The Akira Class

[Alyeska]

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/06/ ... ira-class/

Courtesy of the Drexfiles there is a wonderful set of information of the Akira and details from the designer himself. I've always loved that design. Its such a radical look for Federation ships at the time.

Some interesting information. You can count 17 torpedo launchers on the model. There are 13 launchers in the weapons pod alone with another 4 on the saucer. There is an 18th launcher near the deflector dish from onscreen fire. And of those, Alex says that the two center upper pod launchers are quantum. Not entirely sure how we can make use of these details because its a stark contrast to what we see on screen, but its still cool to examine and think about. The ship that might have been.

The one thing I still don't like is the supposed launch doors in the front. Those are freaking doors. You can't launch a shuttle let alone a fighter through those things. Just too damned small. Now the rear semi-protected shuttle doors work very nice. I also like how the bridge sits between the two hull pieces giving it some semblance of protection.

All in all a very nice design and one of my favorites.

[Alferd Packer]

Awesome stuff. I've always loved the Akira class too, ever since I saw it in FC. In fact, when I was doing IRC Trek simming back in the mid-late nineties, I made my ship an Akira class. I love the detail on the upper weapons pod, too; the rear torpedo launchers fanned out at an oblique angle just looks cool.

[Havok]

Wow. Did they just flip that over and completely rip it off for the NX-01?

[Bounty]

Wow. Did they just flip that over and completely rip it off for the NX-01?

Welcome to 2001?

And no, not completely. B&B wanted to flip it over and call it a day, but Doug Drexler (the guy from the blog) then went to work to at least try and make it distinctive.

[Batman]

There's a reason people call NX-01 the Akiraprise, you know

[Stark]

Operation: Glue on Some Launchers with Terrible Arcs was a complete success here. Of course, the number of launchers is meaningless without an understanding of their limitations, but even just its forward-firing firepower (the only ones likely to be regularly used) is impressive for the time. If they retrofit the Sovereign 'split the main phasers in half to double the 'phaser count' technology it'd be even better. The text is amusing, because it suggests people complain there are 'too many' torpedo launchers, when it's more likely they're just not as large/rapid/capable as regular ones.

The scale is fucked, though, and the door thing is absurd. Its a forward-firing ship with doors on the front. Uhuh, nice going Drexy. It's awesome that after gluing on so many launchers it's first appearance required the fan insertion of another one.

[Alyeska]

Operation: Glue on Some Launchers with Terrible Arcs was a complete success here. Of course, the number of launchers is meaningless without an understanding of their limitations, but even just its forward-firing firepower (the only ones likely to be regularly used) is impressive for the time. If they retrofit the Sovereign 'split the main phasers in half to double the 'phaser count' technology it'd be even better. The text is amusing, because it suggests people complain there are 'too many' torpedo launchers, when it's more likely they're just not as large/rapid/capable as regular ones.

Sounds about right.

The scale is fucked, though, and the door thing is absurd. Its a forward-firing ship with doors on the front. Uhuh, nice going Drexy. It's awesome that after gluing on so many launchers it's first appearance required the fan insertion of another one.

Doug Drexler did not create that ship.

[Alyeska]

Wow. Did they just flip that over and completely rip it off for the NX-01?

Oh no, its much worse. B&B wanted to use the Akira unmodified as the Enterprise. They Didn't Want To Change A Thing. Doug Drexler convinced them to give him a chance to modify the design and he did what he could to provide something that wasn't an exact rip off the Akira. The end result worked. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. Only from the top angle does it really have the Akira look. And Doug was constrained by B&B wanting it Akira like so he couldn't just completely redesign it to something different. So that is what we are left with.

[Stark]

Did anyone ever say anything about the fan arrangement of the rear tubes? Since torpedoes are a bit turny (but not really) the small angle change doesn't seem important. The inner mechanism must be pretty small too, unless there's just one launcher that can fire out multiple holes. I thought in Nemesis that torpedoes were shown emerging from the launchers at angles?

[Havok]

Wow. Did they just flip that over and completely rip it off for the NX-01?

Welcome to 2001?

I'm not an obsessive shut in nerd?

Oh no, its much worse. B&B wanted to use the Akira unmodified as the Enterprise. They Didn't Want To Change A Thing. Doug Drexler convinced them to give him a chance to modify the design and he did what he could to provide something that wasn't an exact rip off the Akira. The end result worked. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. Only from the top angle does it really have the Akira look. And Doug was constrained by B&B wanting it Akira like so he couldn't just completely redesign it to something different. So that is what we are left with.

I've heard about this guy in the threads here... was there really no one there that could tell him that this was a stupid idea? (Obviously, there wasn't. )

[Stofsk]

Wow. Did they just flip that over and completely rip it off for the NX-01?

Welcome to 2001?

I'm not an obsessive shut in nerd?

Bullshit, why are you posting on a internet forum then?

