Pre Q-Wing^tm:
The Altairan have had low Warp capability for several centuries. Until the introduction of the Q-Wing^tm design their fastest ships could barely reach Warp 9.

Generation 0 (GEN 0):
Introduction of the Q-Wing^tm design.
The first test ship was made. It was a small 2-seat spacecraft. The crew: one pilot and one person who monitored the situation. The first flight was a complete success. Several bigger test ships were made to research several different shapes of ships and wings.

Ships build:

• The first Q-Wing^tm prototype.
  
• Several other test ships.
  

GEN 1:
The first military production models were introduced. But there was a problem. The power cores could be bigger than a certain size. Any bigger than that would not add any efficiency at all. The generators themselves tend to fill about 1/3 to 1/2 of a ships internal volume. As a result only small scouts and attack ships were made. None of these ship were longer than 100m.
The rest of the ships still use the standard Warp design.

GEN 1 design elements:

• Two single sided Q-Wings^tm.
  
• Standard Impulse engines.
  

GEN 1 Ships:

• Scouts.
  
• Small attack ships.
  

GEN 2:
Rapid progress was made in advancing the Q-Wing^tm designs. The power cores were a lot smaller and the Q-Wings^tm became double sided. The GEN 1 ships were refitted to GEN 2 standards. As a result, a lot of internal volume could be used for other stuff. Almost all GEN 1 refitted ships were turned into public and personal transports. The new power cores had no limit in size, so the design filosophy became: 'Big and powerfull'.
New military ships were also fitted with the new wide beam phasers.

GEN 2 design elements:

• Two double sided Q-Wings^tm.
  
• Standard Impulse engines.
  
• Smaller power cores.
  
• Wide beam phasers.
  

GEN 2 Ships:

• GEN 1 ship converted to civilian ships.
  
• Big attack ships (3km long, several hundreds build).
  
• Motherships/Remote bases (23km long, 3 completed, each permenantly equiped with 1 Big attack ship).
  

GEN 3:
Introduction of the Hyper Impulse engines and trust vectoring system. The new design filosophy : 'Fast and agile'. Most ships are now equiped and upgraded with 4 double sided Q-Wings^tm, for extra speed and stability.

GEN 3 design elements:

• Four double sided Q-Wings^tm.
  
• Hyper Impulse engines.
  
• Extra Small power cores.
  
• Wide beam phasers.
  

GEN 3 Ships:

• Almost all big attack ships are converted to GEN 3 standards.
  
• All 3 motherships are conveted to GEN 3 standards, and are now permenantly equiped with one big attack ship and 12 small attack ships.
  
• Small attack ships (500m long, thousands build).
  
• Courier/scouts (100m long).
  
• Several other types of ships.
  

GEN 4:
Clasified!!

As you may have seen, the Altairan have huge resources, this is because they control a vast amount of space.

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Altair's Sci-Fi Homepage

[This message has been edited by Altair (edited August 30, 1999).]
 

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"If you're at a a concert and somebody steps on your foot, let it slide. Its not worth getting 20 years because somebody smuged your puma."-Chris Rock