Question about Warp Nacelles

[Jules]

Because, the Oberth's nacelles and grills are visible to each other, and I mistakenly listed it as a ship with blocked nacelle sight lines.

The Galaxy X and Federation Class have similar nacelle configurations. It doesn't matter that the design team was told to make the ship a hot rod, the ship was in the show in an extremely visible way, not like the WWII bomber inside the Enterprise-D, or signage poetry and jokes. Unless someone is ready to argue that such jokes are part of the in-world design aesthetic, which would be hilarious and acceptable. 

A dreadnought is mentioned in the TMP chatter, they don't mention which class, but with the Federation class being seen in the next movie, it supports the idea that the particular dreadnought was a Federation class dreadnought.
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/USS_Entente

Memory Alpha is an unreliable source here, it was never mentioned in the chatter, and the chatter didn't get "updated" between the 3 cuts of the film, it only mentions the two scouts. Further more, the Entente's registry is just waaay too high for it to be logical, it's above the NX Excels one which we don't see up until ST3. EAS gives this on the issue:

In this case, without the knowledge that it should be there too, the Federation class does not exist canonically because it was never visible. Regarding the Saladin and the Hermes, the distinction of these two classes does not become evident on screen, so in canon Trek they look like they are the very same class. Likewise, the idea that destroyers have a single nacelle and that dreadnoughts have three nacelles belongs into the non-canon realm (see False Canon), since the according text is illegible on screen.

[MajorD]

Memory Alpha is an unreliable source here, it was never mentioned in the chatter, and the chatter didn't get "updated" between the 3 cuts of the film, it only mentions the two scouts. Further more, the Entente's registry is just waaay too high for it to be logical, it's above the NX Excels one which we don't see up until ST3. EAS gives this on the issue:

Strange, I distinctly recall seeing the Federation class somewhere in film.  As for the chatter, I saw the same thing listed at two other wikis and at DITL as canon. One place mentioned an uninterrupted scene version, whatever that is, sounds like a bonus scene thing. The registry really isn't an issue considering the Prometheus, but this is all beside the point. You never explained how you got the idea that center of mass is important to nacelle placement.

[zzz]

In this case, without the knowledge that it should be there too, the Federation class does not exist canonically because it was never visible.

Couldn't they say the same about the New Orleans class?

[Mark]

Couldn't they say the same about the New Orleans class?

it was seen in the debris at Wolf 359

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/neworleans.htm

[MajorD]

The continuation of using that logic would mean you cannot use the actual models of ships to determine what the unseen parts of the ship look like, because the models are unclear in the show and the actual models are off-stage information.

[Aresius]

As far as I remember, whenever a nacelle was shot, ships could still go to warp, just not top-speed and with far more power-consumption. I think something like this was stated by Geordie and shown when the Enterprise was busted. Either in the Gambit-double episode (when Picard and Riker go undercover to some pirate) or that one Marquis series (with Ro Laren abandoning the Federation and Riker).

What now follows is a mix of in-universe evidence, OCC lines that belong to the producers and my personal opinion and understanding of these.
What I found interesting is, that every 1-nacelle ship is considered an escort, destroyer, perimeter-defender, etc. Basically a ship that does not go on extended missions far away but always stays close to a planet, starbase, system. Not only by fans (RPGs or whatever), but even by the Producers. Berman once stated that he wanted the Freedom (Wolf 359, the first 1-nacelle ship) to be just a perimeter-ship and essentially as weak as the Grissom against Kruge (aka cannonfodder). Well, he also wanted to have at least 5 of those visible in the graveyyard scene to show that they were the mainstay of a defence force. I draw the conclusion, that 1-nacelle ships, while capable of warp, are designed for short-range missions. This would be supported by the fact that 1 nacelle results in higher consumption and no top-speed, thus shorter range.

3-Nacelles are, according to Roddenberry, impossible. Well, AGT had a 3-nacelle Enterprise. BUT! According to Roddenberry, Warp 10 was impossible as well, and the AGT-Enterprise could go Warp 15. So, my thought is that a third nacelle can give more layers of the warp-field, and therefore a better speed. Trouble here: Warp 15 would still be beyond Transwarp-barrier. My solution: They either rewrote the entire warp-charts (popssible, given the charts were rewritten once, TOS to TNG), or agreed that Warp 10 is not the transwarp-barrier, but just a threshold, where you can jump either into transwarp (wormhole-like conducts), or immerse deeper into subspace (remain in warp-flgith). What the difference is, don't know, don't care. I don't like the idea of Slipstream, Transwarp or any such things for Starfleet anyway...

4-Nacelles or any multitude of 2, is, in my eyes just a way to ensure stability and ease the stress. Look at the Prometheus. It had 4 nacelles constantly work and technically even 6 (the 2 on the saucer were submersed in joined mode) and I recall either a Romulan or the EMH saying that the Prometheus was advanced enough to have a stable warp field on cruising speed far beyond the cruising speed of Voyager or any other ship (and subsequently, the top-speed was also far higher, thus the danger of the ship escaping the pursuing Federation ships).

[411-RED]

This is completely random, but I was watching DS9 the other day and noticed an odd looking ship floating around by the station. It looks like an Intrepid class with a third nacelle hanging down from the engineering section and some extra mass on the top of the engineering section.



Here is the same image with increased exposure.



Any idea what this is?

[zzz]

Yeager class - a kitbash

[411-RED]

Yeager class - a kitbash

Thank you. A neat looking ship, too. 

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100627011954/memoryalpha/en/images/c/cc/Yeager_type_at_christies.jpg

[MajorD]

What now follows is a mix of in-universe evidence, OCC lines that belong to the producers and my personal opinion and understanding of these.
What I found interesting is, that every 1-nacelle ship is considered an escort, destroyer, perimeter-defender, etc. Basically a ship that does not go on extended missions far away but always stays close to a planet, starbase, system. Not only by fans (RPGs or whatever), but even by the Producers. Berman once stated that he wanted the Freedom (Wolf 359, the first 1-nacelle ship) to be just a perimeter-ship and essentially as weak as the Grissom against Kruge (aka cannonfodder). Well, he also wanted to have at least 5 of those visible in the graveyyard scene to show that they were the mainstay of a defence force. I draw the conclusion, that 1-nacelle ships, while capable of warp, are designed for short-range missions. This would be supported by the fact that 1 nacelle results in higher consumption and no top-speed, thus shorter range.

I like this idea. Going with my guesses on hull shape effects, the single nacelle Starfleet ships would have high efficiency at lower warp velocity, with a steep power curve through higher factors. That would make it ideal for long patrols, but poor at rapid response.  If that were the case, my guess would be they wouldn't be expected to need to run at maximum warp for very long