[Alyeska]

Did anyone ever say anything about the fan arrangement of the rear tubes? Since torpedoes are a bit turny (but not really) the small angle change doesn't seem important. The inner mechanism must be pretty small too, unless there's just one launcher that can fire out multiple holes. I thought in Nemesis that torpedoes were shown emerging from the launchers at angles?

It might seem small, but that ship is actually fairly large. And we have to remember that the old Miranda class itself managed 4 torpedo launchers in its extremely small weapons pod once upon a time.

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schem ... -chart.jpg

That is a fairly comprehensive chart on the various Starfleet ship sizes. The only error I would mark is the Defiant at 120 meters. That is opinion on the part of Bernd. The comprehensive evidence points to the intended size being 170 meters. Anyway, the chart gives you a good idea of the total size of the Akira weapon pod in comparison to other ships. Its larger than you thought.

[Stark]

Uhhh... so what? I'm comparing the launchers to TNG standard ones, which are far larger than the ones in TOS. A simple matter of angles in the rear pod shows that they can't be particularly 'long' without crossing each other; the barrels must be short (far shorter than on Galaxy) and they probably share a loading/prelaunch space, which probably reduces ROF. I'm curious what proper role there could be for the two on each side that can't even fire backwards. I guess the lower space in the pod is entirely warheads/antimatter/loading equipment/etc.

Look at the pod top-down. The forward launchers have plenty of space to extend back (possibly what leads to burst capability) and are parallel so they don't cross each other. The rear ones are at most a third this length and probably less. So what's the point? Unless she's designed for multi-directional dogfights with weak as shit badguys, I'm not sure what benefit they give. Maybe it was a tradeoff, since they went burst-fire forward and couldn't mirror the arrangement backwards as on a Miranda.

Anyway, doesn't the Sov ventral saucer launcher have two holes, beside the quantum launcher? Maybe Starfleet decided to spread crappy single-shot torpedo launchers all over their ships to improve alpha strike. I guess Akira proved nobody should listen to the guy who says 'let's have six launchers firing ONLY SIDEWAYS that'll be awesome?

[JME2]

Awesome stuff. I've always loved the Akira class too, ever since I saw it in FC. In fact, when I was doing IRC Trek simming back in the mid-late nineties, I made my ship an Akira class. I love the detail on the upper weapons pod, too; the rear torpedo launchers fanned out at an oblique angle just looks cool.

Yeah, it's my 2nd favorite TNG-era ship behind the Sovereign-class.

[Stark]

What features of the Sovereign make it better for you? I sort of prefer the smoother hull of the Akira over the armour plates and lips and flanges of the Sovereign.

[JME2]

The Sovereign was just a nice visual treat after years of the Galaxy-class. I like the sleek, streamlined design; it's equal parts Excelsior and Connie-class refit. I like the Akira for similar reasons, but especially the roll bar and the catamaran hull.

[Stofsk]

The Sovereign was just a nice visual treat after years of the Galaxy-class.

Pretty much anything would be better looking than the Galaxy-class, unfortunately.

[Lord Revan]

Oh no, its much worse. B&B wanted to use the Akira unmodified as the Enterprise. They Didn't Want To Change A Thing. Doug Drexler convinced them to give him a chance to modify the design and he did what he could to provide something that wasn't an exact rip off the Akira. The end result worked. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. Only from the top angle does it really have the Akira look. And Doug was constrained by B&B wanting it Akira like so he couldn't just completely redesign it to something different. So that is what we are left with.

I've heard about this guy in the threads here... was there really no one there that could tell him that this was a stupid idea? (Obviously, there wasn't. )

if I read the Blog about the NX-class correct, when ENT was made any critisism towards design by B&B were ignored and it was a big deal they were allowed to make the NX-class something then then direct copy of the Akira.

And tbh the NX-class by itself isn't all that bad(actually it's rather good), what makes it annoying (besides being from ENT that is), is that it's copied from the Akira, making it a lazy design.

[JME2]

The Sovereign was just a nice visual treat after years of the Galaxy-class.

Pretty much anything would be better looking than the Galaxy-class, unfortunately.

Yeah. If the nacelles hadn't been so short, it might have helped a little bit. But the Ent-D's design was always just too cumbersome and top-heavy for me.

[Solauren]

Nice. Very Nice.

For those of you going 'Akiraprise', you might be interested to learn about the Loknar class from the Star Trek RPG/Space Combat Game by FASA.

Loknar Class Frigate

However, I'm going to give the designer of the Akira class the benefit of the doubt that it's not a rip-off. THere's only so many ways you can arrange the components of a Federation style ship, after all.

[spaceviking]

Personally I don’t think the Loknar looks like the akira or nxo1 far more like a constitution then anything else.

[Solauren]

Personally I don’t think the Loknar looks like the akira or nxo1 far more like a constitution then anything else.

Well, it was from that 'same era'. It was supposed to have been commissioned something like 2 years after NCC1701 flew off the assembly line.