Star Trek's own Millennium Falcon

[Meste17]

So I thought to myself, "What if the Millennium Falcon existed in the Star Trek universe as well?"

With that, I asked my friends to help design the specifications, and after all was said and done, this is what we got. Please tell us what you think right now:
Affiliation : Federation
Class Name : Horizon/Hornet Class
Type : Freighter
Unit Run : NAR-81690 SS Horizon/Hornet - Upgraded SS Horizon/Hornet II - Upgraded
plus 30 others built in total. 4 have been lost in all.
Commissioned : 2378 - present
Dimensions : Length : 52.8 m
Beam : 39.34 m
Height : 12.71 m
Decks : 3
Mass : 18,500 metric tons
Crew : up to 30 max
Armament : 1 x Plasma bank
1 x Anti-personnel cannon
4 x Klingon built disruptor banks, total output 12,000 TeraWatts
2 x Standard photon torpedo tube with 250 rounds
Defence Systems : High capacity shield system, total capacity 378,000 TeraJoules
Standard Duranium/Tritanium Single hull plus 5 cm High density armour.
Standard level Structural Integrity Field
Warp Speeds (TNG scale) : Normal Cruise : 6
Maximum Cruise : 8/9.8
Maximum Rated : 9.8/9.995 for 12 hours.
Strength Indices : (Galaxy class = 1,000) Beam Firepower : 240
Torpedo Firepower : 250
Weapon Range and Accuracy : 200
Shield Strength : 140
Hull Armour : 550
Speed : 1,203.109 / 5,510.132
Combat Manoeuvrability : 12,000
Overall Strength Index : 325.372 (325) / 619.467 (620)
Diplomatic Capability : 7
Expected Hull Life : 100
Refit Cycle : Minor : 1 year
Standard : 1 years
Major : 20 years

[Graham Kennedy]

Looks too powerful in armament terms. A beam and torpedo strength almost a quarter of a GCS? I'd cut those by a factor of five to ten. The shield also wouldn't be "High capacity", and I'd be dubious of a small, fast, agile ship type being loaded with two inches of armour plating.

Grade 7 Diplomatic capability? Have you read what that entails? It means your ship has extensive accomodation suitable for Ambassadors, lots and lots of accomodation for their staff - over 2,000 rooms just for staff alone! Multiple large conference halls, dozens of smaller briefing rooms, large numbers of independent communications facilities, and facilities for carrying and supporting several hundred members of the press. A Grade 7 ship is essentially a flying United Nations building. Good luck fitting all that in...

Something like you're talking of would be Grade 2 - "Diplomatic courier function only - diplomats housed in crew quarters for short duration interstellar missions."

[Meste17]

Looks too powerful in armament terms. A beam and torpedo strength almost a quarter of a GCS? I'd cut those by a factor of five to ten. The shield also wouldn't be "High capacity", and I'd be dubious of a small, fast, agile ship type being loaded with two inches of armour plating.

Grade 7 Diplomatic capability? Have you read what that entails? It means your ship has extensive accomodation suitable for Ambassadors, lots and lots of accomodation for their staff - over 2,000 rooms just for staff alone! Multiple large conference halls, dozens of smaller briefing rooms, large numbers of independent communications facilities, and facilities for carrying and supporting several hundred members of the press. A Grade 7 ship is essentially a flying United Nations building. Good luck fitting all that in...

Something like you're talking of would be Grade 2 - "Diplomatic courier function only - diplomats housed in crew quarters for short duration interstellar missions."

Well I will admit I didnt particularly pay much attention to the minor info such as diplomatic capability and such. I just focused primarily on the actual specs of the ship, its size, its complement, armaments, etc.

[Meste17]

Then, with what you said, would you terribly mind showing me what you had in mind?

[McAvoy]

I don't think he had anything in mind.

Basically this ship of yours should be roughly between a runabout and the big Maquis (Chakotay ship) in capability.

[Mikey]

I agree, I don't see very much relationship between this ship and the Millenium Falcon. The 'Falcon was a small freighter, modified to be a runner. Let's see:
1) 30 max crew? The 'Falcon had crew stations for two, maybe three if you consider an engineer down in the mechanical well.
2) Plasma bank? No idea what's analagous from the films. 4x disrupter banks? I assume that's supposed to be the dual quad laser mounts, but then you're over by two.
3) High-cap shield system? The 'Falcon always seemed to have standard-cap systems at best... and I don't recall any reference to - or evidence of - armor.

[Graham Kennedy]

Then, with what you said, would you terribly mind showing me what you had in mind?

The thing that springs to mind as a Millennium Falcon equivalent is this :

http://www.ditl.org/ship-pictures.php?C ... 209&Page=1

Or from the TNG era, this :

http://www.ditl.org/ship-pictures.php?C ... ven&Page=1

Although that second one may be a little on the large side.

[Graham Kennedy]

Here you go, just for you.

[Meste17]

Then, with what you said, would you terribly mind showing me what you had in mind?

The thing that springs to mind as a Millennium Falcon equivalent is this :

http://www.ditl.org/ship-pictures.php?C ... 209&Page=1

Or from the TNG era, this :

http://www.ditl.org/ship-pictures.php?C ... ven&Page=1

Although that second one may be a little on the large side.

But then, if that was the case, couldn't the Raven as you mentioned for the TNG era, be extensively modified with weaponry so that way it can be a runner, instead of an unarmed science vessel?

[Jim]

I would see it being comparable to 2, maybe 3, Danube shuttles worth of internal space. Enough space for a decent common area, one large room a diplomat/et, and a couple small rooms for staff. Sort of comparable to sending a limo for someone as opposed to just sending a car (Danube).

[Teaos]

Then, with what you said, would you terribly mind showing me what you had in mind?

The thing that springs to mind as a Millennium Falcon equivalent is this :

http://www.ditl.org/ship-pictures.php?C ... 209&Page=1

Or from the TNG era, this :

http://www.ditl.org/ship-pictures.php?C ... ven&Page=1

Although that second one may be a little on the large side.

But then, if that was the case, couldn't the Raven as you mentioned for the TNG era, be extensively modified with weaponry so that way it can be a runner, instead of an unarmed science vessel?

Why? Its a science vessel. If you modify it to not be a sciecne vessel, its not longer doing its job.

[Graham Kennedy]

But then, if that was the case, couldn't the Raven as you mentioned for the TNG era, be extensively modified with weaponry so that way it can be a runner, instead of an unarmed science vessel?

Loading weapons onto civilian ships rarely works - witness the Q Ships used in World War II, which proved to be not very useful. And as a civilian ship the Raven is probably quite slow, so it's not going to be running much of anything.

In the end, military ships are very different to civilians ones. The only realistic way to make a civilian ship a useful military one would be to rebuild it until it was a different design. You may as well just make a new ship in the first place.

[McAvoy]

Civilian ships are always built much more lightly than military ships. They cannot take as much damage as a properly design warship even with the same shape. Also even mounting guns on the deck requires alot of 'down below' modifications. The deck has to be reinforced for the recoil of the gun if you are going to mount a large enough gun to be worthwhile.

Japan made 'civilian' ships designed to be converted into aircraft carriers when there was a need and it required alot more than just slapping a flight deck onto the ship.