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The Class-F shuttlecraft was the standard issue Starfleet shuttlecraft during the mid-23rd century.

History

During the mid-2260s, Class-F shuttles were based at starbases and aboard Template:ShipClass starships, which were standard equipped with four shuttles of this class, along with other shuttle classes. (TOS: "The Galileo Seven", "The Doomsday Machine", "The Omega Glory"; TAS: "Mudd's Passion")

The Class-F shuttlecraft would remain in service until the early 2270s, where they were still being deployed to and from the San Francisco air tram station. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture Directors Edition)

Among the decorations in a lounge aboard the USS Enterprise-D in 2364, there was the model of an Enterprise shuttle. (TNG: "Lonely Among Us")

Technical data

File:Class f shuttlecraft - interior, remastered.jpg

Interior of a Class-F

Constructed with a duranium-metal shell, the Class-F was propelled by an ion engine, whose power was generated by a matter/antimatter reaction. It was protected by deflector shields. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I", "Metamorphosis", "The Immunity Syndrome")

The twenty-four foot long Class-F shuttle was divided into two sections: the forward section, which contained seating arrangements for at least seven passengers, and a smaller aft section, which contained access to the engineering components of the shuttle. (TOS: "The Galileo Seven")

In normal flight through the void of deep space, Class-F shuttles operated on instruments only. The blast shutters on the three forward windows would be lowered when sensors detected something visually significant. (TOS: "Metamorphosis")

Shuttles of the class

Appendices

Appearances

Background

The Class-F shuttle made its first appearance on television in "The Menagerie, Part I", despite being sequentially filmed after "The Galileo Seven" (the, otherwise, accepted first appearance of a shuttlecraft).

Studio models

Unlike the starship designs, shuttlecraft had life-sized full scale mock-up counterparts of the filming studio models for actors to interact with, complete with interiors. The Class F shuttlecraft was the first one to be conceived as such. The practise would continue with every subsequent Star Trek incarnation including Star Trek: Enterprise which was otherwise realized entirely in CGI.

Design
Class F final design sketches

Class F shuttlecraft final design sketches by Matt Jefferies.

Class F shuttlecraft interior sketch

Interior sketch by Matt Jefferies.

The original shuttlecraft as originally designed by Matt Jefferies was to have a more rounded look to it, much like the shuttles of Star Trek TNG. On his original design Jefferies commented,"Basically it was a teardrop thing, and the whole side panel, the outside door, would slide back, and you could just step right off on the ground. The seats were like bicycle seats mounted on each side of the keel.".. {Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 12, page 20} The AMT model company however, who agreed to build the full-sized set model in their "Custom & Speed Shop", headed by Gene Winfield, as well as the filming miniature for free in exchange for exclusive modeling rights (resulting in their 1974 model kit S595), found that flat panels were easier and cheaper to build. In order to meet their needs, they had industrial designer Thomas Kellogg re-design the shuttle with later contributions from Matt Jefferies who added the Enterprise-style warp nacelles.[1] "I worked up sketches for it. But AMT, who were going to build the model in their shops in Phoenix in exchange for being able to market the kit of the Enterprise, felt it was beyond their capabilities, so it was designed by Gene Winfield [sic], an automotive designer who had a custom body shop that primarily serviced the automotive industry through AMT. The Galileo as everybody knows it today was not my design. Overall I was a little disappointed, but I think within their capabilities it was a good solution. And it did work, obviously; people did accept it.", Jefferies would later remark. {Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 12, page 20} Jefferies had to redesign the interior to match the eventual exterior of the studio model. Later shuttle designs by Jefferies after the episode Galileo Seven, such as a small, two-man shuttle and a bubble-topped space scooter, were deemed either too expensive or simply not plausible with the current special effects of the time and were never used, so the producers stuck with the established design for later appearances of the shuttlecraft. Drawings of all these designs have published in the Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook.

Full scale exterior mock-up

The full scale exterior mock-up was a sturdy built. A wooden structure was applied over a basic welded steel frame work. The outer skin consisted of hard mahogany pressboard, called Masonite, plating covered with fiberglass. The curving features on top of the sideplates were sheet metal. The center landing gear strut at the end was constructed out of surplus airplane landing gear struts and the nacelles were steel tube assemblies. In addition a mechanism was built in to semi-automatically open the hatches while simultaneously extending the boarding ramp. "I think we made the windshield panels move up front. Those slid and we made the doors so that they could slide and pop into place on a special track. They were pulled with a cord, like rope on a pulley system, so they did not actually operate electronically.", Winfield explained.(The Ships of Star Trek, page 102} The mock-up was not equipped with an interior, that being a separately built set at a somewhat larger scale, thereby causing the mock-up being sometimes referred to as the three-quarters scale mock-up. The craft measured 22 feet long, 8 feet heigh (5 feet in the interior), 13 feet wide and weighed about 2,700 pounds.[2] Winfield and his team needed close to three months to complete both sets. During its use as a production asset, the mock-up received two paintschemes, the first gloss white for the upper surfaces and battleship gray for the lower surfaces in its original appearance and an overall light gray paintscheme for its appearance as Galileo II.

