Guide:DY warp series
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| DY series (warp) | |
|---|---|
| Class Overview | |
| Category | transports/system patrol vessels |
| Operational | |
| Constructed | 87 total: |
| Dimensions | |
| Length |
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| Beam |
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| Height |
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| Mass |
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| Performance | |
| Cruise Speed |
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| Max Speed |
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| Endurance |
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| Complement | |
| Officers |
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| Crew |
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| Tactical Systems | |
| Beam Weapons | Wheeler (select, 2111)
Hawke
Hawke (2111)
Dare
Dare (2106)
Dare (21111)
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| Missile Weapons | Hawke
Dare
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| Other Weapons | Dare
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| Shields | Wheeler
Hawke, Dare
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| Laboratories | Hawke
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| Auxiliary Craft | Wheeler
Hawke
Dare
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| Canonicity | |
| Design | Matt Jeffries, Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle, et al. |
| Name | TNG (Lawrence Miller, Timo) |
| History | TNG; AMT
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Background: The Hobbyist's Guide
The Conestoga project had been lavishly supported by the rapidly solidifying alliance of major Earth governments. Yet individual nations and corporations had at least equal interstellar ambitions as of the second half of the 21st century. To meet the needs of the fantastic new market, Dinyan-Yoyodyne quickly expanded its range of products to include warp-capable colonization, transportation, and exploration vessels. While few of these designs ever entered Earth government service, let alone joined the UE or UFP fleets, a collective look at the design family reveals their significance to Earth’s interstellar expansion as a whole.
As soon as the secrets of warp technology entered public domain, a number of DY-100, -120, and -140 series sublight transports were quickly, even hastily, upgraded with warp propulsion, to yield the equivalent “200 family” of vessels. These almost distressingly slow warpships originally served as in-system rather than interstellar transports, but several eventually found a deep space niche in corporate or private hands. Numerous -220 and -240 series vessels performed adequately as explorers and merchantmen in sectors close to Earth until the mid-23rd century.
The organizations in original possession of the converted sublight vessels were quick to dispense with the upgraded versions when the newbuilt DY-500 colonization vessels entered the market. Based on the general design of the DY-100 series, yet enlarged and equipped with a new propulsion section featuring a single inboard warp coil set, these still relatively small and affordable vessels could span the 50 lightyears needed for the average colonization expedition in a couple of years. Closer to a hundred such vessels were built, accompanied by the stretched -700 and -900 series and several dozen examples of the -550, -750 and -950 transport variants. The largest vessels had the capacity to establish a fully functional 500-person colony across distances of up to 100 lightyears. Before, during, and following the Romulan War, these ships formed the second major "Gold Rush" of Earth colonists, carrying hopeful settlers to Gourami and Nebed sectors and pushing Earth zone of influence far antispinwards.
A typical colonization mission would involve a promising star system being picked from the accumulating database; a DY series vessel being stocked with the gear needed for settling on a class M planet, in the hopes that one would exist in the target system; the colonists being loaded aboard mostly under stasis, with a small operating crew awake; the ship being launched and spending years or decades in transit; and finally, a planetfall being made, a colony founded, and a transmitter built for sending back to Earth a triumphant message of success (unless the colonists aimed for complete isolation and independence, a goal of some 20% of the missions).
Having delivered their payload, the ships were generally left idle until the colony would start producing a commodity that needed to be shipped back to Earth. When the time came, the old colonizer would be the ideal first choice for cargo carrier—automated operations would negate the need to maintain the often finicky life support systems and the sturdy propulsion machinery could well remain operational for centuries. It would only be in the early 23rd century that faster commercial vessels would finally take over the cargo carrier role from the old colonizers.
The newly formed United Earth Defense Pact made purchase of four vessels of DY-500 type early on, and had boosted its fleet of warp transports to 22 by 2075. A far more involved variant family was already under development at Dinyan-Yoyodyne’s new Wellington headquarters, however. The ships in the 1000 series were to feature significantly extended midhulls for housing warp engines of greater performance. Their intended primary market was not in interstellar settlement itself, but rather in the exploration and prospecting enterprises that were mushrooming to support the lucrative colonization businesses. Such trailblazer vessels would need greater speed and operational flexibility than the colonizers that were to follow, and DY took pains to equip the “Millenium Series” for demanding transatmospheric operations as well as for sustained warp 2.5 flight.
Arguably the most successful design in the series was DY-1100, featuring twin lateral cowlings for high performance warp engines and broad delta wings for maneuvering in atmospheres. A variable geometry nose cone gently eased the vessel bow first into the shockwave of atmospheric entry, and an incredibly robust three-point landing gear could take the combined weight of the vessel and her warp coils in gravities up to 1.6 Earth standards. Some surfaces would still remain inaccessible for the type, so the broad aft hull of oval cross section also housed a vast hangar for auxiliary craft, with 20 m x 30 m dorsal doors.
