Shuttle classification is even less connected to the real-world naval terminology than ship classification in Trek. The system of simple numbers or letters in place of holdover names like Frigate offers so much more room for speculation... So I'd like to hear everybody's views on how it all works.

We know shuttles in TNG are "type-6" or "type-7" etc. We also see a veritable parade of shuttle types and subtypes within no more than a decade of the late 24th century. So how the heck are the numbers so low? And what is the meaning of the designations "light shuttle" and "medium shuttle", or "personnel shuttle" and "cargo shuttle", thrown around in the TNG TM? And what about the TOS "Class F"?

I like to think that light shuttles represent one category where nine types have been introduced so far. Of these we have seen types 6, 8 and 9. Medium shuttles also form a family, although we have only seen type 7 so far. And cargo shuttles are a family, too, with only type 9 in evidence but types 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8 undoubtedly also in Starfleet service or retired. Shuttlepods are a further family, and other so far unseen families can also be postulated.

So at one stroke, the number of available designs grows from ten or so (if type 10 for the DS9 shuttle is correct, and not another type in the DS9 TM) to fifty or sixty, which sounds more realistic. And the families in turn might be designated according to a letter scheme, explaining the TOS "Class F" as well. The colletion of families could then extend to larger craft as well, to encompass the "Class J" and "Class S" ships we hear about.

As for defining a "light" or "medium" shuttle, or the various "letter families"... Dread for the next post!

Timo Saloniemi

Also, I think the types-6, -7, and -8 were meant to all be part of the same numbering scheme. The theory that the 7 is part of something else is valid, but I doubt that it's what they intended.

If "light personnel shuttles" indeed get a family of their own, with types 6, 8 and 9 members of it, one just might extend the scheme backwards to the TOS shuttle. Say, type 6 could be the product of the 2350s, with an unseen stablemate. Type 8 could be from the late 2360s, with type 7 its "medium family" stablemate. Then there would be a type 5 in the mid-2320s, a type 4 in the 2290s, a type 3 to serve as the shuttle seen in STV:TFF, and a type 2 to go with the TMP environment, making the TOS shuttle type 1 (which is what many people call it anyway). And the "light personnel shuttle" family would be also known as "Class F", to explain "The Menagerie".

The various TAS shuttles could go to other families - the "Mudd's Passion" one could be a "medium shuttle" (Class G?) similar to TNG type 7, or even a "heavy shuttle" (Class H?) due to its two-deck layout. Aquashuttles would of course get their own family. The shuttle from "Slaver Weapon", also glimpsed in "Mudd's Passion", could be a cargo shuttle or a runabout or whatever, or then the "type 2 class F light personnel shuttle" I suggested for TMP era.

Just say if I sound too excited about this