After production wrapped on the Original Series, the studio donated the exterior mock-up to The Braille Institute (the interior set was demolished after the series wrapped), but the school deemed it a inadequate playing environment for kids and sold it shortly thereafter to a man, named Roger Hiseman. After a spell on his front lawn in Palos Verde, the mock-up was moved to an open storage area in Torrance, Ca. where it would reside until the middle 1980's. Exposed to the elements, the mock-up deteriorated considerably.[3] In 1985 the craft was sold to a fan by the name of Stephen Haskins for a reported $1,800, who spent another $8,500 on restoration and had the result displayed at the June 1986 "Creation Entertainment's 20th Anniversary Star Trek Convention" in Anaheim, Ca.[4] Shortly thereafter the mock-up was again moved to an open storage area near San Diego. In November 1986 the mock-up was on display for a week in front of the Palm Desert Town Center theatre for the premiere of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. During restoration Haskins tried to find a permanent home for the mock-up and even offered it for free to the National Air and Space Museum but was turned down. "We're not into television fiction-that's about it. We are crowded as it is right now, just doing real aviation and aerospace.", then curator Edward Leiser explained.(The San Diego Union, Saturday, June 7, 1986). In 1989 it was eventually sold to an Ohian fan, Lynn Miller for a reported $3,000, who had it shipped over to the Canton/Akron airport in April 1991.[5] [6] There, in cooperation with a local fanclub, "The Starfleet International chapter USS Lagrange", a second major renovation took place under the name "The Galileo Project".[7][8] which was also visited by Ed Miarecki.[9] While still in the process of being restored, the mock-up made an appearance at the "LagrangeCon '91" in November 1991 near Cleveland, Ohio. Reportedly a disagreement between owner and fanclub, caused the cooperation to cease in or shortly after 1993 and the owner had the craft moved to an industrial site for again open storage near Akron, Ohio where it has been spotted until 2008.[10][11] The owner of the site lost contact with the owner of the mock-up, shortly after it was stored there and when the site went bankrupt in 2008, the mock-up was most likely destroyed during clearance of the terrain.

The physical studio models
Class F shuttlecraft studio model

Class-F shuttlecraft studio model.

File:Class f shuttle model, TNG.jpg

The refurbished original studio model as setdressing.

Deep Space Station K-7 shuttlebay

The NCC-K7 miniature docked at Deep Space Station K-7 (l).

Simultaneously with the full scale mock-up, a team of three at Winfield's shop constructed a 22 inch long filming studio model. As was commonplace in that era, the model was mostly constructed out of wood, with metallic features, such as the landing gear. After completion the model was sent to Linwood G. Dunn's "Film Effects of Hollywood" effects house where footage was shot of the model flying in space and medium range footage of the model in the just completed model of the shuttlebay of the USS Enterprise (for this purpose the model of the shuttlecraft was built in scale with the shuttlebay). The footage shot was used throughout the remainder of the series.

After the series wrapped, sight was lost of the model and it was believed to be lost or to have vanished during the clear-out of the Paramount Pictures lot in late 1973. However in 1987, when pre-production of TNG Season 1 was in full swing, members of the production staff discovered the model on a pile of rubble in a forgotten corner of the studio. Broken in half and missing the forward bulkhead with the windows, the landing gear the and the corrugated wrappers around the rear of each engine pod, the model was restored as much as possible and used as set dressing in TNG: "Lonely Among Us". Intended to be a generic model of the Class F shuttlecraft, the new paintscheme was not a faithful recreation of how the model originally appeared. The missing bulkhead was replaced by a smoked plexiglass sheet.[12] Four years later, fully restored and with a paintscheme corresponding with the original paintscheme of the full scale mock-up, the model was featured in the 1992-1993 Star Trek Smithsonian Exhibit and was a year later on loan to the Hayden Planetarium, New York City, for its 1993-1994 exhibition. Since then the model has not been seen publicly, but is presumably still in the possession of the studio.

In 1996, a tiny miniature of a Class F shuttlecraft, representing the NCC-K7 was constructed by Jason Kaufman at Gregory Jein's workshop for DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations". On his own initiative Kaufman asked and got permission to build a detailed shuttlebay on the Deep Space Station K-7 studio model, complete with a shuttle and the Spacematic miniatures. The bay and miniatures were built from scratch with parts and pieces lying around in Jein's shop.

Air tram station internal

A Class-F shuttlecraft about to take off from the San Francisco air tram station (upper right corner)

CGI models

A first CGI version of the Class-F shuttlecraft was inserted into the 2001 director's edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Foundation Imaging, where it was seen taking off from the San Francisco air tram stationstation. The second CGI version was built for the 2006 TOS remastered series at CBS Digital, under supervision of Niel Wray and David Rossi to represent the craft in its respective episodes.

Spaceflight Chronology

The full specification for the Class-F was not heard in "The Menagerie" as the computer was stopped. It is likely that the craft had a limited warp capacity as attempting to follow the Enterprise, a faster than light vessel, would be absurdly futile with a slower than light ship. It also had limited range, as Kirk exceeded his point of safe return in "The Menagerie, Part I." Jefferies established the length of the shuttlecraft at 21 feet (22 feet with landing gear extended).

The following specifications were given by the Spaceflight Chronology:

  • Enterprise Shuttle Craft (2188 – )
    • Length: 6.8 m
    • Weight: 17,000 kg
    • Ship's Compliment: 7
    • Propulsion: Impulse Power
  • Performance:
    • Range: Interplanetary
    • Landing/Takeoff Velocity: 300 knots
    • Atmosphere Cruising Velocity: Mach 12 (14,200 km/hr)
    • Interplanetary Cruising Velocity: 350 million km/hr
    • Engines: Advanced Impulse Power

External link

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