Lacking in range, the 1100 series did not sell as well as expected once it was established that there were few planets of interest in the immediate vicinity of Earth. DY tried to recoup on its losses by pushing the vessels to government work within the Sol system, but competition was fierce. The 1100 series was slightly too large and clumsy for combat maneuvers, fragile in basic construction, and relatively underpowered at impulse. The capacious interiors, originally optimized for long interstellar journeys, were the primary asset in securing a 2087 deal for fifteen DY-1100 hulls to serve in the Strategic Space Command of the UESN. Further transports based on the Rigelian monohull would also see UFP Star Fleet service and even conversion to Bedford and Portsmith destroyer escorts; despite the historical roots, there would be virtually no DY involvement in these projects.
Squeezed out of the exploration market, DY concentrated on providing for the fledging space navy of the United Earth. A modified DY-120 design served as the basis for the DY-1200, a warp corvette for system defense needs. Instead of a cluster of containers, the central spine was surrounded by a bulbous mission hull that served the three roles familiar from DY-1100: providing atmospheric lift, internal volume for mission gear, and a dorsal hangar for auxiliaries. The ring shape around the central body was not a Vulcan drive, as none were available to Earth at the time; its role was purely aerodynamic, and the actual Cochrane warp coils were housed beneath lateral cowlings that slid close for atmospheric flight. To appeal to the UESN, DY also provided full structural support, power trunks and dataways for four equidistantly positioned heavy plasma cannon on the ring wing perimeter. The command sail was doubled in width and covered with platforms capable of receiving military C3I gear, and a trainable weapon mount was provided on the opposite side of the forward hull. The nose cone area was reserved for military gear that was expected to include missile launchers and sensors.
After initial tests, the UESN specified the need for mine tubes and decided to mount a railgun in the ventral turret, resulting in the DY-1250 standard, or Dare class. Up to fifty vessels of this type were procured to replace the aging Liberty sublight defenders, a major coup for the company. Yet a surprising demand also arose for using the original, unarmed DY-1200 in the exploratory role; the Leningrad Institute of Interstellar Studies was the first to procure vessels of this type, boosting its fleet of DY-700 explorer-transports. The subsequent development of the stretched -1300 and -1400 series was a misinvestment for DY, resulting in only a handful of sales, but the -1200 series explorers continued service until well into the 22nd century.
The role of Dinyan-Yoyodyne spacecraft in UESF service did not extend much beyond the mid-22nd century. Even as third-rate support assets, these vessels were deemed increasingly frail and slow. Yet while government and commercial spacecraft contracts slipped from DY hands, the propulsion section of the company increased its market share and emerged as one of the strongest providers for the late 23rd century Star Fleet. Although it remained one of the last vestiges of the corporate concept amidst the economic turmoil of the following century, its impact on the ascent of Earth as an interstellar power must be seen in a wider context than the mere commercial one.
Gallery
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Port of call
See Also
Notes
- The SS Leif Eirickson would have to have been constructed well before her 2073 first contact with the Tellerites, which means she could not have been part of this Hawke subclass. Instead, the decision as to what class of ship Leif Eirickson belongs to will be put off until later. It may be of the Wheeler subclass (which means the graphic text is not correct), which may allow for both corporate/private ownership and transit of the 11.12 lightyears between the two systems.
Update: "...securing a 2087 deal for fifteen DY-1100 hulls to serve in the Strategic Space Command of the newly foundedUESFUESN." That's the hook: the Lief Erickson was a commercial prospector in 2073, so it had to have been built well prior to the DY-1100s (Hawke) entering service in 2087.
- Any references to DY-230s was changed to -220, as the -130s were a failed & mis-trusted model and did not survive to get "warped up", even as Black Mambas.
- The DD issue should probably show some variations of the "200 family" as an addendum.
- Timo's reference to the UESF has been changed to the United Earth Stellar Navy, as the former was not founded until 2133. Similarly, the DY-200 has been changed to DY-120 Brenton.
- Ok...code broken: this is not about all warp-capable DYs. It's simply about the militarized ones. For example, the DY-500 was bought as a transport—the Wheeler—starting in 2069 by the United Earth Defense Pact. Then, in 2087, the UESN would purchase the almost-twenty year old DY-1100 for their Hawke patrol cruisers (we don't need to pin down when they entered commercial service). Then, in 2089, the UESN procured the DY-1200 Dare class patrol corvettes.
- Timo has the Wheeler operational for 99 years, until 2168. I really don't see how or why Earth would transfer control of this decrepit vessels to the UFP Star Fleet and am declaring here that none of them served.
- The infobox must still be updated with Timo's named ships (only). (Remove this entire line when complete.)