Guide:Class F4

Class F4 / MSI(U)-4
Class Overview
Category	medium shuttle
Operational	2264 - 2276
Constructed	340 (built 2264-2267)
Dimensions
Length	8.4 m
Beam	5.4 m
Height	2.9 m
Mass	89.2 mt
Performance
Cruise Speed	w 1.0
Max Speed	w 1.6
Endurance	2 weeks
Complement
Crew	1
Passengers	7 - 9 ;
Tactical Systems
Shields	; navigational deflector (ventral bow); 1-layer globular forcefield (optional);
Canonicity
Design	TAS: "Mudd's Passion"
Name	Timo
History	Timo ;

By 2264, the cargo-carrying shortcomings of the light basic Class F3 were well acknowledged. Although transporters still were the principal means of moving equipment to and from planetary surfaces, and although shuttlecraft hardly offered sufficient range and speed for independent cargo operations, there would always be a need for moving objects larger than a standard humanoid—say, crucial spares or ground action weapons—in transporter-hostile conditions.

The only real requirement for the cargo auxiliary was an access door of 200 by 140 cm or better. Thus, it was simple enough for Shintoi to apply basic Class F3 components in somewhat increased quantity or dimensions. The hull box was stretched to 8.42 by 5.30 by 2.41 meters, the nacelles lengthened by 1.2 meters for carriage of extra fuel (but not extra field coils, so mass increase with respect to F3 was minimal), and one impulse nozzle added to the original eight. All nozzles could be individually shuttered to facilitate outdoors stowage of this Class F4 craft, a strongly discouraged procedure for the more tender F3. Four landing pads were used, in hull corners inboard of the nacelles in the style of the corresponding G craft.

Only a minor performance increase was attempted, as the F4 was intended to provide utility services at low cost, not to compete directly with the fast and long-ranged G3. Warp 1.6 could be coerced out of the engines mainly thanks to improved intercooling capacity—the longer nacelles also provided 120% more radiator surface area.

Actual service life of the type proved to be short. First starship deployments came in 2267, but not in support of the F3s as originally envisioned. Instead, the craft were paired with the older F1, the complex multi-level layout of which was even less suited for bulky cargo handling. There was understandably very little interest in the utility shuttle beyond the odd cargo run. The craft were seen as nuisances that took up deck space, and there were increased demands for a proper utility type, one that would replace F3, F4, and the old F1 at one stroke.

For the technology of the 2270s, this certainly wasn’t an impossible goal. And ultimately, the engineering concepts that solidified into this single all-purpose type did so in a form that resembled the F4 more than anything else.