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As a hobby, I have my own sci-fi universe that I make ships and such for; this is one of them. In the history of this universe Humanity
spread to the stars at first through a near light speed drive system, then developed a faster than light drive. I wanted a somewhat nautical
feel to the ships, so this particular type of drive employs large "sails".

The Coventry was a pretty standard interstellar vessel of its era; no artificial gravity at this time so the ship employed two
contra-rotating pressure hulls to carry the crew quarters and living spaces. Aft of this are a set of attitude thrusters, then a
set of 24 fuel tanks. Then come the FTL drive sails, and a singularity reactor which had a conversion efficiency of about 10%.
Another set of attitude thrusters aft of that, then the sublight engine bell.

Conventry spent her first few years flying passengers and cargo from system to system. Her maximum FTL speed is 30-35 xc,
so a ten light year trip would take her a good four months.

Alas, Humans encountered their first alien species - which turned out to be both hostile and somewhat more advanced than
we were. Coventry was at a colony world when word reached her. She was quickly refitted with whatever weapons the colonists
could whip up; heavyweight missiles based on an old Earth ICBM design, modified for space use, and a rail gun. The weapons fit
wasn't up to much; the ninety 5 Megaton warheads per missile were impressive in theory, but lacked any ability for independent
targeting or maneuvering; they simply scattered just before the missile reached its target, giving a "shotgun" effect. Unfortunately,
the missiles lacked the acceleration and delta-vee to be more than token "give the ship something to shoot" weapons. The rail gun
was reasonably effective at close range work, but again lacked the range to be an effective weapon.

Coventry gave good service during the war, despite being heavily outclassed by the enemy. She fought a series of holding
actions, retreating from system to system whilst slowing the enemy advance as much as possible.

That's rather good, (this coming from the guy who couldn't design a way out of a plastic bag.) very distinctive apearance.
Quite a unique ship.

Graham,

I have read your previous fanfic online (very good!), and you seem to have a backstory on Coventry. Would you by any chance consider putting up any stories about your sci-fi universe on the writer's forum? I think quite a few of us would love to read more!

What I have thus far is more in the way of a timeline and background notes, not actual stories. I will probably post some of the other ships here, so you can get a better view of how technology changes over time - and technology changes considerably! Over a thousand years or so we go from ships technically possible now to things that would be uber-ships by Trek standards.

Cool;

Well, whatever form it takes, we look forward to seeing and reading more!

On returning to Earth the Coventry was refitted with more modern weaponry; the missile load was replaced with
2nd generation missiles which carried twelve independently targetable 100 Megaton warheads. Equipped with fusion drive
systems, these had far greater range and acceleration than the previous missiles. This enabled the ship to engage
multiple targets simultaneously.
The smaller size of the second generation missile allowed the bow cluster to be increased from 11 to 96 missiles;
total firepower carried was therefore increased from 4.95 to 115.2 Gigatons.
The rail gun was stripped out and replaced with a 50 Megawatt Gamma-ray laser cannon. This was powered by its own fusion
reactor, which contained sufficient fuel for nearly an hour's firing at full power. Four Laser-CIWS cannon were also fitted; X-Ray
models in the 5 Megawatt range, these were intended for defence against missiles.
Although the upgrades boosted the Coventry's combat capability manyfold, she was still not a match for the alien
vessels. As a result, while she and her sisters made the latter stages of the war a more costly affair for the invaders, they
never put the eventual outcome in any real doubt.

Well, you certainly have your universe well thought out.
I too would love to read any stories you might ever make as it sounds like an interesting concept.

you're giving me a very strong urge to start posting The Riders of Nabeth.
but it's so completely different...

meh, maybe later.

anyways, nice ships, very realistic in their own way, but i must say that they do lack something.

of course, as i can't figure what that might be, i should probably just shut up...

Drake Zure wrote:you're giving me a very strong urge to start posting The Riders of Nabeth.
but it's so completely different...

meh, maybe later.

anyways, nice ships, very realistic in their own way, but i must say that they do lack something.

of course, as i can't figure what that might be, i should probably just shut up...

Well let me know if you can work it out!

Actually I started this series out to correct something that has always irked me about the Trek universe - the near
static technology level. When you look from the NX to the Sovereign classes, the same basic technology is being
used across more than two hundred years; different in implementation, to be sure, but the same basic hull shape, same
drive system for both FTL and STL, very similar weaponry.

Compare that with how Earth's navy ships changed from 1787 to 2007. We went from sails to paddlewheels to screws;
from no power system to coal, to oil, to nuclear (in some cases at least!); from cannon to missiles. And that's before you
throw submarines and such into the mix.

I wanted to show different drive systems, power and weapons technologies coming into play over time - and
each of them will change the basic design of the ships, sometimes in an evolutionary way, sometimes radically.

More is to come...

Same weaponry... I think i see your point...
The NX class is being attacked by the romulans and suddenly turned upside down and became a Akira class firing the same weapons at higher capacity... The romulans cloaked while underfire and got destroyed. Endgame haha111

I like it! The drawing quality and level of detail is amazing.

As for the design, I have only one suggestion (also pertaining to the other design, the Longbow). You may think of including a few details that would "disturb" the rotational symmetry of the design. Either I'm still thinking too much of terms of "up and down" in starship design because I'm spoiled by Star Trek, or it may be additions that could be easily justified.

Mostly that's a result of the need to have the pressure hulls rotate, and to have sensors and weapons able to have
a 360 degree field of view. Once antigrav comes in, the ships will start to have a more "typically sci-fi" look.