posted
Here's the Excelsior II variant write-up by The359. No diagrams with this one either.
Excelsior Type II (Enterprise-B Type)
In the early 2270's, with work underway on the new Excelsior/Transwarp Project, Starfleet began computer simulations on the long term uses of the Excelsior, and found her to be very stable and capable of multiple adaptations, when she was fitted with a normal warp core. With the upcoming retirement of the Constitution class starships within the next 20 years, Starfleet began work on a 'workhorse Excelsior', a variant of the Excelsior testbed that would serve as replacement for the Constitution class. On September 23, 2278, the fleet admiral in command of Starfleet signed the papers designating hull number 2334 the first ship of the 'Improved Excelsior class.' Along with the assigning of hull number 2334, the project also included construction of at least 9 more hulls of the same design to be built over the period of 20 years.
With the project officially approved, Starfleet Design Engineers set to work on modifing the existing USS Excelsior's design, which was already approved and under construction. Among the key points of these modifications were more crew quarters, more sensory equipment, improved exploratory capabilties, and an upgraded impulse engine assembly. With these ideas in mind, the Excelsior's transwarp core was replaced with a standard warp core, more efficent warp nacelles were constructed by including Bussard Collectors, which had been left out in the Excelsior Testbed to save room for more warp field coils. The already slim Engineering hull was widened in the front around the deflector dish alcove for more crew quarters deep within and more sensor equipment along the hull. One element of the final Improved Excelsior that was not originally in the design were the added impulse engines to the saucer. Originally, an improved version of the Yoyodyne YPS-7750 fusion reactors, called the YPS-7750i, which were designed to double the energy output of the YPS-7750, were to be placed in the already existing impulse engine room, but problems croped up on YPS-7750i simulations, and the Improved Excelsior's 4 YPS-7750i reactors were replaced with 8 YPS-7750 reactors. The doubling in the amount of power from the impulse engines was to conserve the already low amount of fuel storage for the warp core, by using the impulse engines to power most main systems. These modifications to the impulse engines were only done 2 years before the launch of hull number 2334, delaying this ship's launch by 6 months, thought, originally, modifications were planned to take 8 months or more.
With the Improved Excelsior design finalized, and construction well underway, Starfleet required a name for hull number 2334, currently under construction at the San Francisco Fleet Yards orbiting Earth. In 2292, with construction being finalized on the 2334, Starfleet ordered the retirement of 5 Constitution class starships before mid-2293. These starships were the USS Hood, USS Essex, USS Kongo, USS Potemkin, and USS Enterprise-A. Since the Improved Excelsior was designed to replace the Constitution class, Starfleet decided to take 2 of the soon-to-be-retired Constitution class starships, Enterprise and Kongo, and unofficially gave their names to the first two Improved Excelsior class starships to be built. In early 2293, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A was officially retired in a small ceremony in Spacedock 1. Two days after the ceremony, Improved Excelsior hull number 2334 was officially renamed and renumbered USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B. Two months later, in a similar event, the second Improved Excelsior hull 2409, which had just begun construction, was officially named USS Kongo NCC-2409.
By now, the USS Excelsior's transwarp project had failed, and the ship was modified to standard operational standards. Unfortunatly, this would not be the only failure for the Excelsior class. From the start, the Improved Excelsior faced problems. The launch of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B was supposed to be a glorious event for Starfleet, the beginning of a new age. This did not turn out to be. Rushed by the media, the Enterprise-B was launched 2 months ahead of schedule, leaving her without key components like weapons and rescue equipment. These missing components lead to the death of several hundred El-Aurien refugees and the death of legendary Enterprise captain, James T. Kirk. Immediatly following this disaster, Enterprise was put back to drydock for 3 months to finalize her construction and do more tests. Even with the repairs and finilization of construction, the Enterprise-B suffered major system problems in the impulse engines. Safety measures casused the shutdown of the entire impulse system on multiple occasions due to overheating.
