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Description

A custom model by me based on the efforts of previous fans using both stock and fanmade Federation starship parts created for the Starfleet Command (SFC) series of video games. Original Ariel design by Aridas Sofia as first released in his fanon publication Enterprise Evolution Blueprints (EEV) but also referenced in many of the other Gunther/Sofia school Trek tech fan works from this time. Based on the rejected Enterprise redesign by noted conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie (The Star Wars Portfolio) for the aborted Star Trek: Planet of the Titans feature film and which would later serve as the design basis for the title ship in the Franchise series Star Trek: Discovery (DSC). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

This was both the largest and among the most beautiful Feddie starships to come out of the heyday of classic Trek fandom, and it was often favorably compared to TNG's Enterprise-D during the original airing of that series. It's about the same size too - well, actually somewhat smaller. That also makes Ariel one of the two biggest starship classes fielded by the Federation Starfleet during the TMP era in terms of physical size, with the other being the Yamato class battleship from Klingon Academy (KA). Mr. Sofia also came up with a solid backstory for this that still holds up quite well, although it has to be altered and adjusted somewhat to take later developments in the Trek multiverse into account if you plan on using Ariel in your own multiverse thread(s). I give one such version in my own Federation Fleet Review (FFR) and I'll give you the Cliff Notes version in the next couple of paragraphs. It's up to you whether or not you use it yourselves, go with the original backstory (given its known issues with later Trek developments), or come up with one of your own.

Ariel was the largest starship class in terms of physical size fielded by Starfleet in the first half of the TMP era (see preview piccy top image). The reason for this was she was designed as a super shuttlecarrier to trump all others. She was the successor to the earlier and smaller Napoleon class of the TOS era (SFB) but she was a new-build class, built from the keel up with TMP era technology and with all the benefits that implied. Her designers adopted the modified lifting body shape of the older Baton Rouge generation Titan and Valkyr classes in order to maximize her internal hull volume, and they also built her quite a bit larger than either of those (NOTE - FFR pp. 42-44 recreated Planet of the Titans study models, look for the Gage v1 and v2 on the SFC ship download sites, see also the Wolfe 359 starship graveyard scene in TNG's "The Best of Both Worlds," Part I). Such a massive hull gave Ariel the capability of carry 72 combat shuttlecraft within her six spacious internal shuttlecraft bays, three each port and starboard, as well as having a seventh centerline hangar bay that was just as roomy for handling all noncombatant small craft and thus keeping them out of the way of the others both for storage and for flight ops. On the side I note that the building of the Ariel class prompted the Klingons to respond in kind, first with the converted unfinished battleship Ribursli (SFB, GKF) and later with the one-of-a-kind K'phliak (fan, GKF). Speaking of which, six Ariels were originally ordered but the last two were spun off as the Fredrickstad class in official Starfleet records due to a number of changes and improvements suggested by operational experience with the earlier Ariels, such as extended landing platforms for each of the wing shuttle bays (see preview piccy middle image). At one point a third production block (Normandy) was planned based on even further modifications that were suggested for but never installed on Malverne, the sixth and final Ariel (second Fredrickstad), with the Starfleet Marines unexpectedly throwing their support behind the new mod program (given that these mods tallied well with their own operational needs), but the Normandy project never won formal approval and was eventually set aside along with the additional planned mods for Malverne, and both for the same reasons that the Ariel design was eventually modified later on (see preview piccy bottom image for Normandy).

Ariel's actual performance in the field was rather mixed, in some cases living up to all the pre-launch hype and in other cases clearly missing the bar. This included being underpowered for her mass and being ill suited to go into combat with her small combat craft, as the Klingons so clearly preferred in any engagement. Longtime foes of the Ariel program took this opportunity to undermine Ariel for all it was worth and managed to swing both the procurement process and public opinion in their favor, and that eventually resulted in a successor class, Midway (KA/SFC), smaller but heavier armed, more traditional in design (evoking the old Napoleon design in fact), and with two extra warp engines to provide the extra power Ariel so sorely lacked. Production ended with the six Ariels built from the original procurement order in two blocks of four and two respectively, and that hoped-for authorization for a third block was never given. These supposedly still exist in Starfleet reserves at the start of the TMP/DS9/VOY era, although you'll have to determine for yourselves what condition they were in and if they were ever reactivated and fixed up to aid with the various events that happened during that time.

