3 Nacelles, Galaxy Prototype: The Niagara Class

The Niagara class starship was the only 3 nacelle design from Starfleet that appeared in the canon timeline, with the dreadnaught Enterprise technically never happening. This ship existed before the galaxy class Enterprise entered service and acted as a testbed for numerous systems, so let's take a look.

00:00 Real Origins
01:11 Starfleet Origins
04:08 Specifications
05:52 Summary

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This Video is for critical purposes with commentary.

[rubaiyat]

Out of all the TNG kitbashes I feel the Freedom and Niagara classes needed to get smushed together at some point. Whereas the Cheyenne and New Orleans actually worked pretty well. And of course the crown jewel is the Nebula.

[autoeclectic]

Can you imagine being an alien race that uses largely uniform types and the Federation keeps rocking up in increasingly bizarre designs?
Sometimes I’m sure they’d be stifling the giggles.

[GSBarlev]

There's a really famous copypasta fanon where a Vulcan is explaining to a Klingon why they let the humans run the show.

The gist is that humans are _insane_ and insist on trying to do things that every bit of known science says is a _terrible_ idea, but *it works out* a _distressing_ amount of the time.

I see three-nacelle vessels as abiding by this ethos. Some warp theory class taught, "You can't form a stable warp field with an odd number of nacelles not having direct line of sight, " and some cocky engineering cadet in the back of the classrom went, *"Bet."*

[KatanisPSN]

I'd love more Lost Era stuff. A show would be awesome.

[TrentonBennett]

This was one of the more unique Wolf 359 kit bashes. Even though I find it weird to see Galaxy class nacelles for a mostly Ambassador class hull...very weird choice, especially having three nacelles.

This class is a weird one for sure but cool in its own regards.

[LTDLimiTeD]

I think it'd look better if the top two naecelles were angled so all three were equidistant. More like a Wasp Class. I like the Ambassador Class and its variants.

[DAFLIDMAN]

I love how odd this ship is, there's something really cool about it

[Tobiasfowler]

The motto of the lost era seems to be “lasted longer than it should have”

[Scotty]

this vid hit my home page 18 secs after being uploaded... nice.

[odenwalt]

For a second, I thought you were going to talk about the 3 nacelled Enterprise that Admiral Richer commanded in "All good things"

[CelticCubby]

It would be kinda cool if CBS Paramount would do some updates to TNG and DS9 to slip in a few of the kit bash ships into episodes in place of some of those Excelsior and Miranda class ships. I know it won't happen but it would be nice.

[owjbwgu]

I really appreciated the design of this when I got the Eaglemoss Model, it looks pretty good in 3D, it looks like a long range explorer that could operate "out there" without any sort of support for lengthy periods.

[carterh]

Always kinda liked this one, pulled off the triple nacelles well.

[AeronHale]

I actually kinda like this thing.
It's a little weird and clunky but it's got character and is pretty unique.

[Searly]

Mentioning that lost era of trek, I really really hope we get an enterprise c series some day. I know we all know what the last episode in that tv series would be and annoyingly I think that's put them off ever diving into it

[Brandost]

Those crew people on set who kitbashed all these ships for the battle of wolf 359 did an amazing job with the time they had to expand starfleets line of ships. It's something that should be appreciated after what we got with Picard s1's inquiry fleet.

[Daxsymbiote]

Rick you have a beautiful voice buddy. They could spit out the specs on a Borg turd, and you'd still make it sound amazing, Thx for all your hard work xx

[dominic.h.]

Wasn't the warp field geometry the reason provided in the show for nacelles in pairs?

(In fact the whole reason why the Intrepid-Class's nacelles are moveable, to adjust the field geometry above warp 5, the first implementation of a safe design in response to the events of the TNG episode, Force of Nature.)

[stormycatmink]

While they say the 'rules' are that they have 2 warp nacelles with line of sight to each other, I like to think that's simply the optimal way to design ships; but that there are possible options with odd numbers, like shown here. The other one I don't think they've talked much about us dual nacelles.. where a single nacelle is structured in such a way to act as a pair siting side by side.. I'm sure there's some performance or efficiency boost by spacing them out (or it wouldn't be so prevalent), but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

In the real world, if the requirements demand it, engineers always find a way to break the 'rules' of ship design. From hull shapes, to power plants, propeller positions, the sound barrier, and many other engineering rules. I don't see why Star Trek would be any different.

[somestormchaseridjitwithwi]

Thank you Ric. Honestly, this is my favorite background ship. Its so awkward, its so off, and I love it. You even call it correctly fast cruiser!

Thank you, Ric. I thought itd be years till I see this video from you.

THAT Id captain. Gimme a Niagara any day. ☺️🥰