Mid-24th Century Ships

Time frame: ca. 2330-2355

Starship designs from this era include the New Orleans, Cheyenne and Nebula classes, several more ships that appeared only as wreckage in TNG: "Best of Both Worlds" and also the Galaxy, which is being developed in the 2340's and 2350's.

Looking at all these designs, it is obvious that ellipsoid main hull shapes and rounded almond-shaped engineering hulls dominate in the mid-24th century. (The real-world reason is that several models such as the already Challenger, New Orleans, Cheyenne and Springfield were built from existing Enterprise-D kits, and even the fully fledged models of the Freedom and the Niagara by Greg Jein were laid out to be "sister designs" of the Galaxy.) Likewise, the transition from the hull to the neck is usually smooth now. The ships have more and larger windows than the Ambassador class. The formerly short phaser strips have been extended to rings on the saucer top and bottom, the Galaxy's phasers being of Type X. There are no sensor domes any more, but sensor pallets are combined to strips which run around the hull, mostly in the saucer and engineering hull rims. Deflector dishes look more sophisticated than before, now sporting an additional center part. All nacelles always have the blue glowing plasma stripe and the red Bussard collector in common.

Ships of the mid-24th century achieve velocities well beyond Warp 9. Hull numbers range from NCC-40000 to NCC-70000.