So was the Ariel class truly Starfleet's white elephants of the TMP era as many contend, or where they a fantastic opportunity for advancing super shuttlecarrier design that was never properly explored as their many proponents still maintain? You decide.

Ariel is 100% fanon, even though its based on materials that came from the Franchise.

Live long and prosper.

ASIDE 1 - While these low poly models aren't perfect, and I'm well aware of their failings, hopefully they at least strongly suggest their intended subject. I'll be quite happy to retire them if better free fan-made models ever come along on which I can get my hands. Personally I would have added a third LN-64 linear warp engine to the unbuilt Normandy (but where?) or replaced both of her original ones with Excelsior type "shortys" (see Loki and Michael Adam) both for those added megaphaser cannon and so she'd have more power to push that massive hull of hers, but that's just me. You can do with Ariel what you like in your own threads of the Trek multiverse, so long as Mr. Sofia gets proper credit as her creator. Fair enough?

ASIDE 2 - FYI Normandy does get built as a class in those fanon threads of the Trek multiverse that key off of the fanon publication Dockyard Review (DR), in which it made its initial debut, it DOES get those "shorty" Excelsior style transwarp engines as I noted above, and there's a whole lot more about it that you can look up in there. Of course if you decided to include it in yours, given how crowded the end of the TMP era and early post-TMP era is with all kinds of fanon and some canon/semi-canon Feddie starship classes out there, then that raises a good question per reality rules: what are you going to leave out in order to make room for Normandy?

www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/…

Description

A custom model by me based on the efforts of previous fans using both stock and fanmade Federation starship parts created for the Starfleet Command (SFC) series of video games. Original Ariel design by Aridas Sofia as first released in his fanon publication Enterprise Evolution Blueprints (EEV) but also referenced in many of the other Gunther/Sofia school Trek tech fan works from this time. Based on the rejected Enterprise redesign by noted conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie (The Star Wars Portfolio) for the aborted Star Trek: Planet of the Titans feature film and which would later serve as the design basis for the title ship in the Franchise series Star Trek: Discovery (DSC). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

This was both the largest and among the most beautiful Feddie starships to come out of the heyday of classic Trek fandom, and it was often favorably compared to TNG's Enterprise-D during the original airing of that series. It's about the same size too - well, actually somewhat smaller. That also makes Ariel one of the two biggest starship classes fielded by the Federation Starfleet during the TMP era in terms of physical size, with the other being the Yamato class battleship from Klingon Academy (KA). Mr. Sofia also came up with a solid backstory for this that still holds up quite well, although it has to be altered and adjusted somewhat to take later developments in the Trek multiverse into account if you plan on using Ariel in your own multiverse thread(s). I give one such version in my own Federation Fleet Review (FFR) and I'll give you the Cliff Notes version in the next couple of paragraphs. It's up to you whether or not you use it yourselves, go with the original backstory (given its known issues with later Trek developments), or come up with one of your own.

