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Description
Ship Type: Avalon-Class Large Transport Cruiser (built 2218)
Vessel Name & Registry: United Space Ship Arcadia (NCC-0595)
Operating Authority: Starfleet Department of Colonial Operations
Political Affiliation: United Federation of Planets
Base Design: Einstein-Class Starship

(Other characteristics of the Avalon-class starship can be seen in labels I put into the design sketches.)

This is the second time I've worked out a ship design based directly on the U.S.S. Kelvin (NCC-0514) from J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek (2009)” - in this case, an oversized version of the Kelvin designed to specialize as a long-range transport. I don't think I'll have enough time to go back and do the dorsal and aft views on this, so I may just leave it as an "incomplete" design as I hadn't been taking it *too* seriously (although the resulting case of carpal tunnel felt just as bad).

I had heard that in some reference works (I think it was “Federation: the First 150 Years” but I can’t be sure about that), the Einstein-class starship (the ship type that includes the Starship Kelvin (NCC-0514) from ST:09) was supposedly the “workhorse” vessel of Starfleet in the early 23rd century. Taking inspiration from the way “workhorse” designs are treated in mecha anime such as the “Mobile Suit Gundam” metaseries in which a highly successful general-purpose stock design is not only mass-produced but redesigned into countless variations for specialty missions, I decided to try adding a larger stablemate to my previously-designed Kelvin variant (the Sentinel-class light galactic survey cruiser: fav.me/d60e72l ) and create a growing “family” of Kelvin-derived designs.

This particular ship's name is an homage to "Arcadia," a song by Miriam Stockley ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjP2Zh… ), as well as the real-life Greek location. The ship's class, Avalon, is a reference to the mythical realm to which King Arthur was sent after having been grievously wounded by Mordred. I thought it was an elegant and maybe somewhat fitting name for a type of ship whose primary role is to transport Federation colonists to far-off worlds in order to start completely new lives.

Proposed and originally commissioned in 2218 (around the start of the so-called Kelvin Era) by the newly-formed Starfleet Department of Colonial Operations for long-distance settlement missions (particularly ones that may encounter dangerous conditions), ten of these gigantic ark-like ships were ultimately built and regularly sent out on ambitious colonization expeditions. The Avalon-class ship was meant to form the core of Federation colony fleets to which she was assigned; sometimes, two or even three might fly together depending on the nature of the mission and the size of the colony to be established. In a typical mission profile, the ships would have two escort cruisers on hand – often other Einstein-derived designs such as a Sentinel-class light galactic survey cruiser (F-GSC) – for scouting and protection and would also fly in tandem with an entire flotilla of other support vessels of miscellaneous types. Once the colonists and their supplies were transferred to the planet to be settled, the other ships would turn for home, but one Avalon-class ship would remain to offer long-term support and protection until the nascent colony was truly self-sufficient.

(In other words: the last Kelvin-derived design I created, the Sentinel-class: fav.me/d60q7t2 was repurposed to escort this ship, among her other duties. In my own canon, it was during one of those long-range colony expeditions in the year 2255 that Captain M. Tobias Sun’s father, Captain Atticus Sun of the escort cruiser (F-CG[X]) U.S.S. Capricorn, was lost with his ship and declared M.I.A. by Starfleet. The U.S.S. Highwind (NCC-0688), a Sentinel-class F-GSC[L] commanded by Captain Gavazza, was the other fleet escort on that particular assignment.)

General characteristics: this ship type is old (possibly even obsolete), very large, and minimally armed. Her only weapons include one pop-out rapid-fire photon torpedo launcher boasting two tubes housed in a turret, firing (relatively) small-caliber munitions as well as two dual-emitter Phaser banks, one on the bottom of the primary hull and the other on the bottom of the secondary hull underneath the hangar bay. Avalon-class vessels are relatively slow but durable, heavily shielded and capable of maintaining warp speed over extremely long distances while conserving fuel thanks to a "sustainer" module fitted to the back end of her engine that retracts for impulse flight and extends to full length when she jumps to warp speed. She boasts strengthened shields, an extra-long shuttlebay with accommodation for up to 32 small craft, an oversized, overpowered deflector dish, enormous cargo capacity and can easily accommodate up to 900 passengers in addition to a standard crew of 600 officers and enlisted rates.

Loading and unloading of cargo, passengers, small craft and supplies is greatly facilitated by the addition of two sets of through-deck cargo doors on the saucer section; when they're opened, they allow items to be swiftly transported from deck-to-deck in a zero-gravity environment all the way from the ventral surface to the dorsal surface of the primary hull. These enormous cargo doors are an improved version of a feature I added to the last ship I did that was based on the Kelvin, but that design didn't have doors on the top *and* bottom of the ship and therefore wasn't a true "through-deck" design. The doors, of course, are ultimately based on an idea that was first proposed by Doug Drexler when he designed the Enterprise NX-01 for “Star Trek: Enterprise,” and they are a prominent feature on that vessel. I just made the doors fitted on the Avalon much, much larger.

Although she is generally not supposed to operate without escorts due to her minimal armament, she still packs enough of a punch to be able to protect a newly established colony for up to a year after her passengers leave the ship to establish settlements. The initial development of the Avalon-class had been partially supported by the Starfleet Marine Corps because the vessel was also designed with a less glamorous secondary role: in times of war or military tension, the Avalon-class transport can be swiftly converted into a SFMC troopship. The vast amounts of internal space that were originally meant to carry colonists can be just as easily used to accommodate a SFMC MEU-SOC expeditionary unit and all of its equipment, vehicles, ordnance and supplies while the ship’s rugged construction, powerful shields and high fuel economy make her a solid and reliable troop transport if operating under appropriate escort.

Not bad for a concept I thought up in about 10 minutes, eh?

