all starships, presumably of the same class, would be identical.
As I understand it (and maybe someone in the Navy could help out here), just because two aircraft carriers are both designated "Nimitz-class" doesn't mean everything on-board ship is identical between the two of them, or other members of that class of ship. The ship-class is a spec, not an FJ-style plan for cloning an image of one ship. There can be subtle differences between ships of the same class in a modern navy. Perhaps it is reasonable to assume the same thing is true of Federation starships in TREK.
Note that the Bridge sound effects of the U.S.S. Lexington ("The Ultimate Computer"), U.S.S. Defiant ("The Tholian Web"), and U.S.S. Exeter ("The Omega Glory") are significantly different than those of Kirk's U.S.S. Enterprise at the same time. While there could be multiple reasons for this, it does seem to strongly suggest that not all starships, presumably of the same class, would be identical.
I do want to give you a answer to some of your question on the ship names, yes they did name real ship name but only if the navy gave them to use the name of a ship that is not in service. It is easy to look up the name of a real ship but you will fine out that the gov took off a lot of ship out of service after WWII only if you got a letter from the navy dod.
I think a lot of this stems from confusion over the term "Starship class" in TOS. It seems clear - to me, anyway - that the term should have been "Starship TYPE."
The word 'Class', in its literal form, is simply the name of the first ship of that class to be built. That's all it is. So for there to literally be a "Starship class", there'd have to be a USS Starship, which obviously makes little sense. But since it was just used on the 1701's dedication plaque, which isn't really clearly legible onscreen, they let it go.
By the time the Defiant bridge was recreated in precise detail for "In a Mirror, Darkly", they used the correct term: Constitution CLASS. The ship's *type* is starship, but its *class* is Constitution. Which is retroactive, and how it should be.
The word "class" is used interchangeably with "type" or "category" in today's naval parlance, too - at least in certain cases. People still speak of AEGIS class ships, meaning all those ships equipped with this integrated air defense suite; originally, "AEGIS class" was synonymous with Ticonderoga class, the only ship class mounting the system, but nowadays it applies to two USN and several foreign ship classes. The expressions "destroyer class" and "cruiser class" are used on occasion, too.
It isn't a stretch at all to interpret "starship class" as meaning that this ship and her sisters all belong to the starship category (and so do certain other designs), whereas certain other ships instead belong to "destroyer class" or "starboat class" or whatever futuristic designations are in use in the 23rd century.
The alternative is to consider the thematic naming of ships today. The Royal Navy has several ship classes that have been known as the Town class, as every ship is named after a town (but none is named HMS Town!); several known as the County class; yet more known as Island class or Bay class, etc. Royal Navy dedication plaques do not refer to such class identities, but Starfleet ones might - so perhaps the Constitution class is one of the several Starfleet ship classes where the only unifying theme in naming is that every ship has been named after a past starship!
Timo Saloniemi
It isn't a stretch at all to interpret "starship class" as meaning that this ship and her sisters all belong to the starship category (and so do certain other designs), whereas certain other ships instead belong to "destroyer class" or "starboat class" or whatever futuristic designations are in use in the 23rd century.
The alternative is to consider the thematic naming of ships today. The Royal Navy has several ship classes that have been known as the Town class, as every ship is named after a town (but none is named HMS Town!); several known as the County class; yet more known as Island class or Bay class, etc. Royal Navy dedication plaques do not refer to such class identities, but Starfleet ones might - so perhaps the Constitution class is one of the several Starfleet ship classes where the only unifying theme in naming is that every ship has been named after a past starship!
Timo Saloniemi
This happens in Trek, too... Chekov referred to a "scout class" vessel in TSFS.
The list of themed class ships includes a ship that is sure to strike fear into the heart of its enemies... the Flower Class Corvette. (Interesting note: Canada also used Flower Class Corvettes, but because of our naming traditions, they were named after towns instead of flowers!)
Canada's own navy has used a mix of theme classes and lead-ship name classes in the past, since we take traditions from both the British and the Americans equally!
(In current times, though, we seem to stick uniformly with the lead-ship name method.) However, Starfleet seems to be fairly consistent on the whole, so my preference would be to keep things simple, and not have Starfleet use themed classes.
I think part of the fuss arises from the dialog in Bread and Circuses where Merrick specifically states that a "starship" is something special.
Unless it's "USS Enterprise Starship Class" and when they made the sign they were applying Jeffries' "first ship of the seventeenth design" idea, and Enterprise was originally intended to be the class ship.
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I my self would like to see more of the inside of the starship as well of the out side of it as well to, but I do know there is not a hole lot of info of the ship in metric and this is what I am looking for in the ship so I can work out my plans of how big the ship can be built?. I know there is a lot of you say it can't be dun. How do you know do you have any computer cad program that do it?, if so what is the program name and where did you get it from on the website?. I my self would like to get it but it can't be no demo. It got to be under $75.99 for me to get the program and got to be a full working program.