Ariel was the largest starship class in terms of physical size fielded by Starfleet in the first half of the TMP era (see preview piccy top image). The reason for this was she was designed as a super shuttlecarrier to trump all others. She was the successor to the earlier and smaller Napoleon class of the TOS era (SFB) but she was a new-build class, built from the keel up with TMP era technology and with all the benefits that implied. Her designers adopted the modified lifting body shape of the older Baton Rouge generation Titan and Valkyr classes in order to maximize her internal hull volume, and they also built her quite a bit larger than either of those (NOTE - FFR pp. 42-44 recreated Planet of the Titans study models, look for the Gage v1 and v2 on the SFC ship download sites, see also the Wolfe 359 starship graveyard scene in TNG's "The Best of Both Worlds," Part I). Such a massive hull gave Ariel the capability of carry 72 combat shuttlecraft within her six spacious internal shuttlecraft bays, three each port and starboard, as well as having a seventh centerline hangar bay that was just as roomy for handling all noncombatant small craft and thus keeping them out of the way of the others both for storage and for flight ops. On the side I note that the building of the Ariel class prompted the Klingons to respond in kind, first with the converted unfinished battleship Ribursli (SFB, GKF) and later with the one-of-a-kind K'phliak (fan, GKF). Speaking of which, six Ariels were originally ordered but the last two were spun off as the Fredrickstad class in official Starfleet records due to a number of changes and improvements suggested by operational experience with the earlier Ariels, such as extended landing platforms for each of the wing shuttle bays (see preview piccy middle image). At one point a third production block (Normandy) was planned based on even further modifications that were suggested for but never installed on Malverne, the sixth and final Ariel (second Fredrickstad), with the Starfleet Marines unexpectedly throwing their support behind the new mod program (given that these mods tallied well with their own operational needs), but the Normandy project never won formal approval and was eventually set aside along with the additional planned mods for Malverne, and both for the same reasons that the Ariel design was eventually modified later on (see preview piccy bottom image for Normandy).

Ariel's actual performance in the field was rather mixed, in some cases living up to all the pre-launch hype and in other cases clearly missing the bar. This included being underpowered for her mass and being ill suited to go into combat with her small combat craft, as the Klingons so clearly preferred in any engagement. Longtime foes of the Ariel program took this opportunity to undermine Ariel for all it was worth and managed to swing both the procurement process and public opinion in their favor, and that eventually resulted in a successor class, Midway (KA/SFC), smaller but heavier armed, more traditional in design (evoking the old Napoleon design in fact), and with two extra warp engines to provide the extra power Ariel so sorely lacked. Production ended with the six Ariels built from the original procurement order in two blocks of four and two respectively, and that hoped-for authorization for a third block was never given. These supposedly still exist in Starfleet reserves at the start of the TMP/DS9/VOY era, although you'll have to determine for yourselves what condition they were in and if they were ever reactivated and fixed up to aid with the various events that happened during that time.

So was the Ariel class truly Starfleet's white elephants of the TMP era as many contend, or where they a fantastic opportunity for advancing super shuttlecarrier design that was never properly explored as their many proponents still maintain? You decide.

Ariel is 100% fanon, even though its based on materials that came from the Franchise.

Live long and prosper.

ASIDE 1 - While these low poly models aren't perfect, and I'm well aware of their failings, hopefully they at least strongly suggest their intended subject. I'll be quite happy to retire them if better free fan-made models ever come along on which I can get my hands. Personally I would have added a third LN-64 linear warp engine to the unbuilt Normandy (but where?) or replaced both of her original ones with Excelsior type "shortys" (see Loki and Michael Adam) both for those added megaphaser cannon and so she'd have more power to push that massive hull of hers, but that's just me. You can do with Ariel what you like in your own threads of the Trek multiverse, so long as Mr. Sofia gets proper credit as her creator. Fair enough?

ASIDE 2 - FYI Normandy does get built as a class in those fanon threads of the Trek multiverse that key off of the fanon publication Dockyard Review (DR), in which it made its initial debut, it DOES get those "shorty" Excelsior style transwarp engines as I noted above, and there's a whole lot more about it that you can look up in there. Of course if you decided to include it in yours, given how crowded the end of the TMP era and early post-TMP era is with all kinds of fanon and some canon/semi-canon Feddie starship classes out there, then that raises a good question per reality rules: what are you going to leave out in order to make room for Normandy?

www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/…