With these 2 disasters scaring the short history of the Enterprise-B, Starfleet made one of it's most important decisions. In early 2295, Starfleet Command officially cancelled the Improved Excelsior Project, opting to have the USS Excelsior's design become the basic design for all Excelsiors to be built from now on, due to the fact that the Excelsior had a more balanced and easier design to handle, as was seen by the other two Excelsior class starships built, USS Capitol and USS Tirpitz. The added size and materials on the Improved Excelsior were also found to be not needed, since the original Excelsior could do everything the Imrpoved could, except carry more passengers in an emergency, which was a rarity. Improved Excelsior Hulls 2544 and 2573, which were both just 1 year into construction, were modified into normal Excelsior hull designs. The other 6 Improved Excelsior hulls to be built later were also cancelled. The disaster of the Improved Excelsior was not over yet.
In 2296, USS Kongo NCC-2409 was officially launched, with all systems full installed and tested. She was immediatly sent to the Federation border for 2 years of off and on patrol duty. Towards the end of her assignment in 2298, the Kongo feel victim to an attack by a Gorn Cruiser, and took heavy damage to her starboard impulse engine assembly. The damage worsened, and the entire starboard impulse engine assembly exploded, ripping what was left of the saucer section of the Kongo off of the engineering hull, and killing nearly her entire crew. The Kongo was then officially scraped due to the fact that repairs would be too much of a hassle. One year later, the USS Enterprise was lost in a battle to defend an outpost against an attack by heavily armed freighters. The Improved Excelsior design ended in 2299.
30 years later, Starfleet re-examined the Improved Excelsior design (now referred to as Excelsior II), and in an unpresidented decision, Starfleet ordered construction of 5 new Excelsior II class starships, to be an explorer variant of the Excelsior class. The project was met with great concern due to the curse of the only other Excelsior II class starships built, but Starfleet assured that this design would work, since the entire internal arrangement was redesigned. Along with these redesigns came new impulse engines, Yoyodyne's newest. YPS-8200s, 6 of them, were placed in the new Excelsior II class. These 5 Excelsior II class starships have served the fleet well, and nearly all of them serve in the fleet today.
DESIGN LIMITATIONS: The first build of Improved Excelsior Class Starships were plagued by problems with their impulse engine assemblies, mainly the fact that main systems were so dependant on the ship's 8 impulse engine assemblies. This caused multiple overloads due to crossed power transfer and such. This was easily blamed on the immense heat created throughout the impulse engine rooms of the ship. Insulation for wiring and safety measures to prevent loss of containment in the engines caused numerous shutdowns and overhauls through each ship's lifetime. Though Starfleet attempted to correct these problems throughout their lifetimes, nothing seemed to work. All of this is compounded by the fact that armoring around the aft of the saucer section was not as great as the rest of the ship. It is unfortunate that impulse engine related problems lead to the death of nearly nine hundred people total.
The second generation of Excelsior II class starships were able to correct the problems of overpower in the impulse engines by taking out two of the impulse engine assemblies, leaving only 1 assembly, instead of two, in each outer wing of the impulse engine rooms. Not only that, but the greater power of the new warp cores have taken over most of the workload of the impulse engines. New guidlines on the use of the impulse engines also state that only 4 of the 6 impulse engine assemblies may be at full power at one time, with exception of emergency.
One other thing of importance, with the recent findings into the damage to subspace caused by warp drive, enviromentally safe warp drive systems were installed into the Excelsior II class starships during upgrade, giving these starships the ability to maintain any speed without limitations from recent Federation laws.
FLEET INFORMATION: 4 of the 5 new Excelsior II class starships are still serving in Starfleet to this day. Starfleet also has the option to built 5 more of these starships in the near future, possibly an Excelsior III design. The Excelsior II class starships have been built at San Francisco Fleet Yards, Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, and Copernicus Ship Yards. If Starfleet takes it's option of building 5 new Excelsior III's, they plan on being built around 2380 to 2385 at 40 Erandi-A Ship Yards, and feature the most up to date technology.
