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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Shik: [QB] That's kind of what I did with [i]Constellation[/i]. I postulated that it began the same time as [i]Excelsior[/i], with that class being a showcase of new tech, new drives, new looks, all that & [i]Constellation[/i] being the neglected cruiser that had to make do with what was available while its sibling got all the good stuff This is what I wrote; no edits have been entered yet: [QUOTE]In the interim, work proceeded on the other "off the shelf" cruiser class. Both new classes addressed the problem of a frontier so expanded that transit to and from the interior core of the Federation was becoming problematic. Speed was definitely necessary to a solution: [i]Excelsior[/i] was now betting its farm on transwarp drive with all the hopes and dreams associated with it; the second starship had to make do with what was available, with all the attendant problems that engineers and theorists had been struggling with for years. When the project was authorized in 2277 under the name [i]Constellation[/i], it was already evident that[i]Excelsior[/i] would be receiving the lion's share of support, publicity, and research. This, too, somewhat mirrored the relationship between the Supercruiser classes after production began. Rivalry often breeds innovation, however, which certainly became the case in this situation. From the outset, [i]Constellation[/i] design teams shunned anything even remotely useable as a possible solution by their counterparts working on Excelsior, sometime to the extreme. The final design created by the project engineers completely encapsulated this philosophy. The problem faced by the team was the same as their rivals: creation of a larger cruiser for extended deep-space missions with increased speeds and ranges. Since traditional solutions to the problem had not been fruitful, and the limitation of using only currently available systems had been imposed, non-traditional concepts were the only avenue left to them. To increase volume, rather than describing larger hulls had previously been done, [i]Constellation[/i] was actually made smaller than other proposals, with a 310-meter length comparable to [i]Constitution[/i]'s 305 meters (and much less than [i]Excelsior[/i]'s projected 460). Rather than the usual dual-hull arrangement, the designers used the Sentinel ships and the new [i]Knox[/i]-class as touchstones for ways to increase hull volume without increasing size appreciably. A decision was made to keep the ship as a saucer-only configuration; volume problems were solved by thickening the saucer by two decks at its widest point and adding an outer ring section, which tapered in a truncated teardrop shape to the stern. Study of current warp theories and creation of radically modified field envelope control software allowed the designers to give [i]Constellation[/i] a brand-new never-before-possible warp configuration. Instead of the usual twin-nacelle tandem configuration, [i]Constellation[/i] mounted four nacelles, in a two-up/two-down arrangement. This was paired with a twin impulse system—two standard decks mounted port and starboard, on a 90-degree change of standard orientation—and an uprated linear intermix reactor system. The warp core was able to supply power to either upper or lower pairs of nacelles for standard cruising, or to both sets at once for faster speeds albeit at greatly increased consumption rates. Sensor systems, scanning equipment, and other mission-swappable instrumentation were placed within external blisters to conserve space for habitable volume within the hull. In every possible way, [i]Constellation[/i] was the anti-[i]Excelsior[/i]: short, stumpy, clunky, and ungainly, taking the current fleet aesthetic and pushing it to its extremes as opposed to the naturally evolved smooth, sweeping, pleasing new design lines of its brother class. Placed side by side, the two could not possibly have beenmore different.[/QUOTE] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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