Description
Ship Type: Avalon-Class Large Transport Cruiser (built 2218)
Vessel Name & Registry: United Space Ship Arcadia (NCC-0595)
Operating Authority: Starfleet Department of Colonial Operations
Political Affiliation: United Federation of Planets
Base Design: Einstein-Class Starship

(Other characteristics of the Avalon-class starship can be seen in labels I put into the design sketches.)

This is the second time I've worked out a ship design based directly on the U.S.S. Kelvin (NCC-0514) from J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek (2009)” - in this case, an oversized version of the Kelvin designed to specialize as a long-range transport. I don't think I'll have enough time to go back and do the dorsal and aft views on this, so I may just leave it as an "incomplete" design as I hadn't been taking it *too* seriously (although the resulting case of carpal tunnel felt just as bad).

I had heard that in some reference works (I think it was “Federation: the First 150 Years” but I can’t be sure about that), the Einstein-class starship (the ship type that includes the Starship Kelvin (NCC-0514) from ST:09) was supposedly the “workhorse” vessel of Starfleet in the early 23rd century. Taking inspiration from the way “workhorse” designs are treated in mecha anime such as the “Mobile Suit Gundam” metaseries in which a highly successful general-purpose stock design is not only mass-produced but redesigned into countless variations for specialty missions, I decided to try adding a larger stablemate to my previously-designed Kelvin variant (the Sentinel-class light galactic survey cruiser: fav.me/d60e72l ) and create a growing “family” of Kelvin-derived designs.

This particular ship's name is an homage to "Arcadia," a song by Miriam Stockley ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjP2Zh… ), as well as the real-life Greek location. The ship's class, Avalon, is a reference to the mythical realm to which King Arthur was sent after having been grievously wounded by Mordred. I thought it was an elegant and maybe somewhat fitting name for a type of ship whose primary role is to transport Federation colonists to far-off worlds in order to start completely new lives.

Proposed and originally commissioned in 2218 (around the start of the so-called Kelvin Era) by the newly-formed Starfleet Department of Colonial Operations for long-distance settlement missions (particularly ones that may encounter dangerous conditions), ten of these gigantic ark-like ships were ultimately built and regularly sent out on ambitious colonization expeditions. The Avalon-class ship was meant to form the core of Federation colony fleets to which she was assigned; sometimes, two or even three might fly together depending on the nature of the mission and the size of the colony to be established. In a typical mission profile, the ships would have two escort cruisers on hand – often other Einstein-derived designs such as a Sentinel-class light galactic survey cruiser (F-GSC) – for scouting and protection and would also fly in tandem with an entire flotilla of other support vessels of miscellaneous types. Once the colonists and their supplies were transferred to the planet to be settled, the other ships would turn for home, but one Avalon-class ship would remain to offer long-term support and protection until the nascent colony was truly self-sufficient.

(In other words: the last Kelvin-derived design I created, the Sentinel-class: fav.me/d60q7t2 was repurposed to escort this ship, among her other duties. In my own canon, it was during one of those long-range colony expeditions in the year 2255 that Captain M. Tobias Sun’s father, Captain Atticus Sun of the escort cruiser (F-CG[X]) U.S.S. Capricorn, was lost with his ship and declared M.I.A. by Starfleet. The U.S.S. Highwind (NCC-0688), a Sentinel-class F-GSC[L] commanded by Captain Gavazza, was the other fleet escort on that particular assignment.)

General characteristics: this ship type is old (possibly even obsolete), very large, and minimally armed. Her only weapons include one pop-out rapid-fire photon torpedo launcher boasting two tubes housed in a turret, firing (relatively) small-caliber munitions as well as two dual-emitter Phaser banks, one on the bottom of the primary hull and the other on the bottom of the secondary hull underneath the hangar bay. Avalon-class vessels are relatively slow but durable, heavily shielded and capable of maintaining warp speed over extremely long distances while conserving fuel thanks to a "sustainer" module fitted to the back end of her engine that retracts for impulse flight and extends to full length when she jumps to warp speed. She boasts strengthened shields, an extra-long shuttlebay with accommodation for up to 32 small craft, an oversized, overpowered deflector dish, enormous cargo capacity and can easily accommodate up to 900 passengers in addition to a standard crew of 600 officers and enlisted rates.

Loading and unloading of cargo, passengers, small craft and supplies is greatly facilitated by the addition of two sets of through-deck cargo doors on the saucer section; when they're opened, they allow items to be swiftly transported from deck-to-deck in a zero-gravity environment all the way from the ventral surface to the dorsal surface of the primary hull. These enormous cargo doors are an improved version of a feature I added to the last ship I did that was based on the Kelvin, but that design didn't have doors on the top *and* bottom of the ship and therefore wasn't a true "through-deck" design. The doors, of course, are ultimately based on an idea that was first proposed by Doug Drexler when he designed the Enterprise NX-01 for “Star Trek: Enterprise,” and they are a prominent feature on that vessel. I just made the doors fitted on the Avalon much, much larger.

Although she is generally not supposed to operate without escorts due to her minimal armament, she still packs enough of a punch to be able to protect a newly established colony for up to a year after her passengers leave the ship to establish settlements. The initial development of the Avalon-class had been partially supported by the Starfleet Marine Corps because the vessel was also designed with a less glamorous secondary role: in times of war or military tension, the Avalon-class transport can be swiftly converted into a SFMC troopship. The vast amounts of internal space that were originally meant to carry colonists can be just as easily used to accommodate a SFMC MEU-SOC expeditionary unit and all of its equipment, vehicles, ordnance and supplies while the ship’s rugged construction, powerful shields and high fuel economy make her a solid and reliable troop transport if operating under appropriate escort.

Not bad for a concept I thought up in about 10 minutes, eh?