User:Morwen/Starfleet ship classes

The fictional Star Trek franchise has portrayed, over the years, numerous designs of Starfleet starships, generally based on Matt Jeffries's original saucer-and-nacelles design for the original USS Enterprise, NCC-1701.

Constitution class

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was a Constitution class starship. The ship was designed by Matt Jeffries. This class was the only large Starfleet ship class seen in the the original series : other vessels were represented by models of the Enterprise (sometimes relabelled). According to "Tomorrow is Yesterday", there are 12 ships like her in the fleet.

Originally supposed to be 40 years old in TOS (per Making), Okuda dates it instead at 20 years old. Star Trek: The Motion Picture sees a refit Enterprise, also designed by Matt Jeffries, with noticeably different contours. The Enterprise apparently went out of service at the end of the 23rd century.

The Constitution-class is not seen in the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation, although the similiar #Constellation class is.

1970s variants

The animated series episode "The Time Trap" provided the first look at another Starfleet ship design: the USS Bonaventure.

Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual provided designs for a number of starship classes not seen on screen, similar to the Jeffries' Constitution-class design. These included the Federation class dreadnought and the Saladin class destroyer. Some details of these designs crept into the first few Star Trek movies, but were never firmly established.

Movie-era ships

The Miranda class starship is the second ship class to be seen, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The design is similar to the refitted Constitution-class starships, but with the secondary hull omitted and the nacelles directly attached to the saucer. The name of the class was not firmly established till later.

The Excelsior class starship and the Oberth class starship are both introduced in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the former as a new, next-generation, experimental vessel, and the latter as a science ship.

TNG-era ships

Galaxy class

The Galaxy class USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) is the hero ship for Star Trek: The Next Generation. The ship was designed by Andrew Probert, based on a painting he had made during his involvement on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Galaxy class ships other than the Enterprise are rarely seen in TNG (the USS Yamato is the only one), but they are seen more often in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine once the NCC-1701-D is destroyed.

Re-use of older ships

The Next Generation made frequent re-use of the movie-era models Miranda class starship, Excelsior class starship, Oberth class starship models. The Soyuz class starship was made by a mod from the Miranda model. What about the Constellation class starship?

New ship designs: Ambassador and Nebula

Reportedly, the tech guys were not too happy with the routine use of movie-era designs, and apparently designed in season 2/3 a couple of study models to demonstrate possible options.

The Ambassador class starship was intended to represent a transition form between the Excelsior and Galaxy. It is rarely seen on screen, most prominently as the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) in "Yesterday's Enterprise".

The Nebula class starship: semi-kitbash of Galaxy class. Was built as a study model in TNG season 3, we see a dead Nebula in Best of Both Worlds. A real Nebula appears in "The Wounded".

Danube

Deep Space Nine itself was a Cardassian-built space station. The show saw the introduction of the "runabout", or the Danube class starship, effectively a large warp-capable shuttle. A runabout also appeared in the TNG episode "Timescape".

Defiant class

The Defiant class USS Defiant is a hero ship in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from the 3rd season onwards. Designed by Jim Martin with contributions from visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel and modelmaker Tony Meininger. As with most post-TOS hero shops, the Defiant-class pops up only occasionally representing as other ships.

Intrepid class

Intrepid class starship - another hero ship USS Voyager. Designed by Rick Sternbach. Rarely seen apart from as Voyager.

Sovereign

Sovereign class starship - another hero ship : USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E). Never seen apart from as Enterprise. Designed by Rick Sternbach, Herman Zimmerman, and illustrator John Eaves.

Misc designs

Battle of Wolf 359 various kitbashes, by Greg Jein, Michael Okuda and Ed Miarecki

Apollo (?)
Cheyenne
Challenger
Freedom
New Orleans class starship
Niagara
Rigel
Springfield

Four new starship classes, generated by CGI and designed by Alex Jaeger, appear the battle with the Borg depicted in Star Trek: First Contact. These are the Akira class starship, Norway class starship, Saber class starship and Steamrunner class starship. The Akira, Saber and Steamrummer class ships were seen in the Dominion War of Deep Space Nine. The Norway class has not, apparently because the CGI data for the ship was lost.

Some of these ships have occasionally been seen since, either in episodes or spin-offs.

Random ones:

Bradbury class starship - not seen on screen
Hope class starship (Olympic class starship) - Bill George
Nova class starship - Rich Sternbach - based on early Defiant concepts
Prometheus class starship - Rick Sternbach
Wells class starship - who?

DS9 kitbashes:

Centaur, Shelley etc

Early ships

NX class starship
Bonaventure
Daedalus