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I was reading one of those "NX-01 is crap!" threads earlier and it occurred to me to jot down what I would have done
if it had been me.

So here it is. This is the NX-01 I would have designed. This is draft 1 - I'll be adding to it as I go.

Specs :

Length : 160 metres
Beam : 62.25 metres
Height : 13.17 metres (5 decks)
Crew : 15 officers, 36 enlisted
Mass : 120,000 tons
Cruise Speed : W/F 5.0
Maximum Speed : W/F 5.2

Armament :

Four missile launch tubes : 60 missiles carried. Tactical warhead plasma charge, variable yield, maximum 400 GJ; strategic
warhead thermonuclear, variable yield, maximum 1 MTon
Six gamma ray laser cannon, 50 GW each
Thermal hull armour; hull is built in thermal superconducting sections of up to 50 square metres, with a thermal reservoir
attached to each

Auxiliary Craft : 4 x garages for orbit to ground shuttles

Ah! A dish deflector! That was always one of the particular design elements that annoyed me about the akiraprise. It had a more advanced deflector than the 1701!

A lot better than the actual design.
Though, given that we're talking about the Akiraprise, that may not be as much of a complement as I'd like.

Top view added along with some detailing.

I wanted this to be a small ship... the size of the real NX-01 always bothered me, it seemed way too big. I wanted something like a present day Navy destroyer. Though I am wondering if maybe it needs to be a bit longer... another 20 or 30 metres perhaps.

The boxy thing just ahead of the nacelles is the warp core. The things just forward of that are the matter/antimatter pods; eight of them. Above those are two shuttle garages; two more are on the other side.

A size comparison

Much more like the design philosophy that should have been.

Eh... i dunno... that ship doesn't have any of the design characteristics of a federation ship.... i still think it should have a saucer.

And why the short nacelles? Even the phoenix had long nacelles, as well as every other ship. Even galaxy and intrepid were atleast half the total length of the main hull.

And it's not like architects and designers went extinct for a few years; it doesnt have to be all blocky and "ugly"

Its a Great design. and please leave the beautiful Akira Class out of it.

Yes the Long Nacells are a tradition for the Early Federation, With the Rare exception of the Intrepid.

DarkOmen wrote:Eh... i dunno... that ship doesn't have any of the design characteristics of a federation ship....

But the NX-01 is not a Federation ship; it is an Earth ship. It's not a Starfleet ship even, except in the minds of B&B - "Earth Starfleet" is an absurdity that they invented for Enterprise. Up until then everybody I know naturally assumed that Starfleet was created with the UFP, and that anything prior to that would be... something like the Unified Earth Navy, United Nations Space Patrol, or even the dear old United Earth Space Probe Agency.

In fact that's what I would have done. I'd have had UESPA all over Enterprise as the operating body of the NX-01; then with the formation of Starfleet in 2163 UESPA, the Vulcan High Command, the Andorian Imperial Guard, etc all came under the umbrella of Starfleet, maintining their existence but as part of a larger organisation. Handily explains why Kirk referred to UESPA as his bosses.

And why the short nacelles? Even the phoenix had long nacelles, as well as every other ship. Even galaxy and intrepid were atleast half the total length of the main hull.

Defiant's isn't. Intrepid's isn't.

And it's not like architects and designers went extinct for a few years; it doesnt have to be all blocky and "ugly"

The basic rule of hull shapes in Trek is that they get sleeker over time. The basic excuse for this is that the hull fits the warpfield, and better tech allows more compressed warpfields and so requires more streamlined hulls.

Project that back and what you should find is that the NX should have had a boxy, unstreamlined hull. Which the B&B NX-01 doesn't have, but my ship does.

The blockyness is good. it looks like it follows on from the Early DY-100 freighters. Only niggle is that the Nacelles look very stumpy. Short is fine but they too fat in comparison to the rest of the ship considering the warp design is probably just a step up from the Phoenix's nacelles.

I think the fact that it looks virtualy nothing like a Starfleet ship is a plus. This is one of the first deep-space ships humanity has ever built. Even without the design influence of dozens of alien races that would contribute in Starfleet ship's eventual designs, they should look completely different to anything we've seen in the other series.

Added the laser cannon and missile tubes. The tubes are actually sized to be the same as standard 21 inch torpedo tubes as used in the US Navy!

I took a look at the nacelles, and yeah, they did seem a bit stumpy. I've stretched them somewhat, and narrowed the "windows" in them a bit.

Much, Much, Much better. As i said before it looks like the Natural progression:

DY-100
|
v
Phoenix
|
v
NX

far superior to the Akiraprise

Actually I goofed on the length... it's 160 metres not 180. I've edited the OP with the new size.

Would a bridge on top slightly back a little bit like a modern day war ship look good you think? Perhaps a smoothed rounded deck rising above the others for the standard bridge hanging out in space. With windows not just the big screen! The concept is growing on me more you kinker with it and I liked the Akiraprise.