Eclipse Class

The Eclipse class was a parallel development to the Asia class. The original plan was to build two prototypes of the new Asia class, one with nacelles above and one with nacelle below the engineering hull. Starfleet Command, however, rejected this idea from the Corps of Engineering and demanded the decision about the nacelle arrangement to be made already on the drawing board. The engineers decided in favor of the "nacelles up" design. And so the idea of an alternative nacelle arrangement was shelved for a decade.

In 2204 however, when the prototype of the Asia class had just been launched, Starfleet Command surprisingly ordered the construction of a more versatile vessel based on the Asia class. The new class was expected to include all the innovative technology of the Asia but without the possibility to easily convert it to a testbed, a role that should remain solely with the Asia class. The Corps of Engineering unearthed the plans for the alternative nacelle arrangement, but only as a starting point to enable an accelerated development. The finished Eclipse class was an entirely new ship class, although it relied on many components known from the Asia. The warp drive remained substantially the same, and its performance could be improved, boosting the top speed to Warp 5.4. Moreover, owing to the compact arrangement of its hull components the Eclipse class was more maneuverable. A large shuttlebay occupied the aft half of the sensor hull, while engineering was moved into a new section attached to the aft end of the saucer. Although designed to act primarily as a science vessel, the Eclipse class was equipped with weapons comparable to the Asia class.

The ships served in its role as science vessels till the 2260s, and were then downgraded to transport vessels. A crew complement of 20 turned out sufficient for this purpose, so a large portion of the saucer section could be transformed into cargo bays. USS Panama, the last ship of this class in service, was decommissioned as late as 2305, still equipped with the old propulsion system it had received in 2212.

 

Gallery

 

Datasheet

 

Credits

Thanks to Jay Hagen for his 3D model.

 

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