COMMISSIONED VESSELS: Build 1: USS Enterprise NCC-2334/NCC-1701-B (Status: Destroyed) USS Kongo NCC-2409 (Status: Scraped) USS Repulse NCC-2544 (Status: Converted to standard Excelsior class; Decommissioned) USS Roosevelt NCC-2573 (Status: Converted to standard Excelsior class; Destroyed at Wolf 359)
Build 2: USS Eagle NCC-41993 (Status: Operational) USS Lakota NCC-42768 (Status: Operational) USS Valparaiso NCC-42812 (Status: Under Refit) USS Paladin NCC-43004 (Status: Destroyed in Cardassian War) USS Journeyman NCC-43619 (Status: Operational)
CHRONOLOGY: 2278: Starfleet Orders construction of 10 Improved Excelsior class starships. Engineerings begin running tests on modifications to existing Excelsior design 2281: Construction Begins of hull number 2334 at San Francisco Fleet Yards 2285: Superstructure completed on hull number 2334, construction of hull number 2409 begins alongside hull number 2334. 2289: Superstructure completed on hull number 2409 2291: Hull Number 2334 begins heavy extension to design with the addition of 4 new impulse engine assemblies. 2292: Hull Number 2409 recieves same impulse engine extensions. 2293: Hull Number 2334 is officially named USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B and launched, Hull Number 2409 is officially named USS Kongo NCC-2409 2294: USS Enterprise is released from her completion of repairs following first cruise incident and put into operational duty 2295: Improved Excelsior Project Cancelled, Hull Numbers 2544 and 2573 are converted to normal Excelsior class. All other Improved Excelsior hulls are cancelled 2296: USS Kongo NCC-2409 is launched and put into operational duty 2298: USS Kongo is damaged beyond repair in battle and scraped 2299: USS Enterprise is destroyed defending a Federation Starbase from attack 2331: Starfleet Command officially reopens the Improved Excelsior Project, and orders construction of 5 new Excelsior II class starships 2332: 3 of the first 5 Excelsior II's begin construction at seperate ship yards 2333: The last 2 Excelsior II's begin construction 2352: All 5 Excelsior II class starships are launched throughout the year 2358: USS Paladin is destroyed in the Cardassian War while on a scouting mission 2371: USS Eagle begins the first major overhaul of the Excelsior II class, including refined shields, upgraded weapons, and new systems 2372: USS Lakota and USS Journeyman go into their 1 year overhaul 2375: USS Valparaiso goes into her delayed overhaul
SPECIFICATIONS: Officers: 900 (Build 1), 750 (Build 2) Civilians: 50 (Build 1), 130 (Build 2) Maximum Capacity: 10,000 Decks: 36 Length: 469 meters Width: 188 meters Height: 80 meters Mass: 2,350,000 metric tonnes Warp Engines: M/ARA Impulse Engines: 8 YPS-7750 impulse engines (Build 1), 6 YPS-8200 impulse engines (Build 2) Computer System: LCARS Expected Duration: 80 years Time Between Resupply: 5 years Time Between Refit: 20 years Category: Heavy Cruiser (Build 1), Medium Explorer (Build 2)
BIOGRAPHY: The Excelsior II class was first seen Star Trek: Generations, serving as the Enterprise-B, the long lost and last Enterprise to be seen. Soon after, with the popularity of the Excelsior II design, the Enterprise-B was relabeled as the USS Lakota, and appeared in DS9 to battle the Defiant in quite a memorable scene.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
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Registered: Mar 1999
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If the design was such a failure, why was the Lakota kicking so much ass in DS9's era?
I think it's more likely that diffrent shipyards produced the three Excelsior versions for several years with the NCC-2000 version being the most numerous.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Mmmmm...I think the glowy nacelles is just a standard refit for all older-model starships in the DS9 era (except Oberth any Sydney).
Freakish that the Hood bring a "NX" version Excelsior means they went into production (post STVI by the registry number) with that version.
The NX version is cooler anyhow.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Or the hood was a batch of NX-types that were built so far along as to not warrant a refit. Or were finished but not launched/registered until years later under some sort of shortage, or it didn't need to be refitted a la the Excelsior and they just left it. OR It's REALLY just supposed to look like the STVI:TUC Excelsior.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
If the Hood was from the batch of testbed Excelsiors, it's registry would be much lower.
I think DeSoto just slapped an aftermarket kit on his ship with ground effects and raced when Starfleet was not lookimg.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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