Shuttlecraft, Aries-type (Long-Range Shuttlecraft)

Last crawled date: 1 year, 10 months ago

Aries Aries-class Type: long-range shuttlecraft Operator: UFP Starfleet Active: 2370-2440 Decks: 1 Length: approximately 20 meters Capacity: 20 Max. Speed: warp 9.2 Max. Cruising speed: warp 8.8 Armament: phasers (x3 phaser arrays) Defeneses: deflector shields ======================================== Starship Background After the massacre of Wolf 359, Starfleet began to reevaluate its approach to starship design, culminating in the advent of several new starship classes (most notably the Akira, Sovereign, Defiant and Venture classes) as well as a host of advanced support craft, including dedicated fighters and high-performance shuttlecraft. The Aries-class long-range shuttlecraft is essentially a starship-based runabout designed for extreme-range missions with little to no support from its parent vessel. It is equipped with four-person transporter pad, three phaser arrays, advanced sensors and state-of-the-art propulsion systems. Its large habitat module allows Aries-class shuttles to operate for weeks—or potentially even months—independently. Model Background Based on the Type-11 shuttlecraft from Star Trek: Enterprise, this model took a great deal of time to finish as I ended up scrapping the outer hull and completely remodeling it several times. These curved hulls are hard! Ultimately I'm not very happy with this model, so it's going right to the top of my big list of 'models to completely do-over' list. There are parts I like—mostly the way the intake vents 'fan out' from the full—but there's just... something I don't like about it. I can't really put it to words. I'm also rather proud of the interior, even if it was problematic to design owing to the fact that I built the exterior hull first, forcing me to make a rather inefficiently-designed habitat module. Oh well. I probably also should not have bothered building the transporter room, since it's not visible from the outside (if you want to see it, you'll have to download!) But as a prop for a larger model, I suppose the Aries is workable. My next two major starship models—the Akira and Galaxy II—both have very large shuttlebays, so I'm currently not working on those ships and instead working ona variety of smaller support craft to put inside those shuttlebays. Of which the Aries is the first. Here's hoping it won't suffer from the same fate as the Delta Flyer and actually fit inside the bay doors! (Starship information is derived partially from Memory Alpha and/or Memory Beta, and from my own imagination.) #federation #runabout #shuttlecraft #spaceship #star_trek #starship #type11 #ufp