Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Danube Class maximum warp speed?

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Posted by nx001a (Member # 291) on :

After watching ds9 for the last 7 years i was wondering do we know how fast a runabout is?

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

Warp 4.7 was the original writers' manual suggestion.

In "Dax", a speed below warp 5 is supported: Sisko asks Kira to see which ships the kidnappers of Dax could be using, and Kira lists those capable of warp 5, supposedly because these can outrun the pursuit Sisko could give in a runabout. After all, Sisko has no other ships in his possession at that time. And confiscating a civilian ship would probably not help in retrieving Dax, since only the runabouts would be armed.

The only other tidbit on runabout speeds I know of comes from "Jem'Hadar"; after disabling the runabout's autopilot, Jake Sisko tells the craft to fly back to the wormhole at warp eight. He *might* know what he is talking about, since he's been taking lessons from O'Brien (enough to know how to disable the autopilot, anyway). Then again, he's probably just ignorant of the true maximum speed of the craft.

Then there are various travel time & distance calculations, but those almost never make any sense. For example "Whispers" suggests O'Brien can reach a Gamma star system in way less than an hour, even though supposedly Irdan would be the closest system at some five lightyears, according to "Emissary". So either the runabouts can easily outfly a Galaxy or an Intrepid - or then Irdan really isn't the closest system (perhaps it was the closest the computer could recognize in "Emissary") and the target system was less than a lightyear from the wormhole.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

I thought a runabout had a maximum warp speed of about warp 8?? I remember that they have mentioned warp 8 several times on a runabout...

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Posted by TerraZ on :

In the 6th season TNG ep where Picard and friends come back in a Runabout to find the E-D frozen in time with a Warbird, I though I heard say "increase to warp 9" but my memory's a blur (damn, I used to remember the name of pratically every TNG ep)

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Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

I don't think Picard ordered such a velocity in "Timescape". He may have simply demanded "maximun warp".

I think the Warp 4.7 is consistent with the function of runabouts as medium-range support craft, rather than long-range transports or scouts.

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

*D'Oh*

[This message has been edited by AndrewR (edited February 10, 2000).]

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

Of course shuttles can go to Warp 10!

And how about that Shuttle Scotty was given - we don't know wether it had a Warp Drive! he might be STILL in that Star System...

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Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

Jake and Nog tried to get the computer to take the runabout to warp 8 in "The Jem'Hadar", but they may not have known what the maximum warp was (although Jake was studying with O'Brien at the time, and you'd imagine he'd know their maximum warp...).

Posted by Black Knight (Member # 134) on :

One of the original sketches for the Runabouts by Rick Sternbach says its maximum speed is warp 4.7. It seems good to me.

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Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

Why would people use runabouts to go from DS9 to Earth if it goes only as slow as warp 4.7??

Warp 4.7 is 101,6 times the speed of light (according to my warp speed calculator).
Warp 8 is 1024 times the speed of light, that is a factor of 10 faster.

And another thing: I know many of you don't like 'Threshold', but Paris started the transwarp drive when the shuttle was at about warp 9 (about 1500 times the speed of light).

I'm sorry, but ifs a shuttle can reach warp 9, I'm sticking with warp 8 for a runabout.

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"Reality is a condition that occurs because of a lack of alcohol."
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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

Have people really traveled between DS9 and Earth in a runabout?

I remember Dr Bashir in "Defiant" trying to ask for a runabout from Kira so that he could get something from Vulcan - and the supposed travel time mentioned by Bashir was only a week! But in absence of other evidence, the runabout might only have been needed for a trip to SB375 or something, with a faster large starship going from there to Vulcan on a regular run at warp 8+.

In other cases, runabouts were not used for intra-Federation traffic all that much. The Defiant was the chosen mode of travel when available (to the chargin of those who felt the ship was needed to defend Bajor or the station). I cannot remember a single reference to an actual Bajor-Earth run by a runabout.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Dax (Member # 191) on :

Well, Sisko took a runabout from DS9 to Earth at the end of "Tears of the Prophets". Later (in "Shadows and Symbols") he used the same runabout to find the Orb of the Emissary and return to the station.

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

Oops! Nicely spotted.

Of course, one could argue that the craft still puttered along at warp 4.7, since Sisko and pals had the whole three months of the between-seasons hiatus to spend on the little trips... Or that Sisko actually hitchhiked on bigger ships, using the runabout only for the "walk to the bus stop" or "ride to the airport" part.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by nx001a (Member # 291) on :

Therefore we can say that the danube class warp speeds are:

normal cruising speed warp 3
maximum cruising speed warp 4
maximum speed about warp 4.8 - 5 for 12 hours

Not very fast but consistent with the show. Is the yellowstone class runabout the same then?

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Posted by Black Knight (Member # 134) on :

Are you talking about the one seen in the VGR episode 'Non Sequitor'(sp?) designed by Harry Kim? If thats the case, that runabout never existed. So your question is sort of moot.

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Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

And it used a different form of warp, anyway, IIRC, so it was probably more efficient.

I personally believe warp 8 fits best with canon, the one first-season possible hint aside.

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Perhaps runabouts only did warp 4.7 in season one, but were later upgraded. There may have been a breakthrough in microcore warp technology (to coin a phrase). Perhaps this is the same technology used for the tiny warp drive on the one section of the Prometheus. Normally, one wouldn't expect the little section to be able to keep up w/ the other two, assuming its warp drive was akin to that of a runabout or shuttle. But, obviously, tiny warp drives are now capable of speeds equal to that of full starships.

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Posted by Black Knight (Member # 134) on :

And that technology could also be applicable to the Delta Flyer...

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"I am a hyena. A hyena is an animal who laughs when there is nothing funy to laugh at. This is the sound a hyena makes. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha."--W.E.B. Griffen, Semper Fi